The Brothers Fortune...

I can't speak too much about this up and coming project, but I hope it stretches out for years and years.

The long term framework and strategy is to explore themes of human development and the human condition through a committed effort of communication between myself and these young men of the SoMa.

We'll examine the simple things, like birthdays, and we'll examine the not-so-simple things, like how Obama's economic plan can affect them (or if it even will).

If there ever was a reason to tell stories, and vindicate these old ideals of catharsis and empathy, these young men are it...

Trust.

Project(ion): SoMa Voices

For the last several months I have been working with KULARTs on a pilot project that attempts to create an apprenticeship program model to re-interpret the South of Market Neighborhood.

The program was structured to allow artists in the mediums of writing, (maga)zine production, and film/video production to create projects with interns that explore themes of neighborhood, home, and the magical. Artists were given a substantial amount of autonomy to develop a curriculum that would permit students to come away with an overall positive creative experience.

The culmination of the three arms was a presentation that took place on June 6, 2009 in the Latino Room of the San Francisco Public Library. The space held a room full of enthused parents, community members, and youth who were involved in varying capacities.

While it's obvious to me, and others employed in the selfless realm of education, that the rewards of instruction and mentorship are more latent, theoretical, conceptual (and like so many others in this field I've often struggled with levels of investment and capacity when students aren't as engaged as I would like). The SoMa Voices Project was a program that immediately bore fruit. Teacher or not, one could not deny the positive energy that brimmed when witness to students (also their instructors, and mentors) diligence.

If you weren't present at the event, then you missed out.

Really.

Obviously, on the love and nostalgia being cultivated in the room, but the historical, and arguably political acts taking place unknowingly.

The zine, aptly titled SoMa Voices: Re-imagining the South of Market, contains clear thoughts and ideas that demarcate solid/porous boundaries on how much the youth impart their experience in the SoMa...

The manifestations of laughter embedded into brittle brick walls...
...the complicated feelings towards violence attached to previously loved reds and blues...
...a nuanced pearl of resentment that began when they were unexpected asked to heal the broken spirit of an individual...

...all of that is contained in the words they crafted in their stories, the images they froze for the zine, the voices that were allowed to expand and contract in the videos.

Assisting and culling out their re-imaginings involved a relatively traditional methodology, but still hip to integrate relevance. MC Canlas' Ethnotour was a ramble about downntown, revealing the hidden history underneath one's nose. The tour took place around the South of Market, and as far as Union Square (an expanded ethnotour includes several missions around San Francisco). Who would have thought that Jose Rizal's trip to San Francisco is commemorated on a plaque on the corner of New Montgomery and Market Street? Imagining a San Francisco during Rizal's time and the context of his stay leaves loads to the imagination: where was Rizal in his political development? What scenes in San Francisco provided some kind of respite from the turbulence occurring overseas? Did Rizal enjoy the fish the same way he would in the Philippines? It's in this imagining within the context of Canlas' ethnotour that provided a vehicle to take a different look on the impressions that one leaves in a space.

Memory and commemoration in the public and personal spheres are consistent in this theme:

Palimpsest.

Technically, it refers to parchment paper that has been written on, erased, and reused but still contains traces of the previous text.

Theoretically, it's been appropriated to spaces (in addition to literature) - and the inherent layering that occurs when not only buildings are razed, but even when buildings themselves are painted over and over and over... and years laters the traces trickle out, sometimes erupting to remind the unsuspecting person that the city has a past life that is more present.

The South of Market is such a space, and that concept has been subtley integrated in the video interviews.

SoMa Talks are informal conversations with youth in the SoMa in a seemingly fleeting moment of growth. Their impressions of their location in life and in the SoMa becomes embedded in spaces that have their own memories and own narratives. Their sometimes modest, sometimes contested, sometimes lackadaisical communications belie their physical age, and the same could be said about the youth these interviews were filmed at in the SoMa.

I've included the YouTube videos on the blog entry. In addition to being amused by what the youth had to say, please note the locations the interviews took place.









Kyrene's interview took place in the Yerba Buena Gardens, for more information for this historically controversial space peruse the pages of City For Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco, by Chester Hartman. Vicente's interview took place at the Alice Street Community Gardens that sits on Lapu Lapu Street (on a block that includes Rizal Street, Mabini Street, and Bonafacio Street), in front of a mural that documents the progress of Philippine History (Trivia Question: take a second look at the figure up at top of said mural the next time you're there, guess who that is...think Kularts). Sheila and Jodel's interviews took place at the Victoria Manalo Draves Park which is a trophy of a community movement, and is surrounded by some spaces such as the Hall of Justice (the jail overlooks the park, not that inmates get to see the park) on one end, and the Federal Building on the other end of the skyline, and flanked by Bessie Carmichael Elementary School - the placement and zoning complicates a simple walk in the park, with these symbolic and charged spaces.

It's subtle, but still compelling to take in all of the history of SoMa and have this benchmark in these youth's lives. It's a conversation that continues between terrains internal and external [thanks to JPG for that articulation]...

Finally, it'd be interesting to follow up often in these interivews and these spaces at every four years in their lives, to mark their stories, their relationships, their will on their worlds. Where will they be then? How much would SoMa change in relation to their own development?

P.S. You can still purchase the zine here.

* Special thanks for the California Council for Humanities - California Stories Initiative for funding most of this project.
Extra special thanks to all of the partners involved - Alleluia Panis, Dianne Que, Patty Cachapero, Mitchell Yangson, Chris Woon, MC Canlas, Filipino Education Center/Galing Bata, Tina Alejo, Glen Jermyn, and Galing Bata staff, Irene Faye Duller, Anthem Salgado, Christine Balance, Kyle de Ocera, and all volunteers.

Happy New Year... a belated post

Holy cow, how long has it been?!

I've only been on a soft hiatus.

In the interim of publishing I've been trying to get new collaborations going, new connections established, maintaining relationships, and repairing strained ones - all with varying degrees of success.

There's a long list on paper of items in the queue to be blogged about...

Thanks for re-joining me.

Resource: WochenKlausur

Pallet application beyond the bonfire.

I began my forays into critical and cooperative art expressions sometime in college (UCSD - woot!). Lecture halls and sections were filled with bodies, a poor representative cross section of a patronage of privilege.
Yours truly was part of this mass.
The work produced in studio, media, computer, and photography classes ran the range between personal expressions of ebullient and potential Frida Kahlo's, Robert Frank's, Eric DeGuia's to the despondent, and maybe hung-over 'bohemian' or 'dandy' students.

I began to grow towards a critical discussion in sharing an ever growing knowledge base that included a pedestrian-art relationship (one that physically places art/object in direct opposition to the spectator). However, it's one thing to keep the discussion between academics, it's another to build your chops up by affiliating and collaborating with those "outside" the academy and art production.

Luckily, there was one extremely welcoming professor on campus (Grant Kester) who would point me towards several directions that I continually explore.

One of the directions that I was pointed towards, is a group called WochenKlausur.
(If you have time, please go through their FAQ, and the ART links to get a sense of context)

Certainly not the only group to explore dialogical art productions, there are plenty of individuals (Suzanne Lacy), organizations, and collectives (SF Print Collective) that exercise a more collaborative and pedagogically-friendly approach. However, WochenKlausur has a track record, model, and philosophy that builds bridges between and blurs the concept of art and politics.

Revisiting their website and noting their evolution only makes my brain synapse's go wild and inspire projects that apply a similar methodology.

What if I were to apply such strategies to encourage dialog between developers, residence -- from the rich to the transient -- service providers, business owners, etc. What would that look like?
Perhaps a pre-approved commandeering of 6th Street and Natoma: Imperceptibly occupy a space with a small unit constructed of hundreds of cardboard boxes, or an intricate shell of shopping carts that would house a "warm" space, replete with fresh donuts, fruit, and coffee -- the ideas are endless.

The intent of such constructed spaces are to encourage moderated dialog and political dealings. Can you imagine a 'casual' conversation between two planning commission members and two schoolchildren, and the vehicle of conversation would be crayon drawings based on the theme of home... or even using this space to share cooking tips from an SRO resident and a local grocer... and having these documents integrated into an Environmental Impact Report?

Or, if documented dialog isn't the cup of tea of collaborators, perhaps daily data collection of 6th street goings on. Arguably, this could potentially encourage more surveillance, however, maybe with the inclusion of oral history, video, or photo essay all contained on some accessible database -- would be humanizing. Perhaps the information disseminated would act as an appropriate litmus or forecast that would effectively incite involvement -- in addition to rallies, the public would be in the halls more often... oh wait that's what I'm trying to do on this blog ;P

These ideas aren't pipe-dreams that will lay stagnant, with the relationships that I'm hoping to nurture I'm sure in due time something WochenKlausur-esqe will manifest. Trust.

Who's with me?

Along the Way

I've been researching, contemplating, sharing... everything but implementing this project within certain parts of the South of Market in San Francisco, popularly known as the SOMA.

It's a contested history rife with drama -- the key players run the gamut from bureaucrats, international business owners, to blue-collar residents, to Community Based Organizations.

The topography is rich in history, most of it layered, hidden, and undocumented. Buildings and homes razed and raised -- it's time to unpeel a lot of that paint, chip away at the asphalt, and whatever appropriate urban metaphor you can think up.

This blog will be the forum to explore that history, and research questions regarding city planning, and community development.

The players here will not be exclusive. I'll invite other non-profits, CBOs, residents (youth, immigrant, the gentry, transients) to contribute, to share.

Thanks for reading.