Nothing says “celebrating death” better than enjoying an evening of locally crafted goods, calavera face painting and a glass (or, two) of happy hour wine. This Saturday, get yourself primed for one of San Francisco’s most celebrated Día de los Muertos parade, by hitting up La Movida Wine Bar & Community Kitchen‘s pop-up shop.
La Movida’s pop-up shop, from 2 p.m. – 5 p.m., will feature seven local artists, wine and dinner (dinner menu starts at 5:30 p.m.). Wanna get your calavera face painting on? Just ask artist Kimberly Malachowski, who will be there paint-prepping guests for the Día de los Muertos parade at 7 p.m.
Featured designers will include:
Clare M. Myers, Scout’s Honor Clothing Co.
Diana Mitchell, DDCC
Julie Arvan, Nesting Days
Kimbery Malachowski, K. Mala Designs
Katie Marston, Katie Wood Jewelry
Lirany Vasquez, Pretty Little Thing jewelry
Stephanie Echeveste, Etxe
PopUp Shop + Calavera Face Painting
Saturday, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
La Movida Wine Bar
3066 24th Street
(415) 282-3066
Dia de los Muertos in the Mission is a culturally specific event, about honoring and respecting our beloved dead; rooted in the cultural traditions of Mexico. Not a “celebration” as in hipster party, and not halloween. The annual procession is just that, a *procession* to honor and respect our beloved dead. It is *not* a “parade.”
Why would you promote an event as a part of Dia de Los Muertos at the venue that painted over magnificent murals, in blatant disrespect for the Latino part of the neighborhood?!? Disrespect? Arrogance? Ignorance?
The Mission celebrates the day of this culturally specific event at Galeria de la Raza from noon to 7. The Marina, Noe Valley, most of the rest of the city is available for those of you who just want an excuse for a party.
Galeria de la Raza, 24th & Bryant
Daytime Program: sugar skull workshops, artist bazaar, facepainting and screenprinting
Saturday, November 2
12pm-7pm
Last Call: join The Sugar Skull Gallery at Galería de la Raza through this Saturday, November 2 for all your sugar skull decorating workshop and supplies needs! The last three days for this annual workshop are Thursday through Saturday this week, with extended hours on Saturday for the celebration. Workshops are led by founder Michele Simons, a long-time San Francisco resident and artist. This year marks five years of The Sugar Skull Gallery in operation – join Simons in creating these fantastic, sweet characters and sharing a passion and expertise with the community. Workshops fee: $10 for adults and $5 children, and includes all materials and decorating supplies.
In Studio 24, Galería presents artists Raul Aguilar, Emmanuel Montoya and Martha Rodriguez featuring an array of Día de los Muertos-inspired wares, jewelry, paintings, apparel, and more for sale. The artists will be on-site in addition to Adrien Segal, who is a professional artist based in Oakland and will be doing calaca face painting starting at 3pm. Sittings are $10-$15 sliding scale, depending on design and are on a drop-in basis.
Lastly, a free screenprinting demo will be led by Dennis Maxwell lead artist of Galería’s current billboard titled Funeral Procession for the Death of the Mission. “The Mission is suffering. The forced displacement that many families and residents of this neighborhood are going through has reached a critical level. These families have not only lived here for many years but have also contributed the formation of the identity of our neighborhood. Today, this identity is being attacked by corporate developers and speculators and new residents, who arrive ready to pay ridiculous sums of money for rent and the purchase of a home.” Join Maxwell between 5pm-7pm in front of the current billboard (off of Bryant Street) and bring a favorite clothing item to be screenprinted.
I would be surprised if the dead make such distinctions
Now this made me laugh out loud. In my wildly mixed family of Irish, Mexican, American Indian, and French Canadian ancestors, it’s my Gaelic-speaking Grandma who’d most likely whack you with her shillelagh for such blasphemy. For many people, from a mix of cultures and spiritual traditions, from western Europe, eastern Europe, Asia, India, Africa, Central American, Australia, South America, North America, there are a goodly number of people who believe sincerely that “the dead” *do* care. And people from most of those places can be found right here in the Mission.You don’t have to believe someone else’s beliefs in order to respect them.
You’re not that wildly mixed, tessa. Just sayin’.
No, seriously tessa. You’re not that mixed. Why you take that as an insult is beyond me. But yeah, you’re just half white half Mexican. A wilder mix would be something like Turkish+Japanese+Brazilian. Yours is pretty standard. Just sayin’.
Oh my. You do realize the moniker is a nom de guerre?! Please *talk* with whatever friend you decided this was; apologize to her or him.
On the other hand, the younger people here say when a stranger appears on these sites and feels entitled to insult one’s person or family, that’s a troll intent on obstructing meaningful discussion. . . and the rule is never to engage with such beings; just go away and have discussions somewhere else. d*mn.
Hi Tessa – those are all really valid points, and thank you for bringing it to everyone’s attention. In my culture there is no such day for celebrating the dead, and I always appreciate that Dia de los Muertos reminds me to remember those who are not longer around. Walking by the alters at night is a very humbling and spiritual feeling that I think a lot of non-Mexicans can appreciate and partake in.
The Pop-Up at La Movida is mainly composed of small, women-owned businesses – members of this community. Most of the traffic to the event will be friends and customers, who we invite. The great thing about this is that people who had no idea Dia de los Muertos was going on will have a chance to observe this in a respectful way, and hopefully attend and support one of the other activities you listed above.
I’m sorry if we offended you in any way, and I hope you know that our intent is to respect, not benefit, from the holiday.
I’m going to take you at your word that you’re sincere in wanting to be respectful of your new neighborhood, and take the time to respond. This is really interesting: You introduce your friends to the cultural tradition of dia de los muertos by selling them stuff, and selling them alcohol? Does your culture use funerals or memorial gatherings as entrepreneurial opportunities? Did you ever even take a minute to think this through? What you’re doing is piggybacking on another culture’s traditions, and a 40 year tradition in this particular neighborhood, in order to sell stuff. And to sell alcohol. Around an event (procession, and altar installations) that is specifically “no alcohol or drugs.” It’s called cultural appropriation. It’s worth educating ourselves about.
Suggesting that disrespect or cultural appropriation is somehow OK because you’re small businesses, or women, insults both women and small businesses. Maybe you’d re-think using that argument.
Ordinarily, this shopping opportunity wouldn’t rate more than half an eyeball roll and a dismissively muttered “*ssholes” before getting on with real life. But add to it the venue; the name on your advertising. . . on this specific day, around this specific event: the venue that painted over magnificent murals even in the face of wide community opposition, that posted racist comments on the their facebook page with photos of toy luchadoros, that opened another bar in a neighborhood that’s spent decades working to limit the plague of alcohol in our community and that already has enough bars.If you’re serious about being a part of the community here, choosing that venue set you back a long way.
Its just one day a year, in one tiny little corner of one neighborhood in a good sized city. Put away your booze, and sales pitches, and ponder showing some respect for your dead and your ancestors. If you need to invite your friends, then invite them to bring items of remembrance to place on an altar. Feed them without charging them. Sit down and talk about how you’d craft a “tradition” for yourselves, if your own background has none. Make your own altar. It’s never too late to expand your own personal traditions around death, loss, those who’ve gone before us. And if you can’t do that for just one day, then go sell stuff and drink and party in some other neighborhood for that one day.
If you’re serious about being a positive part of the community, you might try learning about the history of this place, and making alliances with the community that’s already here, then figure out how you can fit in and add something to that. Disassociating yourself from that venue would be a good start. Quickly off the top of my head, there’s a used bookstore just up the street with performance/gathering space in the back. Red Poppy has a gathering space and the respect of the neighborhood. L’s caffe has a wine license, and might be amenable to hosting an event. I think Adobe has gathering space. Galeria de la Raza can be rented, although not on a Mexican holiday. Try making alliances with, and learning from, venues that have been good neighbors here. Avoid the ones who refuse to seat brown-skinned people.
All Souls’ Day is not limited to Latino culture. Perhaps some of the people you’re bemoaning as hipsters are in reality Catholics honoring their loved ones.
This comment is just silly. Dia de los Muertos is *not* the catholic All Souls Day. They are two entirely different events. Both welcome *respectful* participation by everyone with an interest.
For the three decades I’ve participated in Dia de los Muertos in the Mission district of SF, every year the same issues of disrespect arise to a larger or lesser degree. The latest incarnation of younger mainstream people ignorant of the culture behind these traditions come in and disrespect it in one way or another. Loaded and drunk at an alcohol free event. Clueless leftists carrying protest signs for the cause de jour.[Causes that most of us agreed with or worked on; but not appropriate to a funeral procession.] Mainstream entitled idiots using the event as a latin-themed halloween party for themselves. I suspect that if I chose to “party” and “parade” through your catholic service, you’d probably be deeply (and rightfully) offended.
Taken from the Wiki on All Souls’ Day, “Many of these European traditions reflect the dogma of purgatory. For example, ringing bells for the dead was believed to comfort them in their cleansing there, while the sharing of soul cakes with the poor helped to buy the dead a bit of respite from the suffering of purgatory. In the same way, lighting candles was meant to kindle a light for the dead souls languishing in the darkness. Out of this grew the traditions of “going souling” and the baking of special types of bread or cakes.” They are very similar events, so my comment is not silly at all. It is hard to deny that the Latino event was heavily influenced by the Catholics.
Cultures evolve and it sounds like a lot of people are fighting it tooth and nail instead of encouraging the new residents to be part of the fabric of the neighborhood.