He sees a disillusionment with the Democratic party’s role in the devastation in Gaza, as well as with the two-party system. Choice was just as disappointed with Trump’s victory as he was with progressive propositions, like rent control, failing in California.

“I’ve been sitting with how to address it on all fronts, not just an attack against Trump, but just our general engagement in politics and how we can be more impactful — and have just honest conversations about what it means to even be engaged,” he says.

Choice says he’s working on a song that airs out his community’s disappointment and grief over the election results, but he’s also looking beyond music. “Music is one thing, but supporting grassroots organizations to get people to register to vote, who will get people to campaign for certain measures or props — the day to day things that it takes to win a campaign,” he says. “It’s not always the flashy notoriety, like being on TV or releasing a song. It’s phone banking, canvassing, calling, traveling to other areas — and also bringing up those issues constantly in the art that we create.”

Filmmaker Josh Healey has advocated for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza with his podcast, Friday Night Semites, and organizing with Jewish Voice for Peace and beyond. His work, including the comedy series The North Pole, has also addressed class issues such as gentrification.

“I think the next couple of years we are going to see — and some of the people in this room are going to make — some of the dopest and most powerful art we’ve seen,” Healey said at Oaklandside’s Culture Makers panel.

“Where I’m at as a filmmaker is not just ‘fuck Trump’ and whatever local billionaires are running these campaigns,” he continued, “but also, Hollywood is done. And I’m ready to actually celebrate that. And what I mean by that is not the death of filmmaking, but the death of capitalist, consumerist — the normalization. So many of the stories of what is normalized comes from arts and culture. And so that is my responsibility, and our responsibility.”

Artists shifting to the right

Supporting Trump was more taboo among artists during his first administration, but with rappers like Kanye West, Sexyy Red, Kodak Black and Azealia Banks backing Trump, some observers see a rightward turn in the entertainment industry.

At the Culture Makers panel, hip-hop artist and organizer Maddy Clifford, who campaigns for student debt abolition with Debt Collective, talked about this shift.

“I think a lot of the country will go to the right, let’s be honest about that,” said Clifford, who has contributed to KQED as a cultural critic. “And so it’s going to be more important than ever for us to be really righteous and really stand in our solid values, because there’s going to be a lot of pressure to basically sell out, straight up.”