Entertainment

Oakland Teen Named “Great American Songbook” Academy Finalist

Oakland’s Richard G. Watson, formerly a vocal performance major at Oakland School for the Arts and Class of 2021 graduate of the nation’s premiere high school arts program, the Idyllwild Arts Academy, where he was a songwriting major, has been named a 2021 Great American Songbook Academy finalist.

Published

5 years ago

August 6, 2021

Christy Price

RICHARD - SONGBOOK 2021 - SHOWCASE PROMO

The Songbook Academy is a world-class summer intensive that connects only the most talented high school students interested in professional singing careers and who are at the top of the talent pool celebrating the timeless standards of pop, jazz, Broadway and Hollywood, otherwise known as the “Great American Songbook.”

As a Songbook finalist Watson joins the elite group of 2021 ‘Top 40 Teens’ after competing against hundreds of applicants nationwide. He will perform “Wave,” an Antonio Carlos Jobim cover, streaming from August 6-8, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. (Register at www.thesongbook.org/sashowcase21 for free streaming access).

Jobim is one of many major 20^th century songwriters, composers, and performers of the “Great American Songbook.” Among them are bandleader Duke Ellington, and singers Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bing Crosby are some of the artists widely recognized for their performances and recordings which defined the genre.

There are countless others who are widely recognized for their performances of the music from the “Great American Songbook” and Watson is one of the very few African American teenagers who has such incredible talent and an interest in this genre to be able to join such a coveted group of emerging young artists.

The Academy, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is housed at The Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Ind., and was founded in 2007 by five-time Grammy® Award nominee Michael Feinstein.

The “Great American Songbook” is the canon of the most important and influential American popular songs and jazz standards from the early 20^th century that have stood the test of time in their life and legacy.

Watson is also a semi-finalist in the 2020 International Songwriting Competition (ISC) for his single, original hit track “Done” streaming on all platforms. ISC received more than 26,000 entries and semi-finalists make up only 9% of all entries, so this is a remarkable achievement, especially for one so young as Watson. ISC is an annual song contest whose mission is to provide opportunity for both aspiring and established songwriters to have their songs heard in a professional, international arena.

A certified artist on various platforms including Amazon, AppleMusic and Spotify, Watson will soon add to his single releases the titles “Insomnia,” “Phoenix,” and “Writings on the Wall.” Watson will attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., in the Fall on a Global Tour Tuition Scholarship. Berklee is the No. 1, contemporary music college program in the world.

Learn more about Watson at www.richardgwatson.com.

Christy Price

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.

Oakland Post

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50 Years Later, ‘Wake Up Everybody!’ Still Resonates During Black Music

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

iStockphoto.

By Hazel Trice Edney, Special to The Post

Hazel Trice Edney

“Wake up, everybody, No more sleepin’ in bed

No more backward thinkin’. Time for thinkin’ ahead

The world has changed so very much from what it used to be.

There is so much hatred, war, and poverty.

“The world won’t get no better If we just let it be.

Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw.

The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah– just you and me.”

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

In a rare, nearly somber moment, the group’s celebrated lead singer, Teddy Pendergrass, introduced the song on Soul Train, the weekly dance and live performance TV show that aired roughly between 1971 and 2006. Pendergrass told the attentive live audience and thousands watching by television that Wake Up Everybody, the title tune of their most recent album, was intended to inspire people to take action with a goal to change America for the better.

“I’m sure that you will all agree that there are things that need to be done in this country today,” he said. “So, what I’d like for you to do is listen very carefully to see what you can do to lend a hand.”

The song’s appeal worked.

“I played that song over and over and over again because it was a constant warning to keep ourselves prepared for the society that we were living in,” says A. Peter Bailey, then a 37-year-old former aide to Malcolm X.

When “Wake Up Everybody” hit the airwaves, Bailey was working as an associate editor of Ebony Magazine. “It was a call to be aware of what we were dealing with in the country that we lived in, the world we lived in, the neighborhood we lived in, the cities that we lived in,” Bailey said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire.

He concluded that during Black Music Month 2026, such songs should be recalled and celebrated as a key to changes for the good across America; especially because such songs successfully encouraged people to deal with the issues that might otherwise denigrate the promises of America, including the promise that “All men are created equal,”as stated in the Declaration of Independence.

“The rhythms and blues expressed our joys, our sorrows and our fears,” Bailey recalls. “It was those songs and the singing of those songs by our people that attracted us to the campaigns for justice.”

With his life inspired by that song and others, Bailey, now 88, went on to establish and teach a Black Press class at Virginia Commonwealth University. Also, he has since written three books, including a memoir, “Witnessing Brother Malcolm X, the Master Teacher,” in which he expounded upon successful principles of social justice, some of which are reflected in “Wake Up Everybody.”

Long before the term “woke” became associated with campaigns for justice, Pendergrass led the song that reverberated across America and still holds deep meaning.

The ‘wake up’ call exhorts teachers to ‘teach a new way,’ doctors to heal elders, and builders to ‘build a new land… we can do it if we all lend a hand.”

The song concludes:

“The world won’t get no better if we just let it be. Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw. The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah – just you and me.”

Hazel Trice Edney wrote this story as part of a four-part series powered by AARP in commemoration of Black Music Month, June 2026.