Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Photographer Chris Macias grew up in the Los Angeles area. He came to San Francisco to go to art school, and his school happened to be in the Tenderloin. In Part 1, Chris talks about arriving in The City and coming to learn San Francisco on the streets of the Tenderloin.
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Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
In Part 1, Street Sheet editors Quiver Watts and TJ Johnston talk about their early lives and moving to the Bay Area. They go into how they each got started in thinking about, writing, and other ways of working on social justice issues. Be sure to read the article TJ references, "Nonprofit Execs Get Rich Off Homelessness." And thanks to the San Francisco Cultural History Museum for asking us to host the panel with Quiver and TJ.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Ava Lynch just started college. In Part 1, Ava (the daughter of S1E47 storyteller Mike Lynch) talks about growing up in Visitacion Valley, going to preschool and her grandma's house in Chinatown, feeling free to express herself at SF Waldorf School, and a show at San Francisco Rock Project that inspired her nine-year journey of playing drums and singing. She's currently in two bands, which she talks more about in Part 2.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Bowen Dwelle is a San Francisco native writer, athlete, and life coach in-training. In Part 1, Bowen talks about his paper route near the house he grew up in on Liberty Hill, being a young entrepreneur, the open-air "drug market" that was his high school, and the strange disappearance of a young friend. Here are a couple ways to reach Bowen and learn more about what he does:
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Ed. note: Sadly, Taler lost her battle with cancer in April 2021. We thank you for checking here to learn more about her extraordinary life. Taler Nicols is a fifth-generation San Franciscan. Her family here dates back to Potrero Hill when it was called Goat Hill. In Part 1, Taler, who is a tattooer now, talks about growing up in bars and restaurants in North Beach, thanks to her man-about-town dad. She ends the episode talking about neighborhoods and the changes in San Francisco this decade, ending on a positive, hopeful note.
Taler wanted to paint.
In Part 2, Taler begins by rattling off bars and restaurants in San Francisco that she used to frequent. She then talks of leaving a job she'd been at for a decade to help open Let It Bleed Tattoo in the Tenderloin in 2009. She ends the episode reflecting on the changes in the city over the last decade, as well as some signs of hope she's seeing now. We recorded this podcast at Vesuvio Cafe in August 2019.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
How do you go from being a successful hair stylist who uprooted herself to move to the Bay Area to founding a senior dog rescue non-profit? That's the story of Muttville Founder and CEO Sherri Franklin. In Part 1, Sherri takes us on a journey from LA to the Bay Area. She shares her experiences in the 1989 earthquake. She ends this episode with her early volunteer work with the SFSPCA.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Macchiarini Creative Designs has been in North Beach since 1948. Today, it enjoys legacy business status. In Part 1, the studio's owner, Danny Mac as he's known to his friends and loved ones, talks about his father's involvement in the Bohemians (one of our city's early counter-culture groups) of the 1930s in San Francisco. He goes into detail about the group's plans to erect a giant statue of Emperor Norton to face the Pacific and welcome immigrants to San Francisco.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
San Francisco city archivist Susan Goldstein was drawn to history from a young age. She left her childhood home in Southern California to go to college out east. After a stint in Phoenix, she went to Austin where she worked in photo archiving at the University of Texas. In 1984, she came to the Bay Area to work on union archives at SF State. In Part 1, she talks about her evolution as an archivist and historian. She goes into detail about her work at SF State, which brought her face to face with our city's rich labor union history.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Motivational speaker Uncle Damien went through a lot to get here. In Part 1, Damien Posey, who was born and raised in San Francisco, talks about the journey that got him to where he is today. It's a story of a young man who had no positive male role models, who got shot at a young age, and who ended up in federal prison. But without those bad circumstances and decisions, he might never have become Uncle Damien, an inspiration for youth in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Patrick played some songs for us when we recorded. Three of those songs are featured here (the fourth appears at the end of Part 2). Patrick's album Welcome to the End of the Empire, is available from Bottom Feeder Records. Enjoy!
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Patrick O'Malley started playing guitar at an early age. But it wasn't until his time in Santa Barbara that his music took on a new meaning for him—one of political activism. In Part 1, Patrick talks about growing up in Southern California and his arrival in San Francisco in the late-1990s. Among other things, he points to the write-in mayoral candidacy of Tom Ammiano in 1999 that really sparked something in him. Patrick will be playing tonight (Aug. 13) at Simple Pleasures Café. You can find his latest record, Welcome to the End of the Empire, here.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Penelope Houston's family moved around the country quite a bit when she was a kid, eventually settling up in Washington state long enough for her to go to high school. She came to San Francisco to go to the Art Institute for visual arts, but quickly started going to shows and became friends with other kids who wanted to be up on stage. In Part 1, Penelope talks about the nascent San Francisco punk scene of 1977. The episode ends with her and her friends forming their own band—the now legendary Avengers.
Photo by Ken Walton
Ken Walton grew up in Sacramento always considering San Francisco a special place. He got inspired to do street photography after watching a documentary about Vivian Maier. In 2016, he founded ​StreetFoto San Francisco, an annual international street photography festival. We caught up with Ken at this year's festival and chatted with him about San Francisco in 1990s and what street photography means to him. We recorded this podcast in June 2019 at the Harvey Milk Photo Center.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
North Beach is still alive. And one of its best and longest-lasting watering holes, Specs, is still a San Francisco treasure. In Part 1, the current co-owner of the bar, Elly Simmons, tells the story of how her parents got together. Elly's dad, Richard "Specs" Simmons, and her mom, Sonia, met at Vesuvio across Columbus Street in 1952. It's a wild ride that takes us all over the neighborhood (and the country and city) in the 1950s. Elly is raising money to help fund a documentary she's doing on her dad and the bar. To contribute, please head over to the GoFundMe page for Last Call: The Specs Film.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
In Part 1, artist William Rhodes talks about growing up in Baltimore, some similarities between there and San Francisco, moving to The City, the art of the Mission, and establishing his own art experience here. William's show, Threaded Memories, is up at the African American Art and Culture Complex now through Aug. 2. He'll be giving an artist's talk there next Thursday, July 25, at 6 p.m. Through various media, the show celebrates the now-diminishing African American population of San Francisco. Joy Ng is a born-and-raised San Franciscan. In Part 1, Joy talks about her childhood, in Chinatown, North Beach, and a couple other neighborhoods. She ends with her time at SF State, where she changed her major and got involved in community organizing. A large influence in that shift was Curtis Choy's documentary, The Fall of the I-Hotel. Here's the trailer for that film: The Fall of the I-Hotel from Manilatown Media on Vimeo. FoundSF has more info on the story of the International Hotel eviction and demolition.
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
It's kinda fitting that this is the 80th episode overall for this podcast (49 in Season 1; 31 and counting in this current season, Season 2). Through all but one episode so far*, the intro and outro music has been by the subject of this episode. Joe Bagale moved to San Francisco from New York State in 2003. In Part 1, Joe talks about his life back east, which centered heavily around music. He tells the story of his first band, first show, first time to get paid to play music, and so much more. The podcast ends with Joe's truly unusual premise for moving here.
L–R: Jill Morrison, Lynn Wilkinson, Darryl Forman and Romo, Craig Smith, Dana Dawson, and Robert Pucci. Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Project Open Hand, which today feeds more than 2,500 sick and dying people, started in 1985 when Ruth Brinker made meals for her friends and neighbors who were "wasting" from AIDS. In Part 1, POH volunteer Dana Dawson takes us through that history, talking about how the operation that started in a residential home today serves healthy meals and groceries with the help of more than 125 volunteers like herself. The theft of a Picasso in Australia. A framing job by an old teacher. Cocaine shipments from South America. San Francisco cults in the 1970s. And someone playing the saxophone in the Panhandle on a random night in the early 1990s ... All of these things are involved in the story of why Mission Creek houseboat resident Margaret Casey came to San Francisco—and why she stayed. In Part 1, Margaret, who has owned her boat for a little more than eight years, shares all of these stories and describes the more savory characters around 16th Street and Valencia when she arrived in the city back in the day. Before he moved to the Bay Area in the late-1960s, Ron Turner spent his life in the San Joaquin Valley of California. In Part 1, Ron talks about various experiences he had around the valley, including time at Fresno State working on an underground newspaper where he exposed corruption at the Peace Corps and at the district attorney's office in Fresno. He moved to San Francisco to go to SF State, hung out at the Grateful Dead house, joined anti-war groups and participated in the student strike at SF State, and worked at various research labs before his life changed pretty dramatically. Born and raised in the Mission District, Rosie Ortiz learned to cook by watching her mother. In Part 1, Rosie, the owner of Mission Boricua, talks about San Francisco back in the day. She says that, over the years, her love of cooking evolved to the point where she found herself making more and more Puerto Rican dishes (Rosie is half-Puerto Rican herself). Before there was the ballpark where the Giants play ... before the elevated I-280 freeway ... before most of the northeastern half of what we call the Mission District ... before the Gold Rush, there was Mission Bay. It was fed by many sources, the biggest of which was Mission Creek, which flowed over waterfalls down from Twin Peaks, by Mission Dolores, and down into the bay. Today, all that's left of that creek is what some call McCovey Cove. But to the residents of a couple dozen houseboats, it's Mission Creek. In Part 1, houseboat residents Ginny Stearns and Bob Isaacson talk about founding many of the preservation groups that have worked with the government and developers to protect their little corner of the city. Bob and Ginny talk about moving to San Francisco, the various work they did before moving into their houseboat, and how the area around Mission Creek has changed dramatically. Bernadine Sewell has an alter ego: Pinky Winchester. When you meet this incredibly colorful woman, you know why. She and her daughter went through the La Cocina program and opened their restaurant, Pinky and Red's, in the Berkeley Student Union building last summer. Part 1 is Pinky's story of growing up in Detroit, moving to California, going through La Cocina, and opening her own business, which, it turns out, is only the second black-owned business on UC Berkeley's campus since 1868. Darnay McPherson likes to stress that, when he was a kid growing up in San Francisco's Fillmore neighborhood in the 1960s, "no one locked their doors and police officers walked the beat." It was even more than that for the generation of Darnay's parents—a vibrant area full of black-owned businesses and some of the best jazz clubs in the country. In this podcast, Darnay, who has lived his entire life in the Fillmore, talks about being a kid there, the community, the book Harlem of the West, musicians Bobby Webb, Roland Mitchell, Etta James, and Johnny Mathis, and more. Sidenote: We featured Darnay's daughter, Fernay McPherson, in Episode 14. We recorded this podcast in Hayes Valley in April 2019. Stephanie Smith grew up on the East Coast, but never felt like she fit in with the general mindset out there. When it came time for her to (reluctantly) go to college, she picked the University of San Francisco in large part because of where it is. In Part 1, Stephanie talks about moving to San Francisco, getting a degree in fine arts at USF, and then both pursuing getting her body covered in tattoos and becoming a tattoo artist. |