The Curtis Family C-Notes: Maestro Curtis (Papa C.), Nola Curtis (Mama C.), Nile Curtis, Zahara Curtis, Phoenix Curtis, Isis Curtis, Kiki Curtis
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather The Curtis Family C-Notes' star is on the rise, y'all. In Part 1, the San Francisco family shares their story with us. We dive into Papa C.'s past in Louisiana and San Francisco. Then we learn a little about Mama C.'s time growing up on the Peninsula. Papa C. (Maestro Curtis) can't remember when he started playing musical instruments. He was asked to perform for family members from a very young age. He owes his lifelong work ethic to his growing up, as well. He spent time between Louisiana and San Francisco, but it was out here that he got involved in martial arts and positive social change. After getting into some trouble in his high school years, Papa C. took a scholarship to Grambling State University in Louisiana. Then he spent seven years in the Army. Mama C. (Nola Curtis) grew up a competitive ice skater. She's Tongan and grew up in San Mateo surrounded, essentially, by so many famous professional skaters. Looking back, she enjoyed performing, but not so much competing. Her father passed away when she was 14 and one of the effects of her grief was that she stopped skating. She turned to books, especially reading stuff that wasn't assigned at school. To help her graduate on time, she took a history of jazz course at a community college, and that's where she first heard Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Billie Holiday. That class and those performers inspired her to start singing. Soon, she was asked to start a band with some folks, but she decided lessons were the first step. Nola met her future husband in this context.
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Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Pam Benjamin has lived in California her entire life. In this podcast, the Mutiny Radio DJ and comedian shares the story of her life. She was born in Livermore and raised in Danville, not fully knowing that her family was well-off because there were always richer kids around. From there, Pam talks about her religious upbringing (a story involving an invisible cat), her eating disorder at a young age, and being a varsity cheerleader ("reverse-stalking"). Pam shares early memories of SF (somehow, a nunnery and her dad's work downtown factor in here). She left Danville for UC San Diego, where she did lots of acid but got good grades, as she attests. Pam lived in Davis after college and taught special ed there. She and her then-husband moved back to San Diego, where Pam started a theater company. Her ex-mother-in-law convinced her to get a corporate job, which she did. But she stopped taking birth control and wrote a novel in six weeks. Pam got a DUI, quit her corporate job, and then had people at Burning Man telling her to move to The City, which she did in 2007. Now in San Francisco and going to SF State grad school, she started doing poetry readings all over SF, and then tried comedy in 2011. At Pirate Cat Radio in 2008, she started reading stories after Common Thread with Diamond Dave Whitaker. In 2011, after the station's manager embezzled from them and the FTC started snooping around, they changed from Pirate Cat to Mutiny. A few years later, the board that ran Mutiny Radio bailed on her, but Pam stayed on and took over. During the pandemic (or, as she refers to it, the "PAMdemic"), she started doing comedy shows in parklets and at Mutiny in the Mission. Pam plans to bring Mutiny's comedy festival back this October 10–16. We end the podcast with Pam's thoughts on where San Francisco goes from here. We recorded this podcast at Mutiny Radio in June 2021.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
So many San Francisco born-and-raised folks' stories go way, way back. That's certainly the case for Joey Yee. Joey begins Part 1 telling us about his maternal grandfather, who was from Isleton and was a pilot in World War II. After he came back from war, he met Joey's grandma, who was born and raised in SF. He charmed his future wife by giving her the biggest tomatoes she'd ever seen. Joey's grandfather wanted to put roots down, and so he bought a building in San Francisco. His dad's dad immigrated to the US from China. Joey's parents met ice skating and dated for eight years before getting married. After living in Daly City a short time, they moved back to the family house, the one his grandfather bought on Nob Hill. Joey was born during this time. When he was 12, the family moved to the Richmond District. Joey regrets that he didn't explore Nob Hill when they lived there, but he goes on to share his early Giants memories and describes games at Candlestick. He tells us about the public schools he went to, eventually ending up at Washington High in the Richmond. It was there that Joey started dabbling in video classes. That's when his love of video, film, and editing began.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Tara DeMoulin grew up collecting eucalyptus buttons in the Panhandle with her mom. In Part 1, the singer/songwriter, activist, and filmmaker shares the story of her life. It starts in San Francisco in the late-1980s, travels east to Maine and New York City (where she discovered and became obsessed with Broadway), starts to circle back west with a stop in Texas before scooting over to Southern California. In the early 2000s, after some college, Tara decided to come back to her native home in San Francisco, which we'll get more into in Part 2. The rest of this episode includes some of Tara's thoughts on living in such wildly different places in the U.S.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Jaime Crespo's first drawings were made on the blank pages in a Bible. In Part 1, the cartoonist traces his lineage back to his mom, who was born in northern Mexico and is Yaqui/Yoeme. She came to LA with her brother in the early 20th century. When their mom got deported back to Mexico, she moved up to run a cafe in Sacrament, where she ended up meeting Jaime's dad. But his mom took Jaime to San Francisco when her husband became abusive. The kid was 4. They made their way back to Sacramento to live with Jaime's widowed step-grandad and his new wife, a Black couple from Louisiana. He finished school up there and shortly after that, moved back to The City instead of New York, which he and his friends had dreamed about. In the podcast, Jaime reflects on both stints in San Francisco—when he was 4 and then again when he was around 20. He reminisces about seeing hippies on Muni, his first Giants game and seeing Willie Mays, BBQ joints and bars that are long gone, and how he was moving away from sports like baseball and football, and more toward punk rock music and art. He shares how he got started drawing at a young age with a story that's either charming or blasphemous, depending on how you look at it. Check out more of Jaime's art at his website: corntortillapress.com. And follow Jaime on Instagram @the_real_comixvato.
Photography by Syl Simon
So, we're doing something a little different here. Way, way back in Season 1, on Episode 14, we had friend of the show H.P. Mendoza on. Back then, we were all about stories, not necessarily people's stories, like we are today. And so, we asked H.P. to come back on and share his personal history with you. He starts Part 1 with his birth (St. Luke's in the Mission) and his childhood (on La Grande Avenue in the Excelsior). Then he backs up to go into some depth about his paternal grandmother, who taught English and adored H.P., her first grandchild born in the U.S. She had a piano and that's how H.P. learned to play. A tangent leads to H.P. talking about his love of movies from an early age. He credits his brother Joe with that, as well as H.P.'s continued interest in storytelling, video games, cartoons, and more. H.P. shares stories from his school days. Being the first U.S.-born kid in his family, there were higher expectations placed on him. His early curiosity about kids who were different from him and his family led to some pretty funny mischief. His parents pulled him out of public school and sent him to Epiphany Catholic School. After skipping second grade, H.P. experienced ostracism from kids older than him and kids his age. Because of this, he added one year to his age well into his twenties. He ends Part 1 rattling off different obscure, adult-ish movies he was into as a kid.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Wanika King-Stephens' life is full of music and church. In Part 1, Wanika traces her life back to her parents' move to San Francisco from Los Angeles in the 1960s with their four-month-old daughter. Her dad's dad was an evangelist in the Pentecostal Church. It was a strict upbringing where, if her father as a young man wanted to listen to so-called music of the world, country music was the only acceptable genre. Despite that, he grew up loving jazz and, especially, John Coltrane. And he raised his own children in that light. Wanika's little sister sings, and the two were in a band when they were younger called Mystic Youth. Wanika played bass in the group and was the band leader. They wrote their own music but were too young to play clubs at first. Her mother sang jazz and, along with Wanika's dad, joined with Alice Coltrane to help found the Vedantic Center, which was originally in San Francisco. Around this time, the family had moved to Visitacion Valley, a diverse, lively neighborhood that Wanika describes for us. From there, she shares stories of trips around town she took as a young girl. Wanika wraps up Part 1 talking about her high school days in The City. And after that, as she puts it, she "was jammin' pretty hard with Mystic Youth."
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
In Part 1, Maitri Compassionate Care's Executive Director, Reverend Father Rusty Smith, shares stories of his youth. His very New Mexican mom was a powerful figure in his early life, shaping the liberal world view Rusty espouses to this day. Rusty traces his military family upbringing all over the country and the world. The family eventually settled in Texas for his high school years. After that, Rusty became a priest in the Anglican Church, given that the church allowed openly gay priests. He began his adult life in his mother's home state, doing charitable work in Albuquerque. While living in New Mexico, Rusty and his husband noticed that San Francisco had become a second home for them. When the opening at Maitri happened, they made the move. Then we meet Maitri's Development Director, Tomas Moreno. Tomas shares his story of growing up in the Central Valley and making his way to San Francisco.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Ed. note: This one is special for a couple reasons. First, Larry blew us away with his kindness, energy, and knowledge. Also, we recorded under the BART tracks, so we took pauses when trains passed by overhead. We decided to leave that audio in the final edit because, well, it was part of the experience that day. We hope you enjoy. Larry Dorsey, Jr.'s parents came to the Bay Area from the South and South America. In Part 1, the SF born-and-raised comedian and radio personality shares the story of his parents' migration to San Francisco. His dad played football in the NFL before his move west; Larry's mom, a lawyer, left her home country of Columbia because of political reasons. They arrived in Oakland separately and met at SF State. Larry is their first-born, one of two sons. Larry has vague memories of his first years on Earth, which he shares with us. One is a pretty hilarious (and hilariously cute) playground-type story. Larry tells us what it was like to go to a "hippy" elementary, and then contrasts that with his time at Aptos Junior High. But he also spent many school lunchtimes in the library. His curiosity and pursuit of knowledge was just getting started. He ended up at Lowell, during a time when he started getting into "a lot of trouble." Larry wraps up Part 1 sharing the first time he got in trouble with a cop.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Marcia Gagliardi's family used to own a pizzeria and Italian deli in the Sierra foothills. In Part 1, the Tablehopper creator and author goes a couple generations back to trace her family's story and how they ended up in Northern California. Her Italian grandparents went back to their homeland shortly before Marcia was born, but we'll get back to that. Marcia grew up on the Peninsula, one of two daughters for the Gagliardis. She recounts what that experience was like for her, and shares the story of the time she spent in Italy during college. It was at a Christmas dinner there that she discovered just how diligently her dad had kept up their Italian customs in California. She talks about her family's move to the foothills and back and shares how she and a friend would drive up to The City and arrange deals for their high school classmates, long before the internet. Marcia ends Part 1 with the story of her year in Venice and her return home to finish college at UCLA.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Matt Leum has more friends from his school days now than he did back then. Matt grew up in Glendale, a suburb north of LA. His family's swimming pool was the only one on that block. His dad owned a chain of supermarkets in the greater Los Angeles area. His parents met at the flagship store of that chain back when it was just a corner market. Matt grew up the youngest of six; his younger brother died at 4. In Part 1, he shares stories of his mom's bad-assery as we dive into her history quite a bit, including her French and Inuit parents. After college in Santa Barbara, Matt sent an unsolicited letter to a law firm in San Francisco asking about jobs, and got offered work as a response.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Morris Kelly's great-grandfather was a sharecropper who bought his own freedom. In Part 1, Morris, who today owns SF Roots cannabis company, shares the story of how he came to grow up in The City. He chronicles the various schools he went to, talks about Muni rides to arcades and movie theaters all over town, and car rides with his grandparents on which they'd visit non-chain stores and restaurants. He shares stories of leaving San Francisco—to visit family in Milwaukee, or to go to Baptist conventions in the South with his grandparents—and the lessons he learned on those trips. Uninterested in conventional high school, Morris found Urban Pioneers—an outdoor program for students that got them out backpacking and exploring various spots around California. Morris got out of high school and, as he puts it, went on to "goof off" at City College.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
It isn't every episode that we get to learn more about the main character in a book. First of all, if you haven't already read Home Baked, Alia Volz's autobiography about her mom, her dad, and the pot brownie business they had in San Francisco in the 1970s, please do. In Part 1, Alia, who was born and raised amid that booming business four decades ago, dives deeper into her parents' stories, both individually and as a couple. As she does in her book, she sets the stage for her eventual arrival, back when her parents lived and cooked baked goods in a warehouse in the Mission. And then Alia wraps up Part 1 with the story of her birth.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Matt Gonzalez's life could've turned out very different. Born in McAllen, Texas, and raised there and across the river in Reynoso, Tamaulipas (Mexico), in Part 1, Matt recalls spending a lot of time camping and playing football when he was a kid. His family moved around a bit—Louisville, Baltimore, New Orleans—before returning to South Texas, where Matt finished school and played more football. The sport eventually took a back seat to debate class, and he decided to go to college at Columbia in New York City. Matt talks about arriving wide-eyed in New York. He spent four years getting his undergrad, with summers in Maine and Minnesota leading camping expeditions. Then, he decided to come to California for law school.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Arthur Gaus grew up on a famous block in The City. In Part 1, the native San Francisco comedian traces his story back to his parents' choice to buy a house on Ashbury just off Haight Street in the late-'70s. Arthur shares stories of growing up in his family's Victorian and hanging out on Haight Street, in Golden Gate Park (despite how dangerous everyone said it was back then), and in his backyard. His grade school was near the gate to Chinatown, a neighborhood he and his friends spent a lot of time exploring. Arthur talks about his high school years and ends the podcast with a funny story about being one of the the only boys in a play at a girls' school.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Renel Brooks-Moon has always enjoyed entertaining people. Born in Oakland and raised there, in Berkeley, and in Richmond, Renel suffered when her family moved to Menlo Park on the Peninsula. She went to Mills for college, where she studied classical voice and sang in a band with some guys who went to UC Berkeley. After college, she got an entry-level job at KCBS radio and worked her way to writing copy for on-air talent. Four years later, she got a sales job at KFRC, but ended up running the station's public affairs department, an opportunity that got Renel on the air while filling in for a colleague out on maternity leave. She later got her own show on the station--Bayview: A Look at the Issues and Concerns of the Bay Area Black Community. That lead to Renel's first music set: She debuted as "Rockin' Renel" at midnight on a Friday in 1985. After a format change at KFRC, she got in at KMEL. Renel was with KMEL when it became one of the first stations in the country to play hip-hop. She eventually got the morning show on the station, the job she held until helping to launch 98.1 KISS FM (now "The Breeze" ... ya keeping up?). And then ... The San Francisco Giants came a-knockin'. A couple days ago on this show, Chronicle journalist Kevin Fagan told you all about his latest project: the untold story of the Doodler, a new documentary podcast series from Ugly Duckling Films. On his show, Kevin dives into the archive of his paper and the San Francisco Police Department in search of a serial killer known for drawing portraits of his victims. This killer, known as the Doodler, targeted his attacks against gay men in the Bay Area between 1974 and 1975. He brutally beat and murdered at least five gay men and got away with it due to little evidence and lack of attention from the media and the police at the time. SFPD re-opened the case in 2018 and it's still ongoing today. Police believe the Doodler is still alive and have released an age-progressed sketch of the suspect, which you can see in the image above. Follow this new hunt for a forgotten serial killer and subscribe to The Doodler on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Take care, and we’ll see ya here on Storied: San Francisco next week.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Welcome to the soft launch of Storied: San Francisco, Season 4! We love catching up with friends and past guests of the show. For Kevin Fagan, we were kinda blown away by what he's been up to, though we probably shouldn't be surprised. In San Francisco in 1974 and '75, there was a serial killer on the loose. His MO was to sketch or doodle his victims in public—in cafes, bars, and the like. The drawings then served as an "in" with his targets. Police believe he killed at least five men in the spree, with the potential for more. Kevin shares with us how he came to the story of the Doodler, set to debut as an eight-part serial podcast hosted by Kevin today (Parts 1 and 2 should be available wherever you get your podcasts). We recorded this special podcast on Zoom in March 2021. In this special episode of our podcast, Jeff reads three of our favorite love letters to San Francisco written in January 2020 at our event of the same name. You'll get a sample of our new Season 4 theme music, created and curated by Joe Bagale. And we're pretty sure that the third letter was written by Season 3 storyteller P. Segal. We hope you enjoy these as much as we do. They speak to the complexity of loving a city like ours, and they offer a glimmer of hope for what's next in San Francisco. See you soon for Season 4 of Storied: San Francisco! xoxo Michelle + Jeff If you've been with us for a while, you already know Randy Burns. Randy is definitely a friend of the show. He introduced us to his friend, Jesus Barragan, whom we had on the show earlier this season. To close out our third season, we wanted to have these two longtime friends to talk about the POC gay rights movements they were each very much a part of back in the 1970s and '80s—Randy's Gay American Indians (GAI) and Jesus's Gay Latino Alliance (GALA). It was the fall of 1975, and at that time, no such groups existed here. What would eventually become the Pride parade was in its infancy. But these two young queer activists and their allies organized, not only making their existence known, but fighting for basic rights some might take for granted today. In Part 1 of this two-part podcast, Randy and Jesus each share the background stories of getting their groups started.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Tony Carracci's life revolves around water. Tony's parents met in Seattle, where his mom was from. His dad, who is from from New Orleans, met his mom up north during a stint in the Merchant Marines. When they were expecting their first child, Tony, the young couple decided to relocate to another port town: San Francisco, away from the cold and rain of Seattle and the heat and mugginess in New Orleans. Tony did most of his growing up in the 1960s and early '70s in The City, and he shares some of his impressions of that era. He played baseball, football, and soccer, and excelled at sports in general. But because he had a hard time sitting still and focussing for a long time, school wasn't Tony's favorite. He graduated and left home in the mid-'70s. He worked in the now-defunct SF shipyards but hated it. He moved up to Portland (yet another port town!) for a couple years, started working in kitchens, and started doing hair and make-up. Then he went farther north, to his mom's hometown of Seattle. But a girl he met there and started dating got a job back in The City, and Tony decided that it was his chance to come home. After restaurant jobs here and there, Tony learned about a new restaurant in the Haight that needed an opening chef. That place was Cha Cha Cha. Tony spends the last part of Part 1 talking about Haight Street and South of Market back in the day. He ends with the story of opening the Cat Club.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Gillian Fitzgerald was born in Hospital (a town in Ireland). In Part 1, the owner of Casements Bar in the Mission traces her lineage back to when her Irish parents met. The family moved from County Limerick in the southwest to County Meade, just north of Dublin. That is where Gillian did most of her growing up, smalltown stories she shares in this episode. In addition to playing many sports, Gillian also had her own horse: Flash Gordon. She tells us a wild story about Flash that you really have to hear to believe. After talking about her time in high school and college, which brought her to Dublin, she ends this episode with some of the family bars and pubs she worked in as a young adult back in Ireland.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Marcell Turner found his home in San Francisco. In Part 1, the photographer shares the story of his childhood in Southern California. He skateboarded, loved punk rock music, and breakdanced in his teen years. Then, a road trip up north with a friend was all it took for Marcell to relocate up to the Bay Area.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Ike Shehadeh has pretty much always made sandwiches. In Part 1, the founder of Ike's Love and Sandwiches takes us back to 1968, when his dad arrived in San Francisco from Saudi Arabia. A decade or so later, his dad met his mom, and Ike, the first of a few kids for the couple, was born. He describes what it was like to grow up going to various schools in The City, especially the parts involving playing sports. He enjoyed baseball and soccer, but to learn to take hits in football, Ike started martial arts classes in The Sunset. We end Part 1 with Ike explaining the unique living situation he had in college at UC Davis, and how that would later play a significant role in his business.
Photography by Michelle Killfeather
Brenda Buenviaje grew up across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. In Part 1, we get to know Brenda and her life/business partner, Libby Truesdell. Brenda describes her mixed heritage (Filipino and Creole, mostly) and shares stories of growing up in southern Louisiana, fishing and foraging, among other things. Libby contrasts her Iowa upbringing with the multifaceted food and culture she was introduced to when she met Brenda. Libby left her home state for various spots on the West Coast when she was 18, eventually ending up in The City in 2005. Brenda also shares the story of how she came to San Francisco. |