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Samantha S. Campos

Writer and editor from Palm Springs, Maui and Marin—now based in Oakland, California. I currently edit East Bay, a monthly magazine; East Bay Express, an Oakland-based alternative newsweekly est. in 1978; and Tri-City Voice, a weekly newspaper based in Fremont.

East Bay Magazine •

Rae Alexandra restores women’s place in Bay Area history

History has a way of pretending certain people didn’t exist.

In a region that prides itself on progress, women who built institutions, changed laws, fought segregation, defended bodily autonomy and reshaped culture have largely vanished from the public record. Their names are missing from monuments, street signs, statues and textbooks. Their work survives, but their stories do not.

That erasure is what drove journalist Rae Alexandra to rage—and eventually to obsession.
Tri City Voice •

Be Mine, Cutie Pie, Sweet Talk | Tri City Voice

It’s not that I’m anti-love. But for many decades now, I’ve been opposed to Valentine’s Day. To me, it’s a Hallmark holiday with a dark and murky past—one largely propped up by American corporations to encourage spending and quietly shame the uncoupled. 

Yes, I’m a lot of fun at parties.

That said, I haven’t always felt this way. I remember passing out Valentine’s cards and heart-shaped candies in grade school, stamped with messages like “CUTIE PIE,” “LOVE BUG” and the wildly premature “MA...
East Bay Express | Oakland, Berkeley & Alameda •

Be the next nobody with Punk Band Karaoke

It’s Friday night and the tiny venue is packed. People of all ages—mostly punk or punk-adjacent—crowd the bar, shouting drink orders over the blaring sound system. Others mill about, buzzing with anticipation.

She walks toward the stage, her heart racing, a bead of sweat forming on her upper lip. Stepping onto the platform, she takes a breath, grabs the mic, nods at the guitarist, then the drummer. The crowd leans in—faces expectant, willing her to begin. She feels jittery, slightly nauseous...
East Bay Magazine •

The art of home that's built to last

Long before they founded SOBU, the design-forward furniture and home décor store on College Avenue in Oakland’s Rockridge district, Laleh (née Zahedi) and Alessandro Latini met as teenagers at Redwood High School in Corte Madera—a pairing that, in hindsight, feels like a design collaboration waiting to happen. They didn’t know it then, but the shared sensibility that would one day define SOBU—warm, curious and built to last—was already taking shape.
Bohemian | Sonoma & Napa Counties •

Second Acts: Napa’s Midlife Dreamers Reinvent Downtown with Grit and Music | Bohemian | Sonoma & Napa Counties

Nora Murphy is on stage. Minutes earlier, Mariposa metal band JNX closes their set with Black Sabbath’s “Crazy Train.” Now, a sweaty but happy crowd leans in to hear who won this year’s contest. 

It’s late July at the second annual Battle of the Bands in downtown Napa’s SoFi District—three blocks of music, 21 bands, five stages, including the Uptown and Folklore. An estimated 4,000 people fill the streets, drinking wine, dancing and punting the occasional beach ball—or, during surf metal band...
East Bay Express | Oakland, Berkeley & Alameda •

Still got the moves

Of all the midlife betrayals for women—ageist algorithms, hot flashes, chin hairs—perhaps the worst is the myth that we’re no longer fun. And that we don’t deserve a night out with friends.

Laura Baginski, 49, a former magazine editor in Chicago, feels middle-aged women just need to go out at a more reasonable hour.

“I was going to a lot of live shows after the pandemic,” she said. “It brought out this need to have this communal experience with music. I loved especially the smaller shows a...
East Bay Magazine •

What Love Means

When my partner and I started looking for our first home together, at the top of our must-have list was a yard for our 10-year-old Vizsla. Like most of his breed, “Mango” was athletic and sensitive—his favorite activities were running through Redwood Regional Park and curling up into a ball on the corner of our couch that got the most sunlight through the window. 

Fortunately, we found a home near his favorite trails with a backyard, where he got his own couch in the sun. It made us happy to...
East Bay Express | Oakland, Berkeley & Alameda •

Ivy Room Celebrates Music and Pride

It’s early afternoon, before the Ivy Room opens. Inside, it’s quiet, the calm before a storm of activity from the bar and band later that night. I take notice of all the music memorabilia. Co-owners Summer Jager and Lani Torres point out the artwork on the walls by our booth and above the bar.

“My dad gave me that painting of Bowie when I was 19,” Torres says, noting that it was painted in 1975, the year she was born. “That’s gone with me from Santa Cruz to New York, back to San Francisco, an...
East Bay Magazine •

Conversations With Strangers

In a previous life (aka, my 30s), I spent a lot of time in bars. Partly, because it was my job—first as bartender, then as nightlife columnist. It’s also where friends and I would go to flirt, commiserate or celebrate over a pint or a shot, often both. And because of the odd and unpredictable collection of people encountered if I ventured solo, bars were where I would delight in the sport of eavesdropping and/or talking to strangers. Then I called it research; now I call it “engaging with the co...