Since last week’s column mentioning La Doña’s new single (the video dropped last week, too) I’ve been thinking about the ways that murals both bear witness to the Mission’s history and celebrate our artists, activists and quintessential residents. Sometimes a mural even sets a new chain of events in action, like when Jose Santana performed at the October 2021 unveiling of Mark Bode’s Familia Santana mural at the 24th Street BART plaza.
The nephew of Mission icon and Rock & Roll Hall-of-Famer Carlos Santana, he hadn’t had a chance to perform around his uncle. But after delivering an incendiary version of “Once Upon A Time in the Mission” at the dedication ceremony, he promptly received a text from Carlos’s wife, drummer Cindy Blackman Santana. “She wrote, ‘You’re badass. We’re going to do some things,’” he said “My uncle has always known I’ve done music, but never seen me live.”
Over the next year, he created the song “Energia,” a piece celebrating the creative energy coursing through the Mission. Jose recruited his cousin, Carlos’s son, Salvador Santana, who collaborated on the track, rapping in Spanish. They created a video produced by David Richardson and Julio “GoldToes” Sanchez, filmed partly at the Mission Carnival celebration with Orlando Torriente and Piero Infante. When Jose sent it off to his uncle, “he responded, ‘I love this. I’ll see you on Monday,’” Jose said. “He booked the studio session in Las Vegas, where he was doing the House of Blues residency.”
The end result was a smokin’ Santana family confab, with Carlos contributing a trademark guitar solo in the middle of the piece. In many ways the track honors his parents, who migrated from Mexico in the 1950s and met at La Palma, where his father was working, and his namesake grandfather, the great mariachi musician José Santana, the patriarch of the musical Santana clan who settled in the Mission.
“Even when my parents moved us over to Daly City, we were over there every weekend, shopping, visiting family, and hanging out,” said Jose, who performs at Roccapulco Sept. 9 as part of the venue’s Fight Night boxing program.
For Jose, the fact that “Energia” evolved out of the Familia Santana mural dedication makes it particularly sweet. “It was such a magical and humbling moment to know that my family made a positive impact on such a culturally Latino area,” he said. “My dad was the first one who came over, and he came back to get Carlos and everyone, including my grandfather, who bought me my first mariachi outfit as a kid. At the unveiling Salvador said, ‘You can’t say the Mission without saying the Santana family, and can’t say the Santana family without saying the Mission.’”
‘Home is a Hotel’ at the Roxie
Finding a home in San Francisco has become the defining challenge of the era. The Roxie presents the theatrical San Francisco premiere of the documentary “Home Is a Hotel” Thursday at 6:30 p.m., with film subjects and the filmmakers Kevin Duncan Wong, Todd Sills and Kar Yin Tham on hand for a post-screening Q&A. Winner of Documentary Feature Award and Audience Award at the 2023 SFFILM Festival, the documentary investigates the lives of people trying to hold on to their diminutive digs in SRO hotel rooms.
Karina Deniké at the Rite Spot
Some of the region’s finest musicians are holding on to long-running gigs, like powerhouse vocalist Karina Deniké and keyboardist Michael Makintosh, who continue their third Wednesday of the month residency at the Rite Spot. She’s a spectacular singer with a deep book of standards, originals and far-flung tunes she has collected as a torch-song chanteuse, soul-belter and punk-rocker. The show starts 7ish.
David Boyce at Medicine for Nightmares
If you’re feeling instrumentally adventurous, saxophonist David Boyce returns to his weekly haunts at Medicine For Nightmares Friday, joined by Nader on modular synth. And the new music organization Other Minds presents the 20th edition of its performance series Latitudes on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church. The double bill features New Haven-based composer and violinist Austin Larkin, who “focuses on elements of tone within the interstices of fields, asymmetries, and patterns,” and the duo of interdisciplinary artist Jean Carla Rodea, who ranges across music, sound, poetry, vocal performance and performance art, photography, video, movement, and sculpture, and drum great Gerald Cleaver, who relocated from New York City to San Francisco a few years ago to take a faculty position at the California Jazz Conservatory. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
ODC Theatre
When it comes to dance, the Mission continues to offer a surfeit of intriguing possibilities. At ODC Theatre, the contemporary San Francisco dance company FACT/SF, founded in 2008 by Artistic Director Charles Slender-White, kicks off its two-weekend summer dance festival Aug. 18-20 with the company’s PORT (Peer-Organized Reciprocal Touring) program. The double bill pairs Portland, Oregon-based Shaun Keylock Company presenting two works, and FACT/SF premiering Pivot, a new trio created collaboratively by LizAnne Roman Roberts, Keanu Brady, and Katherine Neumann.
The shared evening embodies PORT’s mission to build an inter-regional creative community and foster the exchange of ideas. And City Dance presents a burst of Summer Performance Workshop pieces Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The theme is Summer of Love, which seems apt, as the shows take place in the school’s warehouse performance space at 60 Brady Street, which formerly housed Pacific High Recording (the recording studio once favored by The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service). The shows include pieces choreographed and directed by City Dance instructors such as Alice Park, Chris Martin, Dillon Nguyen, Eddie Mina, Jeric Peregrino, and Julianna Cressman.
More activities and events this week:
Wednesday, Aug. 16:
- Film Screening “The Heart of Access” at 8 p.m. (free)
Thursday, Aug. 17:
- Hatha Yoga Class, 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Mission Cultural Center (donation)
- Youth Screen Printing, 5 to 7 p.m. at Mission Cultural Center (free)
- Danza Azteca, 7 to 9 p.m. at Mission Cultural Center (free)
- Jazz at Muriel Leff Mini Park, 5 to 7 p.m. (free)
- Spirit Transfer II at Mothership (3152 Mission St.), 8 p.m. to midnight (free)
Friday, Aug. 18:
- XO BABY Video Single Release Party, 7 p.m. at Brava ($15)
- Sundown Cinema: “Mamma Mia” (Sing-Along) at Dolores Park, from 6 to 11 p.m. (free)
- BLITZED: A night of House + HipHop at Mothership (3152 Mission St.), from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. (free)
- Back to School with Calle 24 at 6 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 19:
- Excelsior Block Party between Mission and Paris streets from noon to 5 p.m.
- SF’s New Pizza, Bagel and Beer Festival at 1630 Stockton St., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ($75)
Sunday, Aug. 20:
- New Threads Reading Series at Brava, 7 p.m. (free, but registration recommended)
- Stern Grove Festival at Sigmund Stern Grove, 2 to 5 p.m. (free, but ticket required)