A pandemic silver lining: Get vaxxed, get free college
It’s been more than a year of squeezing lemonade from pandemic lemons. Fortunately, vaccines have made the return to “normal” seem a little less imaginary, and city leaders are offering to turn some of those Covid-19 lemons into very lucrative lemonade for covid-vaccinated teenagers. That is, free college tuition.
Yes, your teen might be able to ditch the proverbial lemonade stand. San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and the San Francisco Unified School District announced this week that kids age 12 to 17, who live in San Francisco and received the covid vaccine, can enter to win a scholarship covering four years of undergraduate tuition at SF State. Eligible youth must register for the drawing at participating vaccination sites by Nov. 14. Learn more here.
And, for those teens actively applying to college, San Francisco Public Library is offering a college essay writing workshop. It is free and takes place virtually this Saturday, Oct. 23, at 9 a.m. Sign up here.
Do good through food
There’s college potential for your pupusas, happy hours, and dinner dates as well. Local nonprofit Mission Graduates is rebuilding “the path to college for 4,800 San Francisco youth & their families” and hosts an annual fundraiser, Food for Thought, to help reach this momentous aim. The city-wide event is especially important this year, the organization notes, since both education and the restaurant industry were hit hard during the pandemic. It is fairly simple to participate: go out to eat between Oct. 22 to 31 at Foreign Cinema, Mission Bowling Club or Panchita’s Pupuseria, make a gift directly to Mission Graduates, or raise donations for them independently. Start here.
Then there’s the burrito. On Monday at 4 p.m., Burrito Project SF needs help delivering burritos from Garfield Square Park to individuals living on the street around the city. You’ll need a bag that can hold at least 20 burritos. Sign up to help deliver burritos here.
Lit Crawl
In case you missed It, our data reporter Will Jarrett created an irresistibly fun, interactive map to help you plan your way through the highly anticipated finale of Litquake: Lit Crawl. Events take place in and around Mission Street on Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m.
Art gallery hopping
Fortunately, exhibitions and receptions abound in these parts, so it’s possible to have a unique gallery-hopping experience week to week. Our picks for this weekend include the Moctezuma exhibition at the Alley Cat Books gallery (3036 24th St.) where paintings, masks, print making, photography, Aztec dances, and a Day of the Dead altar are on view until Nov. 7.
Start off tonight with what promises to be a truly vulnerable experience. Two artists, Nathalie Fabri (of public art project The Mission Kiss) and Fabio Reis, have organized The Naked Truth of Arts campaign to raise awareness about artists’ struggles during the pandemic.
Images of artists with the illusion of nudity will be on display at ånålog gallery (886 Capp Street) from 5 to 8 p.m., with music and interactive elements. They have only met 30 percent of their fundraising goal, and contributions of $25 to $45 (or more!) can get you some nice illusory nude memorabilia.
Also tonight, Voss Gallery will hold its last opening reception of 2021 vis-a-vis “Mirage.” RSVP here for the New Contemporary paintings, sparkling wine, and an “artwork-inspired cocktail.”
On Saturday, a group show artists’ reception, “The Ties That Bind”, takes place at The Drawing Room (3260 23rd St.) from 4 to 8 p.m. It’s free, but RSVP here. A few blocks over, Southern Exposure (3030 20th St.) kicks off its 30th annual juried exhibition, “Interconnected,” with an opening reception from 5 to 8:30 p.m. This show features the work of 16 Bay Area-based artists with disabilities.
San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art presents ‘Yolanda López: Portrait of the Artist‘
In the city where she was born and raised, Yolanda López (1946-2021) is honored with a retrospective solo exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. López, a “pathbreaking Chicana artist and activist” known for her reimaginations of the Virgen de Guadalupe, moved to San Francisco after high school. The influential artist challenged colonialism, patriarchy, and the boundaries of Chicanx identity in her five decades long career. She died, of cancer, last month at 79.
This is the first solo exhibition for López, and it features a collection of her drawings, paintings, and collages from the 1970s and 1980s. The exhibition is free to the public and open through April, 2022.
History matters in the Mission: A community art stroll
Yolanda López’s memory is also honored this Saturday through Paseo Artístico: History Matters in the Mission, a “mini historic tour” in the form of a street procession. The event will move along 24th Street between York and Mission streets from noon to 6 p.m. Expect live music on a flatbed truck, street dancing, and giant puppets.
The radical street theater of 1960s SF Mime Troupe fame has also been updated for contemporary audiences, with augmented reality and mobile technology elements. A coterie of events and the El Tecolote archive bring to life the Mission District’s cultural, artistic, and political history. See the full schedule here, featuring the new docutheater performance “History Matters in the Mission.” The free event is a collaboration between Acción Latina, SFMOMA, Precita Eyes, Brava Theater, Community Music Center, Dance Mission, Adobe Books, and Mission Cultural Center.
The Mission is well-represented at the San Francisco International Arts Festival
The San Francisco International Arts Festival takes place this weekend, Oct. 23 and 24, at Upper Fort Mason, and features a smattering of Mission District talents. As Mission Local contributor Andrew Gilbert explained, the neighborhood has played an “outsized role as an incubator and showcase for global talent.”
Just around the corner …
Stay tuned for Halloween and Day of the Dead event roundups. In the meantime, the SOMArts Cultural Center hosts Illuminaciones, a Día de Los Muertos Drag Show on Friday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. Shotwell’s is hosting a Halloween Edition Trivia Night on Tuesday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts’ 35th annual Day of the Dead exhibit, “Ni Tanto Ni Tan Muertos” (“Neither So Much, Nor So Dead”) is on view at 2868 Mission St., but save the date for the opening reception on Nov. 2.
Very glad to learn that Yolanda López will be honored with a retrospective solo exhibition at SDMoCA.