Oakland fire
The tragic fire that claimed dozens of lives of young people attending an electronic- music event in an Oakland warehouse has focused attention on subjects ranging from the underground music scene and the Bay Area arts community, freedom of expression, gentrification and the artist’s role in the larger society.
Several UC Berkeley faculty are available to discuss these topics.Edmund Campion
Professor of music composition and director of UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies
Office: (510) 642-7171
Contact: campion@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651, kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Campion is an award-winning pioneer of computer-enhanced performance practice and a composer.
Malo Hutson
Professor of city and regional planning
Contact: mhutson@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651, kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Hutson can discuss gentrification and the housing crisis. Author of a 2016 book, The Urban Struggle for Economic, Environmental and Social Justice: Deepening Their Roots, analyzing resistance to gentrification and neighborhood change in four cities – San Francisco, New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C.
Shannon Jackson
Associate vice chancellor for arts and design and professor of theater, dance and performance studies
Contact: shjacks@berkeley.edu or reach her executive assistant, Amber Fogarty, at (510) 642-7784 or afogarty@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651, kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Jackson is able to talk about the impact of the warehouse fire on the campus arts and design community and on the displacement of Bay Area artists.
Julia Bryan-Wilson
Associate professor of art history
Contact: juliabw@berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651, kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Bryan-Wilson is available to discuss the artist-residents of the warehouse, the region’s arts scene and counterculture, authorities’ efforts to regulate it, and the Bay Area arts community’s history. She is interested in the intersections of the arts with society’s larger culture, economy, social norms, history, etc.