Love Letter to Oakland
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Raymond Lawrence “Boots” Riley is a filmmaker, musician, and activist. Born in Chicago to organizer parents, he moved to Oakland at the age of 6. Riley began organizing as a teen with the Progressive Labor Party and International Committee Against Racism. He attended Oakland High School, where he wrote and performed hip-hop in drama class and helped lead a student walkout in protest of school cutbacks. At 15, he helped farm workers organize in the Central California Valley. He studied film at San Francisco State University before dropping out to focus on music. In 1991, Riley and other activists formed the Mau Mau Rhythm Collective, putting on ‘Hip-Hop Edutainment’ concerts in alliance with community-based organizations. Riley rose to prominence as founding member and frontman of political hip-hop group, the Coup, debuting in 1991. In 1994, Riley and other organizers formed The Young Comrades, mounting campaigns including protesting Oakland’s ‘no cruising’ ordinance. In 2000, he held a workshop at La Peña Cultural Center where he led young artists in creating ‘Guerilla Hip-Hop Concerts.’ Traveling through Oakland on a flatbed truck, they protested California's Proposition 21. In 2006, Riley and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine formed rap rock group Street Sweeper Social Club. In 2011, he joined the Occupy Oakland movement and helped organize a daylong shutdown of the nation’s fifth-busiest port. In 2018, Riley made his directorial debut at Sundance Film Festival with the science-fiction dark comedy, Sorry to Bother You, inspired by his experience as a telemarketer. The critically-acclaimed film went on to be a box office success, winning numerous awards including the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and named 2018’s Top Ten Independent Films by the National Board of Review. In 2023, as co-showrunner and executive producer, he released the dark comedy miniseries, I’m A Virgo, about a 13-foot-tall Black teen in Oakland. Riley is a member of the Writers Guild of America striking for better wages and job security. He’s been an outspoken supporter of Palestinian liberation, raising money for relief efforts. In Oakland, he’s working with local filmmakers to build a cultural hub for the filmmaking community as a board member of Cinemama.
www.x.com/BootsRiley | www.cinemamafilm.com