Who Channing is

Hi! My name is Channing Kennedy and I live in Oakland, California with my family and two large cats. My primary occupation, at the time of this writing, is that I’m a stay-at-home dad and a longtime preschool storytime volunteer, both of which I enjoy a lot.

Previously, I’ve been a racial equity consultant for arts organizations, a journalist and essayist, a video and podcast producer, a writer and performer of live comedy, a director of a major arts festival, and (a long time ago) a guy who ran a record label and was in a few bands. Most of my work deals with racial justice’s role in the arts and vice versa, with a focus on gender and disability within that relationship and on my own identity as a straight cis white dude as a byproduct of this greater dynamic.

I’m interested in birds, vegetarian cooking, and children’s publishing. During the summer of 2014, a photo of me was the top Google Images result for the phrase ‘white guy.’ You can email me at channing@channingkennedy.com and I’m also on LinkedIn.

Selected works / CV

Five Great Preschool Storytime Books By Authors Of Color, a self-published single-sheet zine, 2019

“Rewriting the Future,” hands-on interactive workshop adapting fanfiction writing techniques for a community organizer / advocacy audience, at the Haas Institute’s Othering & Belonging Conference, 2019

Please Hang Out With Me: A Show About Constraints, a self-produced video talk show, 2018-

a short personal essay on ‘racial awkwardness’ commissioned by NPR’s Code Switch blog, 2016

a three-part reported comic covering the historic Asian American film festival CAAMFEST 2016 for Colorlines, illustrated and co-written by Minnie Phan, 2016

me interviewed on Mule Design‘s Let’s Make Mistakes! podcast, 2016

“Social Media and Social Capital: Why Social Media Won’t Solve Everything,” breakout panel at Frontline Solutions’ A Gathering Of Leaders national conference, 2015

me interviewing comic and storyboard artist Madeline Flores during my tenure as director of San Francisco Zine Fest, 2015

“How I Made D.I.Y. Media Even Whiter While Attempting To Do The Exact Opposite Of That,” afternoon keynote presentation at Mediashift’s Collab/Space San Francisco, 2015

an artist talk and live reading I gave about jpop anti-idol Jun Togawa at Litseen’s Under The Influence reading series, 2014

“How To Steal a PlayStation 2 from Wal-Mart in 2001,” a nonfiction comic for Symbolia, illustrated by Robert Dynamite, 2013

“Can a White Guy Represent For His People?” personal essay at NPR’s Code Switch blog, 2013

“That’s So Channing,” a reported longform piece on personal identity and search engine results, for Tomorrow Magazine, 2012

“Like Racism But Funnier: Social Change Through Internet Jokes,” moderator for panel with W. Kamau Bell, Negin Farsad, Jay Smooth, and Samhita Mukhopadhyay, at Race Forward’s Facing Race conference, 2012