Michael Franti - Early Life

Early Life

Michael Franti was born in Oakland, California to an Irish-German-French mother and an African-American and Native American father. However, his mother made an adoption plan for him because she was afraid her family would not accept him. He was adopted by Carole Wisti and Charles Franti, a Finnish-American couple in Oakland, who had three biological children and two adopted African American sons. Charles Franti was a professor in the department of epidemiology and preventive medicine of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and died in 2003. Michael's four siblings are named Rebecca, Sara, Dan, and Matthew. Michael attended Davis Senior High School and graduated from the University of San Francisco. During his time at school there he met a priest who taught him how to tell a story on paper, and soon he was writing poetry. He purchased a bass at a pawn shop and started creating music inspired by hip hop, punk, and reggae that was being played on the campus radio station.

Read more about this topic:  Michael Franti

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:

    When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed
    And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,
    I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
    Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
    Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
    And thought of him I love.
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

    The life of our city is rich in poetic and marvelous subjects. We are enveloped and steeped as though in an atmosphere of the marvelous; but we do not notice it.
    Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)