Sound Khemist is an Oakland audio-visual production and cultural experience company serving the Bay Area and Southern California. We pair professional AV, event production, and staffed equipment rental with lived fluency in African diaspora arts — the community trust a general AV vendor can't hire for.
Culturally-rooted art experiences showcasing African diaspora roots, culture, and music — backed by professional AV, event production, and staffed equipment rental for corporate clients, government agencies, and community-led organizations.
Technical execution from load-in to last cue, plus the cultural curation that decides what happens on stage in the first place.
Full audio and technical operation for live events — street concerts, pop-ups, ceremonies, and civic programming. We run sound end to end.
Studio and location recording, plus podcast content production from capture through delivery.
Product demos, showcases, and experiential brand activations built to move a room, not just fill it.
Arts and experience curation rooted in African diaspora culture — programming that reads as authentic because it is.
Mentorship and workforce-readiness woven into our crew model, bringing new talent onto real productions.
Event partnership across health, wellness, youth, and redevelopment-aligned programming — with nonprofits since 2018.
Plenty of vendors can push faders. Our edge is that we're inside the communities we produce for — the access, the staffing, and the relationships come with us.
Embedded in African diaspora communities, not observing them from the outside.
Real relationships with community leaders and organizations that open doors and smooth logistics.
A multi-cultural subcontractor network across audio, video, and production roles for staffing that fits the room.
The hottest dancehall and reggae, streaming now — the diaspora pulse behind our productions. Press play.
Founder-led technical work across civic ceremonies, community programming, and commercial clients — the track record L Knight Holdings is built on.
Full technical and audio operation for the inauguration at Jack London Square — City of Oakland-funded, delivered via Oakland Venue Management.
Ongoing technical and audio operation for street concerts, pop-up music events, and political programming across the city.
Programming and event support reaching the City of San Francisco and City of Oakland, alongside nonprofit partners The Butterfly Movement and Compass and Keys — relationships since 2018.
How this is framed: founder James Knight delivered the civic and ceremonial work above as lead technical operator — presented here as key personnel experience. Building entity-level contract history under L Knight Holdings LLC is an active, deliberate priority.
Built for buyers where cultural credibility is part of the deliverable — and expanding into brands, startups, and the entertainment industry.
Multi-year relationships, repeat contracts, and a community-liaison network positioned to open a larger client base — framed honestly, not inflated. The next step is a dedicated facility that converts recurring rental cost into an equity-building asset.
Permanent production and recording space, eliminating recurring rental cost for studio time.
Dedicated gear storage that supports insurability and inventory growth.
On-site space for activations, showcases, and client walkthroughs.
A professional setting for meetings with government and corporate buyers.
The record behind the work — entity, service area, and federal contracting status. Read it like a tech rider.
Civic ceremony, community activation, or commercial launch — send the date, the venue, and what you're imagining, and we'll come back with a quote.