MARCH 7, 2019 edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 49 • No. 10 • March 7-13, 2019

Zoning fix eyed for Castro vacancies Liz Highleyman

Dr. Ravindra Gupta speaking Tuesday.

HIV case may be a second cure by Liz Highleyman

by Matthew S. Bajko

London man with long-term undetectable HIV despite stopping antiretroviral treatment a year and a half ago could potentially be the second case of an HIV cure, according to a report at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections this week in Seattle. Like the first, and only, person known to be cured – former San Francisco resident Timothy Ray Brown, dubbed the “Berlin Patient” – the London man underwent a bone marrow trans-

rt studios, nonprofit offices, and restaurants serving wine and beer would find it easier to open along upper Market Street in San Francisco’s gay Castro district under zoning changes being proposed by District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. At the same time walk-in medical clinics would find it harder to open their doors. See page 15 >>

The corner storefront in the 2175 Market Street housing development has been vacant since opening in 2014.

See page 4 >>

Rickleffs guilty of murder by Alex Madison

ames Rickleffs was found guilty of first-degree murder March 4 by a San Francisco Superior Court jury for the killing of gay man Steven “Eriq” Escalon, 28, after just one and a half Courtesy SFPD days of deliberation. Convicted murderer The jury also James Rickleffs found Rickleffs, 52, guilty of first-degree residential robbery, one count first-degree burglary, and petty theft. As Judge Gerardo Sandoval read the verdict, Escalon’s family, who has attended the entire sixweek trial, could audibly be heard crying. “Eriq got justice. Eriq got justice, that’s for sure,” Escalon’s mother, Esmeralda Escalon, told the Bay Area Reporter outside the courtroom after the verdict. She has previously described her son as a “beautiful soul” and “friendly, loving, outgoing, and generous.” See page 4 >>

Rick Gerharter

2 arrested in torture death of man by Alex Madison

an Francisco police have arrested two people in connection with the torture death of George Randall-Saldivar, who was the adopted son of two gay dads. Randall-Saldivar, 23, was allegedly tortured, killed, and his body found stuffed in a suitcase floating in San Francisco bay February 18, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Two people, Gerald Rowe, 47, and Angel Anderson, 36, both of San Francisco, were arrested last month in connection with Randall-Saldivar’s death. Rowe was arrested February 21 at his apartment at 1272 Market Street, where the killing is said to have occurred, and is currently in custody. He pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, conspiracy, false imprisonment, and kidnapping, Wednesday, February 27. Anderson, aka David Anderson, confessed to participating in the killing while in custody at the Sacramento County Jail, according to a SFPD news release. Police have not released what Anderson was in custody for and have not responded to an inquiry on if she identifies as transgender. Anderson is also facing charges of murder, conspiracy, false imprisonment, and kidnapping. During her confession, she allegedly attempted to clear Rowe of any wrongdoing, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. Randall-Saldivar’s body was found floating

Rick Gerharter

George Randall-Saldivar, center, shown with his dads, Mark Randall, left, and Chris Saldivar in 2006, was killed last month in San Francisco. Police have arrested two people in the case.

near Pier 39 along the Embarcadero. An investigation began after the medical examiner determined his death to be a homicide. Police recovered surveillance video from Rowe’s apartment that allegedly captured the murder. Between February 3-5, according to court

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documents, the video shows both defendants and the victim having consensual sex in Rowe’s apartment. Then, Rowe leaves and re-enters the room while Anderson and Randall-Saldivar converse in front of the door. The victim then sits down in a chair and has his hands tied behind his back by Anderson. Both defendants “make a noose and put the noose over the victim’s neck,” according to court documents. The rope is then elevated above an unknown object in the room and pulled on at various times by the defendants. A bag was then put over the victim’s head and Anderson “administers a narcotic (possibly fentanyl) with a syringe to victim,” the documents state. After the victim collapses, the defendants place him on the bed and “begin to slap” him. Anderson is then seen getting a suitcase from the closet. She stuffs Randall-Saldivar inside and eventually seals the suitcase in plastic. “Defendant Rowe then eats junk food and plays his guitar over the suitcase,” states the court documents. The suitcase is kept in the room for a day as the defendants go about their business. On February 5 at around approximately 2:30 a.m., Anderson and Rowe are captured on video rolling the suitcase down Market Street, court documents state. The court has ordered Rowe to have a psychological evaluation. He is being held without bail. See page 14 >>

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2 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

EARLY SPACE RESERVATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED

Concord LGBT center explains restructuring plans by Matthew S. Bajko

board. But Carlson did not respond to an interontra Costa County’s view request. LGBT community Carlson took responsicenter has no plans to tembility for the lack of comporarily shut down as it remunication in the days structures its staff, remodels following the staff firings its building, and launches a in the interview this week. new housing program for He told the B.A.R. that he youth at risk of homelesshad been focused on exCourtesy Twitter ness, according to leaders of Rainbow Commu- plaining to the remaining the facility in Concord. nity Center board center staff the restructurThe Rainbow Com- President Ken ing plan. munity Center last week Carlson “I had a press release issued two statements in and announcement ready an effort to inform clients, to go. I flat-out dropped donors, and East Bay officials of the the ball,” said Carlson, a Pleasant Hill changes underway. It was the first city councilman who’s been president time the center had publicly detailed of the center’s board since November its restructuring plans since it fired the 2015. “I didn’t anticipate as high a majority of its behavioral health and level of disruption to the current staff clinical staff and its food pantry manthat remained.” ager Friday, February 22. Hours after the B.A.R.’s story was “We are not going to shut down at posted online last Wednesday, the all,” board President Ken Carlson told center released the first of its two the Bay Area Reporter in an interview statements about the restructuring it Monday. “The staff working on the is undertaking. It said that the plan remodeling of the service center and had been under discussion for the community space is doing that on off last two years and that there would be hours.” “minimal disruption to clinical supAs the B.A.R. reported last week, port” and that the center’s “current the staff firings raised questions about caseload is a priority.” the future of the center’s counseling However, the release also disclosed services and the tenure of its executhat the center, located at 2118 Willow tive director, Kevin McAllister, who Pass Road in downtown Concord, was hired last June. As rumors swirled would be limiting its services while of his imminent resignation, McAlpreparing for new programming. Its lister declined to discuss the staffing food pantry would be one of the prochanges in detail when reached by the See page 3 >> B.A.R. and referred questions to the

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Former Maitri ED back at the helm by Alex Madison

ichael Smithwick, the former executive director of Maitri Compassionate Care, has stepped back into the role on an interim basis following the departure of Anne Gimbel, the agency’s first female leader. Smithwick, a gay man, previously ran Maitri from 2011 to 2016. Maitri, located in the Castro, has not publicly announced the reason behind Gimbel’s departure on its website or social media channels. The organization sent out an email to supporters Monday, March 4, announcing Smithwick’s return with no mention of Gimbel. “We would like to welcome Michael Smithwick back to Maitri as our interim executive director. Michael has providentially come out of retirement to assume the role that he ably held for six years from 2011 to 2017. He has already hit the ground running and looks forward to connecting with all of Maitri’s wonderful supporters and community partners in the next couple of months,” stated the email. Neither Gimbel nor Smithwick have responded to requests for comment from the Bay Area Reporter. When the B.A.R. interviewed Gimbel over the phone in January about Maitri’s building’s newest tenants, CorePower Yoga and the Castro Animal Hospital, she did not indicate she was planning to leave her position. Prior to joining Maitri, Gimbel had been the regional director of the Alzheimer’s Association of Coachella Valley for five years. She’s also a licensed marriage and family therapist. Maitri, which provides 24-hour care to low-income men and women with advanced AIDS needing hospice

Jane Philomen Cleland

Michael Smithwick

or short-term medical stabilization, has had a bit of a turnover when it comes to its executive directors. When Smithwick initially announced his retirement August 5, 2016, Michael Sorensen took over as executive director in December that same year. He had most recently served as the executive director of health centers at the National University of National Medicine in Portland, Oregon. Sorenson announced, in a Maitri news release, just six months later in June 2016 that he was leaving for “personal reasons” as the B.A.R. previously reported. When Sorensen left, Bill Musick took over as interim executive director of Maitri for about five months until Gimbel’s arrival. Musick was the previous longtime executive director at the agency. At the time Smithwick announced his retirement he said in a statement that he was looking forward to spending more time with his partner of 23 years and his aging parents. In the email sent out to supporters, the Maitri board of directors stated that, “The search for a permanent executive director will commence very soon.” t

Community News>>

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

Guerneville mops up after flood damage by Charlie Wagner

uerneville residents and businesses are mopping up after one of the worst floods in years. Meanwhile, reservations at some popular resorts have been canceled until late spring. Traffic began flowing through the recovering resort town beginning late last week, after a county evacuation order was lifted by local officials once the river receded back below flood stage (32 feet). Almost six inches of rain fell in Guerneville beginning around 4 p.m. February 25 and into the following day, signaling to residents that this was going to be more destructive than the flood two weeks earlier. The rain was caused by an atmospheric river that stalled over the North Bay, instead of moving through the area as storms usually do. The February 14 flood, nicknamed by locals the Valentine’s Day flood, was forecast to reach 46 feet but actually reached 38.5 feet and damaged few structures severely. In contrast, last week’s flood reached 45.5 feet, caused damage throughout the Bay Area, and resulted in Governor Gavin Newsom declaring a state of emergency in five coun-

Charlie Wagner

Stumptown Nursery on River Road east of downtown Guerneville sits in water last Friday after suffering severe damage from the flood.

ties February 28. Most of the flooding was along the Russian River and its tributaries. Guerneville, Forestville, and Monte Rio were especially hard hit. As of March 2, Sonoma County’s Emergency Response Office had estimated $155 million in damages, impacting 578 commercial properties and 1,900 homes, with major damage to 1,750. No injuries or deaths were reported, however, in Sonoma County. Federal grants have helped residents raise over 300 houses and, since

had zoomed into the danger zone, he asked his landlord what he should do. “He said move everything out,” Fisher recalled, and his landlord offered him the use of vacant space on the second floor of his building. “We moved everything not attached upstairs,” he said. That preparation “added a little bit of normalcy to what I’m going See page 14 >>

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restructuring.” When the B.A.R. stopped by the center Monday evening, a staff person said McAllister had taken sevgrams disrupted by the reorganizaeral days off but would return later tion, according to the release, but its in the week. Carlson told the B.A.R. mental health counseling, training, that McAllister has the full support HIV testing, and “limited youth serof the board and that it wants him vices” would still operate. to remain as executive director and In the interview this week Carlson oversee the restructuring plan. He said the center is reevaluating its food noted that, since McAllister came program, which includes an on-site on board, he has helped double the pantry where people can get grocercenter’s budget to nearly $2 million. ies and home delivered meals, to see “We don’t want him to leave,” how it can best meet the community’s said Carlson. “He has the skills and nutrition needs. talents about raising money and un“We are going to see to those clients derstanding the needs of the comwe are seeing,” he said. munity. He has taken our strategic After the center’s initial statement plan to heart and wants to impleraised more questions, it sent the ment it.” B.A.R. a second advisory last Friday Over the last two weeks, includdisclosing it had hired a new youth ing at the center’s annual crab feed housing director to help “youth disfundraiser last Saturday, Carlson placed by families and traditional suphas had numerous conversations port networks based on their identity.” with those upset about the staff firThe center also disclosed it had ings. He has also worked to address hired a licensed clinical psycholoconcerns that financial issues were gist with 18 years of mental health behind the decision. experience to manage its “School “I think a lot of the fears have Based Counseling” program. The been quelled by having those conperson will also oversee the center’s versations,” said Carlson, adding mental health and clinical services that, “A few people did ask questions on an interim basis, according to UC the San Francisco Health is a ofhow we did it. That is or part didn’t like statement. the All of Us Research Program, from OK. I think, overall, I want people “Rainbow is absolutely committed to know we are not going anywhere. the continuityInstitutes of care providedof to Health. thetoNational Or people assumed it was financial our clients,” stated McAllister. “We The goal of All of Us is to help and we are in financial trouble. We are also committed to providing for researchers about reassured them it is not the case.” t the support andunderstand needs or our clinicalmore whystaff, people sick orthe stay healthy. interns andget trainees during

1995, the county has issued over 700 permits in all for lifting houses. But as West County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins noted, some of the most affordable housing is in the floodplain. Guerneville’s naturally elevated Main Street stayed mostly dry, as did the businesses on either side of the street. While some shops on the river

side of Main took in small amounts of water, damaging their floors, none reported any loss of merchandise or supplies. Safeway was not flooded, though the parking lot took on water. But just a block away, the story was visibly different. Berlin Fisher, 52, is a gay man and the owner of West Sonoma Style Bar on Third Street, a mere block inland from Main. His shop has special importance for him because, he said, “I built the salon myself.” He opened in January 2016 and witnessed his first flood that same month. That flood reached only 39 feet, however, and his business escaped the high water. Last week he was not as fortunate. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website (www.cnrfc.noaa.gov) maintains a website that forecasts the level of the Russian River at Guerneville, and it is continuously updated. When Fisher came to work last Tuesday and saw the NOAA forecast

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<< From the Cover

4 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

HIV cure

From page 1

plant to treat advanced cancer. Both men received stem cells from donors with an uncommon gene mutation known as CCR5-delta-32 that makes T cells resistant to most HIV. This case shows that “the Berlin Patient was not an anomaly,” said presenter Dr. Ravindra Gupta of University College London. Gupta was cautious about using the word “cure” yet, noting that the man’s HIV viral load could still rebound. He suggested that two or three years without detectable virus would be enough time to speak of a cure, saying he was “highly confident this will be achieved.” Brown, who celebrated 12 years free of HIV at a community cure

Rickleffs guilty

From page 1

It’s been six and a half years since Escalon, a hair stylist, was found dead on his bed June 12, 2012 in his Diamond Heights apartment. He was bound at his feet, hands, and torso. He was also gagged with a piece of cloth that smelt strongly of amyl nitrates, commonly known as poppers, according to the medical examiner’s report. It was concluded by the medical examiner that Escalon died of an overdose of a

workshop prior to the conference, said he’s happy that another person may finally join him. “I think it’s getting close to something that should be called a cure,” he told the Bay Area Reporter. “It’s great to have an addition to my family – I consider him my sibling and I can’t wait to meet him.” The London patient, who remains anonymous, underwent a stem cell transplant in May 2016 to treat Hodgkin lymphoma. Doctors searched an international registry to find a donor with a double CCR5-delta-32 mutation who was a good enough match. Unlike Brown, the man received milder chemotherapy and did not undergo whole-body radiation to completely kill off his cancerous immune cells. After the transplant, the man’s lymphoma went into remission and he

experienced mild graft-versus-host disease, where the donor immune cells attack the recipient’s body. Tests show that his CD4 T cells now lack the CCR5 receptors most types of HIV use to enter these cells. Extensive testing of his blood and T cells revealed undetectable HIV. The man stopped antiretroviral therapy in a carefully monitored analytic treatment interruption 16 months after the transplant. His viral load remains undetectable 18 months later, Gupta reported, and his T cells show no “reactivatable” virus. The patient has not yet undergone testing for residual HIV in his gut, brain, or other tissues. The new case suggests that using stem cells with the CCR5-delta-32 mutation was a key factor, as prior attempts to stop antiretroviral therapy after trans-

plants from donors with normal CCR5 genes were less successful. At the 2014 CROI, Dr. Timothy Henrich of UCSF reported that two HIV-positive cancer patients who stopped antiretrovirals after receiving non-mutated stem cells maintained undetectable HIV longer than expected – for three and eight months – but eventually their virus rebounded. Henrich told the B.A.R. he thinks the London man will represent a second cure. “It looks like it will be a second permanent HIV remission very similar to Timothy Ray Brown’s,” he said. “There’s always a small chance that virus could come back, but I think that most of us are optimistic that will not happen. In our study we saw a prolonged rebound time – suggesting that the transplant itself can reduce

the burden of HIV – but adding cells that are resistant makes the difference to go the whole hundred yards.” If the London case does turn out to be a second cure, experts caution that this high-risk approach will not be an option for most people with HIV. Stem cell transplantation is life threatening, with a mortality rate as high as 25 percent, and Brown was left with lasting side effects. “These two patients had progressive cancer that made them eligible for treatment that’s no walk in the park, with a mortality rate of 10 to 25 percent,” Dr. John Mellors of the University of Pittsburgh said at a CROI press conference. “The work ahead is to find out how to deliver the same result with less extreme measures.” t

mixture of amyl nitrates and gammahydroxybutyric acid, or GHB. Assistant District Attorney Julia Cervantes argued that Escalon and Rickleffs met at the bar, 440 Castro, the night before Escalon’s death. The next morning, she said, Rickleffs tied Escalon up, gagged him, and poured poppers on his face immobilizing him, with the intent to steal from him. Rickleffs was arrested the day after Escalon was found dead for an unrelated incident and found with a suitcase filled with items from Es-

calon’s apartment including a laptop, Escalon’s checkbook, and a bankcard of one of Escalon’s roommates, according to police. Rickleffs has been in custody since September 2012. Deputy Public Defender Niki Solis argued throughout the trial that this was a consensual situation, a BDSM incident gone tragically wrong. She presented evidence to try and create the narrative that Escalon was a frequent user of poppers and GHB and regularly participated in BDSM activities. In a group discussion with Cervantes and Solis outside the courtroom after the verdict, the jury members explained their reasoning behind their decision. Most said that they felt Escalon’s death was caused by many factors, including the obstruction of his breathing from the gag, his inability to move from being bound, and the drugs found in his system. Although they unanimously agreed that Rickleffs did not intend to kill Escalon, it was the robbery and his disregard for human life that swayed them to find him guilty of felony murder. “We didn’t agree on one causation of death, it was a combination of factors,” one male juror said. Another male juror said, “We don’t believe [Rickleffs] intended to kill him, but the GHB, amyl nitrate, and constraints over the face were compelling factors.” A female juror said, “He walked out the door and left him to die. That was a substantial factor in his death.” She added that, “His intent to tie him up was a common thread throughout.”

Solis’ argument. “As Eriq’s friend and a gay resident of San Francisco, it was embarrassing that she tried to criminalize the drinking, cigarettes, and sexual desire in her closing arguments,” Tiscareno, 37, said. The two friends met when Escalon was 17 years old and both were members of Blue Devils Performing Arts, a large marching band and drum corps out of Concord. “He was always very kind and supportive and animated,” Tiscareno said. “He was always engaged and wanted to know how you were doing and cared. He wasn’t superficial. We loved hanging out with him.” There were over 400 people at Escalon’s funeral service held in Fresno, Esmeralda Escalon said. They even had to move the event prior to its happening because of how many people wanted to attend. When asked what Esmeralda Escalon has learned about life after the death of her son, who she spoke to almost everyday on the phone after he moved to San Francisco, she said, “Life is too short. Enjoy every moment. Eriq would always say live life like it’s your last.” In a news release San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón gave his condolences to the victim’s family. “Those who bring harm to others will be held accountable for their actions. My heart goes out to the victim’s family, they have endured an immeasurable loss,” he said. Cervantes also acknowledged the family in the news release. “I want to commend the resolve of Mr. Escalon’s family in their pursuit of justice. This was an exceptionally difficult chapter of their lives,” she said.

the trial that the defendant and victim had an agreement in which Escalon would pay Rickleffs $100 to take naked pictures of Rickleffs. “There is uncontested evidence that the consensual agreement was sexual in nature,” Solis said. During the trial Solis showed the jury pictures of Escalon blindfolded and in his underwear, trying to prove that he liked BDSM. Explaining that Escalon was fully clothed when he was tied up and that there was no evidence the incident was sexual, including no sperm found at the scene, proved this wrong, Cervantes explained. She drove home the defendant’s disregard for human life and that the motivation to steal made it first-degree murder. “His disregard for whether or not Eriq Escalon died that day allowed him to walk out that door,” Cervantes said, adding that Rickleffs previously told police that when he left the house he heard Escalon snoring and did not release the gag from his mouth. As well, she discredited Rickleffs’ statement in which he said Escalon, with his feet, hands, and body tied, and mouth gagged, bent over his bed, spilled a bottle of amyl nitrate, and wiped his face through the liquid. “That is not physically possible,” she argued. Solis refuted this, explaining that the way Escalon’s body was found is consistent with this theory. Solis said Escalon’s roommate, who testified in court, said Escalon’s feet were hanging over the bed as if to be in a sitting position and his head was at the foot of the bed. The aspect of the drugs was heavily talked about by both attorneys in their arguments. Solis argued that prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Escalon died of an amyl nitrate and GHB overdose. “The district attorney said this case is about murder, but she didn’t say how he died. This whole case is about causation,” Solis said in her closing argument. San Francisco’s chief toxicologist, Luke Rodda, Ph.D., said in his testimony during the trial that Escalon’s blood tested positive for GHB and amyl nitrate and that THC was found in his urine. There was no alcohol found in his blood at the time of his autopsy. Solis, however, argued that the testing for amyl nitrate and GHB was done almost four months after Escalon died, making the results inaccurate. Rodda testified that there have been instances in which the level of drugs, particularly GHB, can change after death increasing or decreasing, but that he didn’t believe the degradation of GHB to be significant. Solis also mentioned the San Francisco medical examiner’s report that noted there was no vomiting or regurgitation of the victim. Lastly, the defense attorney drove home that Escalon was a user of recreational drugs. “What we do know is that Eriq has drugs. There was speed, amphetamine, found in his purse. There was GHB in his system and lots and lots of poppers purchased repeatedly and often,” Solis said. To the prosecutors, it’s clear that “James Rickleffs poured the poppers on Eriq,” Cervantes said. t

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Escalon’s family believes Rickleffs did intend to kill him. The B.A.R. sat down with Escalon’s mother; a friend of Escalon’s, Roberto Tiscareno; and a close family friend, Leighanna Benitez, hours before the verdict. It has been an incredibly rough, stressful six weeks for their entire family who have traveled from Fresno, California everyday the trial was in session, Esmeralda Escalon said. She felt that Cervantes was doing a great job and sticking to the facts. The most revealing evidence to Esmeralda Escalon was the two and a half hour interrogation video of Rickleffs talking to police from September 2012. In the video, which was played for the jury during trial, Rickleffs confessed to tying up Escalon and stealing things from his house. She also said Rickleffs’ knife, which was found a week later in Escalon’s apartment by his roommate and contained Rickleffs’ DNA, was what connected Rickleffs most strongly to the killing. “He was a dumb criminal,” she said. “But the reason why we are here today was because of his mistake. Without that evidence we wouldn’t have found the person who did it.” During the trial, Esmeralda Escalon was also hurt by the narrative Solis told that described her son as a drug user, alcoholic, and sexual deviant. “That’s not who Eriq was,” she said. “He was a happy person, friendly, loving, outgoing, generous,” who “lived life to the fullest.” And in terms of real facts, “[Solis] had nothing on Eriq,” Esmeralda Escalon said. Tiscareno said he was offended by

Closing arguments

In closing arguments that began Wednesday, February 27, prosecutors told the story of a young, gay man whose life was cut short by a ruthless killer who targeted Escalon to steal from him. Solis said Rickleffs was not to blame for the accidental death and that Escalon himself took the drugs that played a significant factor in his death and everything that happened that night was consensual. She also said prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Escalon died as the result of Rickleffs’ actions. Cervantes began by telling the jury that Escalon moved to San Francisco a few months prior to his death and thought the city was a safe place for him. “He went out that night with his friend looking to have a nice time,” she said. “James Rickleffs had a very different agenda that night.” Turning to face Rickleffs in the courtroom Cervantes said, “He killed Eriq Escalon. He murdered Eriq Escalon. He picked him up to rob him. James Rickleffs intended to steal from him that night. It’s his motivation for tying Eriq up, for waiting until his roommates left to leave to go around the apartment and to take whatever he wants. It’s his motivation for everything.” Solis argued there was no evidence that Rickleffs intended to steal from Escalon when he went home with him that night. It was revealed during

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<< Open Forum

6 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

Volume 49, Number 10 March 7-13, 2019 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Alex Madison CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani • Dan Renzi Christina DiEdoardo • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • Juanita MORE! David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Tony Taylor • Sari Staver Jim Stewart • Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez Ronn Vigh • Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan • Fred Rowe Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation. Advertising rates available upon request. Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

Transparency key for LGBT nonprofits

ere’s a pro tip for all LGBTQ nonprofits: If you’re going to lay off a majority of a department’s staff without concurrently issuing a formal explanation about why this is happening, don’t be surprised when you get press inquiries. And for goodness’ sake, talk to the media when contacted. That’s the tough lesson learned late last month by the board and executive director of the Rainbow Community Center in Contra Costa County. The Concord-based center terminated four clinical department staff positions and its food pantry program manager. Most egregiously, according to our sources, the clinical staff were given 10 minutes after they were told on Friday, February 22, to gather their belongings before being escorted out of the building. As we reported last week, “Their sudden departure left them little time to contact their patients to inform them that their counselors would no longer be able to see them.” The counselors’ inability to properly end or transfer their cases violates the profession’s ethical code, several sources told us. When a client leaves a counselor, typically there is a closure session and a referral to another provider; that this appears not to have happened could be traumatic for Rainbow’s clients. After our article was published, we received some criticism that the piece was “one-sided.” One of those complaints came from the center’s board chair, Ken Carlson, a gay man who’s also an elected member of the Pleasant Hill City Council. He was informed that the sole reason the article appeared to have predominately one view – that of the fired workers – was because neither he nor Executive Director Kevin McAllister responded to requests for comment. McAllister did speak with reporter Matthew S. Bajko for a few minutes at deadline, and his

Cynthia Laird

The Rainbow Community Center was open late Monday afternoon, but no one was at the front desk.

comments were included in the article. Tellingly, no one who contacted us called questioned the substance of the article. If center officials thought we would hold a news article because they didn’t return our calls, they were operating under an illusion. The center did not release a statement until after our article was published online last Wednesday afternoon. Even then, the statement made no reference to layoffs, and alluded to “restructuring.” It states, “The Rainbow Community Center ... will limit its services while preparing for new programming. While its food pantry will be limited during the reorganization, mental health counseling, training, HIV testing, and limited youth services will still operate through Rainbow during the restructuring. Rainbow will also complete the remodeling of its Service

Center/Community Space during this time.” This week, center officials seem to have received the message, and our article in today’s paper includes comments from Carlson, who has acknowledged he handled the situation poorly. McAllister was not at the center when the Bay Area Reporter stopped by Monday evening, just before closing. We were told he’d be out of the office for a couple of days. We cannot emphasize enough how important LGBTQ community centers are. Decades ago, bars were one of the few places queer people could meet others like them and socialize. Community centers offer an important alternative without the booze. They offer youth and those in the sober community a place to meet others or get help. Today, LGBTQ centers operate under a variety of models. Some are large, like the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Others, like the centers in Oakland and Berkeley, are smaller but mighty, and succeed through the dedication of staff, volunteers, and the community itself. Rainbow is not a large center, but it has been around for many years and is part of the fabric of the East Bay’s LGBTQ community. Residents there deserve a center that is open and provides services. Officials sent the B.A.R. an updated statement noting the center has hired a hired a licensed clinical psychologist with 18 years of mental health experience to manage its “School Based Counseling” program. The restructuring should be completed as possible. Contra Costa County is not San Francisco. There are not as many easily accessible resources for LGBTQ youth and adults, which is why the community center in the suburbs is so critical. It’s unfortunate that Rainbow’s leaders acted so unprofessionally in their initial handling of the staff changes. We hope that the leaders’ newfound transparency continues, and urge the center to keep the community informed about what is going on and what specific services are available during this reorganization. t

Celebration and work continues for LGBT seniors by Ashley C. McCumber

n March 2014, 15 LGBT advocates and leaders in the aging field delivered our 18-month review and recommendations to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. I was fortunate to be among this dedicated group of leaders. Our charge by the three out supervisors, David Campos, Christina Olague, and Scott Wiener (who sponsored the founding of the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force), was to deliver actionable recommendations back to the board. As is too often the case, citizen reports and recommendations don’t always gain traction or action. Today, this effort has produced substantial movement in the right direction. Our efforts aimed at improving conditions for older LGBT adults in data collection, cultural competency, health and social services, housing, legal services, and building “community within community.” When asked to share my reflections on this five-year milestone, the safest route was to approach the task as the head of a “mainstream” senior services nonprofit. However, this was, and is, deeply personal to me. Now at 57 and gay, I’m just a few years away from being a senior and my sense of urgency about aging grows daily. Who will be there to take care of my husband and me? My decision to assume my current role in 2007 was, in part, a desire to impact my future as a gay man. So, having landed in the gay mecca of San Francisco, you can imagine my surprise when I asked my team at Meals on Wheels San Francisco, “How many LGBT clients do we have?” The answer; “We don’t ask.” Why, I asked? The answer; “Why would we ask a senior who they sleep with?” Considering the fact that I knew we served a significant number of LGBT clients with competence, care, as well as meals, I was shocked by this response and felt personally diminished. I helped our team understand that this thinking was wrong and that our aim should be to recognize all of our clients’ identity (family, friends, and supports) and be seen as a trusted resource to them. We immediately began to collect self-reported LGBT status data, implemented efforts to build cultural competence, and when the aging task force was formed, I applied to be a part of the effort. Trust me when I say that my experience was not unique in the senior services field.

Ashley McCumber

So, now five years after the task force outlined 13 recommendations, we have much to celebrate. On March 9, from 10 a.m. to noon at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, the Department of Aging and Adult Services will host a celebratory and informational forum to review our progress and work to be done. Almost all of the recommendations have tangible actions to boast – mandated comprehensive, cultural competence training for nonprofit contractors, establishing legal protections in longterm care facilities, implementing improvements in dementia and Alzheimer’s care, the opening of LGBT senior housing by Openhouse, and the addition of peer-support programs, just to name a few. It should come as no surprise that the area where substantial work remains is in housing – affordability and eviction protections, housing conditions – especially in single-room-occupancy hotels, and a homeless shelter system that is often unwelcoming to the LGBT community. This underscores a basic tenant of our work on the task force – issues confronting LGBT aging are not necessarily unique to LGBT seniors per se, but that we come to these issues as a marginalized population, with a history of discrimination, and failure by institutions to include us and recognize

the disparities that are manifested by our history. Housing is our number one city crisis, even more so for our LGBT aging community. So, the work has just begun. Clearly, we are living in a time when things are better in our community – marriage equality has offered some protections, San Francisco continues to lead in social justice and equality progress, and a younger generation has, thankfully, a better life experience than I did coming up in a rural town in southeastern North Carolina in the 1970s. But, just as we are not living in a post anti-racism world after the Obama presidency, we are not living in a post anti-LGBT discrimination world either even though we now have the protections of marriage. The hurt, fear, and trauma of the “lived experience” of older LGBTs cannot be dismissed, or disregarded. And, in the Trump era – any of the gains we have made are clearly under attack and need to be defended, again. Hate and ignorance still exist – even within our community. The greatest learning experience for me on the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force was that my experience as a white gay male does not give me the agency to represent someone else’s lived experience or understand the best solutions. The last focus of the task force was to address “community within community.” While we collectively fight for a city and country that treats us all with dignity and respect, regardless of age, we have a long way to go to make sure that we’re doing all we can do in the LGBT community to lift us all – people of color and transgender people, especially. And, if I can end on a personal note, we have to have a conversation about ageism in our own community and work together to build healthier bridges between all generations of LGBT San Franciscans.t The report for the San Francisco LGBT Aging Policy Task Force can be found at https://bit.ly/2S8qwGz. Ashley C. McCumber is the executive director of Meals on Wheels San Francisco.

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

May be time for Lesbians Who Tech to move

I wondered how I could write a critique of the negative effect of the maturing Lesbians Who Tech conference on the Castro without risking an unwarranted charge of being anti-lesbian. Then, an attendee from Boston came into my shop and, while paying for her purchase, began to complain about how, after having paid $600 to attend, she felt the venues were too small for the large turnout for the various speakers. She told me about being forced to stand on the sidewalk outside a speaker’s venue, unable to get in, and trying to listen through the doorway. In that moment she crystallized for me the very problem with this confab’s success. It’s clearly grown too large for the Castro neighborhood to continue to be its host. We’ve endured nearly a week of lost street parking, closed parking lots, gridlocked traffic, blocked streets, rerouted buses and, with the exception of a handful of Castro merchants, our ability to do commerce. Clearly this event has become a runaway success, and I’m pleased the Castro contributed to that during its incubation and infancy. But, with 6,000 people descending on the limited meeting space in the Castro, it’s now time the producers and the Castro Merchants group come to terms with the reality that a larger venue offering more options is sorely needed. More and larger meeting spaces and less disruption to one’s daily life are called for if they want to see the conference continue its upward trajectory. After all, if the attendees become disenchanted (as have many of the Castro’s merchants) there will be no more growth. And that would be a sad ending to this increasingly popular event.

Police are part of our community

Recently, I commented to the facilitator of my Oakland queer Muslim support group, which has been colonized by anti-police sentiment/activism. On the concept of no pride in policing: I hate it when people abuse power, and especially when police do this. But abuse is not the entirety of the police experience. In 2012, a Sister of Perpetual Indulgence was verbally and physically attacked by a homophobe at Folsom. I also saw video of a man who, after mugging a woman, ran back to her and kicked her head the same way a soccer player runs and kicks a soccer ball. This was during San Francisco Pride 2012. I was traumatized by the video. These incidents demonstrate the need for a police presence. In 30 years of Pride, I have never seen or heard of bad police behavior at Pride. The police are our brothers and sisters and they belong at Pride. After biking into Los Angeles at the end of AIDS/LifeCycle in 2016, I heard about Omar Mateen in Orlando, Florida [the Pulse nightclub mass shooting that occurred June 12, the day after the ride concluded]. I also heard that police arrested a man with explosive-making materials who had apparent plans to attend LA Pride. The 2016 Toronto (Canada) pride proves that police are needed because guest of honor activists (Black Lives Matter) took the entire parade hostage and demanded a list of actions be agreed to. The hostage Pride community agreed only because they wanted the parade to resume. This is terrorism.

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Ranks of CA LGBT judges continue to increase

by Matthew S. Bajko

he number of out judges on California state courts continues to increase, with the latest demographic data showing there were at least 62 LGBT judges as of December 31, 2018 out of a total of 1,743 members of the bench. That marked a nearly 17 percent increase from the number of LGBT judges reported in the 2017 annual demographic data compiled by the state’s judicial council. There were 53 LGBT judges counted in the report released last March. As with previous reports, the 2019 report released Tuesday, March 5, is not a truly accurate count of the state’s LGBT jurists. For instance, there are two lesbians and two gay men serving on the state Court of Appeal, yet the judicial report only counts one of the gay appellate court justices. The forms asking about sexual orientation and gender identity are voluntary to fill out; there was no LGBT data provided by 449 judges. The totals also don’t include judges who had yet to take their oath of office by the end of 2018. Before he officially left office in early January, former governor Jerry Brown appointed at least one out judge, lesbian Alameda County Superior Court Judge Karin S. Schwartz. Thus, the number of LGBT judges on the state bench likely now numbers at least 64, an increase of nearly 21 percent from 2017. Governor Gavin Newsom has yet to announce any judicial appointments since taking office January 7. His office told the Bay Area Reporter this week it did not have a timetable for when he would make his first judicial appointments. As the B.A.R. noted in January, Newsom could name either the first known bisexual or transgender person to the state’s appellate bench. By naming Martin Jenkins his judicial appointments secretary, Newsom created a vacancy on the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, based in San Francisco. One possible pick is transgender Alameda County Superior Court

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

Courtesy Clark Pacific

San Francisco’s Superior Court has the second highest number of gay and lesbian judges in the state.

Judge Victoria Kolakowski. She first applied last year with Brown’s legal affairs office to be considered for an appeal court seat and is seeking to be elevated to the higher court by Newsom. His office did not respond to questions this week on if Newsom is committed to seeing the number of LGBT judges continue to grow this year. He will be required to issue his own report on the demographic data of his judicial appointees, as well as those who applied for judicial vacancies, during his first year in office in 2020. The Judicial Council of California began reporting on the number of LGBT judges in the state in 2012 due to the passage of a state law the previous year. The initial report disclosed there were at least 37 out jurists in the state, thus this year’s report has found the number of LGBT judges has increased by 67.5 percent over the ensuing years. There continues to be no LGBT judges on the state’s Supreme Court, as all six of the members who have been serving for a year or longer identify as heterosexual on the report. And Brown named a straight appointee in December to fill the court’s one vacant seat. The 2019 judicial report identified 59 LGBT trial court judges in the state. Kolakowski, the wife of B.A.R. news

editor Cynthia Laird, continues to be the state’s lone out transgender judge. And for the third consecutive year there were two bisexual judges serving on trial courts, one each in San Bernardino and San Joaquin counties. (The report does not identify the names of the judges, as the demographic data is reported anonymously.) Across the state there were 25 lesbian and 31 gay Superior Court judges. The number of trial courts in the state with LGBT judges increased by two last year to now total 17 out of the state’s 58 trial courts – there is one for each county. The Los Angeles Superior Court, with 14 gay and five lesbian judges, continues to have the most LGBT judges of any trial court in the state. The San Francisco Superior Court has the second highest, with four lesbian and three gay judges, according to the 2018 data. San Diego remains in third with two lesbians and four gay men serving on it, according to the latest report. Alameda and San Bernardino counties are tied for fourth as each has four out judges on their benches, while Santa Clara County has three. The courts in Contra Costa, Orange, Riverside, and San Mateo counties each have two out judges. There is one out judge serving on the bench in El Dorado, Fresno, Imperial, Mendocino, Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Sonoma counties. The LGBT judges accounted for 3.5 percent of the 1,743 total judges included in the report. The full 2019 judicial demographic report can be downloaded online at http://www.courts.ca.gov/13418. htm. t

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t Trans anti-violence group ramps up with city grant 8 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

by Alex Madison

n the aftermath of the slaying of Taja Gabrielle de Jesus, a transgender woman, just over four years ago in San Francisco, a coalition established in her honor has received a city grant to help fight against trans violence. The Trans Activist for Justice and Accountability Coalition, or TAJA for short, also provides resources and support to the trans community. Thanks to a $150,000 two-year grant from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development that was awarded last fall, TAJA plans to create a Safe Housing Campaign, anti-violence and public safety projects, and expand its staff. “Receiving this grant lets the community know that the government is really holding up its part and that they actually care,” said Akira Jackson, a transgender woman of color and director of TAJA. “It shows that the [trans] community is worth this kind of investment.” The Office of Transgender Initiatives worked with the Board of Supervisors to dedicate ad-back funding for trans violence prevention to TAJA. Clair Farley, a transgender woman and director of the trans office, said it will be working one-on-one with the coalition to implement all aspects of the projects funded by the grant. The grant was awarded last October. In a statement, Mayor London Breed called the work done by the coalition “crucial.” “The members of San Francisco’s transgender community experience homelessness, housing instability, and violence at rates higher than virtually any other population in the city,” the mayor stated. “The work that the TAJA Coalition does is crucial in helping our trans community who has given so much to our city. “The program will offer housing navigation and stabilization services while training program staff to create safe and inclusive spaces,” Breed added.

Community survey

One of the first components of the Safe Housing Campaign is a community survey designed to identify existing barriers to safe, affordable housing in San Francisco for trans people, particularly trans women of color. “We are designing a survey instrument to assess transgender women in particular and gender-nonbinary people who are marginally housed, homeless, or who have been marginally housed or homeless,” Jackson, 32, said in an interview earlier this year.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Akira Jackson, director of Trans Activist for Justice and Accountability Coalition, has started developing training materials as part of a two-year city grant.

The data from the survey, which has now started and will include about 60 participants, will help TAJA and the Office of Transgender Initiatives develop and implement a training program for staff at Navigation Centers, homeless shelters, singleroom-occupancy hotels, and other housing and social services organizations. Though it will be informed by survey data, the trainings will also include cultural competency for staff and employees. “We want to make sure they are culturally competent and being transwelcoming housing organizations,” said Jackson, who has led TAJA for about a year and a half. De Jesus, for whom the coalition is named, was found stabbed in her home February 1, 2015. The next day, the suspect in the case, James Hayes, was found hanged in a storage unit on Third Street, a few blocks from de Jesus’ apartment. At the time, De Jesus’ friends told the Bay Area Reporter that she was having problems with a boyfriend, but didn’t know if Hayes was that person. Jackson also has experienced domestic violence. In 2011, she took a plea deal and was sentenced to four years in prison for fatally stabbing her boyfriend, Alan Gray, 56, of Walnut Creek. According to media reports at the time, Jackson’s attorney said Gray had been armed with a baseball bat during the fight and hit Jackson with it. Originally from Detroit, Jackson moved to the Bay Area looking for acceptance, something she didn’t have from her family at the time, she told the B.A.R. in an emailed response to questions about the incident. Struggling to find a job, she turned to sex work for her survival.

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“I wanted to change my life and become what I believed was normal,” she wrote. “I figured that in order for me to achieve that was through employment, higher education, and being in a relationship.” From there she entered a relationship in which she eventually suffered physical and emotional abuse, she wrote. “I stayed in that situation because I thought that is what being normal was,” she wrote. “I believe that trans women are more reluctant to walk away from unhealthy relationships because we feel that we do not want to abandon our partner because we know what that feels like.” She also added, “It’s hard to walk away from an unhealthy relationship as a trans woman in a world that constantly devalues trans people and trans women and tells us that we are unlovable.” After being released from prison, Jackson said, as a black trans woman and a convicted felon, getting a job was nearly impossible. She enrolled in a residential treatment program because she had no income and most housing programs perform background checks. There she was forced to be housed with men. She experienced discrimination, had her womanhood constantly invalidated, and experienced sexual violence, she told the B.A.R. However, she eventually found employment. She worked as a jobs administrative aide for individuals returning from incarceration three months after being released and then went on to work as a research assistant at UCSF’s Center of Excellence for Transgender Health coordinating community-based research studies. She wrote that her past has in-

formed the work she does today at TAJA, which has connected trans women to support services, including housing and employment, through facilitating support groups while the women were incarcerated. Additionally, TAJA is currently working with UCSF on Girlfriends Connect, a study on transgender women that are re-entering the community after incarceration. “We may come from different cultural backgrounds, yet we are united and driven by our shared experiences,” she wrote. “Sadly, those experiences that bring us together are traumatic. I want to let my sisters know that we have community here, we are strong, and we are resilient.”

Safe housing

Safe housing continues to be a main concern for trans advocates. “One in five trans community members experience homelessness throughout their lifetime,” said Farley. “Housing is consistently the most pressing issue for the trans community. The training of shelter staff and housing programs is to help increase more trans inclusion in existing programs that are often not safe or accessible to the community.” The first pilot training is scheduled for March. The grant proposal states that five organizations will undergo training. The trainings, Farley said, will address the use of correct gender pronouns, bathroom access, shower facilities, and more. Before the trainings begin, TAJA conducted focus groups in January to help determine the type of information to collect in the survey. Completion of the survey is expected by August, at which point the information will be widely disseminated. “The survey will help us develop a model that can be used to help other communities,” Jackson said. “We want this to make housing more accessible to trans people not just in the Bay Area.” Another component of the Safe Housing Campaign is to establish a referral system with various organizations to help link transgender people to housing assistance services. The grant proposal states that TAJA will, “establish formalized partnership agreements with trained organizations for housing and social support services.” After more deeply understanding the trans community’s housing needs using the survey data, TAJA will design housing clinics open to the public. The grant money will allow TAJA to hold monthly housing clin-

OKELL’S

ics where trans people can get oneon-one help with housing navigation, case management, and referrals to existing housing programs. “At the clinics they talk about housing subsidies and vouchers,” Farley said. “Oftentimes there are resources available, but people don’t know how to access them.” The grant will also provide TAJA the opportunity to participate in the National Transgender Health Summit in April at the Oakland Marriott City Center. In partnership with UCSF’s Center of Excellence for Transgender Health, TAJA will provide a forum for trans and gender-diverse people to engage in a two-day series of workshops and discussions at the summit. The workshops will allow trans people to explore topics such as restorative justice as a transformative and violence prevention tool, self-defense and de-escalation skills, professional development, deepening and strengthening trans community networks, and increasing leadership skills for effective community mobilization and coalition building. To help promote safety and acceptance for trans people in local communities, the grant money will be used to develop a citywide, trans community-driven, and informed antiviolence media campaign. TAJA will conduct quarterly leadership retreats that will include coalition members, executive board members, and other stakeholders. A strategic plan for the creation of the media campaign will be created at the retreats. Two part-time employees will be hired as a result of the grant. TAJA currently has only one employee, Jackson, and is not officially a nonprofit. Its fiscal sponsor is St. James Infirmary. The two organizations also share an office on Polk Street. TAJA has an annual budget of $130,000 and Jackson’s salary is $64,000 for the first year of the grant cycle. As a part of the grant proposal, TAJA partnered with El/La Para TransLatinas, a San Francisco nonprofit dedicated to advocating for transgender Latinas’ rights and providing community services. El/La was awarded $50,000 from the Mayor’s Office of Transgender Initiatives. That money will be used to bolster program development, leadership and staff trainings, and create a database used to track participant activities and program impact. The first step for El/La will be to hold a program planning summit to aid in implementing recommendaSee page 14 >>

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<< Community News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

GAPA to stage ‘Prelude’ show compiled by Cynthia Laird

Disability rights activist Tara Ayres will present; she is a member of the core organizing team for the Oakland Women’s March. Also speaking will be Stacey Milbern, a disability justice organizer from Oakland. A $5 donation is requested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. To sign up, visit https://bit. ly/2EoHvzB.

he Gay Asian Pacific Alliance will hold “Prelude: Songs and Stories from the Heart” Saturday, March 23, from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, 3281 16th Street in San Francisco. Anchored by GAPA Men’s Chorus and GAPA Theatre, the program will be multi-disciplinary and incorporate the talents of other community-based artists and performers. Organizers said that Prelude, with allusions to movement, evolution, and growth, gives voice to the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and culture, while providing a spotlight on the power of queer Asian and Pacific Islander collaboration and performance to create change. GAPA Men’s Chorus will present a preview of a special program it will perform in April at the Hand in Hand LGBT Choral Festival in Tokyo. GAPA Theatre members will present individual stories that speak to the queer API experience, as a precursor to its full-length production May 10-12 at Bindlestiff Studio during the United States of Asian America Festival. While focusing primarily on GAPA’s cultural programs, Prelude will also be multi-disciplinary, incorporating the talents of other performers, including guest artists Michael Nguyen, Brian Palac, and students from Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu hula company. “We want to shake up expectations of what queer API artistic achievement is all about,” event organizer George Naylor said in a news release. “You’ll see everything from dramatic spoken word pieces to iconic folk songs to classical music and masculine hula.” Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at https://bit. ly/2Ue2ATZ. For more information, email gapachorus@aol.com or visit www.faceboook.com/gapachorus.

Contest for anti-illegal dumping slogan

San Francisco Public Works is seeking a creative slogan for its new antiillegal dumping public awareness campaign, with a $500 prize for the winner. According to a news release, Public Works and Recology, the city’s private-sector refuse-hauling partner, have crews on the ground every day picking up illegal dumping at a cost of as much as $10 million a year. “But at the end of the day, we need to change people’s behavior so they don’t dump on San Francisco in the first place,” said Public Works director Mohammed Nuru in the release.

Breed announces SF town halls

Courtesy GAPA Men’s Chorus

Members of GAPA Men’s Chorus will participate in “Prelude: Songs and Stories from the Heart.”

“We’re looking for a slogan to use on billboards, social media, posters, bus placards, and other platforms to get people’s attention. And we’re reaching out to the public for ideas.” All entries will be considered, but those containing offensive language or anti-San Francisco snark won’t make the cut, officials said. Submit slogan ideas to contest@sfdpw.org by 11:59 p.m. Friday, March 8.

LGBT aging task force celebration

The San Francisco Department of Aging and Adult Services will hold an event Saturday, March 9, from 10 a.m. to noon in the Rainbow Room of the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street, to mark accomplishments in implementing the city’s LGBT aging policy plan. Initially billed as a town hall, the event is now of a celebratory nature, officials said. Mayor London Breed is expected to speak, along with several LGBT leaders, including state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco); former supervisor David Campos; Bill Ambrunn, chair of the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force that issued the report; city Treasurer Jose Cisneros; and Shireen McSpadden, DAAS executive director. It was Wiener, Campos, and bisexual former supervisor Christina Olague who pushed for the creation of the task force when they all served on the Board of Supervisors in 2012. Olague has been invited to Saturday’s event but is not confirmed, according to officials. According to DAAS, it has made considerable progress toward ad-

dressing 11 of the 13 areas of concern listed in the task force’s 2014 report titled “LGBT Aging at the Golden Gate: San Francisco Policy Issues and Recommendations.” The event, which is free, will include poster talks about each recommendation.

Rec and Park pop-up summer resource fair

The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department will hold a 2019 summer resource fair pop-up event in the Castro Saturday, March 9, from noon to 2 p.m. at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, 100 Collingwood Street. The event gives people an opportunity to connect with representatives from summer camps, classes, programs, and services for toddlers to teens. There is no cost to attend.

Oakland Women’s March program on accessibility

The Oakland’s Women’s March will have a program “Leaving No Body Behind: Accessibility as a Practice of Revolutionary Imagination” Sunday, March 10, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sports Basement, 2727 Milvia Street in Berkeley. Organizers said in an email that people with disabilities make up 19 percent of the U.S. population and are impacted disproportionately by racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of oppression. At the forum, people will talk about how ableism affects organizing cultures and give a skillshare on how to facilitate accessible spaces and marches.

Mayor London Breed has announced a series of upcoming town halls to discuss issues directly with San Francisco residents. The first session is scheduled for Monday, March 11, at 6:30 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street. A second town hall will be held Monday, May 6, in Mission Bay. “I hear all the time from people who feel like City Hall is disconnected from what is happening in our neighborhoods, which is why I spend so much time out in our communities meeting with people directly,” Breed said in a news release. In addition to the meetings, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services will begin holding regular office hours in neighborhoods throughout San Francisco to make it easier for residents to have direct access to Breed’s office and receive help navigating city government. For more information on the neighborhood services office hours, which will start this month in the Richmond, Sunset, Bayview Hunters Point, and Excelsior districts and later expand citywide, visit www.sfmayor. org/mons.

Forum supporting trans immigrants

“Rainbows Not Walls: A Bay Area Forum for Trans Caravan Members” will be held Wednesday, March 13, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, 290 Dolores Street in San Francisco. Organized by the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and Sha’ar Zahav, the forum will be an opportunity for attendees to learn how they can help welcome transgender members of the migrant caravan who are already here and those who are on their way to San Francisco. People can find out how congregations, community groups, and individuals can help provide sponsorship and other vital resources. For more information, see the

“Rainbows Not Walls” Facebook page.

Queer, trans APIs form new coalition

A coalition of queer and trans Asian and Pacific Islander organizations has formed to build community, facilitate intergenerational transfer of knowledge, recognize their historical context, and celebrate their cultural heritage and identity. According to a news release, the new group will hold “When Pigs Fly Over the Moon: A QTAPI Gathering” Friday, March 15, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Salesforce Tower, 415 Mission Street, Third Floor. An organizational resource fair will be followed by performances and breakout sessions throughout the evening. Member organizations that are involved include the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance, Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Community, Gay Asian Pacific Alliance, GAPA Foundation, Trikone, and the Red Envelope Giving Circle. Other LGBT groups that are involved include the GLBT Historical Society, San Francisco Community Health Center, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Essence of Mana, and North County Outreach. LGBTQ API nightlife groups the Rice Rockettes and GAMeBoi SF are also working under the QTAPI umbrella. Organizers said they’re excited for the event. “The importance of storytelling and learning our shared history and struggle as queer and trans Asian Pacific Islanders cannot be overstated,” Vince Crisostomo, program manager at SFAF’s Elizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network, said in the release. There is no cost to attend, though donations will be accepted. Money raised will go toward the API pavilion at this year’s San Francisco Pride celebration. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/ events/210241579845519/.

Applications open for Zamora scholarships

The Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship Program is now accepting applications from current high school seniors and college freshman, sophomores, and juniors (ages 27 and younger) who demonstrate an active commitment to mitigating the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and taking on roles of public service and leadership. See page 14 >>

Lawmakers honor out women by Cynthia Laird

ransgender women and lesbians were among the honorees at the Legislature’s annual “Woman of the Year” event in Sacramento Monday, March 4. Each Assembly member and state senator selected a woman from their district to honor. Following a luncheon that included a keynote address by first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, each chamber held a formal ceremony in the Capitol. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski was recognized by Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland). In addition to making history with her 2010 election, Kolakowski is a leader in educating the judiciary on trans issues. “Proud to honor Alameda Co. Sup Court Judge Vicky Kolakowski, the nation’s 1st transgender judge – a true pioneer & role model who delivers justice & promotes fairness everyday!” Bonta wrote on Twitter. Kolakowski wrote on Twitter that she was “honored to receive

Giggle & Riot Photos

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski was honored by Assemblyman Rob Bonta during Monday’s “Woman of the Year” ceremony in Sacramento.

this great honor.” Her mother, June Kolakowski, traveled from Staten Island to attend the ceremony. On the Peninsula, Assemblyman Kevin Mullin (D-San Mateo) honored the Reverend Dr. G. Penny Nixon, a lesbian who’s senior minis-

ter of the Congregational Church of San Mateo, United Church of Christ. Nixon previously served as pastor of Metropolitan Community ChurchSan Francisco. Nixon is the convener of the PeninSee page 15 >>

Community News >>

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Vapor Room retains funky vibe at new location by Sari Staver

t took eight years of working its way through the government bureaucracy but the Vapor Room, one of San Francisco’s quintessential cannabis dispensaries, is open again. Previously a funky hangout in the Lower Haight from 2004-2012, the Vapor Room has reopened at 79 Ninth Street. While only a fraction of the size of its former storefront, the new space still has a smoking lounge and is staffed with people who have longtime cannabis industry experience. After closing during the federal crackdown nearly a decade ago, owner Martin Olive promised he’d be back, and he is, hiring Carson Higby-Flowers as general manager. When we stopped by to visit the new space, located in a former coffee shop in a still-struggling block of Ninth Street, between Mission and

Sari Staver

Vapor Room general manager Carson Higby-Flowers

Market, Higby-Flowers (yes, his real name) gave us the lowdown. A longtime cannabis activist who was previously at the Marijuana

Policy Project, Higby-Flowers, 36, has been working with Olive for the past 18 months to get the new space ready to open. “The Vapor Room has been a central gathering place for patients from the days when it was not safe to do so,” he said. While the smoking lounge only accommodates a few patients on its sunny window benches, Higby-Flowers, a straight ally, said the dispensary does offer customers the latest in technology for indoor consumption. In addition to a Storz & Bickel vaporizer, the Vapor Room staff will be happy to loan customers a Puffco Peak, a state of the art vaporizer that is used with cannabis concentrates, for use in the lounge. But most people actually just smoke

a joint, whether they roll their own or buy a pre-roll. “It’s the whole idea of being able to be comfortable smoking in public,” Higby-Flowers said, pointing out that it is still illegal to smoke cannabis on the street. The Vapor Room carries a highly curated menu of products selected by HigbyFlowers and Olive, featuring premium products at accessible prices, he said. Recently, the store featured Cookies/Wedding Cake flowers at $23 for an eighth, “one of our better deals,” HigbyFlowers said. Since the grand opening earlier this year, the Vapor Room has seen an increasing number of customers, including “many people who I haven’t seen in years,” said Higby-Flowers. The

company is active on social media and “we’re getting a lot of love online,” he added. Vapor Room will soon be announcing specials for 4/20, the annual cannabis holiday on April 20. Another new cannabis dispensary and lounge, Moe Greens, opened in January less than a half mile away at 1276 Market Street, near Larkin. Owned and operated by the same people who run the popular Barbary Coast Dispensary, it has three separate areas for on-site consumption: one for vaping, one for concentrates, and one with five large booths to roll up, light up, and smoke. t Bay Area Cannasseur runs the first Thursday of the month. To send column ideas or tips, email Sari Staver at sari@bayareacannasseur.com.

Parkinson’s doesn’t bar SF Ballet students by David-Elijah Nahmod

hroughout March and April San Francisco Ballet is offering dance classes to individuals living with Parkinson’s disease. The classes are free and are made possible through the support of Kaiser Permanente. The classes are taught by Cecelia Beam, 63, who holds a Master of Science degree in ballet, and include live accompaniment from pianist Jamie Narushchen, who Beam said makes an immeasurable contribution to the class. Parkinson’s disease is, according to the Mayo Clinic, an incurable condition of the nervous system that can cause tremors, stiffness, slowing of movement, or softening or slurring of speech. The disease usually becomes progressively more severe with time, though medications can be helpful. As a young student, Beam received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to train at a Bay Area ballet school under the direction of Tricia Kaye, who was trained by William Christensen, one of the founders of San Francisco Ballet. Beam then studied at the School of American Ballet in New York City and graduated high school from the North Carolina School of the Arts. “I was totally on track to become a professional dancer, but for a bunch of reasons that did not happen,” Beam said. “But I was able to find a career and a life with the art form, so I’m very happy for all those experiences.” Beam has been with San Francisco Ballet for 20 years, 19 of which she worked as the human resources manager. In addition to her fulltime job, she also taught ballet at local dance schools, colleges, and at her own private studio. “From what I hear from the people I know who have Parkinson’s is that it takes a lot away from you,” she said. “It takes your spirit away, your independence, and your ability to enjoy life. There’s a lot of physical problems that happen with Parkinson’s, but there’s also a lot of emotional problems with it.” These problems can include depression and side effects from the medications. “The class gives them a reason, and hopefully, a good reason, to get out, take paratransit or Uber, or walk or take the bus to get to the ballet building,” she said. “And then they’re instantly in an environment that is uplifting.” Beam emphasized that the classes are not a clinical or therapeutic

Chris Hardy

San Francisco Ballet instructor Cecelia Beam teaches classes for people living with Parkinson’s disease.

session, that they are strictly an artistic opportunity for her students. Students who need to can stay seated for the entire class. There is a volunteer who is a physical therapist and dancer who has been an asset to the class. The volunteer stays in a chair with the students who are in wheelchairs or who need to stay seated, and translates the movements that Beam teaches. “I do believe that the classes help with their balance, their confidence, and mostly lifts their spirits because we have fun,” said Beam. “I impart everything I know about classical ballet, contemporary ballet, and the ballets that San Francisco Ballet is doing to these folks, so I think this makes their lives better overall.” To that end, Beam reserves space in the ballet building so that her students can talk, share, and support each other. With Kaiser’s support, she sent the students to see the ballet a few weeks ago. “The classes are an all-encompassing experience,” Beam said. “We’ve had the trainees, SF Ballet School’s most advanced ballet students, perform for the people with Parkinson’s. I’m constantly trying to find ways San Francisco Ballet can enrich their lives.” Beam noted that the majority of the students are in their 60s and 70s, though there have been students in their 30s and 40s who live with young onset Parkinson’s. LGBT people have participated in the classes, she said, adding that she was very proud of the ballet’s Nite

Out series that celebrates the queer community. Beam herself does not identify as LGBT. The Parkinson’s classes were the idea of Patrick Armand, director of the San Francisco Ballet School. “I was trying to think of things I could do for the community,” Ar-

mand, who is gay, told the Bay Area Reporter. “Particularly with Parkinson’s because my mother got diagnosed with the disease very early and she was a ballet teacher. This was the early 2000s. She has since passed away, and I realized that we could help people with Parkinson’s

through ballet. That was something very dear to me and I wanted to do it, and that’s why I decided to open the classes for Parkinson’s.” Armand added that the classes have been going on for more than two years. “I’m getting wonderful feedback,” he said. “Once the people get there (to the classes) they get into another world and they forget about the disease. We’re trying to help them get away from it. For Christmas we always organize a little party for them and I always have my kids dancing for them, and it’s always a very joyous and touching experience. Most of the time ballet appears to be very elitist, and so it feels really good to know that ballet can actually help people.” The registration deadline for the current round of classes is March 9. Interested people are asked to commit to all eight classes. To register, contact Beam at (415) 865-6583 or email cbeam@sfballet.org. t Classes are held on Wednesdays or Saturdays from 1 to 2:15 p.m. at the Chris Hellman Center for Dance, located at 455 Franklin Street. For more information, visit https://www.sfballet.org/community/dance-for-individuals-withparkinsons-disease.

<< Community News

12 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

Local Methodists react to ‘traditional’ vote by Brian Bromberger

ocal Methodists have reacted with sadness, confusion, and outrage, as well as uncertainty about the future of their church, after delegates from around the world voted to maintain the denomination’s ban on LGBT clergy and same-sex marriage. Those at a special meeting in St. Louis voted 438-384 (53 percent) February 26 for the Traditional Plan, which maintains bans on LGBTQ ordination and marriage and strengthens enforcement of

those prohibitions. These issues have been disputed at every General Conference, which makes decisions for the denomination, since 1972, when homosexuality was deemed incompatible with Christian teaching and self-avowed practicing homosexuals denied becoming ministers. When the issues were raised again at the 2016 General Convention with yet another stalemate, an appointed Commission on a Way Forward was formed to create proposals to break the deadlock. The Council of Bishops late last year

had recommended the One Church Plan, which would have allowed individual churches and conferences to decide whether to ordain and marry LGBTQ members. That was rejected last week. Unlike the other mainline Protestant denominations, the United Methodist Church is global. Almost one-third of the 12 million members resides in Africa and vehemently opposes homosexuality. Just 58 percent of the delegates in St. Louis were from the U.S., with two-thirds supporting the One Church Plan. Methodists as a whole are the most conservative mainline Protestants, so the One Church Plan faced an uphill battle from the start as Methodism moves away from its American liberalism to a global conservative orthodoxy. The Traditional Plan ends loopholes that allowed some LGBTQ people to be ordained and some bishops allowing it to happen. In addition, any minister who performs a same-sex wedding will be suspended for a year without salary and if they do it again, removed from ministry. The special session, perhaps realizing that as a result of this decision, churches may decide to leave the denomination, allows them to do so by the end of 2023 and retain their buildings and properties.

Reaction

Karen Hanrahan, Glide Memorial Church’s president and CEO, spoke to the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview. Glide has long been part of the Reconciling Ministries Network, with a significant portion of the congregation being LGBTQ. “I was deeply saddened by the decision that told an entire group of human beings that they are not loved by God and they should be punished and disciplined for being who they are,” she said. “There are many in the UMC who voted against this plan, but over all it’s a moment of sadness for everyone involved.” Glide is involved in a legal dispute with the Methodist Church, unrelated to the LGBTQ issue, and may be ending its connection to the national organization, so church lawyers are diving deep into what the exit plan, passed in the general session, might mean for them. “The Traditional Plan goes against everything that Glide stands for. Our founder, Cecil Williams, was conducting gay marriages when it was truly a radical act, being one

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Brian Bromberger

Bethany United Methodist Church pastor Sadie Stone talked about the recent denomination vote during Sunday’s service.

of the first ministers in the nation to be doing that,” Hanrahan said. “This vote feels like the UMC is going backward in time, as there has been so much progress on LGBTQ issues in this country. It’s like what’s happening on a national level, a microcosm where these forces of fear and divisiveness are really raising their ugly heads, with the forces of discrimination winning the day in the Methodist Church.” Bishop Karen Oliveto once served as a minister at Glide, but in September 2016 became the first openly lesbian bishop of UMC’s Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone conferences. She shared her concerns in an email with the B.A.R. “It was a devastating vote that has caused tremendous trauma throughout our global church,” she wrote. “By 54 votes out of 822, the delegates vote in a plan that was ruled largely unconstitutional not once, but twice, by our Judicial Council (the denomination’s Supreme Court equivalent). Even now it is unsure whether it is constitutional and if the vote will stand. “But the harm that vote has caused to LGBTQ persons, families, and loved ones is huge,” Oliveto added. “This is not who we are as United Methodists. We are not biblical literalists. We have always had a ‘big tent’ theology where conservatives, centrists, and progressives have sat together in the same pew, holding many disagreements, but found unity through mutual love and shared mission.” Oliveto doesn’t feel personally imperiled by the decision, because the delegates voted to send the Traditional Plan back to the Judicial Council in April, so the plan, or large parts of it, may still be declared unconstitutional. Regardless, the plan or whatever remains of it, doesn’t take effect until January 1, 2020. As to the possibility of schism, Oliveto remains unsettled. “The majority of United Methodists in the United States support LGBTQ rights,” she said. “There are many who will simply not remain in a church where loved ones are not welcomed. I think that something new may be rising up from the pain.” Sadie Stone, 34, is pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church in Noe Valley, which is also part of the Reconciling Ministries Network. She identifies as straight. She was set to attend the general session but the death of a congregant precluded her participation. She spoke with the B.A.R. about her response to the vote. “My immediate reaction was one of great sadness and disappointment,” she said. “I serve a church that has decades worth of radical inclusion, especially to the LGBTQIA community, and over half of our worshipping con-

gregation identifies as part of that community. I understand how deep the hurt can be to all those who are part of this radically inclusive church, when it is not represented by the larger body, and when harmful and hurtful language is used.” She added that she’s checking in with her congregation for prayer and processing of the recent vote. Like Oliveto, Stone said it is too early to comment on the possibility of any schism until the Judicial Council rules on the plan in April. “What I can say is that our region of the church, the western jurisdiction (as does the bishop) remains committed to full inclusion in the church,” Stone said. “We have been fully inclusive in our California-Nevada annual conference to all members of the LGBTQIA community, and our commitment to that is only strengthened by this ruling. “I also want to comment that we are a global church,” she added. “With United Methodist siblings around the world, I know that we have members of our church body who are for full inclusion everywhere. I’ve marched in the streets with fully inclusive United Methodists in the Philippines. We are privileged in this country, that while our laws and protections in the United States are not perfect for the LGBTQIA community, they do exist. This is not true globally, where it is still against the law and punishable by imprisonment or death in many places.” At a March 3 Sunday worship celebration, Stone said in her sermon, “Home is where my church is. Yet because of the general conference, I felt my home was threatened. By a margin of 54 votes, the dogmatic, regressive, harmful, unconstitutional Traditional Plan passed, so watching the disappointment, sadness, and grief, the institutional church didn’t live up to the gospel message of Jesus Christ. “The vote is a reminder of the work we do here, as this is a place people go where they need church or are struggling with their own church,” she said. “How can we be a beacon of hope, of something new, becoming what the church should look like: all-welcoming without exception? I will continue to resist any rule or dogma to discriminate. When I think of where we go from here, I recall the question we are often asked, why do we stay in a church that doesn’t welcome us, and respond, why do we grant them power to say who or what church is?” Some people in the congregation couldn’t give their reaction to the vote because it was still too painful. However, Jeff Friant, a gay man, said, “It was disappointing but I’m very hopeful. We have a lot of work to do in opening people’s minds to be true Christians and learning to love each other. My ideal is that we stay together by keep influencing and trying to change the institution that already exists versus separating, which would be a missed opportunity to change minds and hearts.” Steve Bauer, 65, noted he has been involved with gay Christian organizations for 30 years. “This service is a good reminder that we have hope, that it will still take more time,” Bauer, who is gay, said. “It’s amazing that only 6 percent could make that kind of decision for the whole rest of the body. We’re still going to suffer for a few more years before the church recognizes that their beliefs are false and all gay people can be full participants. While many will feel some pain here, I don’t think Bethany will secede because our Western Regional Conference is both progressive and supportive, so we don’t need to go anywhere else.”t

Commentary >>

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

Striking teachers go back to roots by Christina A. DiEdoardo

efore the weeklong Oakland teachers strike formally ended Sunday night with teachers ratifying a new contract, members of the Oakland Education Association marked the fourth day on the picket line against the Oakland Unified School District by focusing on the school that’s at ground zero in the battle for the district’s soul. Several hundred people, both union members and non-union supporters decked out in “Red for Ed” gear, assembled in the streets near Roots International Academy at 1390 66th Avenue in East Oakland February 26. By Oakland standards, Roots is small, serving approximately 300 middle school students, 98.4 percent of whom are classified as “economically disadvantaged” by the California Board of Education and nearly all of whom qualify for free or reducedcost meals. Over 40 nationalities are represented in its student body and 43 percent of Roots students are learning English for the first time. Besides those challenges, Roots students must cope with their outof-school environment every day. According to Oakland Police Department statistics, the city’s Area Four, which includes East Oakland, saw a 31 percent jump in homicides, a 66 percent jump in commercial burglaries and a 16 percent spike in arson in 2018, as compared with 2017. Not surprisingly, all of this has had a negative impact on the test scores of Roots students, which the district believes justified its decision to close the school, effective at the end of the present school year, in January. As it was with their colleagues in Los Angeles, who staged a weeklong walkout in January, the Oakland teachers strike wasn’t primarily about compensation, but improving

Christina A. DiEdoardo

Protesters assembled alongside Roots International Academy February 26. On the sign, CRT stands for critical race theory and SWBAT is an educational acronym for Student Will Be Able To.

the levels of support staff like guidance counselors and nurses so that teachers can do their jobs effectively. In Oakland’s case, it was also about the union’s efforts to reverse the closure of schools on the district’s chopping block, most of which are in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are people of color. Boots Riley, who’s best known outside the Bay Area as the director of “Sorry to Bother You” and within it as the voice of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club, praised the example the striking teachers were setting for the students at Roots and elsewhere in the district. “That’s what y’all are doing, teaching the students how to fight,” he said to a cheering crowd at the rally. “You’re not just teaching them the

facts of what happened: you’re teaching them to make something happen. And that’s very important because otherwise, all these little templates they get, they won’t know, when they get out in the real world what to do with it, how to do anything but wish that things were different. “They don’t come from hoping the right leader gets out there and gets into office, or the right superintendent. They come from the leaders and the elected officials and the superintendents being scared of y’all, being scared of y’all being able to just shut down the machine, shut it all down, and not to give in ‘til you get what you want, right?” Riley said. The union announced March 1 that it had reached a tentative agreement with the district. According to the union the deal “is a historic no-concessions contract with a win in every major proposal we made.” Members approved it March 3.

week ago, I wrote that lesbian tennis great Martina Navratilova was wrong when she said transgender women competing in women’s sports were cheating, and that not even she believed that. (See February 28 JockTalk, “On Martina, Caster, and wrestlers who wouldn’t wrestle.”) Now, she has written the same thing on her personal website. “I know that my use of the word ‘cheat’ caused particular offense among the transgender community,” Navratilova wrote on her site, http:// www.martinanavratilova.com, in reference to a newspaper op-ed piece she had written opposing the inclusion of transgender women in sports, calling that inclusion “insane.” In her “update” essay, she expressed shock at the backlash she has received from the LGBT community; disbelief at the support she had gotten from folks she called “unwelcome bedfellows,” such as transphobic actor James Woods and the conservative Washington Examiner (she was silent on her endorsement from British commentator Piers Morgan); and generally tried explaining that her objective was to prompt a rational, more nuanced, scientifically-based conversation seeking fair policies – all the while doubling down on preconceived positions and drizzling more accelerant on the flames. She used Lance Armstrong’s abuse of anabolic steroids in the Tour de France (we’re shocked to learn there is drug cheating in cycling!) to reinforce the fear of men temporarily declaring they are women just so they can

Courtesy www.martinanavratilova.com

Tennis great Martina Navratilova

win in women’s sports. I’ve heard of “connecting the dots,” but that’s like connecting one of my freckles to Alpha Centauri. She writes about solving sports’ “transgender problem” and warns those who have called her stance transphobic that “communists tried to shut me up 45 years ago and look how that worked out.” Navratilova is right about this: conversations and policies regarding gender in sports have almost always been emotionally charged and driven by politics, preconceptions, and lines drawn in the sand. The science can be confusing and even contradictory – when and if science is even considered. Advocates cherry-pick the studies and statistics

(who, by the way, all serve at the pleasure of the governor) knew better than the members of the directlyelected Legislature when it came to guns at the Cow Palace. It would also transfer effective control of the Cow Palace to those communities closest to it, which some area residents have demanded for years. See page 14 >>

DISPLAY OBITUARIES & IN MEMORIAMS

Once more unto the breach

While the battle to ban gun shows from the Cow Palace has gone on for decades, with measures sadly dying either in the Legislature or on the governor’s desk thanks to pushback from those trying to keep the largest gun show in the Bay Area alive, this year may be different. Last month, San Francisco Democratic legislators gay state Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblyman Phil Ting reintroduced Senate Bill 281, which has a new wrinkle in solving the problem. If the bill becomes law, not only would gun shows be banned at the Cow Palace, but the facility itself would be transferred from state ownership (which is exercised through the 1-A Agricultural District, whose boundaries are co-extant with the

Nuance and Navratilova by Roger Brigham

Cow Palace) to a new joint-powers authority comprised of representatives from the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County, and Daly City. This would foreclose a repeat of then-Gov. Jerry Brown’s cowardly decision to veto last year’s gun show ban (Senate Bill 221, which was also sponsored by Wiener) on the ground that the district’s board of directors

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they choose to cite. Life experiences – or lack thereof – can make it difficult for people to step out of their own skins and understand someone else’s viewpoint. There’s nothing new in that. The problem is, every time Navratilova has written – on Twitter, in newspapers, or on her website – about transgender inclusion, she has repeated those conversational flaws rather than risen above them. Tennis was Navratilova’s ticket to a better life. It got her out of Czechoslovakia to the United States, where she was able to become rich and build a life as an outspoken, successful, and confident lesbian. Decades before we knew Serena Williams, Navratilova faced public ridicule by people who were made uncomfortable by a successful female athlete with such rippling muscles, such fierceness, such talent, and such focus. We’d never seen a tennis player quite like her. Battling through such prejudice and obstacles could have made her sympathetic to the plight of transgender people struggling to be accepted for the athletes they are, with all of the disadvantages they carry with them every day – but apparently not. Navratilova raises a question of how inclusive recreational sports should be. There should not even be a question about that: they should be completely inclusive. Recreational sports are not about winning or losing, or about putting on

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<< Community News

14 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

2 arrested

From page 1

Years ago, the Bay Area Reporter reported on the adoption of Randall-Saldivar by Christopher Saldivar and Mark Randall. They adopted Randall-Saldivar when he was 10 years old in 2004 out of the foster care system. The young boy had bounced between three foster homes prior to his adoption by his fathers, and social workers consid-

Guerneville flooding

From page 3

through,” he added. He was working at his shop Tuesday night when a sheriff’s deputy showed up and asked him to evacuate, so he returned to his house in Monte Rio and was trapped for four days, all the time wondering what he would find when he returned. When friends heard his shop went underwater and his insurance did not cover water coming from the exterior, they started a GoFundMe campaign. “The community was extremely supportive,” Fisher said. After donations exceeded his GoFundMe goal, he used the surplus to help the Higher Ground coffee house next door, which was also devastated. Fisher has reopened the Style Bar on the second floor while cleanup continues downstairs. On Saturday he said, “I’ve been going from styling hair to throwing out garbage all day.”

R3 takes on water

A block farther inland the elevation drops lower and the area floods more, mostly due to the backup of Fife’s Creek when it can no longer empty into the Russian River. The R3 Hotel, Restaurant and Bar is located on Fourth Street, at the edge of that area of Guerneville. That is the area most photo-

Trans group grant

From page 8

tions from the 2017 El/La Community Needs Assessment, as well as the nonprofit’s three to five year strategic plan. In an effort to support a culture shift to become more data driven, “El/ la is implementing [results based accountability], as our data tracking and evaluation process. Staff are and will

News Briefs

From page 10

The Zamora scholarships are a program of the National AIDS Memorial Grove. The scholarships are named in honor of Zamora, an AIDS educator and television personality who died more than 20 years ago from an AIDS-related illness. The schol-

Resist

From page 13

Boycott continues

Manny’s and United to Save the Mission announced in a joint statement February 28 that they had entered into a memorandum of understanding whereby Manny’s would, among other things, “hire, train and maintain” a workforce that was proficient in Spanish and English, “ensure [the] Spanish language is equal-

Jock Talk

From page 13

a show for spectators. They are about participation. Period. As the Golden Gate Women’s Soccer League stated in its policies in January, the league “is a women’s league that welcomes cisgender women, intersex, transgender, and nonbinary individuals.”

ered him a special needs child. He had behavioral issues and was taking several medications at the time, but after sometime with Randall and Saldivar, he stopped taking his medications and stopped acting out. “Shortly before we got involved they told us if we didn’t succeed it was unlikely he would be put up for adoption again,” said Randall in a March 2006 B.A.R. story. “If you go by statistics, in seven or eight years he would have ended up homeless,

drug addicted, or in prison. It is pretty clear-cut and almost unbearable to think about.” Saldivar did not respond to a request for comment from the B.A.R. Police said that while arrests have been made, the case remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the SFPD 24-hour tip line at (415) 575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. People may remain anonymous. t

graphed when the Russian River floods, and it contains much of downtown’s more affordable housing, which was heavily impacted. “We took on nine feet of water and it will be a full gut job for us,” said gay R3 general manager Jeff Bridges. “About 10 employees lost their housing. Three are staying with me.” Bridges is also the vice president of the Russian River Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve hired a general contractor, have a crew in place, and lots of people volunteering their time,” he said, adding they’re expected to start gutting interiors this week. “We have a lot of storage space above where the flood reached, on the second floor of the resort,” he said. Bridges, 58, has used his relocated office on the upper floor to address multiple problems. “Customers can still reserve online, but we’ve canceled all reservations until May 1.” As he stood next to the R3’s oftenphotographed, muddy, and debrisfilled swimming pool, Bridges expressed cautious optimism about the resort’s future. “We are aiming to be open between May 1 and May 10, about 10 weeks from now,” he said. “Come back and take pictures as we rebuild.” Crista Luedtke, 45, is in the rare position of having businesses that

Courtesy SFPD

Defendant Gerald Rowe

Angel Anderson

were both spared and hit by the flood. She is the lesbian owner of boon eat + drink on Main Street, boon hotel + spa on Armstrong Woods Road, and a partner in El Barrio Bar, also on Main Street. She was a co-founder of Big Bottom Market on Main Street, which sells her Oprah Winfrey-recommended Big Bottom biscuits. Luedtke has been credited with helping reenergize downtown Guerneville since she opened her restaurant in 2009. Her businesses are LGBTQ-friendly but aim for a diverse clientele. “Boon’s section of Main goes under at 47 or 48 feet,” Luedtke pointed out. “Obviously, it was touch and go, but more or less the whole block was spared.” Still, she said she and her staff “put everything we could on a higher level.” Her hotel, however, is at a lower elevation. “My hotel took on 30 inches or more, but the water had to rise about three or four feet more before it would get into the rooms,” she said. The hotel floods from two nearby creeks, not the river. Because the river is flowing so high, the creeks can’t empty. “We have flooded before when the river has not,” Luedtke said. But the in-ground resort pool has a unique problem, she explained. The high winter water table means

they cannot empty the pool if mud gets in it, because the pool might pop out of the ground. So she decided to try to keep the mud out and explained what they did. “I filled the pool up to the coping, then covered it with Visqueen [polyethylene plastic sheeting] and sandbagged the perimeter; after the water went down, we found about 10 inches of silt on top; we were able to power wash and sweep it off completely.” When they were done, Luedtke said, “We removed the cover and found the water untouched.” There was plenty of other cleaning to do. “As soon as we could get back into the property, we were ready with a crew of 10,” she said. “We had a guest checking in Friday night,” Luedtke said, “and we told him to come up. By the time he arrived, the hot tub had been drained, cleaned, and refilled.” This flood caught a lot of people by surprise. According to NOAA, the river last week took only 27 hours to rise from 32 feet to its crest at 45.5 feet. Luedtke was returning from a trip and heard on Monday as she was flying back that the river was going to 37 feet, then when she landed on Tuesday, she heard going to 48 feet or higher. “River Road was already closing,”

she said. “I chose to stay not at home so I could get into my businesses even if roads were closed.” Dave Davis and his husband, Ken Sansone, live above Drake Road, which crosses one of the first areas to flood. Davis remembered one eerie sight was watching water move up Drake Road as they retreated to higher ground. On Friday, the West County Health Center’s main clinic and homeless service center were reopened, as residents started piling their soggy and destroyed possessions by the curb. “The Valentine’s Day Flood threw everyone off with what to expect with this flood,” Fisher said, a sentiment expressed by many in Guerneville. If some businesses are not open yet, Luedtke said, “Everyone is getting at it right away, and everybody is super-motivated to get moving.” By Saturday night, supporting Luedtke’s statement, most restaurants and bars on Main Street in Guerneville were open and humming, as was Chile Pies and Nimble and Finn’s ice cream in the historic Guerneville Bank Club. “There will be many, many heroes in Guerneville’s recovery,” Fisher said. Luedtke had a similar message. “Everyone tries to help,” she said. “That’s what I love about living here.” t

continue to be trained on RBA,” states the grant proposal. Lastly, staff training will be conducted to improve technology skills, fluency in English, and, for the two co-executive directors, skill building surrounding budgets, reports, compliance, and leadership. For both organizations, the grant money will enable them to carry out their mission, to end violence against trans people and provide them with

resources to live an equitable and safe life, officials said. “The fact is that there is so much stigma and oppression for trans women as youth, they often end up homeless,” Jackson said. “They don’t feel safe to go to school, to get an education, and are often not aware of the resources available to them. Putting those barriers in the way perpetuates violence. We are here to make sure everything is equitable and to address these issues.”

The 2015 LGBTQI Violence Prevention Needs Assessment reported that trans women of color are up to seven times more likely to feel unsafe in their daily lives than cisgender people, and they experience pervasive concerns about the lack of access to housing, basic health and support services, and safe spaces to gather and socialize. Farley added, “TAJA Coalition has really represented their commitment

to addressing the violence that trans women of color and people of color experience in the past. We really felt like awarding them this grant to foster their new programs and services that are really informed by the communities most impacted by homelessness and violence that we see.” El/La Para TransLatinas and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development did not respond to requests for comment. t

arship program is funded primarily through grants provided by Wells Fargo and Gilead. Scholarship applications are being accepted through 5 p.m. May 31 and can be downloaded from the grove’s website, http://www. aidsmemorial.org. In a news release, the grove said that last year it awarded a total of $50,000 to 10 students and intends to give at least that amount this

year. Since the program began in 2009, a total of $250,000 has been awarded to students.

atory committee to run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Since then, he has garnered some media attention and his new book, “The Shortest Way Home,” has become a best-seller. Buttigieg will be interviewed by Mother Jones editor in chief Clara Jeffery. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Marines’ Memorial Club, 609 Sutter Street, 10th Floor. Check-in

begins at 5:30. Tickets are $30 for club members and $40 for non-members. Premium tickets (includes a book and seating in the first few rows) are $60 for members and $70 for non-members. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https:// www.commonwealthclub.org/inforum. t

ly represented in events, menus and general signage” and “ensure strong Mission representation on Manny’s advisory board.” Manny’s, a cafe and wine bar at 3092 16th Street founded by Manny Yekutiel, a gay Jewish man, has been picketed every Wednesday evening by a growing coalition of groups including Gay Shame, the Lucy Parsons Project, the Brown Berets, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Organization, and the Bound Together Anarchist Collective Bookstore since

December. Members of the coalition, which object to the gentrifying effects of Manny’s on the Mission as well as Yekutiel’s declared support for political Zionism, intend to continue their pickets, with Gay Shame tweeting rhetorically on March 1, “When will it stop? Not till it’s shut down.” Yekutiel said the MOU speaks for itself. “We have no further comment, and are directing people to the recent joint statement from the coalition of Mission advocacy groups that make

up United to Save the Mission and Manny’s,” Yekutiel wrote in an email response for comment.

ed to go “in a different direction” and was canceling the column entirely. For those of you who have followed these pages for almost the last two years, thank you. While Resist may have ended, my resistance – and I hope, yours as well – has not. There’s a country to take back and a world to save and I hope what you’ve read here has been of assistance in your efforts to do both. t

’Nuff said. When you get to professional and elite sports, the stakes change, as do people’s attitudes. Policies are driven less by athlete concerns and more by efforts to manage public perceptions, while maximizing revenue. Performance enhancing drugs are banned and vilified (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), but young female skaters can get nose jobs to enhance

their beauty and all athletes can get eye surgery to “correct” that which nature gave them and allow them to see targets and balls better. Those are medically necessary choices to gain competitive advantages. “I have always, and will always be, a champion of democracy, equal rights, human rights, and full protection under the law for everyone,” Navratilova

wrote. Referring to being called transphobic or a TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist), she wrote, “When I talk about sports and rules that must be fair, I am not trying to exclude trans people from living a full, healthy life.” A full, healthy life. Presumably that would include the right and the opportunity to play sports. “All I am trying to do is to make

Buttigieg coming to Inforum

Gay millennial presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg will appear at Inforum, part of the Commonwealth Club, Thursday, March 28. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced in January that he was forming an explor-

Surprised

All good things

This marks the last Resist column, both for me and for the Bay Area Reporter. While it was always intended to be limited in time – for the last 19 months I’ve written it, I had secretly hoped the last entry would be a postmortem of the regime after its collapse – I was disappointed to learn on February 21 that the paper had decid-

Got a tip? Email me at christina@ diedoardolaw.com.

sure girls and women who were born female are competing on as level a playing field as possible within their sport,” Navratilova wrote. She is silent on what she is trying to do to, or for, women who were told when they were born that they were males. t

t <<

Community News >>

Zoning changes

nightclubs are banned from opening. Nor will the zoning likely impact what many consider to be sky-high rents landlords are asking for vacant storefronts. For instance, the former Pottery Barn space at Market and Castro streets is reportedly seeking $750,000 a year in rent. The space that had housed Harvest Ranch Market, at 2285 Market Street, is seeking $42,500 a month to lease. Neighborhood leaders said this week they have not heard of any new businesses planning to open in either storefront.

And businesses would be allowed to stock more items for sale on the sidewalk in front of their stores, such as gardening supplies, plants, and building materials. “For anyone who has taken a stroll up Market Street, it is clear that the neighborhood needs some love,” said Mandelman, who made addressing retail vacancies a top priority during his campaign for the supervisor seat. “There are a lot of vacant storefronts; that’s been a challenge for some time. It certainly seems to be as bad or getting worse.” One form of retail that has sprouted along upper Market Street in recent years is medical office use. Two emergency walk-in medical clinics have opened, while primary care provider One Medical is constructing an office in the former Myriad food hall that had taken up roughly half of the ground floor retail space

The zoning changes are also aimed at reducing the amount of time it takes for a new business to open along upper Market Street. According to a report released Tuesday by the city’s budget and legislative analyst, it takes a year for most businesses in the commercial corridor to secure their permits from the planning department. The report also found that, when combined with obtaining a building permit and approval for construction work performed, it takes new businesses roughly 18 months to secure all the necessary approvals they need in order to open their doors. And as the report noted, during that time “the associated commercial storefronts are often vacant.” The report also determined that businesses wanting to open in the upper Market/Castro commercial district are subjected “to more restrictive conditional use authorization requirements” than those in the comparable, nearby commercial

areas of Valencia Street and Hayes Valley. The approval process in those neighborhoods is nearly two months shorter than in the Castro, found the report. Mandelman hopes to see the zoning changes put in place by the summer. “I am hopeful this will bring some positive changes to upper Market,” he told the B.A.R. Neighborhood leaders expressed support for the proposal. “What we are really tired of is having empty storefronts,” said Kimyn Braithwaite, president of the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association that borders much of upper Market Street between Church and Noe Streets. “So we are happy to have some change that will hopefully activate a lot of the empty spaces that we have.” Daniel Bergerac, president of the Castro Merchants business association, also welcomed the zoning proposal. While it is limited in scope, he believes it should make it easier for locally owned businesses to open. “We are not talking about major, major changes to how things are done,” noted Bergerac. “It is just lessening some of the burden to get new businesses in. I think lessening the archaic rules around beer and wine service are probably the most significant in my mind. It is so important for businesses to have that profit center.” None of the restrictions enacted in recent years that have made it harder for chain stores to open along upper Market Street are being rescinded. And the legislation does not change the zoning in the heart of the Castro district, along the 400 and 500 blocks of Castro Street, where new bars and

Rabbi Lisa Edwards, Ph.D. According to her biography, Edwards is the longtime rabbi at Congregation Beth Chayim Chadashim, the first synagogue in the world founded by gays and lesbians, and today an inclusive, progressive community celebrating Jewish faith and culture. There was one light moment when Assemblyman Richard Bloom (DSanta Monica) stood with his honoree, LGBT ally and comedian Kathy Griffin. After she was presented with

her plaque, she shouted “Screw Donald Trump!” to much laughter in the chamber. Griffin was recognized for her brand of pull-no-punches comedy. Over on the Senate side, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) honored Nicky “Tita Aida” Calma, a trans woman who has spent her life working in health promotion with a focus on HIV/ AIDS and transgender issues. “Thank you so much Scott for this recognition,” Calma wrote on Facebook.

During the luncheon, Siebel Newsom, who has long championed women’s rights, told the honorees and lawmakers that “Women’s History Month has never felt more important. One woman’s story can change the world.” She also mentioned the importance of a diversity of voices, saying that African-American women, LGBTQ women, and others make society better when they hold seats of power. She pointed out the economic dis-

parities faced by women, who typically earn 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. The amount is even less for women of color. The wealth gap, she said, means that women have only 32 cents for every dollar a man has. “California is taking steps to address this disparity,” Siebel Newsom said. t

at 2175 Market Street at the corner of 15th Street. Under current rules, such businesses do not require a conditional use permit in order to open. But they would under the zoning change Mandelman has proposed. Rather than ban them outright, Mandelman prefers requiring them to seek support from the neighborhood for their permit application. “I think we have seen throughout the city a proliferation of those dropin clinics. They may be very convenient but they are able to pay higher rents and displace other neighborhood-serving retail uses,” said Mandelman.

From page 1

Mandelman, a gay man elected to the board in June, has spent months working with neighborhood leaders on legislative ideas to address the glut of vacant storefronts that line Market Street between Octavia Boulevard and Castro Street. The commercial corridor for years has seen tumult among its retail scene exacerbated by the construction of new housing developments built over ground floor storefronts that the developers have struggled to rent out. Having introduced his package of new rules for businesses along upper Market Street at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Mandelman’s proposal will first need to be approved by the city’s planning commission. It would then go before the supervisors and mayor for final approval. “We are trying to open up upper Market to uses that are beneficial and wouldn’t drive up rents too much in order to fill vacant storefronts,” Mandelman explained in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. Under the zoning changes, arts activities, nonprofits, and child care centers would be allowed to open on the first and second floors of a building along upper Market Street without the need for a conditional use permit. Such a business would need to apply for the permit if it wanted to open on the third floor or higher. Wine shops and restaurants that only sell wine and beer would no longer need to seek a conditional use permit if they wanted to open in a ground floor space. Those selling or serving liquor and spirits would.

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Lawmakers

From page 10

sula Solidarity Network, which involves congregations, schools, businesses, families, and individuals coming together to help defend victims of social and economic injustice. It also fights human rights violations and works to protect the safety of immigrants. In southern California, Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) recognized lesbian

Rick Gerharter

The vacant Harvest Ranch Market at 2285 Market Street awaits a new business.

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At the same time several new businesses should be opening in the coming weeks. Barry’s Bootcamp hopes to open later this month at 2280 Market Street, where a CVS had most recently operated. And Black Hammer Brewing is planning to open a beer garden at 2196 Market Street. A new gay-owned restaurant, Gramercy Park Brasserie & Wine Bar, plans to open at 216 Church Street, just off Market, in April. The Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District has moved into the former location of Snowbright Launderette, 693 14th Street at Market, and is planning to have an open house April 24. As for the zoning rules for the commercial corridor, Mandelman said he is open to proposing more changes to help businesses move into the area and fill the remaining vacant spaces. “We will continue to look for things we can do to make the situation better,” he said. t

Full disclosure: Victoria Kolakowski is the wife of Bay Area Reporter news editor Cynthia Laird.

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The San Francisco Youth Commission Transformative Justice Committee invites youth 12-24 years old to participate in a youth - police Roundtable. Beyond creating a space for truth and understanding, we wish to bring together solutions. The youth commission hopes to empower youth from different walks of life, who are at the forefront of the juvenile justice system, to sit down with law enforcement to come up with community oriented solutions to issues plaguing the current justice system and how it interacts with youth. The event will be held March 12th, 2019 at the SF Main Library Latino/ Hispanic Room A from 5 - 7 pm. For any questions or concerns, please contact Caroline.truong@sfgov.org RSVP here: h t t p s : / / w w w. e v e n t b r i t e . c o m / e / y o u t h - p o l i c e - r o u n d t a b l e - t i c kets-56439555229

Child support matters can be complicated, stressful, and confusing. The Department of Child Support Services helps parents understand the process so they know their rights and options for making and receiving support payments. Call us today at (866) 901-3212 or visit our office at 617 Mission Street to learn how we can help you. Information is also available online at www.sfgov.org/dcss. CNS-3225915#

<< Legals

16 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554609

In the matter of the application of: NATHAN LEE RICHARDSON, 573 DOLORES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner NATHAN LEE RICHARDSON, is requesting that the name NATHAN LEE RICHARDSON, be changed to CAMILO MOSES VILLALPANDO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 21st of March 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038497000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOMEOSTASIS, 200 BRANNAN ST #205, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IRENE SLEIGHT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/11/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038519700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ELLISON ROOFING; ACE ROOFING, 130 STAPLES AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ELLISON J. MA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/18/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038513700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARIANNA TRADING COMPANY, 70 LAPIDGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GEORGE S. MENZELOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/28/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/06/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038512600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PARALEGAL HOPE, 407 CAMBRIDGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HOPE ARNOLD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/05/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038515000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WORKOUT ON THE HILL, 370 THE ALAMEDA, SAN ANSELMO, CA 94960. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KRISTINA SCHUBERT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/06/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038486700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISS TOMATO SANDWICH SHOP / GEARY STREET, 577 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NABEEL ABDALLAH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038486800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISS TOMATO SANDWICH SHOP, 388 MARKET ST #106, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAREK SAIDI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038498500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HONG KONG ALTERATIONS & TAILORING, 1832 BUCHANAN ST, #D, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARRIE LAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/28/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038520400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO TREASURY SYMPOSIUM, 1750 GRANT AVE #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO TREASURY MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/19/97. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038488300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GLYMPS, 1238 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CHATZAPP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038509500

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038508700

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038510100

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038534900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHEESEQUAKES! 1 FERRY BUILDING KIOSK 06, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CHEESEQUAKES! LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/05/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JOLI BIJOU SALON, 2550 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HAIR BY GEORGETTE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/04/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035767400

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: JOLI BIJOU, 2550 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by MADALENA G. SEMEDO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/07/14.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554621 In the matter of the application of: HIEN VAN NGO, 44 SENECA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner HIEN VAN NGO, is requesting that the name HIEN VAN NGO, be changed to VICTOR ANDY NGO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 26th of March 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 21, 28, MAR 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038504200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WALK IT OFF, 775 5TH AVE, #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed APRIL MEINER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/19.

FEB 21, 28, MAR 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038525800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOWB, 1259 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DARREN COREY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/14/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/19.

FEB 21, 28, MAR 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038524300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUNG’S AUTOMOTIVE, 999 DIVISADERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CALVIN SUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/13/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/13/19.

FEB 21, 28, MAR 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038526400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BILL MOHLER FITNESS & WELLNESS, 1188 MISSION ST, #1416, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM MOHLER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/15/19.

FEB 21, 28, MAR 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038519800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: QUEEN ANNE HOTEL, 1590 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GOKEL CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/97. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/19.

FEB 21, 28, MAR 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038498200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WICKED GROUNDS ANNEX, 293 8TH ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SPIKY JANE’S COFFEE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/28/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/19.

FEB 21, 28, MAR 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038498300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WICKED GROUNDS CAFE, 289 8TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SPIKY JANE’S COFFEE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/19/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/19.

FEB 21, 28, MAR 07, 14, 2019

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LOS YAQUIS, 324 S. VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SALVADOR AGUIRRE SORIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/11/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: QIU’S JEWELRY & REPAIR, 833 MARKET ST #611, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZHEN HUI QIU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/22/19.

FEB 21, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038505400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BIRCH, 768 HAYES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TORRYNE CHOATE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038524400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AFFORDABLE HYDRO JETTING, 26 RIDGEWOOD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARTIN GALLARDO MACIAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/13/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038535600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CROSSXFADE PRODUCTIONS, 446 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TY MCKENZIE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/22/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038529800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ELAN FOR HAIR, 305 GRANT AVE, 5TH FLR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHEUNG ON NG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/19/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/19/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038529000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BREMAR CLEANING SERVICES, 4717 MISSION ST #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CONSUELO GONZALES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/15/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/19/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038530500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LOVE SHACK; LOVE SHACK BY SPARC, 502 14TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE LOVE SHACK COOPERATIVE, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/20/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038502600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LITTLE OSSAI; OSSAI, 548 MARKET ST #15585, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PAPER CLIP INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/30/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/30/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038532500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AMERICAN CORPORATE SERVICES, INC., ONE MARKET ST, SPEAR TOWER, 36TH FLR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AMERICAN CORPORATE SERVICES, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/16/01. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/21/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038529100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALIFORNIA HOUSING DEFENSE FUND, 1260 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CALIFORNIA RENTERS LEGAL ADVOCACY AND EDUCATION FUND (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/19/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038530000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038539100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACAI R, 1130 OCEAN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TANCHAN LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/19/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/19/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INFINITE TECH SERVICES, 105 MACDONALD AVE, DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALFREDO GOMEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/26/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038534400

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038535700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BARTLETT BRANDS, 84 MANGELS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed REBECCA BARTLETT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/14/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/22/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038526500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GIOIA PIZZERIA, 579 HAYES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HAYES STREET PIZZA, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/15/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038536700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRAND BENJAMIN, 2848 WEBSTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BRAND BENJAMIN LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/25/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/25/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038509700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: I’M COMING OUT (ICO), 1020 FAIRFAX AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PROJECT LIFE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/04/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/19.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037230300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: GIOIA PIZZERIA, 2238 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by POLK STREET PIZZA, LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/25/16.

FEB 28, MAR 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038537300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PACIFIC HEMP, 10 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SERGIO GUEVARA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/25/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038541400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOLY FAMILY, 195 OTSEGO AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAFAEL VARELA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/27/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/28/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038539600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LUXE NAILS, 520 MONTGOMERY ST #M03, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THANH LAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/26/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038538200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COMIC BOOK BEARDIES, 2275 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DARIN SCOTT ANDREWS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038533400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: X & T TRADING, 619 HYDE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by: an individual, and is signed VICTOR HUNG LUONG NG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/21/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/21/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038540300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VOLKOV LAW OFFICE, 5840 GEARY BLVD #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALEKSANDR A. VOLKOV. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/27/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAMBUNCTIOUS GARDENS, 4108 MORAGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANA BETTERLY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/22/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/22/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038518200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BERNAL HEIGHTS CRYSTALS, 906 CORTLAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAM YONKO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/08/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038529300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHEER SAN FRANCISCO, 584 CASTRO ST #307, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CHEER FOR LIFE FOUNDATION, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/04. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/19/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038545800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WINNING MEASURES, 400 MONTGOMERY ST, 7TH FLR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TERRIS BARNES WALTERS BOIGON HEATH, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/04/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038531100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOREN IZAKAYA, 1701 POWELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed H & K INVESTMENT GROUP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/19/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/20/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038542300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FISHTAIL MARKET, 352 TURK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LAXMI FINANCIAL INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/14/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/28/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038538700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ATLAS USA CONCRETE, 1183 SHAFTER AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed USA HAULING (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19. MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038528302

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE CENTER SF CO-WORK AND EVENT SPACE; THE CENTER SF TEA HOUSE & EVENT SPACE; THE CENTER SF, 546 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SHIVAYA TCSF, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/19/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038539500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CROSSROAD PIZZERIA, 1596 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed UNIVERSAL CAFE OF DELICACIES (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/26/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/26/19.

MAR 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019

/lgbtsf

Cappella call-out

Art of theft

Puppy love

Robert’s rules

Vol. 49 • No. 10 • March 7-13, 2019

www.ebar.com/arts

BD Wong brings it all home Cheshire Isaacs

by David-Elijah Nahmod

enowned actor and San Francisco native BD Wong returns to his hometown from March 6-31 to star in Lauren Yee’s “The Great Leap,” a new play at American Conservatory Theater. The play is about the relationship between two basketball coaches, one American and the other Chinese. The plot is driven by a young Asian American boy in San Francisco’s Chinatown who desperately wants to be on the team. He talks the American coach into letting him play so he can go and play in China. The show is partly about the boy learning about himself. See page 24 >>

Broadway actor BD Wong is back in San Francisco to star in a play for ACT.

Scene from “The Cakemaker,” playing “Berlin & Beyond.” Courtesy BBFF

Beckett vs. Beefcake by Jim Gladstone

C by David Lamble

Joseph Tally

German Zeitgeist

all it an intimate experiment. For four performances over the next two weekends, San Francisco’s venerable queer Theatre Rhinoceros, which usually mounts its plays at the 175-seat Gateway Theater in Jackson Square, will present its first “pop-up” show in the heart of the Castro. See page 23 >>

he 23rd Berlin & Beyond Film Festival, unspooling new films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, kicks off at the Castro Theatre (March 8-10), with encore screenings March 11 at Berkeley’s Shattuck Cinemas, concluding with specialty programs at the Goethe-Institut (March 12-14). Once again the festival demonstrates its track record for showcasing films with LGBTQ content. See page 24 >>

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Jordan Ong (as Mark, an actor playing Estragon) and Francisco Rodriguez (as Tim, an actor playing Vladimir) in “The Underpants Godot,” a Theatre Rhinoceros Pop-Up Production at Spark Arts.

<< Out There

18 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

Flower of old New York

StevenUnderhill PHOTOGRAPHY

cautionary tale about the corruption and graft endemic to politics without sufficient oversight and regulation (see “Citizens United”). It’s worth more than a few chuckles as characters imitate Tammany Hall pols caught with their hands in the bribery cookie jar. But it’s a sober reflection of the even more insidious corruption and graft afoot in 2019 America. We wonder what Fiorello La Guardia (“The Little Flower”) would have said about the billionaire kleptocrats currently sullying the Cabinet, the gross and greedy crime family stinking up the White House, and the aidingand-abetting, disgraced G.O.P. now led by one Donald J. Trump (“The Orange Ignoramus”). It’s hard to see the musical of real-life American politics ending quite so harmoniously.

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Colin Thomson as Fiorello La Guardia in 42nd Street Moon’s “Fiorello!”

by Roberto Friedman

he Bay Area theatre group 42nd Street Moon is known for producing works from the history of American musical theatre – some popular and well-loved, some surprisingly obscure, some perhaps deservedly forgotten. They have struck veritable gold in their current offering, the 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical “Fiorello!” Out There was happily in the house opening night at the Gateway Theater in San Francisco, where it plays through March 17. The vintage musical (book by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott; music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, who would go on to write music & lyrics for “Fiddler on the Roof ”) is based on the life and political career of Fiorello Enrico La Guardia, who was Attorney General of New York, Congressman, and then popular Mayor of New York City (1934-45), and gave his name to one of three major NYCserving airports. You would think this would all be ancient history, but the musical’s message about the dirty game of politics is surprisingly relevant today. The old-fashioned proceedings begin in La Guardia’s law offices, where he and his underpaid, overworked staff labor tirelessly on behalf of the impoverished and downtrodden, many of them recent immigrants who don’t have the resources to deal with their legal problems (“On the Side of the Angels”). Sound like nonprofits on a shoestring that provide social services to the needy today? Soon we are privy to the backroom wheeling and dealing that determine political fortunes in big cities with City Hall cronyism and corrupt political machines such as Tammany Hall and other municipal mafias (“Politics and Poker”). But this is popular entertainment with a progressive political consciousness that includes being on the side of labor in the face of poor working conditions and other capitalist exploitations. We follow a

In a curtain speech before last Saturday night’s performance, 42nd Street Moon co-executive directors Daren A.C. Carollo and Daniel Thomas announced the attractions for its upcoming 2019-20 season. The company will mount full productions of “Hot Mikado” (Sept. 25-Oct. 13), “Scrooge in Love!” (Dec. 4-23), “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (Feb. 26-March 15, 2020), “The Pajama Game” (April 15-May 3), “Merrily We Roll Along” (the 1981 musical) (May 13-June 14), and “Merrily We Roll Along” (the 1934 play) (May 20-June 23). Their 2019-20 season, 42nd Street Moon’s 27th in operation, will also include “Titanic the Musical in Concert” (Sept. 7 & 8, 2019) and the inauguration of two ambitious new programs, the “Back-to-Back Series” and “The Sondheim Sweep.” In the first series, Moon will present a classic musical and the play that inspired it; the second series reflects the company’s intention to become the first theatre to eventually present Stephen Sondheim’s entire body of work, as a lyricist, playwright, composer, and composer/lyricist. Next season’s last two offerings kick off both ambitions: Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 musical “Merrily” and the play that inspired it, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s 1934 work of the same name. That play will also be the first non-musical that Moon has ever presented.t

female garment workers’ strike for a living wage (“Unfair”). La Guardia is on the side of the working class, and begins his political career against all odds (“The Bum Won”). From the title role, ably performed by Colin Thomson, on down through all the roles and ensemble, the cast directed by Karen Altree Piemme sings beautifully and gives it their very best. The principal players all have a chance to shine, as Katrina Lauren McGraw, Sean Fenton and Matt Hammons do as office staffers in “Side of the Angels” and “Marie’s Law,” Amanda Johnson does as first wife Thea in “When Did I Fall in Love,” and Chris Vettel does as head politico Ben in “Little Tin Box.” As Dora, Marisa Cozart falls for a man in a uniform in “I Love a Cop.” Catrina Manahan offers a larky “Gentleman Info: www.42ndstmoon.org Jimmy” as flapper showgirl Mitzi, in the thrall of a playboy pol. The catchy melodies, hapless antics and creaky plot devices of a classic musical are all part of the fun. It’s a fast and entertaining ride through early20th-century New York politics and culture. But there is a serious message to be discerned under all the show-business frippery. You hear it in the slyly satiric lyrics: “Politics and poker, running neck and neck,/If politics seems more predictable,/That’s because usually you can stack the deck!” From “The Bum Won”: “Who’d ever guess that the people/Would go to the polls and elect a fanatic?!/ People can do what they want to,/But I got a feeling it ain’t democratic!” From “I Love a Cop”: “Oh, how gruesome,/ Can you see me introduce him?/’You remember her – she detested you,’/’You Ben Krantz Studio remember him – he arChris Vettel as Ben Marino in 42nd Street rested you.’” Moon’s “Fiorello!” The score’s most famous song, “Little Tin Box” is a

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<< Music

20 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

Chamber choir music for all seasons by Philip Campbell

wedish conductor Ragnar Bohlin, Grammy Award-winning music director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, founded professional chamber choir Cappella SF in 2014. Concerts in Berkeley and, most recently, at Mission Dolores Basilica celebrated the adventurous group’s five-year anniversary. “Unveiling: New Music from Sweden and America” included some US and world premieres in a smartly produced program featuring an enduringly successful Bay Area composer and a promising new voice from Scandinavia. Composer-in-residence with Cappella SF from the beginning, David Conte was one of the last students of Nadia Boulanger, studying with her from 1975-78 on a Fulbright Scholarship. In the summer of 1982, he lived and worked in Aaron Copland’s house, preparing a study of his manuscript sketches. His subsequent career has been filled with commissions and performances of his own music. An accomplished pianist, he is also Professor of Composition, Chair at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Conte is an out gay man, with a partner of 14 years. He has contributed extraordinary gay-themed scores to the repertoire, including an impressive list of commissions for GALA Chorus, and he has published over 150 compositions with prominent music company E.C. Schirmer.

Courtesy the subject

Cappella SF composer-inresidence David Conte.

His breakout score “Invocation and Dance” was commissioned by the SF Gay Men’s Chorus in 1986, and “Elegy for Matthew (In Memory of Matthew Shepard),” commissioned by the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus, premiered in Carnegie Hall in 1999. For the most recent “Unveiling,” Cappella SF presented his musical cycle “Madrigals for the Seasons,” with two newly completed movements added to the original pair, which premiered in 2015. Each section shows the composer’s discerning taste in poetry and his ease with both operatic and choral writing. His sympathy for vocalists is clear. A “longtime happy resident of California,” Conte recalls the seasonal changes of his Midwestern

Jacob Muhlrad, the youngest Swede on the program (b.1991), attended the concert for the US premiere of his composition “Time.” He says it “is not about anything,” but with or without a plot, there is a lot going on. The program notes remark on his “astonishing” rise in Scandinavia despite “suffering from severe dyslexia.” His learning and communication disability Courtesy Cappella SF is challenging. Knowing he Cappella SF with founder and conductor Ragnar Bohlin. has taught himself to read music and play piano by ear increased our appreciation. Muhlrad confides some of past in an appealing musical calrecorded on the CD “Facing West: his inspiration for “Time,” making endar. “A Summer’s Day” (words Choral Music of Conrad Susa and a metaphor of the Biblical Tower of by Emily Dickinson) deepens David Conte.” Babel for contemporary relevance. into “Autumn” (John Clare) and Bohlin has earned special praise The title word is uttered repeatedly the emotional heart of the piece, for his expert guidance of Capin 104 different languages. Addi“Snow-flakes” (words by Henry pella SF. The group sounds almost tional flavoring is drawn from the Wadsworth Longfellow), which impossibly well-blended, but someceremonies and rituals of Jewish takes listeners to a poignant winter how maintains its unique personalliturgy and mysticism. landscape. The concluding madrigal ity. They make it all look so simple. Soprano soloists Kelly Ballou “Spring” (William Blake) includes a Flawless unison pitch was apparent and Cara Gabrielson, tenors Mijaunty piano, punctuating a sunny throughout the concert, pleasingly chael Jankosky and Kevin Gibbs, display of choral vitality. enhanced by the Basilica’s acoustic. and baritone Nick Volkert warmed Ragnar Bohlin’s association with The opening “When David Heard” the otherworldly atmosphere with Conte dates back to when he took by Eric Whitacre, with a fine tenor cantorial expressiveness. Conductor over as conductor of the San Fransolo by Elliott Encarnacion, was imBohlin merged his expertise with cisco Conservatory Chorus, which mediately engaging. innovative choral music (think GyConte conducted from 2000-14. Deep reserves of power illumiorgy Ligeti) to shed more light on Their alliance has continued with nated Swedish composers Carl the mysterious soundscape. well-received performances of the Unander-Scharin’s “Djupt under Cappella SF’s “Unveiling” of new composer’s music with the SFS dagens yta” (“Deep below the surworks from Sweden and America Chorus and choruses throughout face of the day”), Motet No. 5, and was a truly memorable anniversary Europe and Asia. “Invocation and the world premiere of Fredrik Sixparty.t Dance” (with SFS Chorus) has been ten’s impressive “Seek Him!”

More lessons from opera by Tim Pfaff

“I

t’s nothing to do with loving a man,” government prosecutor

Mortimer screams at King Edward II at the beginning of George Benjamin’s third opera, “Lessons in Love and Violence.” He pays heavily for

his Polonius-like dissembling before it’s all over, but the syllabus for “Lessons,” which includes teachings on other subjects, does not omit everything to do with a man loving a man. Opus Arte’s new video of the 2018 London Royal Opera premiere – which, like Benjamin’s previous opera “Written on Skin,” has already spawned performances by musicians in addition to those in the traveling shared production – solves the piece’s principal problem for the audience. Enough of the vocal music is layered – and, in contrast to the intimacy of “Skin,” erupting in frequent, sudden, sometimes big ensembles – that subtitles count for much. Brilliant and abiding as “Skin” has proved, it predicted that there was more where it came from. Although it clocks in at a comparable 90 minutes, “Lessons” is in all respects a bigger opera, harder work for everyone if a giant step farther away from “Tosca.” It yields greater dividends on successive encounters, but what matters is that it also pays up-front. Like “Skin,” it shows all of itself to first-timers. It’s in this that it’s least like the operas of Thomas Ades, who otherwise could be Benjamin’s more extroverted, equally multifaceted musical double. Except for “Powder Her Face,” Ades’ dazzling one-act debut in the form, his operas remain work, all of it hard and geared to connoisseurs. You don’t exit “Lessons” whistling its tunes, either, but Benjamin, his librettist Martin Crimp and a roster of musicians for whom he conceived the music parlay so focused an ensemble effort that you get that rarest of payoffs: forgetting that you’re in the theater. The story of Kind Edward’s fatal love for his favored courtier Gaveston is best-known from the play by Christopher Marlowe. Without being heavy-handed about it, Benjamin and his team, including director-designer Katie Mitchell, make it present-day, not

just modern-dress. There’s hollering about Edward’s being “not fit to rule,” and his thirdin-the-bed wife Isabel frequently acts like FLOTUS with better English, but you never get topically distracted from a taut story whose every horror leads to one worse. The huddled, starving masses hauled before the king are in their way as convincing individually as their counterparts in Verdi, and Isabel’s dissolving a pearl in vinegar to show them that its value is not just what it can buy is momentarily showstopping. The court’s preference for culture over populace self-destructs before our wondering eyes, culminating in a savage play within the opera. What leapt out at me this goaround was Crimp’s harping on the subject of music itself. Like the pearl, his text says in many ways, music has no predominant let alone absolute value, even or perhaps especially in a court where entertainment holds sway – a striking note to sound in an opera libretto. But there’s no time in “Lessons in Love and Violence” for a recess for sentimentality. That said, it’s Benjamin’s translucent score that both grounds and elevates the piece. No one today writes better music for the voice, to the extent that it all but deflects attention from its pitiless difficulty. The ghastly duet in which Gaveston reads the king’s palm opens out into a larger ensemble before you know it, setting the stage for the opera’s crushing denouement, when the king pleads with Gaveston to tell how he dies. The orchestration is so extraordinary and protean that, except at its noisiest and during the short interludes during which no one sings, you forget about it, as you

do in a “Tristan” given its due. While over the course of the opera his character becomes no more important than any other, out baritone Stephane Degout keeps the king a towering enough figure for there to be a tragedy, singing and acting over a dramatic range from whispered to stentorian. As Queen Isabel, Barbara Hannigan adds to the list of things she can do while also singing torturous music as if it were Gluck, smoking cigarettes with authority. She seizes on the bipolarity inherent in the role, showcasing its extremities, ultimately gaining our sympathy by having done nothing to coax it out of us. Gyula Orendt leads with the menace crucial to the role of Gaveston, is genuinely sexy in a manner that trades in danger and slithers through music that ranges back and forth between the baritonal and the falsettist with cunning, slippery ease. Peter Hoare’s Mortimer eschews easy bluster for building a character whose own evil precipitates a rise and fall in the end all too literally Oedipal. The large, uniformly excellent auxiliary cast is a menagerie of individuals, and in the pit Benjamin is their clandestinely demonic ringmaster.t

TV>>

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Founding sister of women’s music by Brian Bromberger

“I

believe through the gentleness of song one can say, I invite you to your best self. But if you’re not ready to go there, we’re going to move onto the best of humanity, whether you come with us or not.” That’s a succinct statement expressing the philosophy of LGBTQ feminist singer-composer-activist Holly Near, one of the founders of the 1970s Women’s Music movement, profiled in a new “American Masters” episode that premiered on PBS March 1, streamable throughout the month. Her friend Jane Fonda observes that Near’s artistry unlocks the heart. Feminist guru Gloria Steinem credits Near with enabling her to experience music both communally and as a movement. Political activist Torie Osborne comments that Near has a gift for “bringing radical ideas into an all-American package to audiences, and inspires them in a way no one else has.” This tribute documentary was released to commemorate Near’s 70th birthday in June, but her career is ongoing, her crystalline

named Woman of the Year by voice lyrical as ever. Ms. magazine. Born in Ukiah, she became In 1972 she became one of involved in a local folk group at the first women to create an a young age. She rebelled early, independent record compafighting for girls to wear pants ny, Redwood, to produce her on Fridays in high school. Voted own music. She organized Homecoming Queen in her Women’s Music Festival senior year, she acted in several concerts so lesbians could TV shows including “The Parlegitimize themselves, believtridge Family,” as well as in B ing music acts as an agent for films, and was a cast member social change. The concerts in the Broadway musical “Hair.” often led to workshops on Not thin, she knew she would political organizing. She be relegated to character parts, linked together social justice so she began focusing on music. She wrote the song “It Could movements in Latin AmerHave Been Me” to protest the ica, especially Chile. Her 1970 Kent State killings. In 1971 anti-war concerts made her PBS she joined the “Free the Army” popular, but because some “American Masters” presents the story of tour, an anti-Vietnam War variof her later concerts were for pioneering feminist singer-activist Holly Near. ety show with Jane Fonda. She women only, men who liked met feminist women, and along her music felt excluded. Her with Meg Christian, Cris Wilcareer suffered, denying her ously identifying as heterosexual, liamson, and Margie Adam formed money and mainstream fame. she fell in love with Meg Christian “Women on Wheels,” a concert that Her most famous song, “Singing and wrote the song “Imagine My toured California, where women for Our Lives,” virtually the LGBTQ Surprise” to announce her coming “could express their full humannational anthem, was written while out as a lesbian in a 1976 interview ity in ways appropriate to them, as driving to San Francisco after Suwith People magazine. Thousands opposed to being defined by the pervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor of women came out as a result of dominant culture.” Although previGeorge Moscone were assassinated. hearing that song, and Near was

The song is part of the Unitarian hymnal, and has been sung in protests throughout the world. Near subsidized Redwood with her own money, then as a nonprofit, but it went bankrupt after 18 years. She wrote an autobiography, “Fire in the Rain, Singer in the Storm,” looking back on her activism. It was adapted as a stage vehicle, but after a negative review, the producer cancelled the show. She alienated her fans when she started a relationship with a man in 1994, arguing for fluidity in sexual orientation. When asked if she was gay, straight, or bisexual, she replied, “I’m monogamous. I don’t know about the rest.” She continues to tour, interested in gender-based violence and peace ventures, and released her 31st album last year. As this affectionate documentary makes clear, her daily experiences and politics are the source of Near’s creativity. Steinem sums up Near best when she notes that all her causes speak to her same worldview, “that human beings are linked rather than ranked.”t

Total pop-song coverage inda Ronstadt is known as a gifted interpreter of other people’s songs. Known for revitalizing classic pop songs (“That’ll Be the Day”), and leaving her mark on songs by Anna McGarrigle (“Heart Like a Wheel”) and Dolly Parton (“I Will Always Love You”), Ronstadt’s voice was a one-of-a-kind-instrument. That made her 2010s Parkinson’s diagnosis and the loss of her singing ability that much more devastating. “Live in Hollywood” (Rhino), the long lost/recently rediscovered audio recording from Ronstadt’s 1980 HBO concert, is cause for celebration. Featuring songs from “Don’t Cry Now,” “Heart Like a Wheel,” “Simple Dreams,” “Living in the USA” and “Mad Love,” this live recording finds Ronstadt at the top of her game, singing a section of “Blue Bayou” in Spanish, giving listeners a taste of what they would later hear on her “Canciones” albums. Be sure to read John Boylan’s liner notes about how the album came to be. A covers album of sorts, “Dumplin’: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” (RCA) features Dolly Parton teaming up with a variety of artists to perform some of her songs. It’s an album accompaniment to the 2018 Netflix movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Danielle Macdonald. Parton duets with Sia (“Here I Am”), Elle King (“Holdin’ on to You”), Mavis

solo performer, enlisted son Teddy Thompson, Martha Wainwright, actor Colin Firth, diva Justin Vivian Bond and others for this delightful project recorded live at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. To observe the 100th birthday of Nat King Cole, the John Pizzarelli Trio, led by jazz guitarist and vocalist Pizzarelli, pays homage on “For Centennial Reasons: 100 Year Salute to Nat King Cole” (Ghostlight Deluxe). In addition to Cole numbers “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “The Very Thought of You” and “(Get

Your Kicks On) Route 66,” Pizzarelli contributed a pair of originals, “A Hundred Years from Now” and “Nat King Cool.” The late Pete Seeger is another music legend who would be celebrating his 100th birthday in 2019. Folk musician John McCutcheon pays homage to Seeger on “To Everyone in All the World: A Celebration of Pete Seeger” (Appalsongs), featuring 15 songs written, co-written or covered by Seeger over the course of his inspirational career.

French jazz vocalist Cyrille Aimée sets her sights on American musical theater legend Stephen Sondheim on “Move On: A Sondheim Adventure” (Mack Avenue). Highlights include her interpretations of “Marry Me a Little” (from the show of the same name), “Take Me to the World” (from “Evening Primrose”), “Being Alive” (from “Company”), “Not While I’m Around” (from “Sweeney Todd”), “No One Is Alone” (from “Into the Woods”) and “Move On” (from “Sunday in the Park with George”).t

Staples (“Why”), Miranda Lambert (“Dumb Blonde”), Rhonda Vincent and Alison Krauss (“If We Don’t”), Macy Gray and Dorothy (“Two Doors Down”) and Willa Amal (“Here You Come Again”). Rest assured, the album is better than the movie. Performing cover tunes is nothing new to former Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry. His 1973 solo debut “These Foolish Things” found him interpreting songs by the Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys and Dylan. For 2012’s “The Jazz Age,” Ferry took an all-instrumental approach to songs from his catalog including Roxy Music tunes and solo work. On “Bittersweet” (BMG), Bryan Ferry and his Orchestra return to those sources, but this time Ferry provides vocals for some tracks. The tasty songs go down easy. With the exception of two originals co-written by 21st century crooner Michael Bublé, the songs on “Love” (Reprise) consist of Bublé’s lush covers of beloved standards on the theme of romance. His snappy take on “I Only Have Eyes for You” twinkles. “When I Fall in Love” and “My Funny Valentine” are lush, while the Loren Allred duet on “Help Me Make It Through the Night” adds an unexpected bit of twang. One of the biggest surprises is the modern number “Love You Anymore” (co-written by Charlie Puth), which places the album in the present moment. The deluxe package features bonus tracks “I Get a Kick Out of You” and “When You’re Not Here.” For those who don’t remember Wilco’s alt-country roots, a twangy cover of “I Got You (At the End of the Century)” serves as a reminder on “Sharing the Covers” (YepRoc) by North Carolina-based bluegrass quartet Chatham County Line. Other artists given a similar treatment by the foursome include Beck (“Think I’m in Love”), the Rolling Stones (“The Last Time”), John Lennon (“Watching the Wheels”) and Tom Petty (“You Don’t Know How It Feels”). Featuring an all-star cast of performers, “Linda Thompson presents My Mother Doesn’t Know I’m on the Stage” (Omnivore) is an affectionate celebration of songs from the British music hall tradition. Thompson, known for membership in Fairport Convention, as one-half of the musical duo Richard & Linda Thompson, as well as a

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<< Film

22 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

Mission: Art-Historical Heist by Sura Wood

“I

wanted to make something that wouldn’t be boring,” states Slovenian-born filmmaker Milorad Krstic, and he has succeeded beyond measure in his wildly original debut feature “Ruben Brandt, Collector.” Krstic, a recovering lawyer who’s now a practicing painter and multimedia artist based in Hungary, has created an animated film that is truly unique and nearly impossible to describe. A shadowy twisted noir, a psychological horror thriller, and an encyclopedic art-history adventure film with action sequences rivaling the complexity of “Mission: Impossible,” it roars to life after a heist from a Cleopatra exhibition with an almost 10-minute, elaborately choreographed car chase through the streets of nighttime Paris, with scenic views of the Seine and souped-up vintage automobiles – and that’s just for starters. It’s also a feast for fine art aficionados and movie buffs, with more than 100 cinematic and art historical references, from Caravaggio, Gauguin and Picasso to Dali, Hopper and Magritte. Half the fun is spotting them along with way; note the ice cubes shaped like Alfred Hitchcock bobbing in a cocktail tumbler. “The whole film is an homage to Hitchcock,” says Krstic, and the irresistible hook and fiendishly devilish plot would certainly suggest a debt to the perversity of the master of suspense. The protagonist Ruben Brandt, a famous psychotherapist scarred by childhood trauma, en-

lists a willing quartet of his criminally inclined patients to steal 13 masterpieces that have haunted the terrifying nightmares he’s suffered since he was young. The unwitting subject of subliminal mind experiments at the hands of his East German scientist father, who tried and failed to transform his son into a great artist, Brandt is spooked by Warhol’s multiple Elvis Presleys, who, at one point, challenge him to a “High Noon”-style duel. In another scene the enraged character from Diego Velazquez’s “The Infanta Margarita Teresa of Spain” assaults Brandt in a compartment on a moving train; later, the long tresses of Sandro Botticelli’s Venus reach out from the canvas to caress him before strangling and pulling him into her underwater lair. Even Van Gogh’s Postman Joseph Roulin stops by. What’s a doctor to do? Brandt, whose name is a play on Rubens and Rembrandt, is a poster boy for the adage “Physician, heal thyself ” – but maybe not by means of a crime spree that sees the gang of globetrotting thieves hitting esteemed museums from the Hermitage, the Uffizi and the Louvre to the Musee d’Orsay and New York’s MoMA. In no time, our man on the lam becomes the most wanted criminal mastermind in the world. There’s a $100 million reward for his capture, and a cool, tough-talking detective named Mike Kowalski hot on his tail; a cigar-chomping Mafioso and his goons are not far behind. As madcap as the opening car chase may be, it delays Krstic’s

Sony Pictures Classics

Still from director Milorad Krstic’s “Ruben Brandt, Collector.”

plunge into his arresting premise. Once in gear, however, the story barrels ahead at a breathless, breakneck pace egged on by Tibor Cari’s rollicking orchestral score infused with jazz, pop and the occasional alarming dash of Stravinsky. Through surrealist artworks and Picasso’s cubism – many of the peculiar characters and paintings have three or more eyes, multiple heads and off-kilter faces – and a collision of stylized, hand-drawn, CGI and other animation techniques, Krstic endows the picture with atmosphere and delicious characters like the ruby-lipped, acrobatic Mimi, Ruben’s Garboesque accomplice. Krstic’s most vivid creation – he spent seven years perfecting her – the leggy, swan-necked, femme fatale kleptomaniac could get a job

with Cirque de Soleil if she ever decides to go straight. We first meet her speeding away in a Mercedes convertible in the aforementioned car chase (shades of “Bullitt” and “The French Connection”) and next encounter her poised on the edge of a hot-air balloon soaring above the countryside. A woman of special talents, especially when she removes her astronomically high heels, she can shoot a bow and arrow with her toes while upside-down. The rest of Brandt’s crew, rounded out by a plump bank robber and a beefy former bodyguard, remain, well, two-dimensional. One can flatten himself and slip under a doorway, a neat trick that comes in handy when making a narrow escape. Meanwhile, Mike’s gal Friday is an alabaster beauty most comfortable

working in the nude from a swimming pool surrounded by classical statuary, one of the film’s many ridiculous, deliriously inspired touches. Krstic also gets in a couple of amusing digs at performance and Pop art (obviously not his jam) when the team starts a rumpus at a Tokyo exhibition. The improbable tale is capped off by an existential final sequence in which Ruben is the lone passenger on a train traveling across a bridge and into the sunset. The painterly imagery takes the story full circle, back to where it began, causing one to wonder if the whole raucous ride was only a dream.t In English; now playing the Opera Plaza Cinema.

Portrait of the artist as a young man

Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

Matt Smith as Robert Mapplethorpe in director Ondi Timoner’s biographical film.

by David Lamble

ow soon we forget! Just over a quarter-century ago,

an American Catholic-raised schoolboy, visual artist Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-89), sent shock waves through political and

artistic circles. In his provocative photos, subjects ranged from men in brazen states of undress, especially African American men (1980s “Man in Polyester Suit”), to beautiful floral arrangements, to a self-portrait of the artist with a bull-whip up his ass. In the new biopic “Mapplethorpe,” we meet a bratty young Mapplethorpe as played by rising UK star Matt Smith. Smith boasts an IMDB film resume as British cult hero for the adventures of “Dr. Who,” and with LGBTQ fans for portraying Christopher Isherwood in the 2011 TV biopic “Christopher and His Kind.” In “Mapplethorpe” we find the young artist receiving his first camera from platonic partner Patti Smith. The story races through a short (Mapplethorpe died from AIDS-related causes in 1989) but

historic burst of political and aesthetic energy as Mapplethorpe and friends (including lover-mentor Sam Wagstaff, played by John Benjamin Hickey) confront a vicious assault from the religious right, personified by conservative attack dog Senator Jesse Helms. Mapplethorpe confesses that in another age, “I would have been a painter, but the camera was invented.” One can argue over whether the filmmakers give enough attention to the artist’s “crime” among the politically correct of appropriating images of minority men. There is also the issue of how Mapplethorpe allegedly forced his younger artist brother to exhibit under another name, because there could only be one Mapplethorpe. But we finally have a popular biopic that young LGBTQ people can sample, and embrace or reject based on their

own views and needs. For those inspired by this film, I urge them to consult Allen Ellenzweig’s comprehensive 1992 volume “The Homoerotic Photograph: Male Images from Durieu/Delacroix to Mapplethorpe,” published by Columbia University Press. The book’s cover photo is Mapplethorpe’s awesome shot of Dennis Walsh in 1976. In the end, whether you dismiss him as a “shy pornographer” or see him as a leading queer American artist of the 20th Century, Robert Mapplethorpe was one-of-a-kind, and a widely available film bio was long overdue. It’s directed by Ondi Timoner, with a screenplay by Timoner & Mikko Alanne. With Marianne Rendón (as Patti Smith), Mark Moses, Carolyn McCormick, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Kerry Butler. Opens Friday.t

Teen angst by David-Elijah Nahmod

n “Giant Little Ones,” high schoolers Franky and Ballas, best friends for life, have an unexpected late-night sexual encounter after a night of raucous partying and heavy drinking. Neither is comfortable with what happened. Their friendship is destroyed, and they turn on each other. Ballas initiated their “experimentation.” Even so, Franky takes the “blame” as Ballas and his girlfriend begin spreading rumors that Franky is gay. Those rumors are reinforced when Franky defends a fellow classmate who’s being bullied. “Giant Little Ones” is the opposite of last year’s upbeat “Love Simon.” In that film gay and straight high school students accept each other’s sexuality cheerfully, without question. In this new film, sex and

gender roles are defined by a strict rulebook, and God help anyone who doesn’t play by the rules. Josh Wiggins, as Franky, and Darren Mann, as Ballas, are both attractive boys who offer strong performances as two confused young men who realize they might not be who they thought they were. Franky is the more likable of the two. As Ballas descends into vindictiveness, Franky does some serious soulsearching and tries to understand what happened. Two people in Franky’s life help him come to terms with himself. One is his friend Mouse (Niamh Wilson), a butch lesbian beginning to show signs of being transgender (Mouse’s sexual and gender identity are never clearly defined). The other is Franky’s gay dad Ray (a touching Kyle MacLachlan). Ray has been living with his partner

Courtesy the filmmaker

Darren Mann as Ballas in director Keith Behrman’s “Giant Little Ones.”

for several years, and Franky had been refusing all invitations to visit Ray’s home. One day, after

a violent altercation with Ballas, Franky shows up at his dad’s door. Ray is delighted to see his son. He

shares the story of how he met his partner and admits he still loves Franky’s mom. “It’s just different now,” he says. “That thing that happened between me and Ballas, it felt normal at the time,” says Franky. “It was only after that we got scared.” Ray offers Franky some sage advice. “I suggest you pay attention to who you’re drawn to, and not worry about what to call it at this point.” Those words sum up the message of “Giant Little Ones.” The film is about being who you are, and learning to accept it, whether you’re gay, straight, or somewhere in-between. That the film takes this path rather than become a sweet romance between the two boys is refreshing. Audiences will have much to think about. Opens Friday at AMC Kabuki in SF; Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley.t

Theatre>>

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

Intimate strangers by Jim Gladstone

woman, Adiaha (Aneisa Hicks), arrives to pick up Iniabasi, their initial dialogue – in the bubbling Ibibio language that is woven throughout the play – has a similar effect, enticing you to prick up your ears and tune in your interpretive skills to deduce the

context of their relationship. Soon enough, that context becomes clearer. But there is still much interpretation to be done, by both characters and audience, as the unfamiliar and familiar begin to merge. Iniabasi, raised in Nigeria, and Adiaha, raised in Massachusetts, are half-sisters. They have met only once before, as children. On David Israel Reynoso’s documentary-perfect set of Adiaha’s modest, personality-infused Inwood apartment (colorful abstract paintings, chunky scented candles, botanical prints on the drapes, a pillow, a kitchen potholder), these two women, at once close and distant, are joined by Abasiama (Kimberly Scott), their mother-in-common. Resentments flare. Incriminations fly. There is talk of abandonment, alienation and regret. When Abasiama cannot manage the internal clash of her simultaneous joy, guilt, shame and anxiety, she hums aloud,

as if sequestering herself in a sound more pleasurable than her daughters’ arguing with each other and with her. All three actresses do powerful work here. Woods teeters precariously between self-pity and self-righteousness, with occasional glints of hope. Hicks has a sweet, spiky American straightforwardness, alternately dispensing zingers and tenderness to her sister and mother. And Scott, with her elastic facial expressions and deep bruise of a voice, poignantly conveys the near-impossible choices life has placed in this matriarch’s path – and the persistent residual pain those choices have embedded within her. Udofia, herself a first-generation Nigerian-American and an M.F.A. graduate of A.C.T., incorporates passages of Ibibio dialogue, discussions about the customs of family life in rural Nigeria, and powerful stories about the allure, opportunities and disappointments of im-

migrating to the United States into “Her Portmanteau.” But the sibling rivalries, maternal determination, and overarching solidarity of this particular clan have universal resonance. Just as the three characters in this story all come to recognize facets of themselves in each other, you will discover reflections of your family in theirs. Toward the end of “Her Portmanteau,” Iniabasi realizes that the tune her mother hums to disconnect from the present moment is a melody her father sang to her as a small child. Given an unfamiliar situation, initially disconcerting and hard to relate to, she opens her mind and listens closely. A meaningful music reveals itself.t

“beautiful gay-boy theater” such as New York’s famously long-running “Naked Boys Singing.” “There’s much more to this than titillation,” says Quismorio of “Underpants”’ brainy, meta-theatrical hijinks. In brief: A gay theater impresario rehearsing a homoerotic version of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting For Godot” is confronted by a representative of the famously litigious Beckett estate, who wants to shut the production down for taking inappropriate liberties with the material. “The play deals with issues of artistic interpretation and adaptation,” says Quismorio. “It raises questions about exploitation.” For theater buffs there’s plenty of brain candy along with the eye candy. “We rehearsed for three weeks before anyone took any of their clothes off,” says Quismorio, whose physi-

cally and ethnically dithe world’s longestverse cast of six includes running queer theater some actors who have into the historic hub never previously apof San Francisco’s gay peared in scantily clad community, Tally says roles. “I wanted to conthe project is a way the centrate on the text, beRhino can give more cause working on that actors and directors together really helps chances to work. “It’s people feel comfortable a way for us to create Courtesy the subject with each other.” opportunities without Joe Tally, Develop- “The Underpants having to do a whole lot ment Director at Theatre Godot” playwright of administrative work. Rhinoceros, says that the Duncan Pflaster. Spark Arts provides company, which in the the space, we pay for past has offered staged the rights to the plays, readings in the Castro, is glad to step then we pretty much hand it off to up its presence in the neighborhood. the directors. It’s really all about the Following “Underpants,” a second director and the actors.” Rhino Pop-Up, “Trade,” about a And the scripts. Tally has selected hustler and his closeted john, will be two adventurous, small-scale works performed in early April. that can be done without theatrical In addition to the inherent aplighting or amplification, and will peal of bringing performances by benefit from the intimate setting.

They’re also the kind of plays that, without efforts like the nonprofit Rhino’s pop-up, are relatively rarely produced. “Originally, I studied to be an actor, but the plays I wanted to be in didn’t exist,” says Pflaster, who, while supporting himself by working in property management, has written dozens of scripts over 23 years. “I like to take archaic forms and make space in them for queer people. I’ve pretty much stopped acting to make more time to write. I usually write on my lunch breaks and on Saturdays and Sundays. Honestly, I feel like it’s my duty.” Currently, Pflaster is working on “a sequel to ‘12th Night’ and a largerscale musical about Cupid meeting with a matchmaker.” His Russ Meyer-inspired male-stripper heist film

n the opening scene of “Her Portmanteau,” playwright Mfoniso Udofia’s riveting family drama now at the Strand, we meet Iniabasi Ekpeyong (Eunice Woods) outside JFK Airport on a cold, windwhipped morning. After nearly 24 hours of flying, this 36-year-old Nigerian woman stands by a bank of graffiti-covered pay phones, shivering and anxious, a single red suitcase gripped tightly in her hand. Along with Iniabasi, you hear the rush of traffic, the faint chatter of unseen passersby, all the disorienting din of a foreign city. And deep in the mix of sound designer Jake Rodriguez’s aural ambiance, slipping in and out of perceptibility, is the faint music of a single cello. Lovely, plaintive and elusive, it is a line of beauty that begs you to lean forward and pay close attention. When an unfamiliar young

Underpants

From page 17

Given the tight confines of the 30-seat Spark Arts gallery, and the tighty whities (not to mention full frontal nudity) on display in playwright Duncan Pflaster’s 90-minute comedy “The Underpants Godot,” the production may not be the only thing popping up. Pflaster, a prolific contributor to New York’s Off-Off Broadway festival scene, readily admits that “half-naked men sell tickets.” But “Underpants” is smarter than the average baring of skin. “I have a reputation in New York for writing plays that have justified nudity,” says Pflaster, whose goals for “Underpants” include playfully skewering what this production’s director Alan Quismorio refers to as

Kevin Berne

Abasiama (Kimberly Scott, right) holds Iniabasi (Eunice Woods) in Mfoniso Udofia’s “Her Portmanteau.”

Her Portmanteau plays A.C.T.’s Strand Theater, 1127 Market St., SF, through March 31. Tickets from $30: (415) 749-2228, www.act-sf.org.

See page 24 >>

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<< Theatre

24 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

BD Wong

From page 17

“My character is thrust into basketball by accident,” Wong tells the B.A.R. “He’s originally intended to be the translator for the American coach when the coach comes to teach the Chinese how to play basketball in 1971. He grows to love basketball a great deal, and eventually becomes the Chinese basketball coach. Eighteen years later, the two coaches are rematched against each other in this game.” Wong said that a basketball game is played on stage “in a very theatrical way. The main characters in the play struggle with making choices in their lives that can make them happy. We all struggle with how far to go when it comes to making ourselves happy, and what it will take for us to become happy. Some people have a much easier time going for their bliss, while others struggle tremendously with it. Using basketball as a metaphor, one of the themes of the play is whether you run or stand still.” Wong is well-known for his roles on stage, screen and TV. Early in his career the openly gay actor won a Tony Award for his work in “M. Butterfly.” Based on Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” the show told the story of Song Liling (Wong), a Chinese opera singer who has an affair with a French diplomat. The diplomat has no idea that the woman he loves is actually a man. Wong’s profile was raised higher when he was cast as Dr. Henry Wu

Berlin & Beyond

From page 17

“The Cakemaker” In Berlin, a baker, Thomas, meets Oren, an Israeli with a sweet tooth. Following Oren’s death in a car accident, the grieving baker decides to visit his late lover’s family (widow and young child) in Israel. Thomas cautiously insinuates himself into Anat’s life, and eventually becomes a one-man bakery in the widow’s Kosher cafe. Complete with baking tips and sinfully beautifully close-ups of sugar treats, “The Cakemaker” joins culinary classics “Bagdad Cafe” and “Babette’s Feast” in allowing us to feel as deliciously naughty about food as we have been made to feel about other carnal pleasures. (Goethe, 3/12) “25 km/h” This world premiere is the story of Christian (43) and Georg (45), brothers who haven’t

Cheshire Isaacs

Actor BD Wong is set to star in Lauren Yee’s “The Great Leap” for ACT.

in Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park,” a role he repeated in two later films of the popular franchise. TV audiences know Wong for his portrayal of Dr. George Huang in “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” and as Professor Hugo Strange in “Gotham.” Wong said there are challenges in being an openly gay Asian actor in Hollywood. “It is a struggle to be a minority of one sort or another, or a gay person, in this country in general,”

he said. “Struggle is a very strong word. Struggle is not a constant, beaten-down kind of feeling, but it does manifest itself in real ways in one’s career as an actor. None of us will ever completely eradicate racism and homophobia, and there’s always going to be challenges along the way. If you’ve been doing it for as long as I have, you understand how to circumvent those challenges.” Wong feels things can get better through the authentic telling of

spoken for decades, reunited at their father’s funeral. The boozy reunion unlocks a secret ambition: to race across Germany on mopeds. (Castro, 3/8) “Berlin Excelsior” Erik Lemke’s full-length doc combines gay and straight content in its exploration of life at a block-long apartment complex in the German capital. (Castro, 3/9) “Cloud Whispers” Charlotte, 60, abandons her hubby at a gas station. Freedom proves exhilarating and life-changing. (Castro, 3/10) “3 Days in Quiberon” Director Emily Atef presents an intimate look at the pressures threatening 1960s German film star Romy Schneider, who became a teen sensation when she was cast in a mid-50s trio of popular films about the life of Elisabeth “Sissi” of Austria. Her early fans expected her to repeat her early triumph in ways that no longer

suited her talents. “3 Days” unfolds at a health spa in Brittany in 1981, a year before the screen star’s death. (Castro, 3/9) “Gundermann” Alexander Scheer stars as an irritating if wellintentioned misfit. (Castro, 3/10) “This Crazy Heart” Director Marc Rothemund’s Lenny, a Cruiselike playboy, does an about-face when his heart-surgeon dad introduces him to David, a bedridden 15-year-old who is not expected to see 16. (Castro, 3/9) “The Silent Revolution” It’s 1956, and East German schoolboys Kurt and Theo are playing hooky at a West Berlin cinema. Watching newsreels of the Hungarian Revolution, the teens impulsively decide to honor this anti-Soviet uprising with a minute of silence in their GDR classroom. (Castro, 3/9; Shattuck, 3/11) “The Bra” Nurlan, a train engineer on his last run, discovers a bright red bra hooked onto the front of his locomotive. Director Veit Helmer creates a dialogue-free romantic comedy with Nurlan’s attempts to convince the women of small-town Baku to try on the bra. (Castro, 3/10; Shattuck, 3/11) “The Chairs Game” Alice is an unemployed young woman surviving on the detritus of a modern economy: gas vouchers exchanged for cash. Can she right herself? Director Lucia Chiarla’s North American premiere. (Castro, 3/10) “303” When 20-something biology student Jule realizes she’s pregnant, she sets off in her 303 camper to inform her boyfriend in Portugal. She offers a ride to a Jan, who’s hitching to Spain to see the biological dad he’s never met. (Goethe, 3/14)

Courtesy BBFF

“3 Days in Quiberon” is an intimate look at the pressures threatening 1960s German film star Romy Schneider.

Underpants

From page 23

“Strapped for Danger” is available for streaming on Amazon Prime. With Rhino’s production following stagings in New York and Phoenix, “Underpants Godot” is Pflaster’s biggest success to date. While he says he’d love to see his writing “go as far as it can,” he says he doesn’t need to dream of Broad-

people’s stories. “When we understand other people’s situations and understand how close they are to our own, we can be open to them and embrace them,” he said. The actor has never been afraid to take a public stand for the authentic portrayal of Asian characters in popular entertainment. In 1990 he filed a complaint with Actor’s Equity when it was announced that Jonathan Pryce, a Caucasian actor, would be portraying The Engineer, a Eurasian character, in the Broadway production of the musical “Miss Saigon,” a role Pryce had already played in London. Wong felt the casting of Pryce would take away work from Asian performers. At first Equity agreed to remove Pryce from the production, but Pryce was reinstated after Cameron Mackintosh, the show’s creator, threatened to close down the production. Wong is a strong advocate for the LGBT community, and a supporter of the Ali Fortney Center, a community center in New York for LGBT homeless youth. “A lot of people shelter themselves and are perfectly happy being sheltered, not learning about others,” he said. “To use the gay example, they’re perfectly happy not having gayness demystified for them. When I say demystified, I mean understanding that their schoolteachers, their cops and their firefighters are gay. That’s a very simple thing to spell out for people, that it’s really quite normal to be gay. I think we’re inching towards that, but right now you feel people wanting to shut their win-

dows. They’re almost willfully not wanting to learn how normal being gay actually is.” He points toward the current TV landscape, which offers hundreds of channels and streaming services where a diverse array of programming is offered. “That content can be a window to understanding all different kinds of people,” he said. “So as an actor I feel it’s important to choose work that’s responsible and to do work that is authentic, to spread the word about the binding qualities of humanity.” Wong is excited to be returning to his hometown in “The Great Leap.” It’s his second go-round with the play, having previously performed it in New York. “I don’t usually want to do something again,” he said, “but I wanted to do this show again. I wanted to give my mom that hometown experience that she loves so much when I come to perform. I love the resonance of the play and the audience’s reaction. It’s a very funny, entertaining and quite powerful play. That’s a very rare thing.” He hopes that audiences who come see “The Great Leap” will learn a little bit about Chinese and American relations in 1971 and 1989, the play’s two time periods. “One of the things that Lauren Yee is going for is showing that one person’s actions can resonate in the world in these divisive times,” Wong said. “It’s more and more essential for us to choose to take a stand.”t Ticket information: www.act-sf.org.

Courtesy BBFF

Scene from “The Silent Revolution,” playing “Berlin & Beyond.”

“As Green As It Gets” Georg’s (Elmar Wepper) midlife woes include bankruptcy, a failed marriage and an estranged relationship with his daughter. A professional gardener, he seeks freedom in his small biplane. (Castro, 3/8) “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver” Director Dennis Gansel’s buddy road-trip drama involves a small orphan boy and his adult locomotive engineer pal Luke. (Castro, 3/10) “Only God Can Judge Me” This noir from director Ozgur Yildirim kicks off with a robbery gone awry. Ricky takes the rap and a five-year prison term for his brother and his sidekick. Flash-ahead five years, Ricky’s free, and his pals want to show their gratitude. But no good deed goes unpunished. This one comes complete with an annoying femme fatale and plot complications galore. (Castro, 3/9) “Exit” Director Karen Winther draws on her experiences as a member of a radical right-wing group to

explore why modern folks fall victim to extremist ideology. (Goethe, 3/12) “Sandstern” Oktay, a 12-yearold disabled boy, leaves his Turkish grandmother to join his parents in Germany. (Goethe, 3/13) “Waldheim Waltz” Ruth Beckermann’s doc explains the process by which the Nazi past of former United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim was uncovered. Austria’s 2019 Oscar entry. (Goethe, 3/13) “Mountain Miracle” Tobias Wiemann’s winning entry in the Youth 4 German Cinema competition. An asthma-afflicted teen girl discovers friendship with a young redheaded adult. Bart guides Amelie through the healing powers of fires in the Alps. (Castro, 3/8) “A Jar Full of Life” Florian Ross’ runner-up for the Festival’s youth prize concerns a young woman, Maureen (Jella Haase), whose attempts to jumpstart her adult life lead her to the bottom of the world in Antarctica. (Castro, 3/8)t

way or Off-Broadway to find deep satisfaction in his work, offering this quotation from one of his heroes, Charles Ludlam of the long-underground Ridiculous Theatrical Company: “There should be a wonderful place where you’re crowned with laurels if you achieve something in art. That’s not good enough in the commercial theater.” Perhaps Pflaster will find such a wonderful place in San Francisco

when he flies in for his first-ever visit, to attend the opening of his play. As it happens, all 30 seats for that night’s performance are sold out.t The Underpants Godot, a Theatre Rhinoceros Pop-Up at Spark Arts, 4229 18th St., SF. Tickets: $10-$15. 3/16 (sold out); 3/17, 2 p.m.; 3/22-23, 8 p.m. (800) 838-3006. bit.ly/UndieGodot

BARchive www.ebar.com

Shining Stars Vol. 49 • No. 10 • March 7-13, 2019

Nightlife Events March 7-14

Are you on the list? The list for fun and fairly fey frivolities? Here are our favorites.

Sat 9 Prime @ Club Six

Listings start on page 26 >

Arts Events

Quality control involves seeing and witnessing great art, so you can share it with others. This week, we’ve got arts events in quantity and quality.

March 7-14

Sat 9 DIRT Festival @ Dance Mission

Listings start on page 28 >

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

ON April 4, the Bay Area LGBTQ community

celebrates THE best! TO ADVERTISE: Call 415-829-8937 or email advertising@ebar.com

<< Nightlife Events

26 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

Sat 9

Pound Puppy/BLUF @ SF Eagle

First Friday @ The Stud

Dad @ The Stud

New monthly LGBTQ night. 10pm4am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Two-year anniversary with DJs Jesse Frank and Elaine & Robin. 10pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

GAPA Happy Hour @ Beaux

House Party @ Powerhouse

Monthly meet & greet with members of the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance. 6pm-8pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Groovy décor, Ky and Juan Martinez host, with DJ Russ Rich. BYO lava lamp. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Gaymer Night @ SF Eagle

Irish Comedy Fest @ Bay Area Venues

Video and board games are set up all over the bar; get a nerdgasm. 8pm2am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

FBFE

iCandy @ The Cafe

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events

Thu 7 After Dark @ Exploratorium Enjoy cocktails and science demos at the hands-on museum. $15-$20. 6pm10pm. Pier 15 (Embarcadero at Green St). www.exploratorium.edu/

Billy Idol & Steve Stevens @ Palace of Fine Arts The ‘80s rocker performs an ‘unplugged’ concert. $80. 8pm. Also Mar. 8. 3601 Lyon St. http://apeconcerts.com

Friends Live @ Oasis The popular ‘90s sitcom gets a double drag (king/queen) parody performance of a few episode scripts, with Nancy French, Sue Casa, Steven LeMay and other talents. $27-$50. Thu 8pm, Fri & Sat 7pm. Thru Marrch 9. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Gayface @ El Rio Queer weekly night out with DJed and live music, at the popular Mission bar. 10pm-2am. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

The popular trans comic performsin a four-night residency at the famed comedy club. $20-$23 (2-drink min.). 8pm. nightly thru Mar 9. 444 Battery St. www.punchlinecomedyclub.com

Parties at the fascinating spacious nature and science exhibits. $12$15. 6pm-10pm. Feb 28: Darwin, Galapogos mammals and more. March 7: Nightlife and death; mammal extinction exhibits and discussions on primitive artwork and rituals. March 14: DJ Sean G, articifical intelligence demos and displays. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.calacademy.org

Junk @ Powerhouse

Picante @ The Cafe

Ian Harvie @ Punch Line Comedy Club

MrPam and Dulce de Leche cohost the weekly underwear strip night and contest, with sexy prizes. $5. 10pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with host Sue Casa, DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Lulu and DJ Marco’s Latin night with sexy gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Porn @ The Stud Queer sex worker party. $10. 9pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Rice Rockettes @ Lookout Local and visiting Asian drag queens’ weekly show with DJ Philip Grasso. $5. 10:30pm show. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Rock bands play at the famed leather bar. $8. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Gus Presents’ weekly dance night, with DJ Jericho and guests, cute gogos and $2 beer (before 10pm). 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

The popular Latin club with gogo guys galore and Latin music. $10-$20. 9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Lick It @ Powerhouse Lance Holman hosts the laidback leather and link night, with DJ Blackstone. $5. 10pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Manimal @ Beaux

Thu 7

Gogo-tastic dance night starts off the weekend. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. beauxsf.com

Ian Harvie @ Punch Line Comedy Club

Marilyn Maye @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The cabaret legend performs a concert of favorite songs. $65-$95 ($20 food/drink min). 8pm. Also Mar. 9. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Peter Murphy @ The Chapel The former Bauhaus frontman performs a series of full-album concerts, David Bowie tributes, and intimate acoustic sets. $33-$175 (VIP). Thru Mar. 27. 777 Valencia St. www.thechapelsf.com K-pop dance night, rpeceded by a RuPul’s Drag Race TVshow viewing. $10-$15. 9pm2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Uhaul @ Jolene’s

Marilyn Maye @ Feinstein’s

Thursdays Rock @ Lone Star Saloon Grooves with DJ BRD. 8pm-12am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Fri 8 Bare Chest Calendar Prelims @ Powerhouse Meet early candidates for next year’s fundraiser calendar; weekly for a while. 8pm-10pm. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

La Bomba Latina @ Club OMG Drag show with DJ Jaffeth. $5. 9pm2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Boy Division @ Cat Club The New Wave monthly retro groovy night features Pet Shop Boys, disco & electropop with DJs Xander and Tomas Diablo. $5-$8. 9:30pm-3am. 1190 Folsom St. www.sfcatclub.com

Cubcake @ Lone Star Saloon Cubs, bears and treats at the historic bear bar, with DJ Paul Goodyear. $5. 10pm-2am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Shows with U.S. Irish comics. March 8 at The Battery Club SF March 9 in Oaakland, elsewhere thru March 17, St. Patrick’s Day at Cobb’s Comedy Club, SF. realirishcomedytour.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21

Seoul Train @ Oasis

Fri 8

The popular women’s dance party returns at the new nightclub, now weekly. 10pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. http://jolenessf.com/

Vibe Fridays @ Club BnB, Oakland House music and cocktails, with DJs Shareef Raheim-Jihad and Ellis Lindsey. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Lips and Lashes Brunch @ Lookout Weekly show with soul, funk and Motown grooves hosted by Carnie Asada, with DJs Becky Knox and Pumpkin Spice. The yummy brunch menu starts at 12pm, with the show at 1:30pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s popular weekly drag show, with special guests and great music themes. March 9 is a Janet Jackson vs Michael Jackson tribute. $15-$20. 10pm-3am (11:30pm show). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Nudie Nubies @ The Stud Red Hots Burlesque and Dottie Lux’s burlsque show. 6pm-8pm. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

The Playground @ Club BNB, Oakland Dance night at the popular hip hop and Latin club. $5-$15. 9pm to 3am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Pound Puppy, BLUF @ SF Eagle Groovy fun with DJs Oscar P and Huntleys + Palmers (London), combined with the Boots and uniform group. $5-$10. 9pm-1:30am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

See page 30 >>

Sat 9 Beard Haus @ Lone Star Saloon DJ Prince Wolf spins at the décor-and fun night with a gay Burning Man group. $5. 8pm-12am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland Banda Los Shakas performs live at the LGBT Latinx night. $10. 9pm4am. 2111 Franklin St. www.club21oakland.com

Brunch @ Jolene’s Enjoy DJed grooves, chicken & waffles, veggie scrambles and more, with brunch cocktails, at the new queer bar. 11am-3pm. Also Sundays. 2700 16th St. www.jolenessf.com

Fri 8

Peter Murphy @ The Chapel

BARchive>>

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

and Maxine Weldon – allies from Daughters of a Preacher Man Ann before Stonewall to the AIDS era

Above: Ann Weldon at a 1970s nightclub appearance. Left: Maxine Weldon on a ‘70s album back cover.

Left: Ann Weldon in a signed ‘70s publicity photo. Right: Maxine Weldon publicity photo.

by Michael Flanagan

hen you think of a musical connection to Bakersfield, you might recall Buck Owens and the Bakersfield sound. But you probably don’t think it had much of an influence on San Francisco in the 1960s. However, two sisters, Ann and Maxine Weldon from Bakersfield, performed in clubs beginning in the 1950s, and developed relationships with their gay audiences that came to benefit both the audience and the performers. The Weldon Sisters were born in Wetumka, Oklahoma and their parents (who were farm workers) moved the family to Bakersfield in 1941. Reflecting on her young expo-

sure to music she told the San Francisco Chronicle: “Daddy was a minister and although the religion dictated no movies or dancing or music, I can remember hearing the gut bucket blues, black hillbilly – that whole scene, because deep down Daddy was really liberal.” Regardless of religious notions about music and acting, the family apparently had the performance bug. Aside from Ann and Maxine, their sister Jewel was also a singer. Brother Charles was an actor who led the Negro Ensemble Company until his death last year. In the ‘50s Ann Weldon released two singles, “Thanks a Lot, But No Thanks” and “You’re Hurting Me” which got her on the radio and brought her to the Venetian Room in 1956. This initial phase of her career lasted for a few years and she came back to perform at the Hollow Egg in North Beach, billed as “the girl with the deep velvet voice.” Weldon returned to San Francisco in 1966 and performed for several months in both 1966 and 1967 at the 524 Club, a gay club that was earlier known as the Paper Doll. It was during a performance in autumn 1967 that William Ball from American Conservatory Theatre came to see her and offered her a role in Edward Albee’s play, An American Dream. That was the beginning of her acting career.

Above: Ad for Ann Weldon’s concert at Leonarda’s in a 1971 Vector magazine. Below: Ad for Maxine Weldon’s at Page One

‘All-Star Show For Homosexuals’ as described in the Chronicle.

Already by 1967, Weldon was showing a penchant for activism in her performances. In June 1967, she performed at a service at Glide Memorial which also featured the author Lenore Kandel protesting “San Francisco officialdom’s rejection of hippie visitors.” Throughout the late ‘60s, Ann, together with her sisters Maxine and Jewel would perform in a number of jazz worship services at Glide. In 1968 Maxine Weldon began performing in San Francisco clubs as well. For several months at the end of that year and into 1969, she was performing at Leonarda’s (16 Leland) with the Randy Randolph trio. Leonarda’s was a restaurant, bar and nightclub with both lesbians and gay male patrons in Visitation Valley. It was owned by Margaret “Peg” Clark, who would later open Peg’s Place on Geary. In describing Weldon’s audience at Leonarda’s in a return engagement in 1971, the Chronicle critic, John L. Wasserman said: “The motley crowd – black and white, gay and straight – cheered her every song and strut (her gown was slit on both sides to the waist), gave her a standing ovation and lined up to buy autographed albums.” On Feb. 17, 1969, Ann Weldon with the Randy Randolph trio performed at “A Night To Remember” with Charles Pierce, Carol Doda and the comedy troupe the Jiants at the Basket (895 O’Farrell) which was billed as an “All-Star Show For

Homosexuals” in the Chronicle. Reflecting on the event in 1972, Charles Pierce said, “The most fun time I ever had was when we did ‘A Night To Remember’ with The Jiants, Ann Weldon and Carol Doda.” The reaction of the straight press to gay venues was less than stellar during this period. The jibes varied from a reviewer who referred to the 524 Club as a “slightly unlikely spot” to Wasserman saying that at the Basket show that it was so quiet “you could hear a false eyebrow drop.” Wasserman went on to blame gay clubs for the sister’s failure to break into the big time, saying in 1971: “Their night club work has been at places which, to one extent or another, were known as ‘gay’ clubs: The Paper Doll, the Chez Chou Chou, etc. And such clubs, for no good reason, are the untouchables of show biz. Critics don’t take them seriously; agents, managers and the like don’t scout them for the next Billie Holiday or Bob Dylan.” Perhaps reflecting on her discovery by A.C.T. while performing at the 524 Club, Ann Weldon was having none of this. Regarding her eight-month engagement at the 524 Club, she told B.A.R’s Donald McLean (in 1973): “It was better than any club I’ve ever worked – a great experience. A lot of so-called Gay men could teach so-called straight men how to be gentlemen. I hate people not getting to like each other more and people

who are too uptight about homosexuality, race and religion.” Ann Weldon was a strong supporter of the Society for Individual Rights (S.I.R.), an early San Francisco gay rights organization. When Willie Brown was the keynote speaker at a political event for the organization in October 1970, Vector magazine reported: “Singer Ann Weldon attended the affair and was urged by a cheering crowd to sing. Miss Weldon, who will soon appear regularly, again in San Francisco, sang the appropriate ‘Born Free.’” Ann Weldon would go on to headline a benefit for S.I.R. with Divine, David Kelsey, Cass Daley, Laverne Cummings, John Rothermel and Pristine Condition in October 1972. It was certainly not the last of the benefits that the sisters would perform at. Ann Weldon performed at a benefit for the Pride Center in 1982 and Maxine Weldon performed for the East Bay Assistance Fund and Adopt-A-House AIDS charities in 1987. And regardless as to what straight critics thought, they continued to perform at gay clubs in the city. Maxine performed at Gold Street, the City and the Russian River Lodge through the 80s. Ann performed at Jackson’s, The City and the Plush Room. Both sisters performed at the Woods in 1984. The sisters expanded their repertoire throughout their careers. Ann went on to act on stage on both coasts and developed a film and television career as well, appearing in Shampoo, Roc, Married With Children and Six Feet Under. Maxine appeared on The Midnight Special, The Tonight Show and Soul Train, and as a television actress appeared in both Matlock and Bones. In this 50th anniversary year of Stonewall, it’s important to remember that there were people building bridges before that event. The Weldon sisters worked with organizations like S.I.R. and Glide Memorial. Their inspiration reaches back to the philosophy of earlier struggles for equality and civil rights in the ’60, and perhaps to the beliefs of their father, the liberal preacher.t The author would like to thank Mike Mayer of the Woods and Hexagon House website (http:// www.thewoods-hexagonhouse. com) for the use of their photo. Also, visit maxineweldon.com

<< Arts Events

28 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

Older and Out @ North Berkeley Senior Center Weekly group discussion about problems for elders in the LGBT community. 3:15pm. 1901 Hearst Ave., Berkeley. www.pacificcenter.org

Queer Yoga @ Love Story Yoga All-level weekly classes in an LGBT space. $11. 6:30pm-7:30pm. 473 Valencia St. at 16th. www.lovestoryyoga.com

Fri 8 Justin Vivian Bond @ Bing Studio, Stanford University

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events

Thu 7 American Hero @ Custom Made Theatre Bess Wohl’s comedy about life, liberty and the pursuit of sandwiches. $20-$45. Thu-Sat 8pm, Sat 2pm, thru April 6. 533 Sutter St. www.custommade.org

Billy Idol & Steve Stevens @ Palace of Fine Arts The ‘80s rocker performs an ‘unplugged’ concert of his music. $80. 8pm. Also Mar. 8. 3601 Lyon St. http://apeconcerts.com

Border People @ The Marsh Dan Hoyle’s new solo show embodies multiple characters based around the U.S./Mexico border wall controversies; extended thru April 27. $25-$100. Thu & Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

Classic and New Films @ Castro Theatre Mar. 6 & 7: Green Book (3pm, 5:45, 8:30). March 8-14: Berlin & Beyond Film Festival (www. BerlinBeyond.com). Mar. 11: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (6:30) and Black Panther (8:40). Mar. 12: If Beale Street Could Talk (6:30) and The Favourite (8:40). Mar. 13: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (7pm) and The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968 version (5pm, 8:45). Mar. 14 & 15: Mary Poppins Returns (3pm, 5:30, 8pm). $8-$11. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Events @ GLBT History Museum Mar. 7: Flashing After Dark: Queer Nightlife Photography Then and Now, with Melissa Hawkins and other photographers; related to her exhibit SoMa Nights: 1980s-1990s Queer Club Photography. $5, 7pm9pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

The Great Leap @ Geary Theatre BD Wong stars in Lauren Yee’s sports drama about a Chinese basketball star, with American values tested (Out With A.C.T. afterparty March 19). $15-$110. Thru Mar. 31. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

Hello, Dolly! @ Golden Gate Theatre The vintage musical about a matchmaker stars Betty Buckley in the new touring production. $56$226. Thru March 17. 1 Taylor St. at Market. www.shnsf.com

Ian Harvie @ Punch Line Comedy Club The popular trans comic performs for a four-night residency. $20-$23 (2-drink min.). 8pm. nightly thru Mar 9. 444 Battery St. www.punchlinecomedyclub.com

Serving Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner all day Open 24/7 3991-A 17thSt Market & Castro, San Francisco

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Actually @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Anna Ziegler’s new play dives into race, gender and sex on college campuses. (previews; opens March 14). $ 35-$70. Tue, Wed, Sun 7pm, Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm, thru May 5. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. www. AuroraTheatre.org

Utopia Theatre Project’s production of Anne Yumi Kobori’s modern take on Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan as a couple. $12-$35. 7pm. Thru Mar. 9. 144 Taylor St. www.utopiatheatreproject.com

Hamilton @ Orpheum Theatre

Justin Vivian Bond @ Bing Studio, Stanford University The award-winning chanteuse returns home (sort of) for two nights of concerts, with pianist Matt Ray. $40. 7pm. Also March 9, 9pm. 327 Lasuen St., Stanford. live.stanford.edu

Mapplethorpe @ Cinemas

The acclaimed local dance company performs the world premiere of Kate Weare and Brenda Way’s World’s on Fire. $30-$80. Thru March 10 (March 8 gala dinner/fundraiser $150-$600). 700 Howard St. www.odc.dance

Matt Smith stars as the gay photographer. www.landmarktheatres.com/sanfrancisco/film-info/mapplethorpe

Readings @ City Lights Bookstore

Thu 7

Hello, Dolly! @ Golden Gate Theatre

Metamorphosis @ Berkeley Rep Mary Zimmerman’s award-winning modern adaptation of Ovid’s iconic mythological story collection returns in a new co-production with The Guthrie Theatre. $28-$115. Thru Mar 10. 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

Mother Lear @ 4th Street Theater, Berkeley We Player’s intimate small cast 50-minute version of King Lear. $5$40. 8pm. Thru Mar. 16. 2020 4th st., Berkeley. www.weplayers.org

Sat 9 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 45th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. Wed-Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm & 9pm. Sun 2pm & 5pm. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd. (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Black Choreographers Festival @ Laney College, Oakland African American dances performed by several companies. Mar. 9-10 at Laney College Theater, Oakland. www.bcfhereandnow.com

DIRT Festival @ Dance Mission Theater Dance In Revolt(ing) Times, the fourth annual political dance concert, with Tigre Bailando, Danza Puerto Rico, Patrick Makuakane / Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu (Saturday only), Boomshake Music (Sunday only), Yayoi Kambara and Dancers, Sammay Dizon and Halau Kawainuhi, Hien Huynh and Primera Generación. $20-$30. 8pm. Also Mar. 10. Mar. 16 & 17, 8pm/7pm, 2pm (different program, listing next week). 3316 24th St. dancemissiontheater.com

Mar. 7: Oscar Villalon on her book, Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury. 7pm. 261 Columbus Ave. www.citylights.com

San Francisco Ballet @ War Memorial Opera House Program 8: Shostakovich Trilogy. Special NiteOut post-show party with LGBT patrons and performers (Mar. 29 & April 19). $64-$325. 8pm. 301 Van Ness Ave. www.sfballet.org/niteout

Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins and Steven Sondheim’s classic urban musical. $20-$45; thru Mar. 17. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Every Day Alice @ PianoFight

CD release concert with the folk 12-strong guitarist. $20-$24. 8pm. 1111 Addison St. www.mimifoxguitar.com Kaneisee Collective and Cat Call Choir perform 17 vignettes about feminism, politics, gender-based harassment and more. $25-$40. Thru March 10. 450 Florida St. http://www.zspace.org

Duo dance concert with Barry, AnnaLise Constantz and Chloe Rosen. $15. 8pm. Also March 9. 145 Eddy St. www.safehousearts.org

West Side Story @ Berkeley Playhouse

Oakland-based artist Leila Weefur and art critic Elena Gross will be doing a lecture-performance and book release in conjunction with Weefur’s show at Aggregate Space Gallery. 7:30pm. 2948 16th St. www.thelab.org

Mimi Fox @ Freight & Salvage, Berkeley

Nevertheless @ Z Space

Maranda Barry, Constantz & Rosen @ SAFEHouse Arts

Mark Gerrard’s biting comedy about older gay couples dealing with infidelity and other situations. $20$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru March 31. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Between Beauty & Horror @ The Lab

The mega-hit Tony-winning Broadway hip hop musical revision of American Revolutionary-era history. $111-$686. Thru Sept 8. 1192 Market St. www.shnsf.com

ODC/Dance @ YBCA

Since 1977

Fri 8

Steve @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

Sat 9

Her Portmanteau @ Strand Theatre

Fiorello @ Gateway Theatre 42nd Street Moon’s production of the musical about NYC mayor LaGuardia. $30-$75. Thru Mar. 17. 215 Jackson St. www.42ndstmoon.org

Arts Events>>

Forever, a Moment: Black Meditations on Time and Space @ SOMArts Group exhibit; curators Yetunde Olagbaju and Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye feature 15 Bay Area artists who explore Black identity. Thru April 6. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Her Portmanteau @ Strand Theatre Nigerian playwright Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle is performed thru Mar. 31 at 1127 Market St., and In Old Age at the Magic Theatre, 2 Marina Blvd, Mar. 27-April 21. $40-$100. www.ufotplays-sf.com

A History of World War II @ The Marsh Prolific playwright and director John Fisher’s new solo show’s subtitled The D-Day Invasion to the Fall of Berlin. $20-$100. Thu 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru March 9. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarshsf.com

Many Voices, One Art @ Calvary Presbyterian Church Fourth annual day-long series of concerts and workshops hosted by San Francisco Bach Choir, with many vocal groups performing Bach, gospel, Mozart, Yiddish songs and other genres; participate (register online) or listen. Free. 10am-4pm. 2515 Fillmore St. www.sfbach.org

Sun 10 Monet: The Late Years @ de Young Museum

ShadowLight Theatre Wayang Bali: an evening of Balinese Shadow Play, with live Gamelan musical accompaniment. $20-$25. 8pm. 2097 Turk st. www.SFLiveArts.org

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 29

Violet @ Alcazar Theater Bay Area Musicals’ new production of Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley’s Tony-nominated musical about a young women’s spiritual cross-country journey. $35-$65. Thru Mar. 17. 650 Geary St. www.bamsf.org

Tue 12

Meshell Ndegeocello @ Yoshi’s Oakland

The Who and the What @ Marin Theatre, Mill Valley Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar’s funny new play about identity, religion and the contradictions that make us who we are. $12-$52. Thru March 24. 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. www.marintheatre.org

Wonderland @ Berkeley City Club Gary Graves’s dark comedy mixes Kafka and Alice in Wonderland. $15-$38. Thu & Fri 8pm, Sat 7pm, Sun 5pm, thru Mar 17. 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. centralworks.org

Sun 10 Cruisin’ the Fossil Coastline @ Oakland Museum Cruisin’ the Fossil Coastline, Ray Troll’s colorful illustrations paired with paleontologist Kirk Johnson’s research. Also, Take Root: Oakland Grows Food and other exhibits. Friday night events 5pm-9pm. Free/$15. 1000 Oak St. www.museumca.org

Expedition Reef @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth; Deep Reefs, Giants of Land and Sea, Gems and Minerals, and more. $20-$35. Mon-Sat 9:30am-5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Monet: The Late Years @ de Young Museum

Various Exhibits @ Chabot Space & Science Museum, Oakland Space, science and planetary exhibits, including planetarium shows and the Observatory; special nighttime events like meteor shower shows. Free-$18. 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. www.chabotspace.org

Mon 11 Modern Art @ SF MOMA Wayne Thiebaud, Etel Adnan, Alexander Calder, Donald Judd, Louise Bourgeois and many classic Modern works. The Sea Ranch: Architecture, Envioronment and Idealism (thru April 28). Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory, thru March 31. Free/$25. Fri-Tue 10am-6pm. 151 3rd St. www.sfmoma.org

Show Me as I Want to Be Seen @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Show Me as I Want to Be Seen, the work of groundbreaking French Jewish artist, Surrealist, and activist Claude Cahun (1894–1954) and her lifelong lover and collaborator Marcel Moore (1892–1972), thru July 7. 736 Mission St. www.thecjm.org Queer spoken word night. $10-$20. 7pm-9pm. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

The acclaimed local playwright/ performer returns with his hit solo show that takes on Black stereotypes and show business bias. $20-$100. Sat 8:30pm, Sun 5:30pm; extended thru April 28. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.themarsh.org

To Be Free Festival @ CounterPulse

Queer Tango @ Finnish Hall, Berkeley

Meshell Ndegeocello @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Performances, workshops, installations and other events at the innovative performance space. Thru Mar. 17. 80 Turk St. www.counterpulse.org

Same-sex partner tango dancing, including lessons for newbies, food and drinks. $5-$10. 3:30pm6:30pm. 1970 Chestnut St, Berkeley. www.finnishhall.org

Tue 12 Ashish Kumar @ Strut Exhibit of digital South Asian male erotic imagery. Thru March. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

The acclaimed signer performs at the stylish nightclub-restaurant. $44-$80. 8pm. Also March 13, 8pm & 10pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Survey Bay Area @ Montague Gallery Group exhibit of local glass artists; 5:30pm-7:30pm; thru April 13. Tue-Fri 11am-6pm. Sat 11am-5pm. 445A Sutter St. www.montaguegallerysf.com

Wed 13 Farm to City @ SF Public Library

Tue 12

Survey Bay Area @ Montague Gallery

Exhibit of vibrant paintings combining historic and contemporary tapestry themes; thru May 4. Wed-Sat 12pm-5pm. 1275 Minnesota St. at 24th. www.evergoldprojects.com

Uncertainty Principle @ The Marsh Adam Strauss’ solo show grapples with OCD and life’s big questions. $20-$100. Wed & Fri 8pm, thru Mar. 29. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

Various Events @ Oakland LGBTQ Center Social events and meetings at the new LGBTQ center, such as Bruthas Rising, trans men of color meetings, 4th Tuesdays, 6:30pm. Film screenings, 4th Saturdays, 7:30pm. Game nights, Fridays 7:30pm-11pm. Vogue sessions, first Saturdays. 3207 Lakeshore Ave. Oakland. www.oaklandlgbtqcenter.org

Thu 14 Comedy @ Ashkenaz, Berkeley Carla Clayy, Priyanka Wali, Jade Theriault, and host Lisa Geduldig perform a special Women’s History Month set. $15-$20. 8pm. 1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. ashkenaz.com

Exclusion @ Presidio Officers Club Exhibit documenting the Presidio’s Japanese-American incarceration during World War II; other exhibits as well. Free, Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. Thru Spring 2019. 50 Maraga Ave. www.presidio.gov/officers-club/ exhibitions/

Telly Leung @ Orinda Theatre The Broadway star (Aladdin, Wicked, Allegiance ) performs his new cabaret concert. $55-$100. 7:30pm. 2 Orinda Theatre Square. www.lamorindatheatres.com

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Sister Spit @ The Stud

New exhibit of the French Impressionist’s great later works, including Water Lilies ; thru May 27. Also, Gaugin: A Spiritual Journey, an exhibit of the French painter’s Tahitian paintings, and works by artists who influenced him. Thru April 7. Also, modern and historic art, including embroidery, Maori portraits and installations. Free/$15. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.famsf.org

That Don Reed Show @ The Marsh Berkeley

Kour Pour @ Ever Gold Gallery

Lesbian and gay writers discuss their rural roots and the fiction, memoir and poetry written about it, with Nona Caspers, Iris Bloomfield, James J. Siegel, and Mark Abramson and moderator/ author Jim Provenzano. Free. 6pm-7:30pm. James C. Hormel Center, 3rd floor, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

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<< Nightlife Events

30 • Bay Area Reporter • March 7-13, 2019

Nightlife Events

Castro Karaoke @ Midnight Sun

Sun 10

From page 26

Prime @ Club Six

Sing out with host Bebe Sweetbriar; 2 for 1 well drinks. 8pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. midnightsunsf.com

TWRP @ Cornerstone, Berkeley

Trophy Dad’s popular dance party for mature men and the guys who admire them; with DJs Neon & Serge P, clothes check, mature gogo studs, three bars. $25. 9:30pm-3am. 60 6th St. www.facebook.com/ TrophyDadPresents/

Follies & Dollies @ White Horse Bar, Oakland Weekly drag show at the historic gay bar. 9:30pm-11:30pm. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Saturday Night @ Lone Star Saloon

Gigante @ Port Bar, Oakland

DJ Chaka Quan spins grooves at the bear bar. $5. 9pm-12am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Juanita MORE! and DJ Frisco Robbie’s weekly event, with Latin, Hip Hop and House music, gogo gals and guys, and a drag show. $5. 9pm-2am. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www.portoakland.com

Stallion @ Midnight Sun DJ Bill Dupp, intimate dance floor, gogo cuties, all in the heart of the Castro. 8pm-2am. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

Sugar @ The Cafe Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club, with DJs Gay Marvine, Taco Tuesday and Matthew XO. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Writers With Drinks @ Make Out Room Authors and alcohol night with storytelling by Josiah Luis Alderete, Kyle Thomas Smith, host Charlie Jane Anders. $10-$20. 7pm-9:30pm. 3225 22nd St. www.makeoutroom.com

Dirty Musical Sundays @ The Edge

Karaoke Night @ SF Eagle

Sing along at the popular musical theatre night, with a bawdy edge; also Mondays and Wednesdays (but not dirty). 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Sing along, with host Beth Bicoastal, plus prizes, local celeb judges, and $2 draft beer. 8pm-12am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Game Heaven @ Brewcade Take a break from your burdens with a few rounds of video games and some specialty beers. No cover. 2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

GlamaZone @ The Cafe

Sun 10

Pollo del Mar’s weekly drag show takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Apocrypha @ SF Eagle

Jock @ The Lookout

Mocha Fapalatte hosts, DJ Spazatron spins at the witchy fun T-dance. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The popular daytime party, where $10-$15 gets you all the beer you can drink, supporting worthy causes. 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon Beer, bears, food and DJed beats at the weekly fundraiser for various local charities. $15. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Big Top @ Beaux Enjoy an extra weekend night at the fun Castro nightclub, plus hot local DJs and sexy gogo guys and gals. $8. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.Beauxsf.com

Blessed @ Port Bar, Oakland Carnie Asada’s fun drag night with Carnie’s Angels Mahlae Balenciaga and Au Jus, plus DJ Ion. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Chest @ Powerhouse Shirtless and nipple fetish night. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

DJed dance music at sports team fundraisers. 12pm-1am. NY DJ Sharon White from 3pm-6pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Romper Room @ The Stud Dance grooves with DJs Sappho, One A and Trevor Sigler. $5-$10. 10pm3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

TWRP, Planet Booty @ Cornerstone, Berkeley Space rock and groovy sexy funk from Canadian and Oakland bands that each put on a great show. $14. 7:30pm-12am. 2367 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. www.twrpband.com www.cornerstoneberkeley.com

Vanessa Bousay @ Martuni’s The elegant chanteuse performs ‘Irish Eyes,’ a concert of Celtic-inspired songs, with pianist Tom Shaw. $15. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. www.vanessabousay.com

Mon 11 International Mondays @ Qbar Enjoy world grooves all night. 9pm2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

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Munro’s at Midnight @ Midnight Sun

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Thu 14 Buffy Sing-along @ Lone Star Saloon Sing along to the musical episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. $5. 7pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Comedy @ Ashkenaz, Berkeley Carla Clayy, Priyanka Wali, Jade Theriault, and host Lisa Geduldig perform a special Women’s History Month set. $15-$20. 8pm. 1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. ashkenaz.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar. 10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21 Latin beats, Lulu and Jacqueline’s drag show, gogo hotties and a packed crowd. $10-$15. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. www.club21oakland.com/

Drag night with Mercedez Munro. No cover. 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Sister Spit @ The Stud Queer spoken word night. $10-$20. 7pm-9pm. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Underwear Night @ 440 Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Tue 12 Cock Shot @ Beaux The weeknight party gets going with DJ Chad Bays. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Gaymer Night @ Midnight Sun

Vanessa Bousay @ Martuni’s

Weekly fun night of games (video, board and other) and cocktails. 8pm12am. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

High Fantasy @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Weekly drag and variety show, with live acts and lip-synching divas, plus DJed grooves. $5. Shows at 10:30pm & 12am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Meshell Ndegeocello @ Yoshi’s Oakland The acclaimed signer performs at the stylish nightclub-restaurant. $44-$80. 8pm. Also March 13, 8pm & 10pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Sing Out @ Encore Karaoke Lounge Home of drag shows, and hilaraoke karaoke. 9pm-1am. 1550 California St. #2. 775-0442.

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 5512500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Sun 10

Pan Dulce @ Beaux Drag divas, gogo studs, DJed Latin grooves and drinks. 9pm-2am (free before 10:30pm). 2344 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.beauxsf.com

Queeraoke @ El Rio Midweek drag rave and vocal open mic, with Dulce de Leche, Rhani Nothingmore, Beth Bicoastal, Ginger Snap and guests. 10pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Shevil @ Powerhouse Midweek drag fun. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

SoMa Comedy Showcase @ Oasis Seven comics (Saul Trujillo, Clara Bijl, Chad Optiz, Jeannette Marin, Sergio Novoa, Ivy Vasquez, and Kipster Fuller) share their wit. $15-$20. 7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

The weekly drag show with host Sue Casa, DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Patty From HR Would Like a Word @ Oasis Michael Phillis’ scathingly comic parody of office gossip and passiveaggressive administration. $20-$50. 7pm. Also March 15. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Qtease @ The Stud Queer burlesque/cabaret. $15-$25. 6pm-8pm. 399 9th St. studsf.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG KJ Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol; first Thursdays are Costume Karaoke; 3rd is Kinky Karaoke 8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

RuPaul’s Drag Race Viewings @ Area bars Enjoy the popular drag show at Oasis, Midnight Sun and other bars. 9pm, wekkly.

Vice Tuesdays @ Q Bar

Telly Leung @ Orinda Theatre

Queer femmes and friends dance party with hip hop, Top 40 and throwbacks at the stylish intimate bar, with DJs Val G and Iris Triska. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

The Broadway star (Aladdin, Wicked, Allegiance ) performs his new cabaret concert. $55-$100. 7:30pm. 2 Orinda Theatre Square. www.lamorindatheatres.com/

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland

Wed 13

Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland Olga T and Shugga Shay’s weekly queer women and men’s R&B hip hop and soul night, at the club’s new location. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Mon 11

International Mondays @ Qbar

Want your nightlife event listed? Email events@ebar. com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

Shining Stars>>

March 7-13, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

One Night Only: Hello, Dolly cast @ Brava Theater

ast members from the touring production of the classic musical Hello, Dolly! took to Brava Theater’s stage at One Night Only, the latest Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation fundraiser for local nonprofits. Chorus members, lead actors, guest-host Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, and even star Betty Buckley sang songs, offered comic moments, and schmoozed with patrons at the afterparty. Highlights included Elizabeth Broadhurst’s Liza Minnelli act, and hunk Dan Horn, who stripped down to shorts for the live auction run by Nic Rouleau (Cornelius) and Jess LeProtto (Barnaby). www.reaf-sf.org www.shnsf.com See plenty more photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

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