February 16 2017 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

Dennis Peron honored

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Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community

Vol. 47 • No. 7 • February 16-22, 2017

LGBT SF synagogue welcomes refugees by Matthew S. Bajko

Kelly Sullivan

Sheriff Vicki Hennessy

Sheriff provides trans housing update by Seth Hemmelgarn

an Francisco Sheriff Vicki Hennessy is asking for body scanners so that transgender inmates in jail can be searched electronically rather than relying on sheriff ’s deputies to examine people. Hennessy addressed that issue, among many others, in a lengthy letter she sent to gay District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy. Sheehy, who took office in January, had requested a progress report on updating housing policies for trans inmates. In June 2015, then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi announced plans to stop classifying transgender inmates who have not had surgery according to their birth sex, meaning that trans women would no longer be housed with men. But progress has been slow. In her February 8 letter to Sheehy, Hennessy wrote that she would seek funding for body scanners in her budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year. The scanners would “obviate the need for strip searches where warranted to prevent the introduction of contraband into the jail environment,” she said. Ensuring staff of the appropriate gender are available to do strip searches has been one of the stumbling blocks in improving housing conditions for transgender inmates. “The ultimate goal is to consider gender identity for all individuals, as part of the caseby-case review performed by the Classification Unit, and safely housing all transgender, gender variant, and intersex prisoners according to the gender with which they identify,” Hennessy wrote. Eileen Hirst, a spokeswoman for the sheriff ’s department, said that the agency wants to get three scanners. The machines would cost “about $100,000 apiece, including installation.” Besides getting scanners, Hennessy said, “Much work” remains, but several steps are planned. See page 14 >>

Center bursts forth in color

Rick Gerharter

orkers loaded a truck with the final bit of scaffolding from the San Francisco LGBT Community Center Monday, February 13 to reveal a bright new lavender color scheme. The work is part of the center’s $6.9 million renovation project. The facade of the Fallon Building, a Queen Anne-style Victorian built in

1894 at the corner of Market Street and Octavia Boulevard, was repainted with Dunn Edwards Palace Purple as the main color. The exterior of the modern addition also sports new colors. The center is expected to formally reopen April 9, just in time for its 15th anniversary, and will house several nonprofit organizations.

ulling out his cellphone, Sergo Adamian quickly hit play on a YouTube video that captured the sea of men attacking a van with LGBT rights activists inside, including him, as it moved through a street in Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia. While police officers kept the mob at bay, the vehicle was nonetheless hit with sticks, bottles, and other objects that damaged its windows. The occupants inside were fleeing from the 40,800 protesters, led by 200 priests from the Georgian Orthodox Church, who showed up to counterprotest the rally Adamian and his colleagues had organized on May 17, 2013 to mark the International Day Against Homophobia. The group of 100 LGBT Georgians and their allies were protected by 3,000 police officer, said Adamian, who escaped injury that day. “If not for the policemen, for sure we would have all died,” recalled Adamian, 27, as he See page 13 >>

‘Berlin Patient’ HIV-free for 10 years by Liz Highleyman

head of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle, the man formerly known as the “Berlin Patient” marked 10 years of being HIV-free. At a February 12 community workshop on HIV cure research in advance of CROI, former San Francisco resident Timothy Ray Brown, previously known as the “Berlin Patient,” celebrated the bone marrow transplant he recieved a decade ago, making him the only known person cured of their HIV. In 2006 Brown, then living in Berlin, was on antiretroviral treatment with well-controlled HIV when he developed leukemia that required bone marrow transplants. His doctor, Gero Hütter, had the idea to use bone marrow from a donor with a double CCR5-delta-32 mutation, meaning the stem cells were missing a receptor that most types of HIV need to enter T-cells. Brown underwent intensive chemotherapy that killed off the cancerous immune cells in his blood – nearly dying in the process – and the donor stem cells then rebuilt a new immune system that was resistant to most HIV. “[Hütter] paid attention in medical school and said this could make you free of both leukemia and HIV and you’d never have to worry about it again at all, but I didn’t believe it,” Brown said before he cut a cake presented by cure advocates, researchers, and community members. “It was a hard survival, but I’m here.” Despite 10 years of testing his blood, gut tissue,

Liz Highleyman

Timothy Ray Brown, second from left, shares a cake marking the 10th anniversary of his being HIV-free at a community workshop in Seattle.

and everywhere else they could manage to look, researchers have not been able to detect replication-competent HIV anywhere in Brown’s body. “Brown is why there is a cure research effort,” said Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, where Brown now lives. “He really inspired and

launched this cure effort.” Brown said he doesn’t miss depending on doctors for his survival. “In a way it seems like yesterday, but in a way it feels like a long time ago that I had to take medications every day,” Brown told the Bay Area Reporter. “That is the best part of my cure – not needing to take daily medication and not needing to depend constantly on my doctors for my survival.” But Brown, 50, has recently started taking another type of daily pill. Since the donor’s stem cells were only missing the CCR5 receptor, Brown potentially remains susceptible to the small proportion of HIV strains that use a different receptor called CXCR4. For this reason, he revealed, he has started taking Truvada for PrEP. “Recovery has taken too long, but I feel great and I am grateful for everything,” Brown said. “I still hang on to the hope that everyone living with HIV will be cured in my lifetime.” But some fear that even as cure research advances, the benefits may not be available to all who need it. “Timothy gives me hope, but there’s also a lot of fear that when there is a cure it won’t be available to everyone, and long-term survivors, women, and communities of color will be left behind,” said Pat Migliore, who spoke on behalf of people living with HIV in Seattle. “Until there’s a cure for everybody in the world, there’s a cure for nobody.” Presentations at CROI will feature the latest news on HIV prevention, treatment, and See page 12 >>

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IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about ODEFSEY?

ODEFSEY may cause serious side effects: • Buildup of an acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include feeling very weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat. • Serious liver problems. The liver may become large and fatty. Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turning yellow (jaundice); dark “tea-colored” urine; loss of appetite; light-colored bowel movements (stools); nausea; and/or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area. • You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking ODEFSEY or a similar medicine for a long time. In some cases, lactic acidosis and serious liver problems have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions. • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. ODEFSEY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking ODEFSEY, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking ODEFSEY without ﬁrst talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health.

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What are the other possible side effects of ODEFSEY?

Serious side effects of ODEFSEY may also include: • Severe skin rash and allergic reactions. Skin rash is a common side effect of ODEFSEY. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get a rash, as some rashes and allergic reactions may need to be treated in a hospital. Stop taking ODEFSEY and get medical help right away if you get a rash with any of the following symptoms: fever, skin blisters, mouth sores, redness or swelling of the eyes (conjunctivitis), swelling of the face, lips, mouth, or throat, trouble breathing or swallowing, pain on the right side of the stomach (abdominal) area, and/or dark “tea-colored” urine. • Depression or mood changes. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you: feel sad or hopeless, feel anxious or restless, have thoughts of hurting yourself (suicide) or have tried to hurt yourself. • Changes in liver enzymes. People who have had hepatitis B or C or who have certain liver enzyme changes may have a higher risk for new or worse liver problems while taking ODEFSEY. Liver problems can also happen in people who have not had liver disease. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your liver enzymes before and during treatment with ODEFSEY. • Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking HIV-1 medicines. • Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to ﬁght infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking ODEFSEY. • Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. Your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking ODEFSEY if you develop new or worse kidney problems. • Bone problems, such as bone pain, softening, or thinning, which may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones. The most common side effects of rilpivirine, one of the medicines in ODEFSEY, are depression, trouble sleeping (insomnia), and headache. The most common side effect of emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide, two of the medicines in ODEFSEY, is nausea. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or do not go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking ODEFSEY?

• All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or had any kidney, bone, mental health (depression or suicidal thoughts), or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. • All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other medicines may affect how ODEFSEY works. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. Ask your healthcare provider if it is safe to take ODEFSEY with all of your other medicines. • If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if ODEFSEY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking ODEFSEY. • If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

Ask your healthcare provider if ODEFSEY is right for you, and visit ODEFSEY.com to learn more. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about ODEFSEY including important warnings on the following page.

ODEFSEY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

SHOW YOUR

RADIANCE

ODEFSEY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day HIV-1 treatment for people 12 years and older who are either new to treatment and have less than 100,000 copies/mL of virus in their blood or people whose healthcare provider determines they can replace their current HIV-1 medicines with ODEFSEY.

Community News>>

February 16-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

SF honors Peron for medical cannabis work by Sari Staver

ore than 100 friends of Dennis Peron’s came to San Francisco City Hall Tuesday afternoon to thank the ailing gay activist credited with founding the medical marijuana movement. Peron, 70, who is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, was honored by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors at a brief ceremony led by District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy. Sheehy, the only LGBT person on the board, said, “On the 20th anniversary of Proposition 215 coming into effect, I am honored to recognize Dennis Peron, the father of medical cannabis, a movement that swept the country, saving countless lives. “Dennis learned through direct experience in caring for his lover dying of AIDS, Jonathan West, that cannabis provided relief and extended the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS,” Sheehy, who

is HIV-positive, added. “The LGBT community under the leadership of Peron and others helped convince Californians and the nation that the medical use of cannabis should be legalized. His five-story buyers club on Market Street served as a community center for thousands of people with HIV/AIDS until it was shut down by [former] Attorney General [Dan] Lungren. From his friendship with and support of Harvey Milk through his advocacy for legalizing medicine used for centuries, Dennis has been one of the city’s great activists.” Dozens of people praised Peron for his leadership in providing medical marijuana in the early years of the HIV epidemic. Jane Lloyd, who owns the Viking, a Castro barbershop, told the Bay Area Reporter that she’s known Peron for 30 years. “Dennis is incredibly generous and warm,” she said. “During the dark days of the AIDS crisis, he

always gave me cannabis to share with my friends and customers suffering from wasting syndrome, or heck, just to raise their spirits.” Brent Saupe, a straight ally, has known Peron for several decades. Both were volunteers with Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group. “Dennis is one of my heroes,” said Saupe. “He has been a guiding light in the medical marijuana movement and many of us have counted on him to lead the way.” Steve Scott and Thomas Wabo, a married couple who have been friends with Peron for decades, also attended the ceremony. “Dennis saved my life back in 1985,” Scott said. “He has done so much for so many of us.” Since Prop 215 passed in California in 1996, 27 other states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical cannabis. Last year, California voters approved an initiative to legalize adult use of recreational

Sari Staver

Dennis Peron, center, is honored by District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, left, during a City Hall ceremony February 14.

marijuana, joining several other states. In 2006, on the 10th anniversary of Prop 215, Peron told the B.A.R. that he wrote Proposition 215 as

a eulogy for his deceased partner, West, and for patients suffering from life-threatening diseases who See page 13 >>

ADAP problems persist throughout CA by Seth Hemmelgarn

In a February update to HIV advocates in San alifornia officials still Francisco, the state Ofhaven’t fixed probfice of AIDS said, “The lems with the state’s AIDS highest priority” is supDrug Assistance Program, porting ADAP enrollmonths after issues with the ment staff and clients to system emerged. ensure “uninterrupted According to the Califoraccess to medications nia Department of Public and health insurance Health, the trouble with Assemblyman assistance while at the ADAP, which is supposed Evan Low same time addressto help thousands of people ing systems issues with get the care they need to stay the ADAP enrollment alive, started after it switched to new portal. Many OA and CDPH Incontractors last July. formation Technology managers

and staff, as well as CDPH executive staff, are regularly working over 10 hours a day and on weekends to address these issues, and have been for months.” Courtney Mulhern-Pearson, director of state and local affairs at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said in an interview, “In my opinion, they need to do a whole system redesign.” A.J. Boggs, the new contractor that oversees ADAP’s enrollment system, “doesn’t appear to be able to fulfill the terms of that contract. ... That’s where the biggest problems

have been,” she added. Clarke Anderson, A.J. Boggs’ CEO, has previously declined to answer questions from the Bay Area Reporter. “This is a critical issue that needs to be resolved,” Mulhern-Pearson said. “It’s taking valuable staff time away from other projects,” specifically in the Office of AIDS. She noted that the California HIV Alliance, a coalition that includes the SFAF, the San Francisco health department, Project Inform, and other agencies, told the state last June that advocates were worried

about changes planned under the new contractors. “We are concerned that the amount of time that has been allotted for system beta testing and enrollment worker training is not adequate,” the coalition said in a June 14 letter to Dr. Gilberto F. Chavez, the state’s epidemiologist and deputy director for infections diseases. “The Office of AIDS has notified us that the new system is still being developed, beta testing has not yet begun, and enrollment worker training will See page 9 >>

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<< Open Forum

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

Volume 47, Number 7 February 16-22, 2017 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 • Seth Hemmelgarn 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 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 • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh 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 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.

Do not be distracted P

resident Donald Trump is a master of intentional and unintentional distraction, and that was why very little attention was paid to the administration’s recent decision to throw trans students under the bus. Less that 48 hours after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was sworn in, the Justice Department last week announced that it was withdrawing its request for a stay of an injunction on enforcement of Obama-era guidelines protecting transgender students. LGBT community leaders were warily expecting this move, and so were we. It was lost among mainstream media that was dominated by news that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn discussed ending U.S. sanctions with Russian diplomats before Trump was sworn in – a serious legal issue. Compounding Flynn’s problems was that he allegedly lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations (although it’s entirely possible that Pence is fudging the truth too, who knows?) At any rate, by late Friday afternoon when the Flynn story was burning up the internet, the Justice Department issued its order, and signaled that it intends to dismantle the careful and deliberate protections the Obama administration had put in place for trans students. Last year, Texas and 12 other states sued the Obama administration, challenging the guidance issued by the president’s Justice and Education departments, which directed public schools to allow trans students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. Last August, a federal judge blocked the directives nationwide. According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration later

requested that the judge’s order apply only to the 13 states who were suing while it appealed the ruling. A hearing was set for Tuesday, but last Friday’s court filing asked that the hearing be canceled. The Human Rights Campaign and Equality California are both correct that the action by Sessions’ Justice Department is a clear signal that it will not protect trans students. As HRC’s Sarah Warbelow said, it could also be a sign of broader reversals of LGBT rights to come. The community is still bracing for the so-called religious freedom executive order that would allow businesses to discriminate against LGBTs based on their religious beliefs. Don’t think for a minute that just because it hasn’t happened yet Trump has not decided to issue it. Members of the religious right are united in their support for the president, and are expecting and demanding permission to deny services to LGBT people under the guise of religious liberty. On the trans bathroom issue, the Obama

administration relied on Title IX, the federal law guaranteeing equality in education to conclude that gender identity is protected under the law. “Transgender students have the right to access bathrooms and locker rooms and participate on athletic teams that correspond with their gender identity, the 2016 letter” from the Justice and Education departments made clear, Politico reported at the time. Now, less than a year later, we have an education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who knows practically nothing about public education, and an attorney general who can’t wait to legalize discrimination. Meanwhile, Trump trots us out whenever it’s convenient for him, like when he pointed to the LGBT community as justification for his travel ban, which barred people from seven predominately Muslim countries for 90 days and refugees from Syria indefinitely. Trump cited last June’s attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida as a reason for the ban, which has been halted by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, even though the shooter, Omar Mateen, was an American-born U.S. citizen. Now that Trump’s Cabinet secretaries are being confirmed, we must remain vigilant, not only with Sessions and DeVos, but especially Tom Price, the new health and human services chief. He will be deeply involved in efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has greatly benefited trans people and those living with HIV/AIDS. Despite the chaos going on in Washington – much of it Trump’s own making – we must be alert to distractions, and we must be prepared for more anti-LGBT actions so we can deliver a vigorous response that says we will not be shoved back into the closet by homophobic administration officials.t

Keeping California Democrats strong by Eric C. Bauman

he Democratic Party is at a critical juncture in its long evolution. The election of Donald Trump ushered in one of the darkest periods in our nation’s modern political history. Many across our Karen Ocamb state and the nation are Eric Bauman frightened, and they are right to feel that way. In just a few short weeks, Trump has aproved that he intends to make real all of our worst fears. In this new era, it is not enough for our Democratic Party to be anti-Trump. We must unite around a progressive agenda that will encourage the newly mobilized activists who energized Bernie Sanders’ campaign and who turned out by the millions for Women’s Marches. The successes of the Democratic Party in California are a roadmap back to power for Democrats nationally – and we must ensure California remains a beacon of hope for our brethren nationwide. That is why I am running to be the next chair of the California Democratic Party. As an openly gay man who has been with my partner for nearly 35 years, ensuring that California remains a leader on LGBT rights is deeply personal to me. I have been in the trenches of this struggle for decades, serving as president of Stonewall Democratic Club through most of the 1990s and helping to found what became the National Stonewall Democrats. My husband, Michael Andraychak, and I are keenly aware that if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns marriage equality, the law of the land in California is the hateful Proposition 8. As a registered nurse who spent many years working in inner-city emergency rooms, I am deeply committed to seeing California enact single-payer universal health care. This commitment is not a new policy stance for me. I was part of four different legislative efforts to bring single-payer to California over the

decades, but I believe that the carnage to which the GOP is leading our nation represents a defining moment where California should declare itself a “health care sanctuary” state. One of the most frequent attacks against me is that people view me as the “establishment” candidate, often comparing my decades of preparation for this job to the way Hillary Clinton touted her resume as a reason to elect her president. Trust me, I am well aware that experience alone is not a reason to vote for someone. But I also reject the notion that experience doesn’t matter at all. When I became chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party in 2000 (an unpaid, elected position representing the largest local jurisdiction of Democrats anywhere in the nation), we had a $50,000 annual budget and one half-time employee. Through building strong partnerships with our allies and innovative programming, I built that organization into a cutting-edge political party with a $1.7 million budget and six full-time staff. Our campaign operations have received more than 20 national awards for social media, vote-bymail solicitation, internet advertising, grassroots organizing, literature, and direct mail (lacdp. org/campaignawards). Throughout this time, I have been committed to identifying new areas of growth within our party, most notably, through supporting the red and rural areas of our state. For almost two decades, I have traveled the state providing guidance and inspiration to local activists in the farthest flung corners of California. I brought urban legislators together with rural activists to successfully garner support for policies that never before received the necessary backing. In 2005, I launched the Red Zone Program at LACDP to deliver substantial campaign services to those who run for office in deeply Republican districts in Los Angeles County and elsewhere – who are all too often ignored, maligned, and under-resourced. I truly believe the grassroots are the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, and the

reason we have been so victorious in California. Nothing is more effective than one passionate volunteer looking a voter in the eye and speaking from the heart about an issue or candidate they believe will make a difference. That’s why I authored the plank that greatly reduced the ability for elected officials to affect local endorsements and increased the number of grassroots delegates elected at the California Democratic Party, a process many Sanders supporters effectively organized around this year to gain a significant foothold in our party – by some reports winning more than 600 slots among the approximately 3,400-person strong membership of the CDP. The revitalizing energy these activists bring will help push California Democrats to even further heights. Over the last eight years that I have served as CDP vice chair, we have won every statewide race two cycles running, and even against last year’s Republican takeover across the country, California Democrats held every Congressional seat and picked up enough seats in our state legislature to win a vital two-thirds supermajority in both houses. But winning races is not our end goal. True victory will come as California continues to be the nation’s leader standing up to Trump, fighting for immigration, the environment, climate change, workers’ rights, criminal justice reform, supporting the middle-class, reducing poverty and income inequality, ensuring fair taxation, and upholding our commitment to the health and education of all of our people. I look forward to serving as the next chair of the California Democratic Party, where I will always engage with our activists, leaders, elected officials and institutional partners to ensure that our state remains a shining example of how politics and government can be vehicles for good, for generations to come.t Eric C. Bauman is the vice chair of the California Democratic Party and chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.

Letters >>

February 16-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Grateful for free City College deal

On behalf of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, we would like to express our gratitude to Mayor Ed Lee, Supervisor Jane Kim, and the rest of the Board of Supervisors for allocating $5.4 million to fulfill their promise of free City College for all San Franciscans by using revenue from the real estate transfer tax passed overwhelmingly by voters in the November 2016 election. The city’s contribution will cover the $46-per-credit fee usually paid by students in addition to providing financial assistance for low-income students to fund books, transportation, health fees, and other expenses. While not enough to cover entire costs incurred by students, this is a big step toward that goal. In the November election, Alice strongly supported

Proposition W, the transfer tax proposed by Kim. We believe in the goals of free City College: to give all San Francisco students the advantage of a higher education and to increase enrollment in light of the now-resolved accreditation crisis. This action represents another example of our city leading the way in building an economy that works for all through innovative and progressive ideas. Our thanks go out to the Mayor Lee, Supervisor Kim, American Federation of Teachers Local 2121, City College leaders, and everyone who worked so hard to remove financial obstacles and clear the path to higher education and crucial job-training programs for all residents of San Francisco. Louise (Lou) Fischer & Eric Lukoff, Co-Chairs Alice B Toklas LGBT Democratic Club San Francisco

EQCA endorses gay man to be CA Dem Party chair by Matthew S. Bajko

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quality California has thrown its support behind the gay man running to be the first out chairman of the California Democratic Party. In a statement issued Monday, February 13, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization officially endorsed Eric Bauman for the state party’s top leadership post. He would be the first openly LGBT person to head either major political party in the Golden State. Currently vice chair of the state party, Bauman is also the longtime chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, now serving his eighth term. Formerly a registered nurse, Bauman works as the senior adviser to Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Los Angeles) and directs the Speaker’s Office of Member Services. Bauman lives in North Hollywood with his husband, Michael Andraychak, also a former registered nurse who now works as a product manager at Healthland, a health care software company that focuses on rural hospitals. He is running against Richmond resident Kimberly Ellis, who is African-American and raising two children with her husband, for the state party’s chairmanship. For the last six years Ellis has been executive director of Emerge California. The election will be held at the state party’s convention in May, when current state party chairman John Burton, a former state lawmaker, will step down when his term expires. He is supporting Bauman to be his successor. Even though it was an open secret that Burton’s predecessor Art Torres, who led the California Democratic Party for 13 years, was gay, Torres did not come out publicly until after he stepped down in 2009. “Eric’s election would be a milestone for the LGBT community,” stated EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur. “LGBT people are under-represented in elected and appointed office, as well as in party leadership positions. Having an LGBT person lead the largest political party in the largest state in the nation will shatter an important glass ceiling.” Bauman has lined up a long list of support among Democratic Party elected leaders and activists. He has also hit back against being pegged an “establishment” candidate for party chairman and has moved to win over progressives within the party, many of whom won delegate slots to the upcoming state convention and will vote on who becomes the new party chair. In late January Bauman endorsed progressive Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, a black Muslim,

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Michael Andraychak, left, with his husband, Eric Bauman, who is running for state Democratic Party chair.

in his bid to become chair of the Democratic National Committee later this month. In announcing his decision, Bauman noted that Ellison, who is backed by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), has a plan to focus on every single county in the country, similar to his working with Democrats in rural and more conservative areas of California. As Bauman wrote in a guest opinion for the Bay Area Reporter this week, “I truly believe the grassroots are the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, and the reason we have been so victorious in California.”

LGBT Dem club forms in Contra Costa County

This week members of the first LGBT Democratic club in Contra Costa County will meet to formally inaugurate the club and elect its leaders. It will be called the Lambda Democrats. The first Democratic club in the state to take that name was formed in Long Beach in 1977 during the fight against the Briggs initiative, which would have banned LGBT teachers from public classrooms. It is still going strong today as the Lambda Democratic Club. The formation of the Contra Costa County club comes as more out candidates seek office in the sprawling county, which for years has been one of the more conservative in the Bay Area and is partially represented by the Bay Area’s lone Republican state lawmaker, Assemblywoman Catharine Baker (R-Dublin). In the November election two of the six gay men running for city council seats in Contra Costa County won their races, joining the two lesbian elected leaders and another gay councilman in the county who were not up for re-election on last fall’s ballot. While there is already the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, that LGBT political group is primarily focused on Alameda County. The

Lambda Democrats will be focused on helping to elect LGBT candidates and straight allies in the 19 cities that comprise Contra Costa County. Helping to launch the new group, as the B.A.R.’s online Political Notes column reported Monday, February 13, is Jeff Koertzen, who’s two-year term as chair of the Democratic Party in Contra Costa County ended last month. Also among the inaugural members is El Cerrito City Councilman Gabriel Quinto, who is gay and one of two HIV-positive local lawmakers in the Bay Area. “We have so many people from our community that live here. With what is going on statewide and at the federal level, we need to organize,” said Quinto, who like Koertzen serves on the Democratic County Central Committee in Contra Costa. “We are hoping to have folks from all over the county to step up and do this.” Quinto was confident there would be enough members for Lambda Democrats to become a chartered club within the party. It needs at least 20 members in order to petition the central committee for chartering as an official entity recognized by the party. The Lambda Democrats will be meeting this Saturday, February 18 to vote on its bylaws and elect leaders. Anyone interested in joining the club is welcome to attend the meeting, which will start at 10:30 a.m. at the Rainbow Community Center, 2118 Willow Pass Rd #500, in Concord. t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on the president of the SF Log Cabin club resigning and quitting the GOP. Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ twitter.com/politicalnotes. Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

Our trans legacy by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

’ve always had a keen interest in history. As a kid, I would hit the local library for history-related books, haunt the two-room local history museum, and even gladly tag along with my parents on their weekend jaunts to antique stores. When I was young, I loved a series of biographies penned for kids, focusing on the lives of Clara Barton, Marie Curie, and Harriet Tubman. Through those, I could learn the struggles and successes of women like me, and how their stories impacted the world I live in. There is no such thing, however, for those of us in the transgender community, and we remain largely ignorant of our own history. I’ve always felt there is a value in knowing where you come from, and what others like you have faced in the past, so this been a frustration for me when it has come to my own community. It’s a systemic problem, you see. Over the decades of transgender history, we were pushed to disassociate with each other, and squelch any public indication of our transness in order to get medical care. What’s more, many of us choose to do the same regardless of any doctor’s admonishment. Our own personal histories can often be difficult, full of years of discomfort and dysphoria. There’s also precious little out

there in the public record. As many of us have led lives in the shadows, there are not a lot of historical items to point to. Many “purge” themselves of their trans-related materials out of guilt and shame, or because one feels no need to cling onto them after a transition. After we die, our families may be just as happy to cart things off to the dump. As a result, those few items that are kept are often in private collections, far from the public eye. This is unfortunate. As our community continues to grow, and we start seeing transgender people come out at younger and younger ages, having a strong history they can point to can be vital to their own development. I had the pleasure to end up in a conversation via social media recently, trying to pin down the important parts of our history, and who would fit within a trans-themed biographical series akin to what I grew up with. There were some great suggestions. Top of the list, of course, were Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, and their involvement in the Stonewall rebellion. British Mount Everest expedition member and writer Jan Morris was mentioned, as was “Bond Girl” supermodel Carolyn Cossey. Members of

the 1990s Transexual Menace group were named, as was Christine Jorgensen, Wendy Carlos, Canary Conn, the Warhol Superstars, and many others. It would be vital to expand this list even further, pushing for the inclusion of transpeople of color, trans men, and others within our history. These are only the tip of the iceberg, too, and focus largely on those who have biographies on the shelves. This doesn’t include transpeople whose stories are largely unsung, or others like Lynn Conway. Her work with computers may well have allowed me to input this very column. There are more people whose stories about how they helped shape our community we do not know. Many outside the transgender community want to look at trans people as being a modern creation, and even those with a broader understanding of our history might be able to point back to Jorgensen and her 1952 transition, or even as far back as Lili Elbe’s in the early 1930s. Our roots go much further back in time, existing for centuries before the modern era. In the late 1990s, I was involved with the GLBT Historical Society. As part of a larger display focusing on artifacts important to many local LGBT subgroups, I had

the pleasure of helping curate an exhibit on transgender issues. One of those who contributed resources, time, and a bed when I missed the train home after a late-night setup was Ms. Bob Davis. As I type this, Davis is starting plans for a California-based archive for the transgender community. This would be a place to house our history, starting with her own sizable collection of historical materials. Her Indiegogo fundraising page for the project, The Louise Lawrence Transgender Archives, can be found at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ the-louise-lawrence-transgenderarchives-lgbt#/. So far, nearly $2,000 has been raised of the $25,000 goal. Davis’ effort is not the first attempt to create a transgender archive, and not every project has been successful. Indeed, I’ve been wary of a few in the past, viewing them as very much ill-considered and under-planned. I don’t feel this way about the Louise Lawrence archive plan, having seen the extent of the facility in Vallejo and financial plans in place. The historical society is listed as the project’s fiscal sponsor. I also have seen some of the materials already in holding for the collection, and see it as a treasure trove of material that could redefine the history of the transgender community. Lawrence began living full-time as a woman in 1942, first in Berkeley, then San Francisco. She and others

Christine Smith

began publishing Transvestia in 1952. She was instrumental in developing the trans community’s connection to pioneering sex researchers such as Alfred Kinsey and Harry Benjamin, according to the fundraising page. I would hope that this will be a first step to providing a space for research into our past, and could lead to more understanding of our history. I want to see a community that can move into the future, buoyed by our long – and rediscovered – history. More than that, I want to know that a young trans kid might one day be able to learn about their trans forebears, and take personal strength in hearing their stories, in a similar way as I did. We need our stories to come into the light, and inspire our future generations.t Gwen Smith wonders who will tell our story. She can be found at www.gwensmith.com.

Breed wants panel to study safe injection sites

compiled by Cynthia Laird

an Francisco is expected to convene a task force to study safe injection services, following an announcement by Board of Supervisors President London Breed. Breed last week said she will be introducing legislation – likely in March – to establish the panel, which will be comprised of community leaders and public health and addiction experts. The news follows signals from lesbian city Health Director Barbara Garcia that she’s open to safe injection sites, in which homeless people and others who use drugs would do so in a supervised environment under a harm reduction model. Additionally, Mayor Ed Lee said at a conference in Seattle last month that he is “open to the idea” of safe injection services if data show they save lives. Gay District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy co-sponsored the legislation, according to a news release from Breed’s office. “You can walk outside the doors of City Hall and see people shooting up on the sidewalk or the steps of the main library,” Breed said in the statement. “Orange plastic syringe caps and used needles litter our sidewalks, particularly downtown. “It’s unsafe. It’s unhealthy. And we have an obligation to do better

Rick Gerharter

Board of Supervisors President London Breed

for those in need,” Breed added. The health department estimates that the city is home to some 22,000 IV drug users. The city has long had syringe access, or needle exchange programs, that have been remarkably successful in reducing the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C. Breed said that more must be done. But Breed said that she isn’t sure that safe injection sites, also known

as supervised injection facilities, are the answer. “To be honest, I have serious reservations about them,” she said. “I don’t want to make it easier for people to use drugs. I don’t want to see neighborhoods divided as some residents worry safe injection will draw illegal activity into their community.” Breed said she knows the pain of drug abuse all too well, having lost a sister to an overdose. “I know addiction can impact anyone,” she said. “And I know how painfully difficult it is to get better.” Nevertheless, Breed said the city should study safe injection sites. “We have to research. We have to work. We have to be more humane,” she said. Breed has requested the city attorney’s office draft the legislation. Once approved, the task force would eventually report to the board and mayor on the potential downsides, obstacles, and opportunities associated with safe injection.

Our Family Coalition to hold rights workshop

Our Family Coalition will hold a “know your rights” workshop for activists and advocates Friday, February 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics, 518 Valencia Street in San Francisco. The workshop will feature a legal expert who will discuss religious exemptions; a foster care and adoption expert; and a community organizer. People can ask questions and receive community resources on immigration, police safety, writing to elected officials, and family activist safety planning. There is no cost to attend, but donations to OFC are appreciated. To sign up, visit https://www.z2systems.com/np/clients/ourfamily/ eventRegistration.jsp?event=58829.

LGBTQ cultural heritage strategy task force meeting

The San Francisco Planning Department and other city agencies will hold a meeting of the LGBTQ

Cultural Heritage Strategy Task Force Wednesday, February 22 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 278. According to a news release, interested people are welcome to attend the meeting. The planning department is in the process of assembling members for the panel. It is working with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the entertainment commission to develop a citywide LGBTQ cultural heritage strategy. As previously reported, the task force’s goal is to safeguard LGBTQ cultural heritage through a series of identified projects, procedures, programs, or techniques. For more information, visit sf-planning.org/LGBTQStrategy.

Black History Month film screening

The Bay Area Freedom Socialist Party will have a screening of Ava DuVernay’s acclaimed documentary “13th” Saturday, February 25 at 2 p.m. at New Valencia Hall, 747 Polk Street in San Francisco. The film resonates with the Black Lives Matter protests demanding accountability for the racial profiling and killing of black and brown people by police in the U.S., organizers said, and argues that the “anti-slavery” 13th Amendment to the Constitution is actually used to criminalize and incarcerate blacks. It’s been nominated for best documentary feature at the upcoming Academy Awards. There will be a discussion following the film showing. A door donation of $3-$5 is requested. Snacks will be available for a small donation. The venue is wheelchair accessible. For more information, or to arrange child care, contact (415) 8641278 or bafsp@earthlink.net.

BALIF gala coming up

Bay Area Lawyers for Individual

Freedom will hold its 37th annual gala Friday, March 3 at the Bently Reserve, 301 Battery Street in San Francisco. The evening, themed “We will Rise,” is expected to draw over 600 judges, lawyers, lawmakers, legal professionals, students, and in-house counsel. This year, BALIF will honor the Center for Immigration Protection with its Legal Services Award. The Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project will receive the Community Services Award. Individual tickets are $150 and can be purchased at http://www. balif.org.

Tyler Clementi Foundation to hold SF event

The Tyler Clementi Foundation board and founder Jane Clementi will be in San Francisco next month for a planning conversation with new and current supporters to help the organization build a road map for bullying prevention in the new political environment. The foundation was formed after the 2010 suicide of Tyler Clementi, 18, a gay student at Rutgers University who was the victim of cyber harassment after his dorm mate, Dharun Ravi, secretly pointed his computer’s webcam at Clementi’s bed during a date and then left. Ravi then invited other students to view it online. Although the activation of the camera failed, Clementi discovered what had happened via Twitter and jumped off the George Washington Bridge. After a previous conviction was overturned, Ravi last year pleaded guilty to attempted invasion of privacy. He had already served time in jail, probation, and 300 hours of community service when he entered his plea. The local gathering will take place Saturday, March 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. See page 13 >>

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ast summer’s annual Lazy Bear Weekend was full of parties and on Sunday, February 12, organizers got together at 440 Castro to present $49,000 to various nonprofits. David Barker, left, president of the Lazy Bear Fund, joined founders Allen Eggman and Harry Lit, and Fred Bothe and John Jacob, members

of the fund’s board of directors. Some of the nonprofit beneficiaries were Food for Thought and Face to Face in Sonoma County, Positive Resource Center in San Francisco, Lampart House in Seattle, the Women’s Cancer Resource Center in Oakland, and West County Health Centers.

or survivors and loved ones, the emotional wounds inflicted by the December 2 fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland still run deep, according to the Reverend Megan Rohrer, a trans person who leads Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco’s Sunset neighborhood. The fire broke out at 11:20 p.m. on a Friday night as people were enjoying an evening of music and dancing. At least three of the 36 people who died identified as trans, including Cash Askew, a popular musician and DJ. Next Thursday, February 23, Rohrer, other faith leaders, healers, as well as artists and musicians will participate in “Elegy for Ghost Ship: An Evening of Music in Remembrance” at Grace Cathedral atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill. Rohrer organized the evening with Gabriel Connor, 22, who attends Grace Lutheran. Connor, who preferred not to say how he identifies, said he was a close friend of Askew’s. Connor approached Rohrer with the idea for the elegy and the two worked together on organizing the event. “When a tragedy happens in our community we need a lot of opportunities to mourn,” Rohrer told the Bay Area Reporter. “When the original tragedy happens the first thing we do is mourn the victims and care for the survivors. Then we attend to the people who may have had similar tragedies in their lives and who might be affected by seeing this in the news media.” Rohrer also noted that first responders and parents who imagine

ADAP

From page 5

not begin until just weeks before the July 1 transition. Further, the system is transitioning from one to three contractors, which will require additional coordination to effectively serve clients. ... We know from past experience with transitions that even the best planned system will have glitches. A new system of this size, serving tens of thousands of Californians living with HIV, will require additional time to be beta tested with enrollment workers prior to a full scale transition.” The coalition asked for a threemonth delay in the transition. In response to emailed questions from the B.A.R. this week, CDPH spokespeople said,“We have taken steps to have a complete resolution soon,” but they wouldn’t say when exactly the

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“This is a true warehouse experience but in a cathedral,” they said. “The acoustics at Grace Cathedral are very bouncy so people can choose their own adventure.” Participants scheduled to appear include SOS Singers of the Street, a chorus of homeless people that Rohrer leads; throat singer Enrique Ugalde; and opera diva Marissa Lenhardt Patton. Students from the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts are also expected to participate. Ambient sounds will be provided by Katabatik-Jay Fields, while Terry Estioko will offer video projections. The Very Reverend Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young of Grace Cathedral will also be present. “Ghost Ship,” a new poem written by singer-songwriter Judy Collins and posted on her Facebook page December 18, will be read as part of the elegy. “Given the political climate we live in every opportunity to use art and to find hope and counter divisiveness is an opportunity to embody the world we all deserve,” Rohrer said, referring to the Trump administration. “Art is healing. People of all economic statures deserve a safe space to make and enjoy art. These spaces should be open to people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.” The concert is part of the cathedral’s “Spacious Grace,” an annual free-form arts festival.t

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Reverend Megan Rohrer

losing children in such a tragedy might also be in need of guidance and healing. Connor said that he doesn’t want people to think that those at Ghost Ship were there because of marginalization by society. “Many people were there not out of being relegated but out of being empowered,” he said. “Out of their relegation they found empowerment at Ghost Ship.” Connor also does not want the victims to be forgotten. “They deserve a bit of recompense from the communities they inhabit,” he said. Rohrer said the evening would be one of musical remembrance. “There will also be poetic spoken word and faith offerings, as well as light projection with some instrumental sounds,” Rohrer explained. Rohrer, who prefers gender-neutral pronouns, said that pews would be removed from the sanctuary so that people could move about freely to partake of the various performances that will take place simultaneously.

problems would be fixed. They also wouldn’t say whether the contracts with A.J. Boggs or others would be canceled, or if the companies would be penalized, but CDPH is “carefully exploring longer term options” while working with the contractors. The contract with the state’s previous ADAP contractor, Ramsell, expired in June 2016. In 2015, before the expiration, separate requests for proposals were sent out for enrollment and pharmaceutical services in an effort “to increase competition among [Pharmacy Benefits Managers], thereby potentially lowering the administrative fees and drug reimbursement rates,” according to CDPH. Ramsell has filed two lawsuits against the health department. A spokeswoman with the company didn’t respond to an interview request. Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said he’s meeting

“Elegy for Ghost Ship” will take place February 23 from 8 to 10 p.m. at Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street. No admission will be charged, but donations will be accepted. Proceeds to benefit the Trans Assistance Project in Oakland.

with CDPH Director Dr. Karen Smith Thursday (February 16) to discuss the problems with ADAP. “It is my hope and expectation that she’ll let me know exactly what they’re doing to fix the problem in a prompt manner,” Wiener said. In an emailed statement to the B.A.R., gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), chair of the state’s California LGBT Legislative Caucus, said, “We are very concerned about the recent changes” at ADAP. “Barriers in access have produced tremendous anxiety and distress for our communities. For many enrolled in the program, this is a matter of life and death. The caucus is closely monitoring this situation and we are working with our LGBT coalitions, in addition to the Department of Public Health, to address these issues moving forward.”t

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<< Community News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

LGBT center rolls out #HireTrans ad campaign by Charlie Wagner

first-of-its-kind educational campaign to encourage employers to hire transgender and gender non-conforming workers can now be seen on Muni buses and downtown San Francisco BART stations. The mass transit ads are the latest part of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center’s #HireTrans campaign. It was conceived and designed by the center’s Trans Employment Program and features printed posters – and an online video slide show – and can be seen through the end of March on hundreds of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency vehicles and stations, as well as in two BART stations. Muni content includes 10 “bus queens,” which cover the entire side of a bus, as well as 500 “car cards,” which are positioned above the seats inside the buses. BART content includes posters in the non-paid area of Civic Center station and a video slide show, or

digital poster, on the platform level of the Montgomery station, one of the system’s busiest. San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission has often partnered with SFMTA to provide public exposure for important issues and together the agencies arranged the donated ad space. BART provided its ad space at reduced-rate pricing, according to a news release from the center. Clair Farley, the center’s director of economic development, told the Bay Frida Ibarra is one of several trans people featured in a new transit ad campaign. Area Reporter that printing and production costs were about $5,000. Empowerment Initiative, the first three times as likely to be unemJennifer Louie, a marketing specity-funded program to help transployed. Nine out of 10 of us have cialist for Intersection, which works gender and gender non-conforming experienced workplace harassment with BART, said that they don’t people get back to work and overand discrimination,” said Farley, a share client rates with the media. come the economic barriers facing trans woman. The Trans Employment Program their community. She cited research done by the was launched by the LGBT center in “As trans people we are twice as National LGBTQ Task Force and 2007 as the Transgender Economic likely to have a college degree but the National Center for Transgender

Courtesy LGBT Community Center

Equality as the source for these statistics, with supplemental data from the San Francisco HRC. Farley pointed out that often there is a lack of awareness, even in the Bay Area, and that trans people See page 13 >>

CSU East Bay plans 2nd queer confab by Michael Nugent

he second annual Queer Conference for college students across California will take place at California State University, East Bay March 3-4 and people can now register. The conference was born out of students’ interest in the queer community and coming together from across the state. “The first conference was

pandemonium,” said Jessika Murphy, Diversity and Inclusion Student Center coordinator. “Several students wanted to have a queer conference as part of their senior year. With only six weeks to plan, we had 100 people register.” This year the diversity center is going all in for the conference. It’s aiming for 200 attendees and is currently on track to meet that target. There will be over 20 workshops,

naturally reflect and adthree times as many as last dress the current politiyear, with higher quality ofcal climate and ways to ferings. Anyone is welcome take action. to attend, though students “We can get so foare the focus of the event. cused on Bay Area The free conference queer issues, but there is being funded by the are other parts of this CSUEB student governstate that are not in the ment, including all meals. same place we are,” said “We just want people to Hawkyard who identifeel welcome,” said Murphy. fied as queer trans man. The organizers are “We are setting a precreaching out extensively to edent with all-gender students across the state, bathrooms so other with a particular emphasis students can advocate at on the Central Valley and their university. We also southern California. This Michael Nugent learned about the needs outreach includes comthe community wants munity colleges, UCs and Jessika Murphy, left, talks with Liam Hawkyard addressed: not just CSUs, as well as commu- about the upcoming Queer Conference at California sharing information, nity organizations like Our State University, East Bay. but developing actionSpace, an LGBTQ youth able resources.” center in Hayward. queer people of color, fem feelings Added Murphy, “It’s Last year, CSU Bakerspanel, and moving past shame. great for the youth to come togethfield was the second most repreA recent visit showed the diverer and make connections. All the sented campus at the conference, sity center bustling with activity, students from different schools get and students from other parts of with a variety of groups meeting. to come here and see themselves the state are eager to come to places “DISC has the ‘I’ for inclusion with so many other queer people. like the Bay Area where they can be because we need to expand ideas Students were so excited last year, it more open, organizers said. of what diversity is,” said Murphy, was a moment of healing for peo“It’s important to show how big who identified as queer. “We needple to connect and take info back the queer community really is,” said ed a space for all groups including so they can create change.” Liam Hawkyard, a staff member at queer people. We have a variety of Hawkyard said the conference is the diversity center. “We’re really programming including ally train“made by the people who attend it.” focused on outreach, we divided the ings, hot topic dialogue circles “We want everyone to offer state up and have been networking and a special lavender graduation, their experience and strength, and with student leaders across the state. where students write their own share space with people of different I come originally from the Central stories and have a personalized backgrounds,” he said. “That’s how Valley; I realize there’s not queer ceremony.” we know where we’re at and what community everywhere and I want In addition to disseminating needs the community has to fill. to make it available.” resources, the diversity center orAnd have fun.” t The conference will begin with ganizes around political issues on a trans ally training and a mixer. campus. Thanks to its work, allSaturday will have workshops The conference registration gender restrooms are being introand speakers all day. Workshops deadline is February 26. To sign up, visit www.sites.google.com/ duced across CSUEB this month. will span topics including art and csueastbay.edu/queerconference. This year’s conference will activism, creative queer protest,

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at San Francisco’s June 2015 LGBT Pride celebration is expected to spend more than six years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to charges in the case. Joshua Spencer, 21, of San Francisco, was sentenced February 7 to about nine years and four months in state prison. But with factors including credit for time served, Spencer, who’s been in custody

since July 2015, is expected to be released in 2023. He pleaded guilty in December to two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. In exchange, counts of attempted murder and carrying a loaded firearm in public were dismissed. In a July 2015 court appearance, Assistant District Attorney Nathan Quigley said that video of the incident showed Spencer firing at one of the two victims. The victims are the man who was actually shot, and

the person that Spencer had been firing at. The gun was found in the same block as the shooting, Quigley said, and Spencer’s “palm prints were found on the magazine of the gun.” Officer Carlos Manfredi, who was then a police spokesman, said that the situation was believed to have started when several groups of men, “unrelated to the Pride event,” got See page 12 >>

Obituaries>>

February 16-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Dance educator Victor Anderson dies

by Michael Nugent

brightly and show us all the way.” ictor Virgil AnderShawl-Anderson son, a beloved dance Executive Director Reeducator and half of the becca Johnson said she’s gay duo that founded honored to carry out Shawl-Anderson Dance Mr. Anderson’s legacy. Center in Berkeley, died “What I learned February 7. He was 88. from Victor is that anyA cause of death was thing is possible if we not released. cultivate our capacity Ron Kunkle A soft-spoken sage with Victor Virgil to be devoted, steadfast, a twinkling sense of humor Anderson and loyal to ourselves and and a Zen-like spirit of our deeply held values,” modesty, quiet spirituality, Johnson said. and deep communion with nature, Mr. Anderson was born in 1928 Mr. Anderson left his mark on the Bay in Salt Lake City, Utah and grew Area through his pioneering work as up in Oakland. As a child, he was a dance educator. Nearly 60 years on, drawn to music and set his sights the Shawl-Anderson Dance Center on becoming a concert pianist, the remains one of the Bay Area’s most news release stated. vital centers for dance training, resiMr. Anderson would later recall dencies, and performance. countless childhood hours spent lis“Victor was a lifelong soul mate, tening to records and radio, and how, the yin to my yang in life and work,” when he was alone, he would let the Shawl-Anderson co-founder Frank music move his body through space. Shawl said in a news release. “We “I didn’t think that was anything couldn’t have created Shawlspecial,” he would often say with a Anderson without each other. smile and a shrug, according to the He brought the joy of dance to release. “I thought it was just what thousands of people, and it’s comeverybody did.” forting to know that as the center At 18, he attended a touring Amerimoves into its next generations, his can Ballet Theatre performance of gentle, loving presence will shine Antony Tudor’s “Pillar of Fire” that

changed his life. Mr. Anderson knew instantly that he wanted to become a dancer, and, despite the urgings of family, teachers, and friends, set his musical studies aside and began studying at San Francisco Ballet School, the release noted. In 1950, Mr. Anderson moved to New York to study ballet. His interest in modern dance was born when he appeared with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in a performance at Carnegie Hall. He soon found his mentor and lifelong muse in one of Martha Graham’s leading soloists, May O’Donnell. It was at her studio that Anderson first met Shawl. At the time, Mr. Anderson was also working as a hoofer in several Broadway shows; in 1950, Jerome Robbins cast him in the Ethel Merman vehicle, “Call Me Madam.” He also began his teaching career at the Grammercy School of Music and Dance. In 1958, he and Shawl decided to move to the Bay Area and open a school together, the release said. The Shawl-Anderson Dance Center found its first home at the corner of College and Alcatraz avenues in Berkeley. The modest studio had uneven floors, no single right-angled wall, and a column that shot up through the middle of the room.

Classes were $2; Mr. Anderson taught ballet and Shawl taught modern. By 1968, their classes were hosting capacity crowds. The release said that a beautiful Craftsman house came on the market, right across the street. Shawl and Anderson purchased the home, gutted it, and transformed it into four sunny studios. Over the following decades, luminaries of the dance world like Jose Limon passed through the dance company, as well as hundreds of thousands of students. The careers of innumerable artists have been nurtured within the Shawl-Anderson’s walls. In 2001, Mr. Anderson and Shawl received the Ruth Beckford Award for Extraordinary Contributions in the Field of Dance; in 2008, they were acknowledged by the Berkeley City Council for 50 years of contributions to the arts. Many of the staff continuing Mr. Anderson’s work at Shawl-Anderson have been deeply impacted by his work. “Victor was my first dance teacher and a cherished friend,” said Steve Siegelman, Shawl-Anderson board president. “In dance, as in life, he was a gentle mentor who moved through the world with a spirit of calm dignity, quiet strength and

graceful beauty. That spirit inspired his students for half a century, and I know it will always be a part of the DNA of Shawl-Anderson, nurturing dancers of all ages for many generations to come.” “Victor was a calm and kind presence who appreciated artistry, craft, and beauty in the world,” said Jill Randall, artistic director of ShawlAnderson. “In recent years, Victor was amazed at the continued longevity and vibrancy of his legacy. He inspired and invited thousands into a life of dance over the past 59 years in Berkeley.” Mr. Anderson’s parents, Stewart “Andy” Anderson and Arlene Edwards Turner, and stepfather Robert B. Turner Sr. are all deceased. In addition to Shawl, Mr. Anderson is survived by brothers Bob Turner (Ann) of Pleasanton and Keene Turner of Sonoma; sister Darlene Turner Quigg (Tom) of Sausalito; cousins, and 13 nieces and nephews. A memorial is planned for Thursday, March 9, in Berkeley. The family asks that donations be made in his memory to the Victor Anderson Scholarship Fund at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. To RSVP for the memorial or to donate to the fund, go to www.shawl-anderson.org. t

Presidents Day SF protest targets Trump by Liz Highleyman

in some vandalism and physical altercations amid the thousands of peaceful protesters, and have said they will respond similarly to future alt-right appearances.

ay Area protests continue against President Donald Trump’s policies and appointments, although Trump has not yet issued a widely anticipated executive order allowing discrimination against LGBT people under the guise of “religious freedom.”

Upcoming actions

Some activists have called for a nationwide “general strike” Friday, February 17. Others, however, are less enthused, arguing that the date is too soon to organize properly and the effort does not have enough buyin from the labor movement. May 1 – International Worker’s Day – has been proposed as an alternate date. San Franciscans will have another chance to protest Trump’s executive actions in the Castro on Presidents Day, Monday, February 20. Longtime activists and author Cleve Jones has called for a rally at 5:30 p.m. during the intermission of a Castro Theatre showing of the ABC television miniseries “When We Rise,” based in part on Jones’ book of the same title. Jones said he expects speakers will include director Dustin Lance Black and some of the activists portrayed in the show. “Presidents Day is a good day to continue the resistance,” Jones told the Bay Area Reporter. “We need to do whatever we can, wherever we are, with whatever we have to rise up and resist Trump’s agenda of hatred, division, and greed.” Meanwhile, supporters of the

Obituaries >> James B. Gardner

January 27, 1936 – January 9, 2017 James B. Gardner, aka Brucella, departed the planet January 9, 2017 at Coming Home Hospice in San Francisco, where he was treated with dignity and respect until the very end. Brucella was born in upstate New York January 27, 1936. Most of his youth was spent as a ward in the child welfare system in the state of New York. Unlike many children in similar circumstances he looked back on his childhood with fond memories. He was one of “the lucky ones” that found the love

Quick recap

so-called alt-right, a movement built on white nationalism, including a group called the Proud Boys, plan to hold a free speech march in Berkeley March 4. As previously reported, a February 1 talk at UC Berkeley by gay Breitbart News editor and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled after an unruly protest made it impossible for the event to go forward. Yiannopoulos, who publicly harassed a transgender student at the University of Wisconsin in December, announced the launch of a campaign against sanctuary campuses prior to his UC Berkeley appearance and opponents feared he planned to publicly expose undocumented students. Yiannopoulos indicated in a Facebook post that he plans to make another attempt to give his speech in Berkeley “within the next few months.” It is not clear whether Yiannopoulos is connected to the Proud Boys march. Local anti-fascists made a strong showing at UC Berkeley, resulting

Local demonstrators are employing attention-grabbing tactics as they respond to the Trump administration and its stumbles. A crowd numbering in the thousands gathered at Ocean Beach the morning of February 12 to spell out “RESIST!!” with their bodies on the sand. Organizer Brad Newsham, who has spearheaded several previous beach-spelling actions, estimated that around 5,000 people participated. LGBT and reproductive rights activists have worked together for decades, and that coalition was again evident at anti-abortion protests and pro-choice counterprotests outside Planned Parenthood clinics across the country February 11. At the Valencia Street clinic in San Francisco pro-choice advocates – many of them queer – outnumbered abortion opponents by four to one, according to participant Waiyde Palmer. Activists had something to celebrate February 9, when a three-judge panel from the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled against Trump’s recent executive order restricting immigration from seven predominately Muslim countries. The order, issued in late January, caused chaos at airports across the country. The three justices upheld a Seattle judge’s decision to halt enforcement of the order. However, an unnamed appeals court justice has called for “en banc” review of

and support in the institutions that would give him the sunny disposition that would serve him so well in life. After a stint in the U.S. Navy, Brucella would travel the country before settling in his beloved San Francisco in 1961. His already colorful life flourished during his early years in San Francisco, where he embraced the communal lifestyle. His over-the-top demeanor would be a huge asset in his career choices, which consisted of lots of “people oriented” positions that included waiting tables at Neros and several years working in the city’s infamous bathhouses. Brucella found his true calling as a caretaker for a historic co-op on Washington Street. His love of all things sparkly meant that he was truly at home caring for the beautiful

building and its fascinating tenants. Brucella continued to work until age 80. His final job was on the Presidio working with Swords to Plowshares assisting veterans. It has been said that Brucella could bedazzle and add polish to any situation. For those lucky enough to know and love him, we know this to be true as it was witnessed first hand during his many performances as a founding member of “The Blaster Sisters,” a campy group of guys that performed in Tenderloin bars raising lots of money for a variety of charities. A party to celebrate the fabulous life of Brucella will be held at the Gangway, 841 Larkin Street, Sunday, February 26 from 1 to 4 p.m. Donations can be made to Coming Home Hospice at cpmc.org/services/chh/.

Stefan Reunzel

Thousands of people joined together at Ocean Beach last weekend to spell out “RESIST !!” as a statement against President Donald Trump.

the decision by the full court (for the 9th Circuit, it would be a panel of 11 judges, not the entire bench). Trump could issue a new executive order that addresses the court’s concerns or could appeal the 9th Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, activists are

trying to figure out ways to protect immigrants in their communities from deportation in the wake of a wave of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in southern California and several other states. ICE officials arrested more than 600 people over the past week, according to the New York Times.t

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t Parenting with a disability brings joys, challenges 12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

by Belo Cipriani

aving a disability does not prevent anyone from being a capable and loving parent. Yet, it does present a set of unique challenges – challenges that Nicole Schultz-Kass, a 37-year-old blind mother from Woodbury, Minnesota, feels are often misconstrued by people. “It seems sometimes that people see a parent with a disability and assume that the person must be less capable, must behave in a way younger than his peers, or that his children must help him. These things are

simply untrue,” said Schultz-Kass. Schultz-Kass was born with a condition called oculocutaneous albinism – an inherited genetic condition that causes a lack of melanin pigment in the skin, hair, and eyes, and is accompanied by visual impairment. Her husband is able-bodied, and she uses a guide dog for mobility. Schultz-Kass admits the challenges around parenting with a disability are definitely there; however, they do not impact the quality of parenting, nor do they affect the child in a negative way. “Truly, I think the most significant

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difference as a blind parent, as opposed to someone with no disability who is a parent, is in transportation, and the way we plan and execute travel plans with children, since we are unable to drive. Some activities involve more planning and travel time, as well as oftentimes using public transportation with kiddos in tow,” she said. In addition to having transportation issues pop up from time to time, Schultz-Kass also shares that overall mobility can present some problems – especially during pregnancy. She said, “The most difficult thing about being pregnant and blind was that my body was changing throughout that entire nine-month period, and I was constantly adjusting in terms of mobility, balance, and other areas of travel, to keep myself and baby safe when running around town.” But despite the daily hurdles her disability brings about, the cheerful mom feels both her daughters, ages 4 and 11, are growing to have an exceptional understanding of differences – different abilities, and different concepts of beauty, respect, and empathy for others – all characteristics that may not have developed at such a young age if they did not have a parent with a disability. “When our children were very young,” Schultz-Kass said, “we utilized babywearing in order to keep our children close, safe, and secure. In terms of baby playing, I used various methods, including closing off certain spaces, childproofing all areas, and, as our children became more mobile and independent, we would stay in close proximity. “I utilize magnifying technology,” continued Schultz-Kass, “and tools and some text-to-speech products for reading food preparation directions.” For Heather French, a lesbian and dean at Holy Names University in Oakland, magnifiers and other tools for the blind stir up fond memories of her childhood in Maine. “Something very concrete that stands out to me about my mom

‘Berlin Patient’

From page 1

managing its complications. Dr. Susan Buchbinder, director of Bridge HIV at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, opened the meeting with a welcome to international participants and a denunciation of President Donald Trump’s recent executive order

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Pride shooter

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into a verbal argument near or inside the venue. “The incident escalated when one of the subjects pulled out a gun and fired several shots,” Manfredi said. He said in a news release that Spencer was arrested in Vallejo after the San Francisco Police Department’s Gang Task Force Unit followed investigative leads and identified him as the suspect. Freddy Atton, the man who was shot, sued the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee over the incident. Atton, who blamed a lack of security for the shooting, settled his lawsuit with Pride in November. Deputy Public Defender Brian Pearlman said in an interview Tuesday, February 14 that Spencer had made a “sad mistake.” “From the beginning, he’s been willing to accept responsibility,” said

was that she would read to me, and taught me to read before kindergarten by her using a highpowered magnifying glass to see the text of a children’s book,” French added. French, 42, who, along with her seven siblings was raised by a legally blind mother, and a father that later in life became hard of hearing, feels that the experience of being raised by a parent with a disability made her a more aware adult. She also feels her mother’s impaired vision brought about some very neat and unique experiences. “I can recall a few times when friends visiting our house would be shocked by my mom’s keen hearCourtesy Nicole Schultz-Kass ing (she could hear us whispering to each other Nicole Schultz-Kass, center, sits with her from the next room), or husband, Devin Kass, their daughters, when my mom’s keen Katie and Evie, and her retired guide dog, sense of smell would get Picassa. me in trouble (I wasn’t allowed to wear never took as a kid. makeup beFrench relates her successes as fore high school, and a parent to her mother’s ability to my mom could smell thrive as a stay-at-home mom, dewhen I was wearing spite her challenges. compact powder),” she “I was a single parent for some said. time when my son was young,” said When asked about French, “and although I wouldn’t any drawbacks about change a thing, I can say there were being raised by a pardefinitely challenging times. Seeing ent with a visual dismy own mother’s resilience to life’s ability, French noted challenges, and recognizing how she the challenges of getting did the very best she could given to places. her situation, has absolutely put my “My mother could not drive,” she own parenting in perspective.”t said. “My father often worked nights or would work on job sites far from Belo Cipriani is a disability adhome. Since he was the only one who vocate, a freelance journalist, the could drive, and he was often working award-winning author of “Blind: or sleeping during the day, it was conA Memoir” and “Midday Dreams,” sidered an occasion to go anywhere.” the spokesman for Guide Dogs It was not until she became an for the Blind and the national adult that French realized she did spokesman for 100 Percent Wine not know much about her home – a premium winery that donates state, and she began to explore and 100 percent of proceeds to nontravel. With her son, she took the profits that help people with disfive-hour car ride to Quebec, Canabilities find work. Learn more at ada from her hometown, which she www.belocipriani.com.

– now suspended by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – restricting immigration from seven predominately Muslim countries. “Diseases don’t stop at national borders and neither must efforts to combat them,” Buchbinder said. “More than ever, science is a global collaboration. We believe that one important form of resistance to policies like this is to fully

Pearlman, who referred to the sentence as “a fair resolution.” He added that Spencer, who had faced the possibility of a life sentence because of the attempted murder charge, now has two strikes. “If he’s arrested again for a serious case, he will be a three-striker,” Pearlman said, which could mean Spencer would spend the rest of his life in prison. Outside the courtroom after one of Spencer’s appearances last year, Crystal Martin, 60, his mother, said he was “a good child. He just got caught up with that peer pressure.” After the shooting, according to Martin, Spencer had repeatedly said, “I fucked up, Mom. I fucked my whole life up.” Reached by phone Tuesday – Spencer’s birthday – Martin declined to comment on her son’s sentence. Approached in jail not long after his arrest, Spencer declined to speak with the Bay Area Reporter. t

participate in meetings that are international, such as CROI, and to say at every opportunity that we will not be divided from our colleagues, our patients, or our communities by unjust governmental edicts.” Scientific presentations at CROI were ongoing as the B.A.R. went to press and highlights will be reported in a future issue.t

San Francisco Superior Court documents

Prosecutors have said this photo shows Joshua Spencer as the gunman during a shooting at the 2015 San Francisco LGBT Pride celebration.

t <<

Community News>>

February 16-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

LGBT SF synagogue

Rabbi Ted Riter, a straight man who is serving as the congregation’s interim spiritual leader, said Jewish people are innately drawn to assisting immigrants and refugees due to their personal and historical experiences. “For many of us, our parents, or at least our grandparents, were refugees to this country, fleeing Nazi Germany or the pogroms in the Soviet Union,” he said. “We also look back to biblical times; we are continually reminded we are strangers in a strange land. We are counseled over and over again in biblical text that we should take care of the stranger and take care of the people traveling through.” At the congregation’s annual leadership meeting in December, which is called an Advance, the members “quickly decided,” said Chertok, that with the Trump administration’s pledge to crack down on immigration, both legal and illegal, it made sense for them to focus on supporting immigrants and refugees this year. The congregation also elected to sign on to the Welcome Campaign overseen by HIAS, which was formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Started in the late 1800s in New York, HIAS after World War II helped resettle Holocaust survivors to the U.S., as well as to South America and what is now Israel. Glen Park resident Michael Rice, who joined Sha’ar Zahav with his wife, Jane, in 2012, was a main proponent at the Advance for seeing the congregation work with immigrants and refugees this year. His father, after working in Europe for a decade with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which assisted Holocaust survivors, became the executive director of HIAS in 1955, where he worked for the next decade. “Basically, I said welcoming the stranger means helping refugees to me,” said Rice. “And I think, to many of us, it is a core value of being Jewish. We’ve been refugees; we’ve been persecuted.” The idea for the social justice campaign was prompted from Rice noticing last year that HIAS, through its Welcome Campaign,

was asking Jewish congregations around the country to sign up to welcome refugees, and in particular, LGBT refugees. “I thought, well, this is not my father’s HIAS. I like to think he would have come through as well,” said Rice, whose family in 1966 moved to Chicago when his father was hired to work for the Jewish Social Services Agency there. Sha’ar Zahav is now working closely with Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay to support the LGBT refugees it is working to resettle in the Bay Area. The agency is the only one in the country that has developed a specific resettlement program to work with LGBT refugees. It launched in 2011 when a number of Iranian LGBT refugees, who had fled to Turkey, needed help resettling in the U.S., as a Bay Area article Reporter noted in 2015 when the agency was known as Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay. Last August it hired Wade Meyer as the first full-time coordinator of the LGBTI refugee program. At the moment the agency has 13 LGBT refugees in the Bay Area being housed through its program. Half are from central and east Africa, with the majority from Uganda. Adamian is the only one from Europe and the others hail from Iran and Syria. Members of Sha’ar Zahav are housing three gay refugees at the moment, with others willing to open their homes for new arrivals. “With congregations like Sha’ar Zahav, we have been able to increase our support and housing,” said Meyer, who is working with a number of faith-based groups in the Bay Area to support the LGBT refugees in the program. “Our model, in general, is to work with larger community groups like congregations to help the program overall.” Housing remains the most pressing need, as refugees often arrive with few financial resources in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. “A lot of our clients come with only a carry-on bag, so they don’t come with a lot of resources,” said

Meyer. “Certainly, they get food stamps and cash assistance, but it is not nearly enough to pay for rent in the Bay Area. A refugee couldn’t get on their feet without a housing host.” The agency also forms welcome groups of up to four people who help each refugee adjust to life in America. “They practice English with them, help them learn the public transit systems and show them how to shop at the grocery store,” explained Meyer. “Sometimes they help sign them up for benefits. They provide support a family or group of close friends would provide.” The East Bay agency normally settles up to 15 LGBT refugees per year. HIAS will alert it three months in advance that a person will be resettled in the Bay Area and again a month out when the person’s travel has been arranged. Prior to Trump’s executive order indefinitely putting a hold on accepting more refugees, six LGBT refugees were expected to arrive in the Bay Area between now and May. Due to the court decisions blocking implementation of the ban, one refugee who was supposed to arrive this week was rebooked on an earlier flight and landed last Friday, February 10. He is now living with a host family in Albany. But Meyer remains unsure on the status of the five other people he had been expecting to arrive by the spring. While they await word on if any more refugees will be allowed into the country, the members of Sha’ar Zahav are focusing on what they can do to assist those already in the Bay Area. “It is fairly recent, but I can tell you our congregants are very proud to be involved in this. And right now, because of the political scene, we are not sure what is going to happen for the future or if doors are going to shut or open,” said Riter. “We see it as a sacred obligation to reach out and open our doors.”t

The Napa Valley Wine Train has announced its annual Pride Ride, an LGBT wine expert event, will take

place Saturday, March 18. Beginning with a sparkling wine reception at 5 p.m., this special event will feature some of the Bay Area’s well-known LGBT winemakers and experts, each on-hand to assist guests in selecting wines to pair with their multi-course gourmet meal prepared by the wine trains executive chef, Donald Young. A portion of the proceeds will

benefit the Richmond-Ermet Aid Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that raises funds for AIDS services, hunger programs, and programs for underserved youth in the Bay Area. Tickets are $252 per person for the Gourmet Express package and $352 per person for the Vista Dome experience. Both include train fare, the multi-course meal, one glass of

sparkling wine, and three glasses of additional wine. For reservations and more information, visit http://www. winetrain.com/package/gay-pride. For anyone in San Francisco, round-trip transportation is available for $50 on a luxury bus that will pick passengers up at the Cafe, 2369 Market Street, at 3:30 p.m. and depart from the Napa Valley Wine Train station at midnight.t

experiences in the job market and in the workforce.” The campaign aims to make visible and highlight the challenges transgender jobseekers face in their search for employment and even in simply identifying inclusive workplaces. The ads feature seven transgender individuals, identified by their first names, working in a range of professions, along with the pronouns they prefer to use: Alic (he, him), a pediatric oncology nurse; Caleb (he, him), a lawyer; Candy (she, her), a supervising coordinator; Frida (she, her, they, them), a health outreach worker; Mia (she, her), a director of a youth advocacy group; Miss Peaches Montrace (she, her), an entertainer; and Sophie (she, her), a

data scientist. Farley said the featured people were contacted via the Trans Employment Program and other channels. “We wanted diversity and to include people not always represented,” she said. Samantha Cooper and Bob Stafford photographed the campaign. Frida Ibarra, the health outreach worker, told the B.A.R. that she has yet to see her ad, which is at Civic Center BART. “But it’s been great to see so many folks snapping photos via social media and tagging me in them,” she said. “It’s been quite the ego booster, but also amazing to feel supported through a meaningful and important campaign.” Ibarra said the campaign has

been “a ray of sunshine” in the current political climate. “We are living in a time when trans representation matters, and the need to empower trans folks via viral campaigns is crucial in order to ensure we have the same career opportunities that cisgender folks have.” The transit campaign leads up to the March 31 Transgender Day of Visibility, which celebrates accomplishments and victories in trans and gender non-conforming people’s lives. TDOV also seeks to raise awareness of the work still needed to save lives and address the staggering rates of discrimination, homelessness and underemployment. In partnership with the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center,

the Trans Employment Program is hosting an event Friday, March 31 at 5:30 p.m. at SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannon Street. The evening will include a reception, awards, and performances. Farley is proud that in the last 10 years the Trans Employment Program has connected trans jobseekers with thousands of jobs in diverse and rewarding workplaces. “We want trans and GNC people to feel empowered, that they are not alone, and that there are people who care about them,” she said. t

they’re ill,” Peron said at the time. Peron, who grew up on Long Island, served in the Air Force in Vietnam and moved to San Francisco, where he sold cannabis. He co-founded the Cannabis Buyers Club and co-authored Prop 215. His marijuana business was busted by authorities in 1978 and 1990.

In 1996, Lungren, the state attorney general, ordered another bust of Peron’s club. Prop 215 was passed soon thereafter, which allowed the club to reopen. In 1998, Peron ran in the Republican primary for California governor against his rival Lungren, who

won the primary and lost the election to Gray Davis. Community members will have another chance to thank Peron at a celebration Friday, February 17 at 2 p.m. at Cafe Flore, 2298 Market Street. “Come celebrate a true revolutionary force in the cannabis

movement, a person without whom our lives would not look at all like they do today,” said Terrance Alan, the new owner of the restaurant and the chair of San Francisco’s Cannabis State Legalization Task Force. “Thank you, Dennis, for saving my ass when I got arrested for growing pot in the 1980s.”t

From page 1

re-watched the chaotic scene. “It was terrifying.” Over the ensuing months Adamian, whose family broke ties with him over his sexual orientation and disbelief in religion, realized that remaining in his home country was untenable. In September 2013 he fled to Kiev, Ukraine where he applied for refugee status through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It wasn’t until April 2015 that he was resettled in the United States, first being placed with a host in West Oakland by Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay. Since January Adamian has been living in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood in the two-bedroom home of Michael Chertok, 53, a gay man who is president of Sha’ar Zahav, the city’s predominantly LGBT synagogue. Throughout 2017 the congregation is focusing its social justice work on supporting immigrants and refugees, and a number of its members have offered to open their homes to LGBT refugees. “I felt, at this particular time, it was something I should do,” said Chertok, who is renting out the room to Adamian at a steeply discounted rate for several months, for now, and may extend their agreement if the arrangement continues to work out. Seated next to Chertok on the couch in the open living room, Adamian explained that he took up the chance to move to San Francisco in order to have a shorter commute to his job with a downtown accounting firm. Three weeks ago he received his green card, which has provided some relief as Adamian said the election of Donald Trump as president in November was nerve racking. “I was shocked he won. For me I thought there was zero chance it would happen,” he said. “The next four weeks was stressful. I worried what am I going to do and will he kick me out.” He intends to apply for citizenship in 2020, with the hope he will be able to vote in that November’s presidential election. He would also

News Briefs

From page 8

at Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street. In addition to the discussion, guests will enjoy light refreshments and hear baritone John Kelley sing songs from “Tyler’s Suite.” Clementi foundation Executive Director Sean Kosofsky said that interested people should RSVP by

Center ad campaign

From page 10

face a unique challenge in “coming out to past (business) references.” The Trans Employment Program provides a wide range of services including job referrals, career coaching, resume review, managing references, mentoring, legal services, and moving from unemployment to joining the workforce. “We want to be sure employers know they can come to us for employees,” Farley said. “And the more ‘interior’ champions and allies the better. It’s about networking.” The #HireTrans campaign is so named because, as Farley explained, “We want trans and GNC people to use social media to share their own

Peron

From page 5

use marijuana for medical purposes. “A lot of people are getting medical marijuana and are not going to jail. I wrote it so sick people wouldn’t have to be hassled, go to jail, and have to hire lawyers when

Rick Gerharter

Michael Chertok, left, and Sergo Adamian, a refugee from the Republic of Georgia, stand outside Chertok’s home.

like to enroll in graduate school but has been unable to get the paperwork he needs from the university in Georgia from which he graduated, something Chertok has been trying to assist with. Back in Eastern Europe Adamian owned his own kitchen and bathroom home improvement supply store, a business he would like to someday reopen in the Bay Area. “I have been to Los Angeles and some other cities, but I like it here more,” he said.

Long history of welcoming refugees to the Bay Area

It is not the first time that Sha’ar Zahav members have worked to welcome refugees to the country. As Chertok noted in an article he wrote for the congregation’s most recent quarterly newsletter, in the 1980s it was part of the sanctuary movement to provide safe haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict in El Salvador and Guatemala. For many members offering welcome to refugees is inspired by their own familial histories. Members of Chertok’s family, for instance, hosted Jews coming from Europe in the late 1930s and early 1940s, including a gay Jewish man. “They are among my heroes,” Chertok, who years ago visited Georgia during a humanitarian trip he took, told the Bay Area Reporter. February 24 as space is limited. To RSVP, email rsvp@tylerclementi.org. For more information about the foundation, visit http://www.tylerclementi.org.

Napa wine train ready for Pride ride

The East Bay agency welcomes volunteers willing to host LGBT refugees. Anyone interested in doing so can sign up online at http://jfcs-eastbay.org/volunteerinterest-form/ or can call Meyer at (925) 927-2000, ext. 624.

#HireTrans is searchable on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. For more information, visit transemploymentprogram.org or TDOV.org.

t <<

Community News>>

Sheriff

From page 1

The agency will start using new field arrest cards March 1 that include places for each inmate’s legal and preferred names, gender identity, and the gender of the staff person they want to have search them. The data will be documented in the sheriff ’s automated jail management system. “We are working with the police department to make sure our two agencies develop consistent policies in this area, so that transmission of this information in booking documents is seamless from point of arrest through the booking process,” Hennessy wrote. Several factors, including charges, “criminal sophistication,” and psychiatric needs, are used to classify each inmate who’s in the sheriff ’s custody for 72 hours “to determine the safest, most appropriate housing,” Hennessy wrote. “We are currently developing a policy that will consider gender identity in each classification review and housing decision.” In her letter, Hennessy recalled that when she took office in January 2016, trans inmates were housed in County Jail #4, on the seventh floor at the Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant Street, “where they were receiving little programming and where, in order to participate in programs, they had to walk the entire mainline and be subjected to taunts of other prisoners.” She immediately started working on moving the trans inmates to “A-Pod,” a men’s re-entry pod in County Jail #2, which is behind the Hall of Justice. The pod, managed by Five Keys Charter School, has been modified to provide trans inmates “with their own housing unit, including a shower, segregated from men’s housing, but having the benefit of more light, air, and freedom of movement than they had at County Jail #4.” Hennessy said the move to A-Pod “is an intermediate step.” The sheriff also wants to build “flexible dividers within the women’s housing pods ... to ensure shower facilities separation as required by [the Prison Rape Elimination Act].” The dividers would be paid for by funds that are included in the sheriff ’s current capital planning request for County Jail #2’s renovation. Hennessy wrote that “key to the renovation plan” is the Board of Supervisors’ approval of a resolution that would authorize her to apply for $70 million in grant funding from the California Board of State and Community Corrections, along with $12 million in matching funds. The sheriff wrote that her staff are also receiving gender awareness training. So far, 401 people have been trained. The plan is for all staff to be trained by June 30. Inmates are also being prepared “through education, for the addition of transgender, gender variant, and intersex individuals to their housing areas,” Hennessy stated. She also wrote that program offerings for trans inmates “have improved considerably since the move to County Jail #2” last April. Programs include a coding class, support groups, and job search and computer skills training. Additionally, Hennessy stated, “Transwomen in need of a high school diploma are now offered the opportunity to participate, along with ciswomen prisoners, in the Five Keys Charter School when their security classification and educational needs make them eligible.” Hennessy pledged to adhere to standards set forth in the national PREA, which addresses housing for trans inmates. In her letter, she noted that guidelines state that when it comes to

housing and programming for trans and intersex inmates, agencies “shall consider on a case-by-case basis whether a placement would ensure the inmate’s health and safety, and whether the placement would present management or security problems,” and, “a transgender or intersex inmate’s own views with respect to his or her own safety shall be given serious consideration.” “In looking ahead to making new housing assignments, we will need to make them on a case-bycase basis to ensure the safety of each person as we seek to honor their housing preference,” Hennessy stated. She wrote that staff are also being trained on new expectations around searches that are consistent with PREA standards. “Implementing this policy constitutes a change in working conditions and requires that we meet and confer with both the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association and the Managers and Supervisors Association,” Hennessy wrote. “We have initiated meet and confer, and are working through that process.” Hennessy has issued a training bulletin and memo to all sheriff ’s personnel “making my intention clear and encouraging voluntary compliance until the new search policy is finalized,” she stated. There were 12 transgender, gender variant, or intersex people in custody as of February 14, Hirst said. Six of them were in A-Pod, two were in County Jail #4, and four were “new arrivals” who were still in the intake pod.

‘Excellent progress’

Asked about Hennessy’s letter, Sheehy said, “I think we’re making excellent progress.” He said he’s committed to “making sure we have funding in the budget to secure body scanners.” Theresa Sparks, a transgender woman who’s been working with Hennessy and others to address housing concerns and serves as Mayor Ed Lee’s senior adviser for transgender initiatives, said Hennessy has made “incredible progress in a very difficult area. Her commitment to this really has been very welcome.” “This process has never been implemented in any other jail in the United States,” she said. “It’s been attempted in a few and partially implemented, but this has never been done” fully. “We’re very optimistic,” Sparks said, particularly with Hennessy’s “decision to move forward with the full body scanners,” which “is going to make a significant difference.” The machines “will be more efficient” than strip searches, she said, and female deputies in particular had been reluctant to search trans women. “The body scanners will alleviate that as well,” Sparks said. At least one trans inmate isn’t satisfied with her situation, though. Latiya Pryor, 48, is serving several months in jail after pleading guilty to second-degree commercial burglary. In a recent interview inside County Jail #4, Pryor said she’s being held there in the administrative segregation unit despite several requests to move to County Jail #2 with other trans inmates. She also said that she’s been unable to get access to women’s underwear, among other concerns. “It’s a known fact that we’re the last they care about,” Pryor said. Hirst, the sheriff ’s spokeswoman, said, “Unfortunately, because of classification issues, Ms. Pryor cannot be moved, but we are endeavoring to resolve all other matters that she mentioned.” The classification issue isn’t related to Pryor’s gender, Hirst said, but she couldn’t comment further. t

February 18-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 14

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-17-552721

In the matter of the application of: LINDSAY RENEE BERGMANN, 1233 ARGUELLO BLVD #9, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LINDSAY RENEE BERGMANN, is requesting that the name LINDSAY RENEE BERGMANN, be changed to LINZI RENEE BERRY. 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 23rd of March 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-17-552694

In the matter of the application of: ABDOLHANNAN PARVIZIAN, 2434 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ABDOLHANNAN PARVIZIAN, is requesting that the name ABDOLHANNAN PARVIZIAN, be changed to HANNAN PARVIZIAN. 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 14th of March 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-17-552715

In the matter of the application of: SEUNG HYUK YI/JI HOO YI, 1390 MARKET ST #1428, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SEUNG HYUK YI, are requesting that the name LIAM (KUN-HEE0) YI be changed to LIAM (CHEON) YI. 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 21st of March 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037439900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EMIKO OYOGA, 940 NATOMA ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EMIKO M. OYE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/11/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/17.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037428400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAI FENG TRADITION CHINESE MED; HAI FENG CHINESE HERBAL, 1818 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RU HAI LIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/09/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/17.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037430500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KA DIAMONDS, 100 SUMMIT WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BARSEKH KARAGEUZIAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/18/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/18/17.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037433200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHARLES H. STINSON STUDIO; STARCHAND PRESS, 1890 BRYANT ST #300, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHARLES H. STINSON. 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 01/19/17.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037427900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EVOLUTION, 3186 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed FOTOON AND SAHEEN INC, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/15/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/17.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037431500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LUSCIOUS GARAGE, 475 9TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LUSCIOUS GARAGE, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/07. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/19/17.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037432900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY CONNECTIONS, 530 HOWARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GRAYSON CARTER, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/19/17.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037332400 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: CALIFORNIA MOVERS LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE INC, 1888 GENEVA AVE #504B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by CALIFORNIA MOVERS LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE INC. (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037332500

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SIMPLE MOVE SF, 1888 GENEVA AVE #504B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by SIMPLE MOVE INC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

JAN 26, FEB 02, 09, 16, 2017 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-17-552745

In the matter of the application of: CARLOS MAX BRAN, 1100 GOUGH ST #18D, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CARLOS MAX BRAN, is requesting that the name CARLOS MAX BRAN; AKA CHARLES MAX BRAN; AKA MAX CHARLES BRAN, be changed to CHARLES MAX BRAN. 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 30th of March 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037453500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TABOUN, 203 PARNASSUS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SALIM I. QARU. 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 01/31/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037451300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HERBS AND SPICE, 2211 NEWCOMB AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAMONA ADDISON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037450500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIFE GATE ACUPUNCTURE, 2460 MISSION ST #212, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KARA LEANNE ROMANKO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/15/03. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037449400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AI BEAUTE SKIN SPA, 1149 POWELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AINA CHEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037448000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SG ADVISORS, 4150 17TH ST #33, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SCOTT ARTHUR GORDON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/30/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037441500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BELLATIQUE, 924 GEARY ST #50, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FEROZ CHAUHAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/25/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/25/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037443500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CREATE INTERIOR DESIGN, 181 FRANKLIN ST #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAMES E. BROWN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/24/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037447400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALEXANDER SIGNING SERVICE, 16 MUSEUM WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRETT D. ALEXANDER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/23/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/30/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037451200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RCB SECURITY INC, 1307 EVANS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed RCB SECURITY INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037443900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOME CAFE, 2018 CLEMENT STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed 1ST, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/26/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037438900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BUSINESS BRA’S, 1415 7TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed MELANIE GARCIA & TRISHA HEIGL. 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 01/24/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037445400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: P C PLUMBING, 235 WESTLAKE CENTER #382, DALY CITY, CA 94015. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed A AND M REMODELING LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/26/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/17.

FEBRUARY 02, 09, 16, 23, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037457800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: D. HUDSON GOLFWEAR, 3636 BRODERICK ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JEFFREY CHANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/03/17.

FEB 09, 16, 23, MAR 02, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037459700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NCI REAL ESTATE, 2267 37TH AVE. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PABLO JOSE WONG. 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 02/06/17.

FEB 09, 16, 23, MAR 02, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037460800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VIV TAX SERVICES, 1790 FULTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAI TRAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/06/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/06/17.

FEB 09, 16, 23, MAR 02, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037460400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 421 E. 18TH STREET PROPERTY PARTNERSHIP, 4804 MISSION ST #222, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed NASEEF MUSLEH; NAJEEB SHIHADEH; MICHEL MUSLEH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/06/17.

FEB 09, 16, 23, MAR 02, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037453700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLINKS + BROWS SAN FRANCISCO, 1901 VAN NESS AVE #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BLINKS + BROWS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/10/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/17.

FEB 09, 16, 23, MAR 02, 2017

15 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DISTRICT COFFEE, 199 NEW MONTGOMERY ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 199M LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/17.

In the matter of the application of: MANUEL DE JESUS BOTEO OCHOA, C/O GERVY JHON TESORO (SBN 298501), 1630 TARAVAL ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MANUEL DE JESUS BOTEO OCHOA, is requesting that the name MANUEL DE JESUS BOTEO OCHOA, be changed to MANUEL DE JESUS BOTEO DIAZ. 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 13th of April 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

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FEB 09, 16, 23, MAR 02, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037462900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JULY MOON, 1142 BUCHANAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THERMOND WELLS JR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/07/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/07/17.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037468900

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FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037461500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IRWELL ELECTRIC, 106 FAIR OAKS ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NEIL ANTHONY HALSALL. 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 02/07/17.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037465400

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FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037465700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: E & H 24 HRS ROAD SERVICES, 682 GROVE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ELIAS HAGOS WOLDEZGHI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/09/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/09/17.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037458100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MASTER PAINTING & DECORATING, 1325 EVANS AVE #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ASHLEY RHODES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/02/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/03/17.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037462700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AVAYA WELLNESS, 350 TOWNSEND ST #275, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIRTHA MENDAKE WANIGASEKARA-MOHOTTI. 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 02/07/17.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037429100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FEST GEGEN, 28 SECOND ST #300, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JASON CHASE BEAHM & KELSEY ROSE TRUJILLO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/17.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037463800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TUNNEL RECORDS AND BEACH GOODS, 3614 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed BEN WINTROUB & ANDREA CHRISTINE DE FRANCISCO. 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 02/08/17.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037448800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BERNHARDT REMODELING LLC, 1542 MCKINNON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BERNHARDT REMODELING LLC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/31/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/17.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037436100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PACHINO PIZZERIA, 318 KEARNY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AMERICAN WEST VENTURES LLC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/20/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/20/17.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036577800

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: HAI FENG TRADITION CHINESE MED; HAI FENG CHINESE HERBAL, 1818 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by LIANG ZHUSHEN. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/15.

FEB 16, 23, MAR 02, 09, 2017

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Band practice

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Out &About

Puppet up!

O&A

Vol. 47 • No. 7 • February 16-22, 2017

Courtesy Brava Theater Center

www.ebar.com/arts

Getting Bootycandy by Richard Dodds

hen he was in the third grade and an ink pen burst in his pants, his classmates told him he was having his period. Robert O’Hara knew a period was what came at the end of a sentence, but he figured it must also mean something else. When he got home, he asked his mother, who said, “Look it up, that’s what I bought you that dictionary for.” It became a scene in his play Bootycandy, which continues with the boy asking his mother, “What’s a blowjob?” “Look it up,” she says. “I did.” “And?” “It wasn’t in there.” “Then it must not be a word, and you shouldn’t say things that ain’t words.” See page 26 >>

Aejay Mitchell plays a character dealing with being black and gay in America from childhood to adulthood in Robert O’Hara’s Bootycandy at Brava Theater Center.

British film editor Anne Coates will appear for an onstage interview in the Mostly British Film Festival.

by Sura Wood

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n any given month, the calendar is packed with local film events, many of them very good, but the Mostly British Film Festival, established about a decade ago by former Chronicle movie editor Ruthe Stein, seems to get better every year. That impression is borne out by Stein’s savvy programming of mostly though not exclusively British classics and new releases, and the festival’s opener, Their Finest, a well-appointed wartime comedy from Lone Scherfig, director of An Education. See page 26 >>

<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

Opera on the radio

by Roberto Friedman

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Nadja Michael as Emilia Marty in Leos Janáček’s The Makropulos Case.

he San Francisco Opera and Bay Area classical radio station KDFC continue their monthly broadcasts of performances captured during SF Opera’s Fall 2016 Season, including the world premiere of Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang’s Dream of the Red Chamber. All performances were recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and feature the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Ian Robertson, Chorus Director). Each SF Opera performance is broadcast on Classical KDFC at 8 p.m. on the first Sunday of every month and hosted by radio announcer Dianne Nicolini. The broadcasts are also available for streaming on demand at kdfc.com for four weeks after the initial airdate. Sun., March 5, at 8 p.m.: Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang’s Dream of the Red Chamber. Pureum Jo (Dai Yu), Yijie Shi (Bao Yu), Hyona Kim (Lady Wang), Irene Roberts (Bao Chai), Karen Chialing Ho (Princess Jia), Qiulin Zhang (Granny Jia), Yanyu Guo (Aunt Xue), Randall Nakano (Monk/ Dreamer); George Manahan (conductor). Recorded Sept. 2016. Sun., April 2 at 8 p.m.: Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. Yong-

hoon Lee (Andrea Chénier), Anna Pirozzi (Maddalena di Coigny), George Gagnidze (Carlo Gérard), Robert Pomakov (Mathieu), David Pershall (Roucher), J’Nai Bridges (Bersi), Jill Grove (Madelon), Catherine Cook (Contessa di Coigny), Edward Nelson (Pietro Fléville), Alex Boyer (The Abbé), Matthew Stump (FouquierTinville), Brad Walker (Dumas), Anthony Reed (Schmidt); Nicola Luisotti (conductor). Recorded Sept. 2016. Sun., May 7 at 8 p.m.: Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. Maurizio Muraro (Don Pasquale), Heidi Stober (Norina), Lucas Meachem (Dr. Malatesta), Lawrence Brownlee (Ernesto), Bojan Kneževic (A Notary); Giuseppe Finzi (Conductor). Recorded Oct. 2016. Sun., June 4 at 8 p.m.: Leoš Janácek’s Vec Makropulos (The Makropulos Case). Nadja Michael (Emilia Marty), Charles Workman (Albert Gregor), Stephen Powell (Baron Jaroslav Prus), Dale Travis (Dr. Kolenatý), Julie Adams (Kristina), Joel Sorensen (Vítek), Matthew O’Neill (Count HaukŠendorf), Brenton Ryan (Janek), Zanda Švede (A Cleaning Woman/ Chambermaid), Brad Walker (Stagehand); Mikhail Tatarnikov (conductor). Recorded Oct. 2016. Sun., July 2 at 8 p.m.: Giuseppe

Verdi’s Aida. Leah Crocetto (Aida), Ekaterina Semenchuk (Amneris), Brian Jagde (Radames), George Gagnidze (Amonasro), Raymond Aceto (Ramfis), Anthony Reed (The King of Egypt), Pene Pati (A Messenger), Toni Marie Palmertree (A Priestess); Nicola Luisotti (conductor). Recorded Nov. 2016. Sun., Aug. 6 at 8 p.m.: Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Lianna Haroutounian (Cio-Cio-San), Vincenzo Costanzo (Lt. B.F. Pinkerton), Zanda Švede (Suzuki), Anthony Clark Evans (Sharpless), Julius Ahn (Goro), Matthew Stump (The Imperial Commissioner), Raymond Aceto (The Bonze), Edward Nelson (Prince Yamadori), Julie Adams (Kate Pinkerton); Yves Abel (conductor). Recorded Nov. 2016.

blood-spattered scrim to shout the violence in a particular scene. As Laila, Nadine Malouf offers what is perhaps the most natural performance in the large cast, as she almost miraculously devolves from an eager teenager to a haggard wife. Kate Rigg, as Mariam, is already a haggard wife when we first encounter her, and what seems like complacency grows into burning revulsion in an intense but understated performance. It’s harder to get a fix on Haysam Kadri’s performance as husband Rasheed, a character of both erratic development and temperament. But there’s no mistaking his ability to create a character that the audience is unified in loathing. There is a comforting balance offered by Pomme Koch as Laila’s true love Tariq. Denmo Ibrahim provides an example of the inconsistent tones of the production, heaving herself

about like Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo, then occasionally slouching through scenes as a ghost with a variations of a noose around her neck. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, novelist Hosseini set out to write a female counterpart to the maledominated The Kite Runner. Women, of course, bear the brunt in this place where societal changes can upend their status in barely the blink of an eye. ACT’s production, which will travel to Theatre Calgary in March, vividly illustrates this while leading us to a conclusion that feels both a little contrived and largely splendid satisfaction.t

Broken English

RIP experimental American author Harry Mathews, 86, who wasn’t queer but was certainly out there. His NY Times obit noted that his novel The Sinking of the Odradek Station “was written in unintelligible pidgin English,” while his novel The Conversions, “otherwise in English, concluded with nine pages in German.” “He also wrote Singular Pleasures, a 1988 book made up of 61 vignettes about masturbation. He chose that topic, he said, ‘because it’s the universal form of sexual activity, and it’s hardly been written about.’” What is the sound of one hand clapping?t

Cruelty in Kabul by Richard Dodds

haled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns is a multi-generational novel that, unless you’re pulling a Nicholas Nickleby, needs to be streamlined to become a manageable stage work. But streamlined is a relative word, and the first act of a worldpremiere adaptation at ACT’s Geary Theater may seem considerably less than aerodynamic. But the setup that that uneven first act provides leads to a second act of mounting theatricality, emotional involvement, and welcome catharsis by the end. The 2007 novel, Hosseini’s follow-up to The Kite Runner, focuses on two women of vastly different backgrounds in Afghanistan over the years of whipsaw changes for the country culminating in the Taliban rule. Ursula Rani Sarma’s adapta-

tion brings together its protagonists early in the play, with flashback scenes filling in their backgrounds that the novel more expansively explored in separate sections. Laila is a romantically blossoming, education-hungry teenager when we first meet her, living in middle-class comfort in Kabul with her comparatively progressive parents. Mariam, on the other hand, is the illegitimate daughter of a married-with-children businessman in Herat, who lived with her embittered mother in kept banishment outside of town. But when we first encounter Mariam in the play, she has already been married off to a Kabul shoemaker who becomes disgusted with her after multiple miscarriages have failed to give him a son. When Laila is injured and her parents killed as insurgents’ bombs fall

on the city, Mariam and her seemingly kindly husband Rasheed bring her into their home to nurse her back to health. But in Laila, Rasheed sees an incubator for a son, then takes her as a second wife. After months of antagonism as co-wives, Mariam and Laila begin to bond in a protective sisterhood against the increasingly erratic and cruel Rasheed. Among the problems that drag at the first act are workaday scenes of primer-like plainness with characters cut from predictably drawn characters and speaking in an often-stilted manner to suggest a foreign language of affected proverbial import. It can be jarring when characters actually talk like regular folks, which, of course, is what they would be doing in their own world. The performers are definitely not all on the same page in a polyglot of linguistic affectations. And throughout the play there is a chronological disorder, as the adaptation pushes together scenes of characters who seem be learning about each other in what should be days rather than months and years apart. But as the curtain rises on the second act, with plot preambles out of the way, the play and the production gain intensity, as life grows increasingly intolerable for Laila and Mariam despite the fact that Laila has provided Rasheed both a daughter (he calls her “it”) and a son upon who he dotes. The already uneasy household becomes a battleground when Laila’s childhood sweetheart, whom she has long presumed dead, pays an unannounced visit that sends Rasheed over the edge. It leads to a denouement that is tragic, redemptive, and triumphant. Director Carey Perloff ’s production favors straight-ahead dramatic scenes, but there is a surrounding package that brings in ornamentation that includes tableaus of symbolic imagery, ethereal musical accompaniment by David Coulter, and Ken Macdonald’s scenery that includes a barbed-wire moon, a sunrise-sunset elevating set, and a

A Thousand Splendid Suns will run through Feb. 26 at the Geary Theater. Tickets are $25$150. Call (415) 749-2228 or go to act-sf.org.

Kevin Berne

Nadine Malouf and Kate Rigg play unwilling co-wives to an abusive husband who eventually find common ground in ACT’s A Thousand Splendid Suns at the Geary Theater.

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<< Theatre

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

Puppet mayhem by Richard Dodds

he question may be the same, but the deliveries couldn’t be more different. It’s an earnest pastor versus a potty-mouthed puppet challenging the notion that hell is a necessary evil to hold the faithful in check. While playwright Lucas Hnath asks this question in the form of a thoughtful theological debate in The Christians now at San Francisco Playhouse, Robert Askins sends streams of shockwaves through the audience as a satanic sock puppet seems to take control of a meek member of a church’s youth group in Hand to God. If the sight of consensual anal sex between puppets is a transgression too far, then Berkeley Rep’s current production may not be your chalice of wine. Otherwise, get ready for a few gasps and a shitload of laughs. That’s not an entirely gratuitous scatological invocation, for the play is prefaced with a puppet who, in providing a condensed history of civilization, says, “Once when we had to shit, you just let it drop. That was a golden age.” And now, let the show begin. The scene is a church rec room, plastered with cheery Jesus-lovesus posters, where a desultory pup-

Kevin Berne

A hand puppet created by the meek Jason (Michael Doherty) shocks even the bad boy (Michael McIntire) of a church group in the very adult comedy Hand to God at Berkeley Rep.

pet club convenes in increasingly disturbing circumstances. The hyper-cheery Margery, a recent widow, leads the group made up of her painfully shy son, a wary teenage girl, and the resident rebel without a cause. A pasty-faced pastor occasionally pops in to check

on the group, but his real interest is scooping up the now-single Margery for himself. Tic-laden Jason, still angry over his father’s death, finds he can confidently communicate through his hand puppet Tyrone. He seems to seldom take it off, even if it puts

many activities off-limits. “You take him in the pool,” he says, “and there goes your Saturday night.” He uses Tyrone to woo Jessica, who’s vaguely invested in the group. “I’m really more into Balinese shadow puppetry,” she says, “but I’ll take what I can get.” He impresses her with a confidently delivered version of the “Who’s on first” comedy routine between himself and Tyrone before the puppet begins making increasingly inappropriate comments. Jason is horrified by and powerless to stop this devil attached to his hand. Matters disintegrate into a torrent of crises, fueled directly or indirectly by Tyrone, and most all of them funny on any array of levels. It’s hard to imagine that director David Ivers’ production isn’t an equal to the 2015 Broadway presentation, with performances, tone, and timing all finely tuned. The heart and soul of this production are provided by Michael Doherty as alter egos Jason and Tyrone, with the puppet on his hand taking on uncanny life of its own while the meek Jason vainly tries to stop his creation from completely taking over his life. The other characters are foils to Tyrone’s increasing hostility, but they also have dramas taking place

in worlds apart. Laura Odeh seems to be preternaturally perky as Jason’s mom, Margery, but she explodes in a scene of dizzying abandon all the more effective for her convincing performance as a happy Christian soldier. Michael McIntire is a delight as wannabe bad boy Timothy, who indeed can be bad but mostly to cover up his insecurities. Caroline Sanchez provides a sense of stability as the levelheaded Jessica, but even she shocks us with the unconventional puppet therapy she provides to keep Tyrone at bay. David Kelly plays Pastor Paul as a familiar milquetoast type, but still pulls in the laughs. What looks at first like a simple set imaginatively evolves into more than that in Jo Winiarski’s design, and in a show like this it would be unconscionable not to offer praise to puppet designer Amanda Villalobos. Puppets are hardly kids’ play in Hand to God, which will likely have you on your feet at the end – if you haven’t fled the theater by that point.t Hand to God will run at Berkeley Rep through March 19. Tickets are $29-$97. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to berkeleyrep.org.

Winter reading list 2017 by Gregg Shapiro

here are some long, dark, cold nights ahead of us, and books are a tried-and-true means of escape when the world outside is unwelcoming. The following are a few suggestions to pass the time. Hot fiction for cold nights: There is no shortage of title characters to be found in Difficult Women (Grove Press), the short story collection by award-winning bisexual Haitian-American novelist-essayistmemoirist Roxane Gay. Set in a gated community, the dishy and dark story “Florida” features one of the married female residents exploring the erotic same-sex pleasures of the brothel being run out of the spa on the grounds. In the multi-section “How,” we learn how Hanna became involved with Laura. In “Baby Arm,” a woman’s relationship with a female co-worker goes in unexpected directions. Gay is as adept at short-short stories as she is at creating longer pieces that will leave readers shaken, such as the devastating “Break All the Way Down.” In David Pratt’s Wallaçonia (Beautiful Dreamer Press), just as 18-year-old Jim, who has begun to question his sexuality, is about to finally get around to having sex

B O O T Y C A N D Y

BACCE presents Robert O’Hara’s subversive comedy

with girlfriend Liz, he discovers he might have feelings for older male neighbor Pat. Set in a small New England town, The Year of Needy Girls (Kaylie Jones/Akashic), by lesbian writer Patricia A. Smith, recalls both Hellman’s The Children’s Hour and Lehane’s Mystic River in a story about murder and false accusations. Known for his groundbreaking autobiographical 1963 novel City of Night, 85-year-old gay writer John Rechy returns with his new erotic novel of “psychosexual gamesmanship,” After the Blue Hour (Grove). Straight writer Andre Aciman has made quite a name for himself writing about queer characters in novels such as Call Me by Your Name (now a motion picture). He continues to do so in his latest, Enigma Variations (FSG), telling the story of bisexual Paul. More words, more pictures: Edited by John Dugan, with a foreword by John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, The Empty Bottle Chicago: 21+ Years of Music/Friendly/Dancing (Curbside Splendor) is a hefty tribute to the notorious Ukrainian Village rock club the Empty Bottle. In addition to a revealing interview with owner Bruce Finkelman, as well as with musicians Damian Ku-

Feb 15 – Mar 5

brava.org

lash (OK Go), Louise Post (Veruca Salt), Kristin Kontrol (Dum Dum Girls), Tim Kinsella (Joan of Arc), queer artists JC Brooks and Che Arthur, and rock journalist Jim DeRogatis, the book includes many photographs and complete show listings from 1993-2015. “The epicenter of one of the country’s most vibrant punk scenes” may not be the way that most people think of Washington, DC, especially during the Reagan/Bush years of the 1980s, but it’s true. Compiled by Scott Crawford, Spoke: Images and Stories from the 1980s Washington DC Punk Scene (Akashic) features profiles of more than two dozen bands, beginning with the Bad Brains and including Fugazi, Minor Threat, Shudder To Think, Jawbox, Government Issue, and SOA (with a young Henry Rollins). Organized by original shockjock Steve Dahl and to this day an embarrassment for the city of Chicago, the 1979 so-called Disco Demolition publicity stunt at the former Comiskey Park damaged more than some 12” disco singles and a baseball diamond. Disco Demoliton: The Night Disco Died (Curbside Splendor) by Steve Dahl, with Dave Hoekstra and Paul Natkin, spends a lot of time protesting the racist and homophobic implications of the event (see Bob Odenkirk’s foreword) and may not change the minds of many readers, especially those for whom dance music never died. If Donald Trump could read, he would love this book. Speaking the truth: LGBTQ Stats: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer People by the Numbers (The New Press), by married couple David Deschamps and Bennett Singer with an afterword by Jennifer Finley Boylan, collects the “facts and figures that chronicle the ongoing LGBTQ revolution.” Included in the authors’ finds are statistics on timely topics such as international issues, violence and discrimination, media and public opinion. The photo-filled memoir The Harmony of Parts (Orange Frazer Press), by John Garabedian with Ian Aldrich, tells the story of openly gay Garabedian, a familiar face and voice to folks in the Boston

area via his work as a disc jockey on radio, as well as host of TV’s Party Open House Party. Though he only lived to be 33, writer Denton Welch left an indelible mark with writing and painting. Good Night, Beloved Comrade: The Letters of Denton Welch to Eric Oliver (Univ. of Wisconsin Press), edited by Daniel J. Murtaugh, compiles and annotates 51 letters written by Welch to Oliver, his “companion, comrade, lover, and caretaker,” in the final years of his brief life. Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists (Bloomsbury) by award-winning writer Donna Seaman introduces or reacquaints readers to forgotten female artists Gertrude Abercrombie, Joan Brown, Ree Morton, Loïs Mailou Jones, Lenore Tawney, Christina Ramberg and Louise Nevelson. Knott’s legacy: A beloved instructor at Emerson College in Boston for more than 25 years, the late poet and educator Bill Knott is celebrated in I Am Flying Into Myself: Selected Poems, 1960-2014 (FSG), edited by Thomas Lux, who also wrote an informative introduction. Emerson College classmates from the class of 1984 as well as Knott devotees, poets Denise Duhamel and Kim Roberts both have notable new books out this winter. Separated into three sections (dedicated to Shulamith Firestone, Andrea Dworkin and Mary Daly), Duhamel’s Scald (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press) uses form (villanelles and pantoums) to broadcast her potent feminist message. Roberts’ The Scientific Method (WordTech) continues the poet’s exploration of the vast world of science (including Walt Whitman’s brain and Carl Sagan’s turtleneck sweater), as well as the experience of living in Washington, DC. Kathleen Rooney, a student of Bill Knott’s while an MFA candiCollege is the date at Emerson College, author of the novel Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk (St. Martin’s Press), which follows the octogenarian title character on a New Year’s Eve 1984 journey across Manhattan life. and through her life.t

Books>>

February 16-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Mystical master of love poetry by Brian Bromberger

Rumi’s Secret: The Life of the Sufi Poet of Love by Brad Gooch; Harper, $28.99

umi, Rumi, everywhere. Not only is Rumi the best-selling poet in the United States thanks to the popular Coleman Barks translations, he is a cultural whirlwind, appearing on shower curtains, in fortune cookies, quoted at weddings, and source of a Madonna song. These are distinct achievements for a medieval Muslim preacher who died almost 850 years ago. So it is not surprising that Brad Gooch, a gay poet and novelist, author of the superb memoir of life in 1980s AIDS New York Smash Cut, and the self-help Finding the Boyfriend Within, has written the first popular biography of this 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic. Gooch spent eight years researching, learning Persian so he could read Rumi in his original language and provide his own translations of his poems, as well as traveling to Iran, Turkey, and Syria. He has made Rumi accessible to Western readers who know few facts about his life. Rumi was born Jalaloddin (Splendor of the Faith) Mohammad Balkhi on Sept. 30, 1207, in presentday Vakhsh, Tajikistan, the son of Baha Valad, a scholar and cleric. Around age 6, to escape the invading Mongol armies of Genghis Khan, his family began a 10-year journey, trekking 2,500 miles through the Muslim world, including Baghdad, Samarkand, and Mecca, his father employed as a teacher and jurist. Eventually the family settled in Konya, Turkey, a cosmopolitan city with a diverse population, where Rumi spent most of his adult life after studies in Aleppo and Damascus, becoming a precocious student of history, philosophy, astronomy, Arabic grammar, commentaries on the Qu’ran, and law. Because Turkey had only recently been conquered by the Muslims after being part of the Byzantine Christian empire for centuries, later generations would call him Rum, which meant Rome or Byzantine, to distinguish him from other scholar-poets with similar names. Known for his wisdom, compassion, extraordinary intellect, vast religious knowledge, and humility, Rumi became a beloved

the divine Beloved. He found another companion in Salah, a goldsmith, who, upon his demise, was replaced by Hosam, a favorite student, who became his scribe for his six-volume poetic masterwork Masnari, often considered the Persian Qu’ran. Rumi died on Dec. 17, 1273, mourned by the entire city, including Christians and Jews. His son Sultan Valad, incorporating Rumi’s teachings, helped found the Mevlevi religious order, the whirling derAuthor Brad Gooch learned Persian so he vishes, which survives could read Rumi in his original language. to this day. There has been teacher heading his own seminary, much speculation even attracting some Christian about whether the relationship and Jewish devotees. At age 17, in a between Rumi and Shams was gay. traditionally arranged marriage, he wed Gowar, who bore him two sons. The central event of his life occurred when, in 1244 at age 37, he met the Sufi nomadic 60-year-old Shams-e Tabrize, who encouraged him to follow a path of love rather than the law-centered knowledge in which he had been trained. It was an intense love relationship in which they spent months alone together in mutual obsession (“My entire life has come down to three words – I was raw, I was cooked, I was burned.”) A Sufi, he encouraged Rumi’s mystical inclinations as well as incorporating poetry, ecstatic dance, music and fasting into his prayer life, transforming him into an ascetic. Shams instructed him to stop reading other writers, especially his father, and start connecting to his heart. The uncompromising but charismatic Shams complemented the gentle and self-effacing Rumi. But his family and followers became jealous and either drove out Shams, or Shams, wanting to teach Rumi about separation, left of his own accord. Shams would return a year later, then disappeared one night, rumored to have been murdered with the help of one of Rumi’s sons. MUSIC & LYRICS BY Rumi entered an extended period of JON KAPLAN grief but turned his love for Shams AL KAPLAN inward into his poetry as a metaphor for his love of God. The beloved Sham inspired the search for

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In an email reply to the B.A.R., Gooch wrote, “Rumi definitely loved Shams, describing him as ‘the sunshine of the heart.’ While no evidence exists of an erotic component, Rumi chose to speak of their spiritual love in the mode of Persian romantic love poetry. Their love and obvious intimacy was a threat in the society of the time, since it failed to conform to any neat teacherstudent model, in this traditional, hierarchical society. The obvious electricity of their companionship, ‘as the meeting of two mature men,’ challenged the norm and therefore seems all the more modern to us.” Speculation about their affair is the most exciting part of this book. Most of the energy for this project apparently went into research and traveling, since the final product is plodding and uninspired, with little of Rumi’s joy coming through, even in the translations of his poetry. Perhaps rather than a conventional biography, a more inventive format

reflecting Rumi’s maverick nature might have made him come alive. Gooch observes that every generation constructs its own Rumi, so we have the ecumenical poet of love who transcends organized religion (“Since we worship the one God, then all religions must be one”). The problem is that Gooch, like many modern interpreters of Rumi, in an attempt to universalize him, downplays the Islamic theology that was the source of his work. The contradictions and paradox, the tension between orthodoxy and innovation that animates Rumi’s poetry, are central to Islam. Rumi is Rumi because of Islam, not in spite of it. Still, this flawed book reminds that there is richness, compassion, and diversity in Islam far beyond the terrorist propaganda we read in the media. For this reason Gooch’s emphasis on an exemplar creative Muslim less concerned about right doctrine, and more focused on merging human and divine love, merits attention.t

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<< Out&About

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

Fri 17

Blast Theater Festival @ Ashby Theatre, Berkeley

Assassins @ Alcazar Theatre

Blips

Out &About

Sat 18

O&A

Festival of dance and theatre arts. $10-$20. Thru Feb. 26. 1901 Ashby Ave. www.shotgunplayers.org

by Jim Provenzano

efore you know it, that award-winning play will close, a beloved singer’s tour moves on, a beloved singer’s tour moves on. Time is fleeting. For nightlife, see On the Tab listings.

Thu 16

Above and Beyond the Valley of the Ultra Showgirls @ Oasis D’Arcy Drollinger’s hit drag live-band rock musical comedy about Super Vixen, a girl band’s ups and downs, returns. $25-$35. Thu 8pm Fri & Sat 7pm. Thru Feb. 18. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Bearing Witness @ GLBT History Museum Remembering International Bear Rendezvous, a panel talk with the event organizers, timed with the new exhibit, Beartoonist of San Francisco: Sketching an Emerging Subculture, featuring art work by bear cartoonist Fran Frisch. $5. 7pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Billy Elliot @ Berkeley Playhouse Local production of the (10 Tonywinning) musical, with music by Elton John, based on the film about a poor British boy who aspires to become a ballet dancer. $22-$40. Note earlier curtain times (7pm on 1pm). Thru Mar. 25. Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Bitter Creek, Sweet Water @ Jules Maeght Gallery Opening reception for an exhibit of subversive post-modern works by Marshall Elliot, Paul Kos, Isabelle Sorrell and Christopher Upham. 6pm9pm. thru April 29. 149 Gough St. www.julesmaeghtgallery.com

Black History Month Films @ Tenderloin Museum Screenings of historic African American documentaries Feb 16 (GLIDE, 330 Ellis) and Feb 22 (Tenderloin Museum, 398 Eddy). All 5:30pm. www.tenderloinmuseum.org

The Christians @ SF Playhouse Lucas Hnath’s Off-Broadway hit unflinching look at faith in America, staged with a live choir, gets a West Coast premiere. $20-$125. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri 7 Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru March 11. 450 Post St., 2nd floor. www.sfplayhouse.org

Classic & New Films @ Castro Theatre Feb 16: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (7pm) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (8:50). Feb 17: Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (7pm) and Moulin Rouge (9:15). Feb 18: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (2:30, 7pm) and Charade (4:45, 9:15). Feb 19: Debbie Reynolds in Tammy and the Bachelor (2:30, 6:15) and Singing’ in the Rain (4:15, 8pm). Feb 21: Jackie (4pm, 6:15, 8:30). Feb 22: The Hustler (7pm) and California Split (9:30). Feb 23: Lesbians Who Tech, part of Tech Summit). $11-$16. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Clas/sick Hip Hop @ YBCA Forum Three-night concert series of energetic post-modern dances by Amy O’Neal, with break-dancing, live music covers and dance tributes set to Lauren Hill’s music. Thu-Sat 7:30pm & 9:30pm. Dance party Feb 16, 7pm. $30-$50. Thru Feb 18. Yerba Beuna Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Comedy Returns @ El Rio

Daniel’s Husband @ New Conservatory Theatre Center West Coast premiere of Michael McKeever’s drama about a gay couple’s disagreeement over marriage. $25-$50. Wed-Sat 8pm Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 26. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Fun Home @ Curran Theatre The historic theatre’s first show after two years of extensive renovation; West Coast premiere of a new staging of Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron’s Pulitzer-finalist and five-Tony-winning musical based on Alison Bechtel’s graphic memoir about family, death, coming out and coming of age. $29-$149. Tue-Sun 8pm, Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 19. 445 Geary St. 358-1220. www.sfcurran.com

Hand to God @ Berkeley Repertory Robert Askins’ dark comedy about a hand puppet that speaks to a young man in a far-right religious church. $29-$89. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru March 19. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Hedda Gabler @ Exit on Taylor

Diane Amos (The Pine Sol Lady), Will Durst, Yayne Abeba, Steve Lee, and Lisa Geduldig tell comic tales at the monthly event. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.koshercomedy.com www.elriosf.com

Cutting Ball theatre company’s production of Paul Walsh’s translation of Henrik Ibsen’s historic pre-feminist drama. $15-$45. Thu 7pm, Fri & Sat 8pm, Sun 5pm. Thru Feb. 26. 277 Taylor St. www.cuttingball.com

Fool for Love @ Magic Theatre

Kitka @ Various Venues

New production of Sam Shepard’s capitivating drama about two straight lovers digging into their past in a rundown hotel room. $75-$90. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2:30pm. Thru Feb. 26. 2 Marina Blvd., Bldg D. www.magictheatre.org

Mincing Words @ The Marsh Tom Ammiano’s comic solo show about his life in California politics. $20-$100. Thursdays at 7:30pm thru March 9. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

Radar Reading @ SF Public Library Wendy MacNaughton, Kevin Simmons, Ching-In Chen and Nancy Au read at the eclectic queer literary series; Juliana Delgado Lopera hosts. Yes, there will be cookies! Free. 6pm. 100 Larkin St., lower level. radarproductions.org www.sfpl.org

Silence: The Musical @ Victoria Theatre Cloud 9 Theatricals and Ray of Light Theatre present the Bay Area premiere of Jon Kaplan, Al Kaplan and Hunter Bell’s acclaimed unauthorized musical parody of the film/book Silence of the Lambs. $35-$45. Thu-Sat 8pm (Some Saturdays 7pm and/or 10pm). Thru March 18. 2961 16th St. 863-7576. www.silencethemusicalsf.com

A Thousand Splendid Suns @ Geary Theater American Conservatory Theatre presents the world premiere of Ursula Rani Sarma’s theatrical adaptation (with live music) of Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel set in war-torn modern Kabul. $25-$100. Tue-Sat 8pm (or 7pm). Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 26. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Helina Metaferia @ MOAD Museum re-opening reception, with a live performance of the artist’s show Home/Free, and musical guest Zena Carlota. Also, exhibits Where is Here, Helina Metaferia: Home-Free, A Matter of Fact: Toyin Ojih Odutola and Urban Africa, all thru April 2. $5-$15. Wed-Sat 11am-6pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

The amazing women’s folk vocal ensemble performs with Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat in concerts of songs from Iran, Armenia, Georgia, and the Balkans. Feb 17, 8pm, $20-$35, at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. Feb 18, 8pm, $25, St. Cyprian’s Church, 2097 Turk St. Feb 25 & 26 (2pm, $53-$100) vocal workshops in Persian singing with Vahdat, Silk Road House, 1944 University Ave. (800) 838-3006. www.Kitka.org

Lynn Hershman Leeson: Civic Radar @ YBCA New retrospective exhibit of the Bay Area artist known for videos, installations and feminist themes. Free/$15. Thru May 21. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Native Son @ Marin Theatre Company, Mill Valley Nambi E. Kelley’s stage adaptation of Richard Wright’s classic novel stars Jerod Haynes, who originated the role in the Chicago world premiere. $22$60. Tue-Sun 7:30pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb. 12. 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. www.marintheatre.org

The Real Americans @ The Marsh Berkeley Dan Hoyle’s solo show depicting the rifts between real people left and right, blue state and red, with a post-election update. $25-$100. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 5pm. Thru Feb. 25. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.themarsh.org

Sat 18

Assassins @ Alcazar Theatre Stephen Sondheim’s five Tony-winning musical about historic political killers is performed by Bay Area Musicals. $35$65. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Thru Mar. 18. 650 Geary St. www.bamsf.org

Black Choreographers Festival @ Dance Mission Theater SF/ Malonga Casquelourd Center, Oakland New and repertory works by African American dance-makers. $10-$30. Thru Feb. 26. 1428 Alice St., Oakland; 3316 24th St. SF. www.bcfhereandnow.com

Carey Leibowitz: Museum Show @ Contemporary Jewish Museum

Godless Perverts Book Club @ Borderlands Café

Exhibits about Jewish culture and by Jewish artists, including Carey Leibowitz: Museum Show (witty pop art with a queer edge, thru June 25), Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs (thru Sept. 3), and other exhibits. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. thecjm.org

Discussion of Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World by Srdja Popovic. 6pm-8pm. 870 Valencia St. www.godlessperverts.com

East 14th @ The Marsh Don Reed returns with his solo show about his Oakland childhood, part of his coming-of-age trilogy. $20-$100. Sat 8:30pm. Sun 5:30pm. Thru Feb. 18. 1062 Valencia St. themarsh.org

International Guitar Night @ Herbst Theatre Acclaimed musicians Lulo Reinhardt, Debashish Bhattacharya, Luca Stricagnoli, Chrystian Dozza perform jazz, Gypsy Indian and folk music. $35-$55. 7:30pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.omniconcerts.com

Missing You @ Brava Theater An Investigation of Queer Memory in The Mission, film, storytelling and drag, with Augie Robles, Valentin Aguirre, Persia and others. $10-$15. 6pm. 2781 24th St. www.brava.com www.radarproductions.org

Vandana Bali @ Martuni’s The vocalist performs her new cabaret act, Songs from Stage and Screen, with pianist David Aaron Brown at the intimate martini bar. $20. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. vocalvelvet.eventbrite.com

Vinyl Riot @ Thrillhouse Records Opening reception for a group exhibit of historic punk music art by Eddie Valentine,Heriberto Martinez Jr., Jennifer Phan, Abigail Munoz, Tommy Becker, Brian Weiss and Solis. 6pm8pm. Thru Mar. 4. 3422 Mission St. www.innovativemammalsolis.com

Sun 19

A Billion Buddhas @ Asian Art Museum A Billion Buddhas: The Awakened Cosmos of Himalyan Buddhism (thru April 9). Other exhibits include Worshipping Women: Power and Devotion in Indian Painting (thru Mar. 26). Free-$25. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

LGBTQ Histories from the WWII Home Front @ Rosie the Riveter Visitor Education Center, Richmond Park indoor exhibit that showcases the lives of historic LGBT people. Open daily 10am-5pm. 1414 Harbour Way South, Suite 3000, Richmond. www.roseitheriveter.org

Mon 20

Unearthed @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth; new exhibit, From Stone Age to Space Age, showcases minerals through time. $20-$35. Mon-Sat 9:30am-5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Vintage Prints @ William Blake Gallery New gallery of historic art by the 18th and 19th-century poet and illustrator. Mon-Fri 10am-5pm. Sat 11am-5pm. 49 Geary St. #205. www.williamblakegallery.com

Tue 21

David King @ IS Fine Art and Design The local multimedia artist’s captivating new and recent collages and drawings. 3848 24th St. at Church. www.davidkingcollage.com www.IanStallings.com

Kim Lembo @ Bazaar Café The singer-songwriter’s Tuesday residency thru February includes special music guests. 7pm-9:30pm. 5927 California St. www.kimlembomusic.com www.bazaarcafe.com

OutLoud @ Oasis Peggy L’eggs (aka Matthew Simmons) guest-hosts Peaches Christ’s fun monthly storytelling series, this time themed “Turbulence Ahead,” with Turleen, Frida K Hole, Chris DeSimone, Doug Anderson, Kegel Kater and Ronn Vigh. $10. 7:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Wed 22

Daniel Handler and Friends @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The best-selling author (Lemony Snicket) shares discussions and informal performances with artists Yosh Han, Thao Nguyen, Cecile Richards, John Vanderslice and Matthew Zapruder. $5. 7pm. Bancroft Way at Dana, UC Berkeley campus. www.calperformances.org

Jason Mecier @ Dolores Park Café The popular gay collage artist known for celebrity portraits unveils his latest collection Real Housewives of Macaroni. 501 Dolores St. www.jasonmecier.com www.doloresparkcafe.com

John @ Strand Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s production of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker’s drama about a couple’s increasingly strange stay at a bed and breakfast in historic Gettysburg; co-starring Georgia Engel ( The Mary Tyler Moore Show ). $20-$105. Tue-Sat 7:30pm. Wed & Sat 1pm. Thru April 23. (Out with A.C.T. night Mar. 15). 1127 Market St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Queerest Library Ever @ SF Public Libraries Hormel at 20: Celebrating Our Past/ Creating Our Future, a dual exhibit of archival materials celebrating two decades of the LGBTQ collections. Also, Council of Elders: Portraits of Older Gay Men (thru May 4). 100 Larkin St., 3rd floor, and at the Eureka Valley Branch, 1 Jose Sarria Court at 16th St. www.sfpl.org

Thu 23

The Cans @ Center for Sex & Culture New monthly burlesque and film event, with lady stripper vintage flicks, plus stories and performances by burlesque women legends. $12. 7:30pm-10:30pm. 1349 Mission St. at 9th. www.sexandculture.org

Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s James J. Siegel’s monthly literary series this time honors poet Sylvia Plath, with readers Annah AntiPalindrome, Robert Andrew Perez, July Westhale, and July Westhale. 7pm. 4 Valencia St.

Mary Wilson @ Yoshi’s Oakland The former member of The Supremes shares her amazing solo vocals at the stylish restaurant/nightclub. $39-$69. 8pm & 10pm. 510 Embarcadero, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Books>>

February 16-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Sacks partner by Tim Pfaff

decade ago the film Chris and Don: A Love Story, about Christopher Isherwood and artist Don Bacardy, shed a welcome light on the sheer possibility of an authentic relationship across a 30-year age gap. In Bill Hayes’ new memoir Insomniac City: New York, Oliver and Me (Bloomsbury), the matter of a comparable age difference between writer/photographer Hayes and neurologist/author Oliver Sacks barely comes up. This is more than progress.

Courtesy the subject

Chapters of author Bill Hayes’ memoir are interleaved with journal pages.

Shortly before he died of cancer at 82 in August 2015, Sacks – a writer people far outside his scientific specialty fields read “fan”atically, in books and The New Yorker – came out as gay, to general astonishment, in his memoir, On the Move. He further revealed that he had not had sex with another for the 35 years prior to meeting in late life his true love in the person of the merely early-50-something Hayes. The polar opposite of a kiss-and-tell, On the Move heralded that relationship with profound gratitude and the skillful drawing of the doctor’s curtain, which, almost miraculously, shut no reader out. As a thing, age disparity didn’t stand a chance.

In our celebrity-besotted age, there would be innumerable ways Hayes could have gotten his memoir wrong, and he has chosen none of them. Insomniac City tells the couple’s story without flaunting or squandering the intimacy, reveals what is best shared – journal entry: “We are like two dogs rubbing our scents into one another.” – is tender but not maudlin, and is uplifting on the grounds of the matter, not in sentimentalized retro-view. Not infrequently they drink wine from the bottle, but the token of intimacy the reader won’t soon forget is an apple shared in big pieces bitten off by Sacks. It’s a sacrament that could reverse the Eve-and-Adam curse, but that Hayes relates with reverential concreteness.

The writing sneaks up on you. Deliberate yet circumspect at first, it mirrors the author’s striking out into a new life. As he “moves in,” the writing opens up. Hayes’ blackand-white photographs accompany the text and would be even more powerful if they were not on the book’s matte paper stock. The color photo on the glossy hard cover, under the slip cover, is arresting. Insomniac City is as eloquent in its silences and visuals as it is in its telling of the secrets of the heart. We meet Hayes as a recent transplant to Manhattan pursuing the thread of an intuitive life that had come to maturity in San Francisco, weathered the battering of the AIDS epidemic, and taken his long-term lover, Steve. (There are other loves in this deeply candid book.) Before finding fellow insomniac Sacks, Hayes falls heavy for his adoptive city, a 24-hour urban spectacle with arms open to the nightwalker. His vision ranges from its broken pavements to its ugly trees to its mating classic skyscrapers, all celebrated as a 21st-century Whitman might. In a story that could have been fouled by name-dropping, the closest Hayes gets to it is an account of an outdoor Iceland fete-glacee with Bjork, and a madcap post-party drive through Lower Manhattan with Lauren Hutton. (Hayes was driving.) Writing in short chapters interleaved with journal pages, Hayes deftly realizes a skateboarder wannabe, a center-of-the-hood smoke-shop owner and a nonagenarian sketch artist who, in return for a pic he took of her, draws his eye – revealing, in perfect metonymy, the rest of him. Hayes’ more “common” men step off the page; his women leap tall buildings with a single bound. “I used to think that the only thing worse than having insomnia was having insomnia next to someone who falls fast asleep and stays soundlessly so till morning,” Hayes begins his own, not unfamiliar story, like a sleep-deprived Scheherazade. Of Oliver, we learn, in the next chapter, “He wrote me a letter. That’s how we met.” The brilliance of Insomniac City is that almost Tolstoyan directness and concretion of observation, both downto-earth and downright visionary. We learn that Sacks had no time for audio books but loved being read to. (Has this precious practice vanished into the ethernet?) Hayes reports Sacks’ response to skateboarders in the park as: “It’s a living geometry, isn’t it? They may not have read Euclid, but they know it all.” Without, somehow, being obsequious about it, Hayes gives Sacks the better lines and (until it’s no longer possible) the last word in their conversations. Still, I imagine myself as Sacks hearing Hayes read this, by Hayes, aloud: “I heard what sounded like the low rumble of snow plows. Sixth Avenue had been taken over by a brigade of boys on skateboards – dozens and dozens, maybe a hundred or two. The sound of their wheels on the streets was all but drowned out by their whoops and hollers and the barking of dogs made mad by these four-wheeled paw-level intruders. Some boys had their shirts off and waved them in the air like flags – the flags of an invading army, here to spread a message of freedom, fleetness, speed, wind, youth, grace, the anarchy of pure joy, and fuck you. I was not the only one on the sides left openmouthed and clapping spontaneously.”t

BRANDON URANOWITZ

CHEYENNE JACKSON

BETH MALONE

March 24 – 25

April 7 – 8

April 21 – 22

For tickets: feinsteinsatthenikko.com Feinstein’s | Hotel Nikko San Francisco 222 Mason Street | 855-322-2738

We are the future of the LGBT community. “The world still has its challenges but things are getting better. From the way we first met on line to marriage equality to our daughter’s upcoming Quinceañera our life together is more fulfilling every day. We keep up with events and entertainment on EDGE, because that’s where we see our future at its brightest.” The people depicted here are models. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

<< Film

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

The music & the musicmakers by David Lamble

he 25th version of San Francisco’s Noise Pop festival, Feb. 16-27 at the Roxie Theater, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Artists Television Access and Swedish American Hall, will unspool a number of musicmaker docs. Here’s a sample of program highlights. The Art of Listening Codirectors Michael Coleman and Emmanuel Moran’s conversations with instrument-makers and music producers unlock the secrets in the wood and the studio soundboard. This Bay Area premiere includes a discussion of the musical magic behind such film classics as Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. (Roxie, 2/17; post-film Q&A with the filmmakers.) Stronger than Bullets Director Matthew Millan documents the heartbreaking mood swings in the history of Libya, whose young music rebels tried to break free from the 42-

year dictatorship of Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi. Millan’s thesis is that the 2011 popular revolution that overthrew Qaddafi was brought about as much by guitar strings as by bullets. The good news is that the musician rebels were successful; the bad news is that militias inspired by the dead dictator would rise up and at least temporarily crush the music folks. The revolution unfolded far beyond Benghazi – there are poignant moments captured in LA and by farflung reporters from ABC, NBC, CBS and The Irish Times. West Coast premiere. (ATA, 2/19; Millan will appear for a post-film Q&A.) Gary Numan: Android in La La Land The story of how this onetime electronic-music boy genius survived Asperger’s syndrome by marrying his biggest fan and moving from the English countryside to Southern California is creatively told in this Bay Area premiere. In the 80s Numan was at the top of the music charts with hits like “Cars.”

Courtesy Noise Pop

Musician Christopher Willits in directors Michael Coleman and Emmanuel Moran’s The Art of Listening.

A backlash against him from the music press plunged him into depression. His career was revived by a move to LA, where he summoned his gifts to produce the comeback album Splinter. (ATA, 2/19) Hired Gun Director Fran Strine documents the work of backup musicians. (Alamo Drafthouse, 2/16; post-film Q&A with film-

maker and special guests.) Festival Michael Raspatello examines the experiences of music fans who attend huge 100,000-audience music events, inspired in some ways by the original 1969 Woodstock. (Swedish American Hall, 2/17; post-film Q&A.) L7: Pretend We’re Dead The story of a seminal all-woman punk

grunge band. Director Sarah Price sorts out L7’s rise and fall. (Roxie, 2/17; post-film Q&A with filmmaker and band members.) My Buddha is Punk Director Kyaw Kyaw employs a punk rock approach for a survey of his country, Myanmar (Burma). The filmmaker feels that democratic reforms by the former military junta have not gone far enough. (ATA, 2/19, plays with The Boombox Collection.) The Resurrection of Victor Jara Doc recalls the 1973 execution of Chilean poet Victor Jara by the forces of Augusto Pinochet. Interview segments with musicians Bono, Jackson Browne and Pete Seeger. (ATA, 2/18) The Colossus of Destiny: A Melvins Tale A doc about the famous Washington State grunge band. Includes interviews with Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, Gene Simmons of Kiss, Kris Nonoselic of Nirvana, and punk rocker Mark Arm. (Swedish American Hall, 2/18)t

Polish mermaid back-up singers

Courtesy the filmmaker

Scene from director Agnieszka Smoczynska’s The Lure.

by Erin Blackwell

have a vague recollection of the movie I’m about to review, and I blame the movie. It’s about mermaids. Need I say more? Mermaids are famous for not existing while simultaneously having a timeimmemorial hold on the minds of

men and perhaps even women. Scientists like to think they’ve proven that mermaids are, or were, actually manatees, but the manatees, who do exist, refute the charge in an attempt to avert the extinction of their at-risk population. Thus rendered vulnerable to fake news about mermaids, we are faced in the Bay

Area with the arrival of a Polish entertainment originally called Córki Dancingu, now deceptively repackaged as The Lure, opening Friday at the Roxie Theater. The vague recollection I have of Córki Dancingu is due entirely to the pleasure I experienced while viewing it, streaming onto my laptop, in my room one block from the Pacific Ocean. The sea is always with us. Our bodies are 98% water. The call of the aquatic element is strong. Ask any of the surfers who change clothes beneath my windows on a daily basis. If they could live in the water, they would. The notion of a species half-human, half-fish, exerts an overpowering pressure on human consciousness to which I am particularly susceptible. I not only enjoyed the film, I believe it to be true. Not that I think it’s a documentary, more like a dream that came to me from another dimension. The sine qua non of enjoying fake news, or fiction, or a feature film is,

of course, suspension of disbelief. This phenomenon imperceptibly took hold of my critical faculties, and if you think that makes me weak, please remember the example of Ulysses, who had himself tied to the mast so that he could hear the sirens’ song yet resist diving overboard to certain briny death. I was in a state of unrelenting consent to every corkscrewing plot development thrown my way, even abrupt disruptions of “plot” to wedge in another musical number. I can’t even tell you at what point the film switched genres from horror to musical to coming-of-age. These mermaids had their way with me, and I swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. Director Agnieszka Smoczynska, whose first feature this is, might not know exactly how to structure a coherent narrative arc spanning a reasonable 90-minute playtime, but when in the history of mermaids has the focus been on reason? All I ask is to believe. Marta Mazurek as the strawberry blonde who finds

humans irresistible, and Michalina Olszanska as the smoldering brunette who goes along for the ride, are irresistible with or without their tails, baring their breasts as naturally as would you or I on a beach in the South of France. They embody mermaids for millennials. The script is by a man, Roberto Bolesto, I discover now checking credits on IMDB, and I have to say the depiction of men in the film is simply delicious. The club owner, the lead guitar: these Polish men are so obviously working on being “men” in their rock band, in their nightclub, in their borderline sordid, secondrate, sleazy show-bizzy sort of way. Of all the places for these mermaids to land! The concept is delightful, and the realization a first-rate labor of love, talent, and artistic skill, untrammelled by big budget. The mermaids sing their hearts out, and of course they’re a hit. One of them makes the mistake of wanting to be human. That’s an error of evolution we can all commiserate with.t

Forbidden love by David Lamble

he new British-produced docudrama A United Kingdom is a slow-building but powerful example of history informing our current problems. Based on a true-life story,

the film begins with an oppositeattracts, cute meet in WWII-era London between a future African king (Nigerian-born David Oyelowo) and a white woman who drove an ambulance during WWII in the south of England (Rosamund Pike).

Director Amma Asante deliberately constructs this romantic moment in the shadow of Big Ben, a setting that becomes dramatically ironic when the wartime British government attempts to block the couple’s relationship because of the threat it might pose to continued postwar British rule, and to the status of British colonies across the African continent. Based on the book A Colour Bar by Susan Williams, the drama doesn’t properly crank up until the couple is forcefully separated – he in London, she in Botswana – and we see how ruthless the British government could be in protecting the future of the empire. This low-key film fills a niche between Stephen Frears’ The Queen (Elizabeth II has to cope with the power the late Princess Diana exerted on the imagination of the British people) and such dramas as Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd, about Anglo American attempts to squash Third World independence movements around the developing world. An ironic casting choice has the 20-something British actor Tom Felton play a nasty UK official who tries to block the biracial relationship on grounds of state. Felton is better-known to fans of the Harry

Fox Searchlight Pictures

David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike star in director Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom

Potter films as Harry’s young rival Draco Malfoy. The young aspiring musician confided in an IMDB chat that “I’ll take my clothes off whenever the job requires.” The driving force behind the project David Oyelowo, who doubles as a producer, told PBS’ Charlie Rose that he feels his character, Seretse Khama, who gave up his kingship to become Botswana’s first elected president, left behind a great example to the people of his country, who now “see themselves as a post-racial nation, and that’s largely from the work of the two of

them. This man had a huge capacity for love and loving his people. What you normally see about African leaders is their capacity for being corrupt, caring nothing about their people, let alone having a capacity to love. Having grown up in Nigeria myself for seven years, I know there are people like that all over Africa and we don’t get to see them. So I was very keen on their getting to be seen.” A United Kingdom is rated PG-13 for some rough language and depictions of racism. The film opens Friday in Bay Area theaters.t

Music>>

February 16-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Blomstedt & the glories of the Ninth by Philip Campbell

erbert Blomstedt, Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony and SFS Music Director for a decade (1985-95), turns 90 this year. That’s a big number for anyone, but the best and happiest cause for celebration is the maestro’s amazingly ageless demeanor and undiminished energy. His tradition for years has been a fortnight of return appearances in Davies Symphony Hall, where he has increasingly focused on composers famously associated with his solid interpretive powers. If you struggle with the mighty byways of Bruckner or feel the need for a little dry-cleaning with some musty Brahms or Beethoven, then the man Gramophone magazine “ranks high among the living giants of the podium” can almost certainly freshen your interest. I disagree with the British mag when the interviewer goes on to say that Blomstedt is not a glamorous personality. His sly wit and deep musical passion may not be readily apparent in his physical presentation, but it is all there in the results, and seeing his musical sureness onstage provides an annual source of enjoyment and renewed admiration. Many SFS musicians worked with Blomstedt back in the day, and it is an additional pleasure to see how easily they respond to his clearly delineated and unfussy lead. Two weeks ago, the maestro devoted an entire evening to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, opus 125 (1824). It was good to see many new faces in the audience, most of whom probably only know of the maestro’s tenure from older listeners, if they know of him at all. Any performance of the Ninth, or Ode to Joy (as concert advertising usually dubs it), is a special occa-

textured strings paid off sion, and even infrequent again, and watching the conclassical music listeners ductor energetically shaping know and appreciate it. them from a chair on the The message of univerpodium added exceptional sality, not to mention the beauty and tangible emotion glorious choral Finale, to the experience. endures and resonates, esBlomstedt remarked to pecially in times of stress a Symphony spokesperson and uncertainty. that he is “invincible.” We Blomstedt, Ragnar are so accustomed to seeing Bohlin’s wonderful SFS him stand ramrod straight, Chorus and the Orchesit is easy to believe his contra could probably give a fidence. See you next year credible reading with their maestro, when there are 91 eyes closed, but no one is candles on the cake! immune to the power of Beethoven’s inspired Lou Harrison in the composition, and everyMission one onstage joined with Just 100: Homage to Lou the audience in a warm and committed bond of Harrison – Pacific Rim Cenfellowship. tennials (Other Minds) on The conductor hasn’t Saturday, Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m. changed his approach at Mission Dolores Basilica much, but he has tightis the latest celebration of ened things up a bit, and the great gay composer he moved things along artist and activist Lou Harwith a swiftness that rison’s centennial. American disappointed some and conductor and pianist Densatisfied others. There nis Russell Davies, visiting was a lot of detail that from Linz, Austria, presents emerged as the movemusic by two composers ments unfolded briskly. who integrate the influences Courtesy SFS What the interpretation of Europe and Asia: Lou lost in mystery, it gained Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony Harrison (1917-2003) and in impetus. By the time Herbert Blomstedt returned for a fortnight of appearances. Korean composer Isang Yun bass-baritone Andrew (1917-1995), his friend and Foster-Williams made his colleague. left is common and effective practice to be helped onstage by his soloist entrance, we sensed the Curated by Other Minds, Charles for Blomstedt, and they sounded Yefim Bronfman to perform the mounting sense of tension release. Amirkhanian, Artistic Director, predictably full and intense. NatuBeethoven Piano Concerto No. 4. The quartet of soloists was situthe evening includes small and rally the Chorus crowns the Ninth, It was a shock initially, but Blomated in the terrace with the Chorus, larger chamber works, featuring and this was another chance to thrill stedt carried on. Bronfman was less and it worked well to integrate their Harrison’s beautiful 1951 Suite for in the sheer joy of singing Bohlin’s successful with a well-articulated, individual contributions. Soprano Violin, Piano & Small Orchestra as crew shares. fitfully interesting reading of the Kiera Duffy, mezzo-soprano Sara the concert finale. Dennis Russell After talking about Blomstedt’s poetic score. Couden and the aforementioned Davies conducts and participates everlasting youthfulness – I mean The best part of the program, if Foster-Williams blended well and at the keyboard in other works. The he still really looks like publicity not the entire two weeks, was the were easily audible. Tenor Nicholas choice of venue is also appealing.t photos from 30 years ago – the old transcendent performance of the Phan was perhaps more singularly lion took a spill during rehearsal for Brahms Symphony No. 3 that conimpressive, but didn’t upstage them. Info: otherminds.org/lou100/. his concerts last week, and he had cluded the visit. Dividing the richly Separating the strings right and

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<< Theatre

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

Bootycandy

From page 17

In the play, the boy’s name is Sutter, but it also might well be Robert, because the series of vignettes that Sutter encounters as a boy, a teenager, and a man all emerge at least from some kernel in O’Hara’s life as a gay and black man in America. “It’s autobiographical in its infancy, in the spark of imagination,” O’Hara said before its 2014 premiere in New York at Playwrights Horizon. “They come from real encounters that I’ve had, but then of course it’s completely outrageous. No one wants to see my life on stage, but if you sort of twist it and pull it and go to the extreme of the experience, that might be fun.” Bootycandy, which critics have variously called funny, smutty, subversive, fearless, and unpredictable, is having its Bay Area debut at Brava Theatre Center. Being presented by Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience and directed by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe in association with Brava, it runs Feb. 16 through March 5. Tickets are available at brava.org. “’Bootycandy’ is the name that my grandmother and mother used for penis when I was a little boy,” O’Hara said during a Philadelphia run of the play. “After seeing the world premiere of this play in D.C., my mother turned to me and said, ‘It was ‘booboo candy.’ Regardless, I heard bootycandy all my life. ‘Boo-boo candy’ just sounds crazy. Now, bootycandy I can kind of understand.” Bootycandy began as a series of seemingly unrelated short plays that O’Hara had written over the years, and at some point the artistic director of the Wooly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C., where the play would debut in 2011, suggested

MBFF

From page 17

It’s set in England when the country’s movie industry is gamely pursuing uplifting, heart-rending stories designed to soothe a weary public pummeled by the Blitz. Gemma Arterton, as a spunky young screenwriter, is part of a crackerjack ensemble of British stalwarts – Richard E. Grant, Jeremy Irons, Eddie Marsan, et al. – but for my money, the lanky Bill Nighy, who plays a pompous actor past his prime, forced to endure the indignities of a role unworthy of his talents, is a big reason to see the film. With a reputation as the primo scenestealer in the business, Nighy has been enjoying an extraordinary run,

finding some sort of through-line that could pull them into an evening of theater. Some pieces were rewritten, new pieces were added, a connective device was provided, and the character of Sutter became the dominant recurring figure. The same actor plays Sutter through the scenes that find him at various ages, a role being played by Aejay Mitchell at Brava. Most of the pieces have a comic edge, but some go to dark places where race and sexuality can uncomfortably and even violently collide. “For the most part when you say the word ‘gay,’ one thinks of a white, upwardly mobile man,” O’Hara said for Playwrights Horizon’s in-house magazine. “Look at the TV, movies and magazines, most of the images of homosexuality surround white men. Modern Family, Will & Grace, and any of the various other sitcoms that even introduced homosexuality limited it to white men. The AIDS epidemic was brought to the forefront of our experience because it was happening to white men, even though of course thousands of people of color were getting HIV.” O’Hara’s plays have not been widely produced in the Bay Area, but theatergoers may recall ACT’s 1998 production of Insurrection: Holding History, in which a grad student studying slave history time-travels back to the day of Nat Turner’s bloody rebellion in 1831. Before the clash begins, the student and a slave begin a physical relationship that turns into an inevitably tragic love story. Various aspects of the gay and African American experience have been the focus of all his plays since his breakthrough with Insurrection. It’s a drive that goes back to his years as a student at a mostly white Catholic school in Cincinnati. “In both as a stage actor, mostly recently on Broadway in Skylight, and in movies such as Love Actually, where he was a washed-up rocker, and as a tentacle-covered villain in Pirates of the Caribbean, the kind of movie franchise that pays for the polo ponies, a country house and a closet full of bespoke suits. A natty dresser known for his rapier wit, wry delivery and self-effacing charm, Nighy will introduce the screening and be interviewed afterward by A.C.T artistic director Cary Perloff. Heartstrings, along with some erogenous zones, are tugged in Handsome Devil, from gay Irish writer/director John Butler. His genuinely sweet coming-of-age story is about two gay teens navigating their sexual identities, the

the sixth grade I wrote an adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, called Ebony and the Seven Cool Cats,” he said. “I showed it to the teacher, and I thought she’d say, ‘Give me a break.’ But we actually did it. And instead of having the evil witch say, ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall,’ I had them play the Diana Ross song ‘Mirror, Mirror.’ Looking back, that was like the height of gaydom, a gay anthem, really. It was all sorts of crazy.”

On the cutting edge

Elaine Magree, who happened to be a hospice nurse in the 1980s, plays an irreverent lesbian hospice nurse and Cub Scout mom in the midst of early sobriety in Holding the Edge. In the solo show, opening March 3 at the Marsh’s SF venue, Magree also plays multiple other characters as she deals with the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic. Previously seen at the Marsh in Berkeley, Holding the Edge takes place on a specific date – Jan. 28, 1986 – the day the Challenger space shuttle exploded, forcing Ronald Reagan to postpone his State of the Union address. When he did deliver it a week later, coming after the death of his Hollywood friend Rock Hudson, many were hoping he would finally acknowledge the AIDS crisis head-on. He did not. Magree wrote the play as a reaction to Reagan receiving a David Allen posthumous award at a hospice care workers conference in 2014. In the solo show Holding the Edge at the Marsh, Elaine Magree plays a “I was so angry at this travesty,” lesbian hospice nurse and multiple other characters on a very specific she said, “I wanted to scream at day during the AIDS crisis. all 2,000 people in the room.” The performer-playwright of Perpetual Indulgence, a homeless pital’s Ward 5A/5B, the first dedicatused those events from 1986 to AIDS victim, and several others. ed unit for people with AIDS, and a weave a story about the toll of AIDS, Holding the Edge runs through model to be used around the world, as she adopts characters including April 8, with tickets available at with a portion of proceeds donated dying friends, a bitchy-punk carethemarsh.org. The March 3 perforto the AIDS Memorial Grove. More giver, the estranged mother of a pamance will honor SF General Hosinfo at themarsh.org.t tient, a dying member of the Sisters

tyranny of fitting in and the daily terrors of boarding school, which Ned, a sensitive, red-haired loner with a taste for David Bowie, regards as a prison – and one can see his point. Ned, the narrator of the tale, tries to avoid the taunts of the resident homophobic bully and his buddies, who sense his ambiguous sexuality, while a bigoted macho rugby coach, itching for a championship, exacerbates matters. Ned’s fortunes appear to change for the better, however, when he’s assigned a new roommate, Conor, a rugby star and a dreamboat to boot who, as it turns out, is closeted and nursing hidden sorrows of his own. The boys tentatively build an unlikely friendship that’s tested by the prejudices surround-

Courtesy MBFF

The 1924 silent adventure film Epic of Everest was impeccably restored and its original colored tints reintroduced by the British Film Institute National Archive.

ing them. The first-rate cast has a lot of heart, but Andrew Scott, who often plays baddies like Moriarty on the PBS series Sherlock Holmes, is especially good as an unorthodox English teacher with a covert personal life. Like the soulful wisdom it imparts – knowing when it’s more dangerous to keep secrets than to reveal them, the importance of finding one’s voice and the value of a true friend – Handsome is simply irresistible. Terence Davies’ portrait of the 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson may be titled A Quiet Passion, but thwarted passion might have been more on-point. In this beautifully photographed film the gay British director surveys the barren emotional wasteland of Dickinson’s formal upbringing and repressive New England milieu, with painstaking attention paid to period interiors that are as stifling as a doll’s house. Dickinson’s rebellious spirit is squelched early, and her yearning for love frustrated – she never married, and became a recluse – but her deep reservoir of feeling and romantic imagination were given eloquent voice in the lyrical poetry she left behind. A long distance from the feisty, cosmopolitan Miranda of Sex and the City, Cynthia Nixon plays Dickinson, buttoned-up, strapped in and finally succumbing to a secluded, stultifying existence in the bosom of her family. It’s like watching a hothouse flower wilt before one’s eyes. An antidote for cabin fever after weeks of rain, the 1924 silent adventure film Epic of Everest offers an opportunity to experience the great outdoors with all of the excitement and none of the attendant risk. Impeccably restored and its original colored tints reintroduced by the British Film Institute National Archive, it’s the official record of the arduous

third attempt to scale the summit of the world’s highest peak. Shot under grueling conditions with a handcranked camera by Captain John Noel, the film’s cinematographic achievements and forbidding beauty are all the more stunning when one considers the primitive technology the team had at his disposal. Plagued by misfortune and bad weather from the start, the expedition, which resulted in the deaths of legendary climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, was either an exercise in folly or a feat of exemplary courage. The question of whether the pair actually made it to the top remains a matter of controversy, but the chance they had to witness a crimson sun set over the Himalayas, a mountain range that seems to touch the very heavens, might have been worth the tragic consequences. Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese’s editor and collaborator for half-a-century, was honored last month, but her equally accomplished British counterpart Anne Coates, who has an esteemed 60-year career under her belt, a prestigious Governor’s Award from the Motion Picture Academy, an Oscar for her work on David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and nominations for five films including The Elephant Man and Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight to her credit, is not as familiar to American movie buffs. In a sexist industry where women make up a disproportionately small percentage of film editors, Coates has been gainfully employed and is still in gear: her last project was 50 Shades of Grey. Now 91, she also has a ream of inside stories to tell, some of which she’ll share in an onstage interview with author/film historian and fellow Brit David Thomson, Feb. 21.t Plays the Vogue Theater, Feb. 16-23. Info: mostlybritish.org.

Leather

Shining Stars Vol. 47 • No. 7 • February 16-22, 2017

Andrew Macpherson

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Divas’ Las Vegas Cher, J-Lo shows wow Sin City by Jim Gladstone

o you believe in life after Cher? “This is our last goodbye, it’s true,” she sang in “Strong Enough,” the second number in her thundering glitterstorm of a new show, Classic Cher, which opened last Wednesday night to a giddy Las Vegas crowd of just over 5,000 at the Monte Carlo Resort’s Park Theater. See page 32 >>

Classic Cher at the Monte Carlo Resort Park Theater in Las Vegas.

Sat 18

Gameboi SF @ Rickshaw Stop

lassic vocalists, witty com ics, sizzling sensations and sexy scenes fill our mid-Februar y calendar. Get into the gro ove.

Feb. 16-23

Steven Underhill

in on page 29 >> Listings beg

On the Tab

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<< On the Tab

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

Boy Bar @ The Cafe

Thu 16

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

Afterlife @ Asian Art Museum

Creature @ The Stud New night at the historic gay bar, with a monster/mutant theme, DJs Mariscos and Gossip Cat, performers Krylon Superstar, Phatima Rude, Yves Saint Croissant and Molly Sweats. 10pm4am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

DTF Fridays @ Port Bar, Oakland Various DJs play house music, and a few hotties gogo dance at the new gay bar’s weekly event. 9pm-2am. 2023 Broadway. (510) 823-2099. www.portbaroakland.com

On the Tab

From page 28

Thu 16

Above and Beyond the Valley of the Ultra Showgirls @ Oasis D’Arcy Drollinger’s hit drag rock musical comedy about Super Vixen, a girl band’s ups and downs, returns with a live band. $25-$35. Thu 8pm Fri & Sat 7pm. Thru Feb. 18. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Afterlife @ Asian Art Museum Enjoy drinks and DJed music at the preview party for Tomb Treasures: New Discoveries from China’s Han Dynasty. $15-$25. 7pm-11pm (exhibit thru May 18). 200 Larkin St., Civic Center. www.asianart.org

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Stimulating festive and fun parties at the earth sciences museum returns, with 21+ music, drinks, demos and exhibits. $12-$15. Feb. 16: Beer Week, with DJ Omas (Popscene) and brews galore. Weekly 6pm-9pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.calacademy.org/nightlife

Gaymer Night @ SF Eagle

Fri 17

Group video game-playing night on the big-screen TVs and prjection screens; free coat check, no cover. 8pm-1am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Ain’t Mama’s Drag @ Balancoire Weekly drag queen and drag king show hosted by Cruzin d’Loo. 8pm10pm. No cover. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Gogo Fridays @ Toad Hall Hot dancers grind it at the Castro bar with a dance floor and patio. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

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

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol. 8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Sing along and sing out, Louise, with hostess Sister Flora Goodthyme. 8pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show. DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Quay Dash at Swagger Like Us @ Oasis

Thu 16 Sandra Bernhard @ Regency Ballroom

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. Also Fridays. 7pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Sandra Bernhard @ Regency Ballroom

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland The Latin dance night includes drag acts hosted by Lulu and Jacqueline, and gogo studs. $10-$20. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Le Perez @ Hotel Rex The local vocalist performs her cabaret show Rose are Red… Blues are Inevitable. Cocktails and small plates available. $30-$50. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Manimal @ Beaux Gogo-tastic dance night starts off your weekend. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th 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

Growlr @ SF Eagle The app-sponsored bears and cubs night is very cruise-friendly; DJ Salazar spins. $5. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each work week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Hard Fridays @ Qbar DH Haute Toddy’s weekly electro-pop night with hotty gogos. $3. 9pm-2am (happy hour 4pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Sexy Cupids & Horny Devils @ Danzhaus Kingdom of Sodom’s very sexy dance and play party takes on an angel/demon costume theme. $10-$15. full bar, clothes check, 10pm-2am. 1275 Connecticut St. www.ticketfly.com/ purchase/event/1421762

Swagger Like Us @ Oasis The monthly queer hip hop party features Quay Dash, DJs DavO, 8ulentina, and Wildkatz. $10. 10pm2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.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

Our beloved comic actress and singer returns for Sandra Monica Blvd: Coast to Coast, a full-fledged fab concert. $52-$68. 8pm. 1290 Sutter St. www.sandrabernhard.com www.theregencyballroom.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Music night with local and touring bands. $8. 9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

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

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. $5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Nice Jewish Boys @ The Residence

Underwear Night @ Powerhouse

Social hour with gay Jewish men and their pals, presented by Keshet, the LGBT organization. 7pm. 718 14th St. www.keshetonline.org

Wonder Dave and Ruby Gill cohost another new unusual event at the famed straight strip club: women comics (Nicole Love, Natasha Muse) and male strippers. $20. 7pm-11pm (two shows). 895 O’Farrell St. www.eventbrite.com

The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux will titillate and tantalize. $10-$20. 8pm9:30pm. 399 9th St. Also Sunday brunch shows at PianoFight Theatre. 144 Taylor St. www.redhotsburlesque.com www.studsf.com

Fri 17

Free coat/clothes check when you strip down to your skivvies at the cruisy SoMa bar. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Sat 18 Hard French Winter Ball @ Gray Area/Grand Theater

Shot in the City

Karaoke Night @ The Stud

Jokes & Jocks @ O’Farrell Theatre

Red Hots Burlesque @ The Stud

Hot Couture @ The Crucible, Oakland The Beautiful Ones is the Prince-(and other music)-themed grand fashion show fundraiser with fire arts flair at the arts nonprofit’s industrial chic warehouse; drinks, food, auctions items, and VIP section. $55-$115. 1260 7th St., Oakland. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Feb. 19. www.thecrucible.org

New weekly women & queers comedy night hosted by Debbie Devereaux (aka Charlie Ballard). No cover. Open mic, too. 6pm-8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

Weekly drag shows at the last transgender-friendly bar in the Polk; with hosts Victoria Secret, Alexis Miranda and several performers. Also Saturdays. $10. 11pm. 1081 Polk St. www.divassf.com

Diane Amos, Will Durst, Yayne Abeba, Steve Lee, and Lisa Geduldig tell comic tales at the monthly event. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.koshercomedy. com www.elriosf.com

Queer weekly night out at the popular Mission bar. 9pm2am. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Hella Gay Comedy @ Club OMG

Midnight Show @ Divas

Comedy Returns @ El Rio

Gayface @ El Rio

February 16-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Pretty in Ink @ Powerhouse

Burlesque Brunch @ The Stud

Show off your tattoos at the inkthemed night. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Enjoy a saucy strip show from the gals of Red Hots Burlesque, and vegetarian, vegan and meat delicacies from Nucha Empanadas, plus bottomless (and topless!) Mimosas. $10-$20. 1pm. 399 9th St. www.redhotsburlesque.com www.studsf.com

Saturgay @ Qbar Stanley Frank spins house dance remixes at the intimate Castro dance bar. $3. 9pm-2am (weekly beer bust 2pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Shake It Up @ Port Bar, Oakland DJ Lady Char spins dance grooves; gogo studs, and drink specials, too. 9pm-2am. 2023 Broadway. (510) 8232099. www.portbaroakland.com

Sat 18

Soul Party @ Elbo Room DJs Lucky, Paul, and Phengren Osward spin 60s soul 45s. $5-$10 ($5 off in semi-formal attire). 10pm-2am. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Make Out Party @ SF Eagle

Sugar @ The Cafe Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Shot in the City

Vandana Bali @ Martuni’s

Sat 18

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland Latin, hip hop and Electro music night. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge DJs Mysterious D and guests spin at the mash-up DJ dance party, with four rooms of different sounds and eight DJs. $10-$15 and up. 9:30pm3am. 375 11th St. www.bootiesf.com www.dnalounge.com

Bounce @ Lookout Dance music with a view at the Castro bar. 9pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Bulge @ The Stud Grace Towers returns to host the sexy underwear contest once again (formerly held at the Powerhouse). DJ Cody Lee. 10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland The weekly hip hop and R&B night. $5-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Gameboi SF @ Rickshaw Stop Gaysians and their pals dance it up at the popular monthly event; February’s a Red & White (and Pink) theme. $8$15. 9pm-2am. 155 Fell St. www.rickshawstop.com

Hard French Winter Ball @ Gray Area/Grand Theater The DJ collective and fun-making fans’ 7th annual formal queer prom, with Pam the Funkstreess,m Feleetwood Macramé, Brown amy and Carnita spinning soul classics and more. Attire: prom drag of any creative or traditional kind. $15-$25. 9pm-2am. 2665 Mission St. www.hardfrench.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

Make Out Party @ SF Eagle Nark Magazine’s monthly smoochfest party, with DJs Mark O’Brien, Trevor Sigler , smooch space, gogo beauties, and Shot in the City photo booth. $10. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

The Manhattans @ Yoshi’s Oakland The veteran R&B vocal group performs at the stylish restaurant/ nightclub. $44-$79. 7:30pm & 9:30pm. Feb 19 at 7pm & 9pm. 510 Embarcadero, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Martha Crawford @ Hotel Rex The local vocalist performs You’ve Gotta Have Hart, a concert of Rodgers & Hart classic songs, with the Trio de Swing. Cocktails and small plates available. $30-$50. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Mascara @ Eureka Valley Rec. Center Castro Country Club’s monthly sober yet wild drag show fundraiser, hosted by Cruzin D’Loo, and DJ Troix. $15$20. 7:30pm. 100 Collingwood St. www.castrocountryclub.org

Mother @ Oasis Heklina hosts the fun drag show with weekly themes, this week with special guest Katya of RuPaul’s Drag Race. MC2 spins dance grooves before and after the show. $20. 10pm-3am (11:30pm show). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Nitty Gritty @ Beaux Weekly dance night with nearly naked gogo guys & gals; DJs Chad Bays, Ms. Jackson, Becky Know and Jorge T. $4. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

The vocalist performs her new cabaret act, Songs from Stage and Screen, with pianist David Aaron Brown at the intimate martini bar. $20. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. www.vocalvelvet.eventbrite.com

Katya Presents @ Martuni’s

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle Groovy disco-licious sounds with DJ Bus Station John, with a special tribute to the late disco singer Sharon Redd (also a former Bette Midler backup singer). $5. 7pm-1am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Domingo De Escandal @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez and DJ Luis. 7pm-2am. 43 6th St. clubomgsf.com

Femme Brunch @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch buffet, bottomless Mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant, with live entertainment and DJ Shawn P. $15-$20. 11am-3pm. After that, Femme T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Katya Smirnoff-Skyy’s monthly cabaret show welcomes frequent costar Matthew Simmons for a night of songs, stories and strong cocktails, with Tom Shaw at the piano. $12. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. russianoperadiva.com

Ms. Monét @ Great American Music Hall The amazing soul singer performs. $31-$56. 8pm. 859 O’Farrell St. www.msmonet.com www.slimspresents.com

Queer Tango @ Finnish Hall, Berkeley Same-sex partner tango dancing, including lessons for newbies, food and drinks. $5-$10. 3:30pm-6:30pm. 1970 Chestnut St, Berkeley. www.finnishhall.org

Stud Muffins @ The Stud New post-brunch event, with DJs Jerry Lee Manhattan, Courtney Trouble and Brontez Purnell. 5pm-10pm. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet often hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Sun 19

Bawdy Slam @ Oasis Storytelling open mic slam with prizes, and hostess Dixie De La Tour. $15. 7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon Enjoy daytime partying with bears and cubs, plus fundraisers for the SF Fog Rugby team. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits. $10. 3pm6pm. Now also on Saturdays. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Big Top @ Beaux The fun Castro nightclub, with hot local DJs and sexy gogo guys and gals. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.Beauxsf.com

Fri 17 Jesi Ringofire at Jokes & Jocks @ O’Farrell Theatre

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

Book of Love @ DNA Lounge The New Wave band, reunited after decades, performs classic ‘80s synth faves; Fever High and Ejector open. $25-$50. 8pm. 375 11th St. www.bookoflovemusic.com www.dnalounge.com

Sunday Brunch @ Thee Parkside

GlamaZone @ The Cafe 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

Bottomless Mimosas until 3pm at the fun rock-punk club. 1600 17th St. 2521330. www.theeparkside.com

Jock @ The Lookout Enjoy the weekly jock-ular fun, with DJed dance music at sports team fundraisers. 12pm-1am. NY DJ Sharon White from 3pm-6pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Fri 17 Growlr @ SF Eagle

Gareth Gooch

On the Tab>>

Mon 20

Beth & Patty’s Wedding @ SF Eagle Beth Bicoastal and her mate Patty are getting married! Come in wedding drag of any kind for the ceremony and party, with Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, DJ Joe Prince Wolfe and a 5pm drag show, food antics, ambiance, donation buckets for local charities. 4pm-12am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko’s weekly drag and dance night. 9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 6523820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade The weekly LGBT video game enthusiast night includes big-screen games and signature beers, with a new remodeled layout, including an outdoor patio. No cover. 7pm-11pm. 2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

See page 30 >>

<< On the Tab

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

High Fantasy @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Retro Night @ 440 Castro

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

Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am. 44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Hysteria @ Martuni’s Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St.

Love @ The Stud Mama Dora, Thee Pristine Condition, and Ultra present new Tuesday-style drag and cabaret shenanigans to warm your heart. Feb 21 theme: We Love Michelle 2020. $5. 9pm-1am, show at 10pm. 399 Harrison. www.studsf.com

Sun 19 Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down as the strippers also take it all off. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

OutLoud @ Oasis

On the Tab

From page 29

Karaoke Night @ SF Eagle Sing along, with guest host Nick Radford. 8pm-12am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany’s weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Mule Mondays @ Port Bar, Oakland

No No Bingo @ Virgil’s Sea Room

Enjoy frosty Moscow Mule cocktails in a brassy mug, specials before 8pm. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www.portbaroakland.com

Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Musical Mondays @ The Edge

Opulence @ Beaux

Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Peggy L’eggs (aka Matthew Simmons) guest-hosts Peaches Christ’s fun monthly storytelling series, this time themed “Turbulence Ahead,” with Turleen, Frida K Hole, Chris DeSimone, Doug Anderson, Kegel Kater and Ronn Vigh. $10. 7:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Tap That Ass @ SF Eagle Bartender Steve Dalton’s draft beer happy hour. Feb 21 is his birthday! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Trivia Night @ Port Bar, Oakland Cranny hosts a big gay trivia night at the new East Bay bar; drinks specials and prizes. 7:30pm. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland Vicky Jimenez’ drag show and contest; Latin music all night. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Underwear Night @ Club OMG Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials. $4. 10pm-2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht. 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market.

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

Tue 21

Bandit @ Lone Star Saloon New weekly queer event with resident DJ Justime; electro, soul, funk, house. No cover. 9pm-1am. 1354 Harrison St. www.facebook.com/BanditPartySF www.lonestarsf.com

Block Party @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Sun 19 Book of Love @ DNA Lounge

Cock Shot @ Beaux Shot specials and adult Bingo games, with DJs Chad Bays and Riley Patrick, at the new weekly night. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Hella Saucy @ Q Bar Queer dance party at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Puff @ The Stud Under the Golden Gate (DJ Dank and Maria Konner and her band Not From Jersey) and the Queer Cannabis Club host a pot appreciation night, with DJ Sergio Fedasz, raffle and drink specials. $5-$10. 7pm-10pm. 399 9th St. www.underthegoldengate.com www.studsf.com

Sat 18 The Manhattans @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Wed 22 Bedlam @ Beaux

Weekly event with DJ Haute Toddy, hosts Mercedez Munro and Abominatrix. Wet T-shirt/jock contest at 11pm. $5-$10. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

On the Tab>>

February 16-22, 2017 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Movie Night @ SF Eagle Enjoy drinks and a flick, with trivia games and prizes. 8pm-2am. 398 12th St. www. sf-eagle.com

Nip @ Powerhouse Nipple play night for the chesty types. Free coatcheck and drink discount for the shirtless. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www. powerhousebar.com

Sun 19

Wrangler Wednesdays @ Rainbow Cattle Company, Guerneville

Matthew Martin and Katya Sminroff-Skyy at Katya Presents @ Martuni’s

Wear your jeans and meet new folks at the Russian River gay bar. 16220 Main St., Guerneville. www.queersteer.com

Thu 23 Deafheaven @ Independent

Bondage-a-Gogo @ The Cat Club

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West

The weekly gay/straight/whatever fetish-themed kinky dance night. $7$10. 9:30pm-2:30am. 1190 Folsom St. www.bondage-a-go-go.com www.catclubsf.com

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

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Stimulating festive and fun parties at the earth sciences museum returns, with 21+ music, drinks, demos and exhibits. $12-$15. Weekly 6pm-9pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.calacademy.org/nightlife

Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels Groove on wheels at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate.” Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm-5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St. at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

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

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Music night with local and touring bands. $8. 9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Underwear Night @ Powerhouse Free coat/clothes check when you strip down to your skivvies at the cruisy SoMa bar. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com Want your nightlife event listed? Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

Parody musical theatre song revue with live-singing drag queens and kings; this time Beauty is a Beast and Little Shop of Whores. $20. 8pm. Also Feb. 25, 7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

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

Sun 19

Kick It @ DNA Lounge

Ms. Monét @ Great American Music Hall

Kandi Love, Northcore Collective and Plus Alliance’s weekly EDM, flow arts dance night, with DJs; glow drag encouraged. $5-$10. 9pm2am. 375 11th St. www. dnalounge.com

Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s

The weekly women’s happy hour/dance night w/DJ Becky Knox. 6pm-10pm. 2023 Broadway. portbaroakland.com

James J. Siegel’s monthly literary series this time honors poet Sylvia Plath, with readers Annah AntiPalindrome, Robert Andrew Perez, July Westhale, and July Westhale. 7pm. 4 Valencia St.

Latin Drag Night @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Lezzie Fog @ The Stud

Mary Wilson @ Yoshi’s Oakland

New weekly women’s Happy Hour. 5pm-9pm. $1 drinks. Free pool. 399 Harrison. www.studsf.com Weekly guided tour of bars. $10-$18. Meet at Harvey Milk Plaza, 7:45pm. Also morning historic tours on Mon, Wed, & Sat. www.wildsftours.com

Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 8292233. www.virgilssf.com

Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Girl Scout @ Port Bar, Oakland

LGBT Pub Crawl @ Castro

Nap’s Karaoke @ Virgil’s Sea Room

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar

Queer weekly night out at the popular Mission bar. 9pm-2am. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

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. No cover. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

Kollin Holtz hosts the open mic comedy night. 5:30pm-8pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Drunk Drag Broadway @ Oasis

Carnie Asada hosts a new weekly ‘90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin’ night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90cent drinks. ‘90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Gayface @ El Rio

B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland

Comedy Showcase @ SF Eagle

The California “post-rock” band performs; This Will Destroy You and Emma Rith Rundle open. $26. 9pm. Also Feb 24. 628 Divisadero St. www.theindependentsf.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

Thu 23 Mary Wilson @ Yoshi’s Oakland

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32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 16-22, 2017

Yet the most moving moment in her opening night show came when, blonde-wigged and blue-jeaned, Cher delivered a straightforward, deeply resonant rendition of Marc Cohn’s “Walking In Memphis.” In her eyes, you could see a real engagement with the music and a genuine happiness about performing for an enthusiastic audience. Before ending the night, as an encore, Cher sang “If I Could Turn Back Time” in a strappy black bodysuit similar to the one she wore in her ‘naval-gazing’ 1989 video for the song (set on a battleship). Her dusky contralto voice, her statuesque 5’ 9” inches, and her bemused non-chalance amidst a maelstrom of lighting and stage effects are reassuringly familiar as well. Perhaps for Cher herself, now 70, and for longtime fans—including legions of gay men for whom she’s been a consistent pop presence across six tumultuous decades (“I Got You Babe” was released in 1965), the turning back of time with copy-pasted elements of prior shows feels less like a rerun than a ritual, a chance to reconnect with past pleasures and share a sense of gratitude.

J-Los and highs Both photos: Andrew Macpherson

Top: Cher goes Bollywood and Bottom: performs a few of her Burlesque numbers in her new Las Vegas show.

Divas’ Las Vegas

From page 27

But who knows what to believe when it comes to comebacks by our dear, dithering diva. After all, it’s been a dozen years since Cher announced her official Farewell Tour. That trek was followed by a threeyear, 192-show Vegas residency at Caesar’s Colosseum, just down the Strip from her current digs. Then, in 2014, there were five months of Dressed to Kill tour dates. And now, after a couple years of unsubstantiated rumors about disastrous finances and declining health, she’s back, in undiminished splendor. Also back, and sure to delight those audience members who haven’t had a chance to catch the iconic performer over the past decade, are many of the over-the-top props, Bob Mackie-designed costumes, and scenic elements featured in Cher’s recent outings. Glittery gondola? Check. Hunky dancers in gladiator mufti? Check. Life-size papier-mâché elephant? Check. Ribbon-spinning aerialists? Check. Big chunks of the set list from the Dressed to Kill tour also remain intact, including a sequence of “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves,” “Dark Lady,” and “Half-Breed” performed in front of Wild West carnival backdrops, the latter once again sung in a four-foot-long pastel-feathered Na-

tive American headdress. (Cher may be the last person on earth who can get away with such a get-up. Then again, the Washington Redskins aren’t half as fabulous). If you haven’t seen a Cher show since vocoders first became trendy –or if you’re an avid fan, like the dozen-plus Cher-alike drag queens spotted in the opening night crowd– this iteration is a must. The spectacle is scaled for arenas, but because it’s being played in a venue the size of a large Broadway theater, the experience is like pickaxing a sensory motherlode. (The show is slated to run exclusively at the Park in Las Vegas and at the even smaller new MGM National Harbor Theater outside of Washington, D.C. An initial 27 performances have been scheduled through May, with further dates likely to be announced). But if you’re a less-than-fervid follower and have seen one of Cher’s last couple of tours, it’s important to set your expectations for some major diva déjà vu. That said, Cher remains a powerhouse presence. The productionheavy razzle-dazzle of “Woman’s World” and “I’ve Found Someone” continue to thrill. Her costumes and hairdos are eye-popping works of wonder: She enters in an afro wig big and round enough to have its own place in the solar system, and later wears a spangly pink, monsanchored garment best described as a full-length vajazzle.

Meanwhile, just down the Strip at Planet Hollywood’s Axis Theater, another indelible diva is making her mark. No, it’s not Britney. Jennifer Lopez, whose life-sized, spread-legged image on the doors of the hotel’s elevators seems to query “Going down?” is getting down with relentless, feral energy in her own Vegas residency, All I Have. The show, featuring feathery fan dances, steamy striptease, and a quintet of jaw-dropping male dancers, serves up retro imagery to a hiphop beat.

Both photos: Andrew Macpherson

Left: Angelic Cher. Right: Cher in the classic Bob Mackie outfit.

While Cher has never been much of a dancer and charms her audiences by swaying wryly to-and-fro and coolly strolling the stage as her troupe works its acrobatic asses off, J. Lo is a perpetual motion machine. Having first come to fame through her footwork –and buttwork– as one of the Flygirls on television’s In Living Color, Lopez now showcases her physical prowess for nearly twohours, hustling through complex choreography, sliding across the stage on her knees, and high-kicking with Rockette-like aplomb. Through her command of the company, Lopez makes it clear that sexiness need have nothing to do with submission. “Who’s in charge here?” she asks as she slinks along a line-up of her bare-chested male colleagues. Lopez sings, too, of course. And while she’s clearly reinforced by back-up vocalists, unlike Ms. Spears (who shares Lopez’ venue, if not her work ethic), she doesn’t lip sync. While her catalog doesn’t have the generation-spanning depth of Cher’s, Lopez rolls out a surprising number of familiar hits, including “I’m Real,” “On the Floor,” “Booty,” “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” “Get Right,” “Jenny from the Block.” There’s no fakery when the choreography gets so fast and furious that singing simultaneously would

be impossible. As her recorded vocals play in the background, Lopez dances with unapologetic athleticism, all steely eyes and tight tenacious grin. The show’s explosive final twenty minutes gets the audience on its feet with a cover of Celia Cruz’ “Quimbara” and keeps them there with Lopez cheerleading a singalong of “Let’s Get Loud” before barreling into a three-song encore of “Waiting for Tonight,” “Dance Again,” “On the Floor.” Lopez’ sequined capes, white furs, and a cocktail dress that appears to be made of an unstrung chandelier, harken back to an earlier era of Vegas bombshells, but with an empowered contemporary twist. While Cher revisits Cher, J. Lo reinvents Ann-Margret and Raquel Welch.t ‘Classic Cher’ plays the Monte Carlo Resort Park Theater in Las Vegas on select dates from February 18-25 and from May 3-20. The show will play at the MGM National Harbor Theater on select dates from March 17-26 and August 31-September 10. www.cher.com. ‘Jennifer Lopez: All of Me’ plays the Axis Theater at Planet Hollywood on select dates from February 17-25 and from May 24-28. www.jlovegas.com

Denise Truscello

Jennifer Lopez’ new show at Planet Hollywood’s Axis Theater.