Free Events (donations welcomed)

March 12 Peoples from the Arab World have been migrating to San Francisco for over a hundred years. The earliest were mostly from the Levant: Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine; and also Yemen. Most recent immigrants coming from North Africa’s Magrib region (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) and Iraq since the first Gulf War. Why did they come here? How have they affected SF life? What are their ongoing connections to “homelands” across the world? San Francisco, being a liberal progressive

February 20 Eric Drooker’s art has provided iconic imagery for countless political initiatives, as well as showing up on covers of the New Yorker, and in a number of gorgeous graphic novels. His slide show and talk is one of the best of its type. Don’t miss it!

February 13 Community based public art spaces are stuck between business-like survival and serving their communities. Hear veterans of San Francisco’s Space Wars discuss how they’ve navigated the repressive dynamics of real estate, money, and power to hold open spaces for diverse communities to meet, talk, make art, and shape life. Jonathan Youtt (Cellspace), Robin Balliger (Komotion), Michael Med-o Whitson (848 and CounterPULSE). podcast: http://diva.sfsu.edu/users/Chris.Carlsson/ssf_talks?podcast=31

January 30 The Golden Gate National Recreation Area sustains more federally threatened and endangered species than Yosemite, Yellowstone, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks combined. The San Francisco Bay Area is considered the 6th most important biological diversity hotspot in the United States by the Nature Conservancy. UNESCO has even granted the GGNRA “Biosphere Reserve” status, the same status granted to the Central Amazon rainforests. Come and learn about the amazing biodiversity in your own backyard! Brent Plater and Peter

January 16 Schoultz’s distinctive murals full of strange animals, twisting buildings and floating birdhouses caught the angst of modern life. Lately he’s gone to a surrealistic sea and we’ll get a full look at his work and hear what he says about it tonight. podcast: http://diva.sfsu.edu/users/Chris.Carlsson/ssf_talks?podcast=21

January 9, 2008 What does ‘class’ or ‘community’ mean? How does the newbie Midwesterner serving burgers at a Castro street diner relate to the landlord and shop owner ‘Gay Community’ spokesmen? How do the schisms between different classes of women, whether lesbian or bi or undefined, show up in daily life and local politics (or not)? How does fear of gender bending impact trans and intersexed people when it comes to paying the rent? Solidad de Costa, Keith Hennessy, and

December 12 Newsrooms are hamstrung by the business practices of Wall Street and Big Media, even as newspaper circulation declines and TV news continues the race to the bottom. Both the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News recently laid off large portions of their newsroom staff. The Internet is vulnerable to the same marketplace compromises. Explore alternative business models to ensure journalism remains a lively piece of our civic life. Barry Parr (Coastsider.com, Mercury Center founder), Michael Stoll

November 28 Our food system is being refashioned by new urban farmers, farmers markets and community-supported agriculture, and importantly, by savvy shoppers who demand local, organic and safe food. Still, food security is tenuous for too many of our neighbors. Amy Franceschini (Victory Gardens, past and present), Willow Rosenthal (City Slicker Farms), Jason Mark (Alemany Farm, and editor of Earth Island Journal) podcast: http://diva.sfsu.edu/users/Chris.Carlsson/ssf_talks?podcast=16

November 14 With Mayor Newsom trying to give away the city’s wi-fi space to a corporate consortium, efforts by Bechtel and other private contractors to take over our public water system, the ongoing scandal of PG&E selling us our own “public” power and their current efforts to take over alternative power, incessant pressure to privatize the public schools, a national culture that blindly accepts corporate interests as preferable to public interests, we’ll talk about how the San Francisco Bay Area

October 24 What are the historic roots of our current ecological politics, how have they shaped today’s environment and the questions we face now? Open space, biodiversity, global warming, fresh water, street design and transit choices, urban farming... local historian Dick Walker (“The City in the Country”), Kearstin Krehbiel (SF Parks Trust), Peter Brastow (Nature in the City), Keirstin Dischinger (Bike Kitchen) podcast: http://diva.sfsu.edu/users/Chris.Carlsson/ssf_talks?podcast=13

October 17 Hugh will present a slideshow of his diverse body of work, ranging from rock posters to anti-war flyers to original paintings, and talk about the ways his politics have informed his art—and vice versa. (http://www.hughillustration.com/) podcast: http://diva.sfsu.edu/users/Chris.Carlsson/ssf_talks?podcast=12