Musicians Joan Baez and Lila Downs took the stage at the Mission’s Brava Theater on Sunday and offered hundreds of people a roadmap for coping with uncertain times. In front of a packed house of about 360 people, Baez and Downs took questions from Chicana Latina Foundation Executive Director Olga Talamante as part of Voices of Resistance — a benefit...
HOMEY is returning to the Mission! After spending years tucked away in the upstairs space of a building in SoMa, the originally Mission-based nonprofit Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth is set to move into a Mission Street storefront. “Were coming back home,” said Executive Director Roberto Elegio Alfaro. He said the group, known as HOMEY, was told it...
This summer, Brava! For Women in the Arts will premiere one film and two plays as part of the theater’s Summer of Xicanas series. Two of the events examine Argentina’s Dirty War, a period in the 70s and 80s when the country’s military dictatorship persecuted tens of thousands suspected political opponents. The first is the film “Observando al Observador (Observing the Observer)”,...
A career in journalism and advocacy that spans half a century has not only equipped 82-year-old feminist icon Gloria Steinem with a trove of accomplishments and wisdom, but also with a disarming sense of humor. Despite the seriousness of her decades-long fight for women’s rights and gender equality, Steinem drew outbursts of laughter and applause from the some 400 people...
Think you know the Mission and its history? You might discover something new at the Brava Center for Theater and the Arts when El Son de la Misión re-opens for a two-night on Friday, Nov. 11. The show is a musical and theatrical exploration and expression of the history of the Mission, with a particular focus on activism through the...
In its 95 years, the San Francisco Community Music Center on Capp Street has weathered its fair share of changing times. Now, the center has commissioned an original music and dance performance called “El Son de la Misión,” to explore the neighborhood’s shifting culture and the transformations among local artistic movements – as well as to celebrate the center’s 95th...
The Brava Theater Center is planning a major renovation and expansion by the end of the year, and has just received a $200,000 grant from the Super Bowl 50 committee that brings it a step closer to reopening its long-shuttered storefronts along 24th Street. “For the Super Bowl Committee to acknowledge … the impact that Brava was having on the community and...
A star lineup of local Latino comedians invite you to ring in the new year at Brava Theater, where Marga Gomez, Lydia Popovich, Chris Storin, Monica Palacios, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, and Betty Pazmiño will put on the fourth annual New Year’s Eve Comedy Fiesta. Party-goers can expect raucous progressive humor from acclaimed comedians, followed by the opening of a lively dance floor, where...
Take one traditional nativity story. Swap Bethlehem for San Francisco, add two parts devil and henchman, one choir, a dash of Latin rhythm, and top with one piñata. Let the mixture mature, then enjoy one saucy, political holiday performance called La Posarela (a mashup of la posada and la pastorela, both traditional nativity stories). Both script writer Carlos Barón, who plays...
Featuring national headliners alongside local talent and up-and-coming acts, the 14-year old Sketchfest has grown from a showcase for Bay Area sketch comedy groups into an annual festival with diverse programming. Along with sketches and stand-up acts, this years lineup includes film screenings, live radio events, improv and interactive performances. Comic Harland Williams, who performed in five shows last weekend, explained,...
It’s been eight months since a high-heeled shoe strutted across the stage of Esta Noche. Known as San Francisco’s only Latino gay bar, open on Rondel and 16th Streets since 1981, the illustrious bar was a favorite hang out, a cultural institution, and a home away from home for many. It closed in May when new owners took over the...
On New Year’s Eve, three of the Bay Area’s funniest women will perform their signature brand of stand-up comedy at a benefit for the Brava Theater. Marga Gomez, named SF Weekly‘s “Best Comedian of 2012,” headlines the evening with guests Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, named by the Guardian’s reader polls as the “Best Comedian of 2013,” and Micia Mosley, a nationally touring...
The fundraiser tonight for leading cultural figures Rene Yañez and Yolanda Lopez, who are being evicted from the home they have lived in for 35 years, will bring together some of the icons of the Latino art and performance world including the Culture Clash, Guillermo Gomez-Peña and San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murgia. Yañez, who helped found the Mission Cultural Center for Latino...
Mission District business owners and residents voiced concerns last week regarding a new citywide initiative designed to improve neighborhood commercial districts in San Francisco. As part of Mayor Ed Lee’s 17-point economic plan, the Invest in Neighborhoods Initiative is a pilot program intended to improve 25 commercial districts throughout the city. The newly launched program will offer services ranging from...
From Brava Theater’s website: ‘Night Wakes Dawn’ is a musical, theatrical exploration of the beliefs and prophecies initiated by the Mayan culture surrounding December 21, 2012 and tells a story of how these larger spiritual beliefs and energies are reflected in the lives of families living in the Mission district today … Loco Bloco is a youth development organization with...
