San Francisco has a way of finding its people. For artist Paola de la Calle, it was a print of a Zapatista portrait wheat pasted on a wall in the Mission that called out to her during her first visit in spring 2016. She shared this pivotal memory with me during a visit to her […]
Editor’s Note When we asked Tosha Stimage who she wanted to have write a piece on her, she emphatically chose bloodstone to write this piece–as an offering. So, he did with the reverence and care that she knew he would. Bloodstone is an artist, writer, death midwife, and dear friend of Tosha’s. He composed this […]
A CHANT’S ENCOUNTER WITH EAST OAKLAND’S CONTROVERSIAL KUMU I’m hoofing it to catch a 57 bus that cuts across the entire city to Kumu Hula Mark’s Halau, the Academy of Hawaiian Arts (AHA), which is located in a strip mall in deep East Oakland. I’m bumping along to Po’okela Chants, Kumu Hula Mark’s groundbreaking first […]
Let me introduce myself. Hi, I’m Ms. Bria Nicole. Don’t say too many times it’ll get old. Some of you know me, but still there is so much about me you don’t even see First things first. Don’t question me or who I’m about to be layers and levels to miss things we call Brie. Some of y’all better recognize, […]
Emory Douglas is widely considered the most prolific and persistent graphic agitator in American Black Power movements. His work profoundly defined the aesthetics of protest during the Civil Rights era. Douglas’ core philosophy, encapsulated in his famous battle cry “Culture is a weapon,” underscored his belief in the transformative power of art to effect social […]
When I spend time with someone who was also born and raised in San Francisco, also calls it Frisco, and also grew up in the eighties and nineties riding MUNI, we eventually stumble across the intersections of our lineages and stomping grounds. We inevitably trade stories of displacement, survival, beauty and anger. But I don’t […]
