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Released from San Quentin, Troy Williams Builds a New Life in Video Production

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Just two months after being released from San Quentin for model behavior, Troy Williams sits in the offices of The Post newspapers eager to share his story and spread a positive message to young men on the streets.

A former gang member, Williams was raised in Southern California, often resorting to violence to resolve his conflicts. Since then, however, he has evolved.

After serving 18 years of a life sentence in prison, he has reached a new level of consciousness, gained skills in many different trades, and found his niche behind the lens doing film.

Two months ago, he was sitting next to Paul Cobb in prison as the Post publisher talked with staff from the San Quentin News. He and Cobb exchanged family histories and how they both had family roots in Mississippi. He told Cobb he wanted to connect to the Private Industry Council’s Re-Entry Program to find gainful employment.

 

Troy Williams.

Troy Williams.

Now Williams is free to pursue his dream.

Cobb asked him to video the swearing-in ceremony of the Oakland Mayor, councilmembers and school board members.

While in San Quentin, Williams often read the Hollywood Reporter. He attended film school classes offered at the prison offered by the Discovery Channel and award-winning documentarian Bruce Sinofsky, Pepe Urquijo, David Arquette, Joe Berlinger, Tim Mack, and Delroy Lindo.

The six-week class taught nine inmates how to use video cameras to tell stories through film. The story of this class was highlighted in a documentary, “San Quentin Film School.”

When they left, the film crew donated equipment to the prison so inmates to continue to practice their new skills.

That experience helped spark Williams’ desire to produce a show.

“I’ve always had a passion and desire to do film,” he said. “I realized how much work actually goes into trying to produce a show.”

After learning the basics of video editing and how to film a short movie, Williams started to cover events inside the prison. In 2010, he founded “The San Quentin Prison Report,” a video and radio show that aired inside the prison.

Initially starting as a one-man production team, he covered self-help groups as well as other events and interviewed many people including Judge Thelton Henderson, Gavin Newsom, as well as Warden Robert L. Ayers, who supported Williams’ project.

“My whole goal was to figure out a way to reach the outside world. I was trying to use media as a tool for change to get people to see a different side of who we were, and to see that people can change,” Williams said.

“A lot of the guys in there are not the same person that they were 20-plus years ago, but that’s all you see in mainstream media – the horror stories,” he said.

Williams started teaching other inmates how to tell stories first through radio, with the help of Nigel Poor, associate professor of the Department of Design at Sacramento State, and Holly Kernan, news director at KALW 91.7FM.

“We had to figure out tactful ways to get the message out,” said Williams. “They don’t have a right to know, they have a duty to know what’s going on in prison,” he added, recounting what Warden Ayers told him while in prison.

Producing the show in an effort to shift the perception of inmates also had the effect of changing Williams in the process.

“I live, eat and breathe video. It gave me a voice,” Williams explained, having started his own company, 4 North 22, this year.

“If I want to be heard and I want my message to be received, I had to tailor my message differently, and that had to translate into everything that I do in life. Communication is not just what I’m saying, but how it’s being received.”

“That means that I have to understand my audience,” he said. “My audience was not only the men in blue inside the prison, but I’m speaking to the youngster on the street and, ultimately, I’m speaking to the prison administration that has approved these messages.”

Williams currently works as a production assistant with a Hill & Company Communications and is currently working on a documentary film, “Crying Sideways.” The film profiles 17 young men in prison who were sentenced to life as juveniles, with the goal of saving other young men walking down the wrong path.

Visit www.cryingsidewaysthemovie.com to support the film.

Williams says he is looking for the following equipment for his company: a Macbook Pro laptop and Apple desktop computer, a 5D Canon camera, tripod, zoom recorder, lavalier set, microphones, lighting kit, video editing and audio editing software.

“Imagine sitting in a cell for 20 years just holding onto a dream, that when I get out I can build my own company, and I can speak these messages that I want to speak to the world. You wait so long to be able to have a voice. Now, I’m here,” said Williams.

For more information on Troy Williams, go to www.4north22.com.

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Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

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iStock.
iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.

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Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

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The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.
The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.

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Activism

BOOK REVIEW: The Afterlife of Malcolm X

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

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Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: by Mark Whitaker, c.2025, Simon & Schuster, $30.99, 448 pages

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that White America “’needed his voice even more than Blacks did.’”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential on its beginning. He never knew of the first Kwanzaa, or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president …

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”?

Turns out, it’s all three, but the storylines are not smooth. There are twists and tangents and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”

For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.

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