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.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)