Curated by Rio Yañez and Carolina Quintanilla, Día de Los Muertos 2019: City of Souls features special altar structures to honor and manifest founding curator Rene Yañez’s vision for his final Día de Los Muertos exhibition, titled City of Souls, a reference to his 2001 exhibition City of Miracles. City of Souls invites artists who are most directly impacted by gentrification and displacement to engage audience members in dialogue on the future of San Francisco’s cultural identity. [...]

Future Relations: A Resource for Radical Teaching presents F.T.P. is the first exhibition of SOMArts 2019-20 Curatorial Residency season. With a combined 30 years of teaching experience, curators Fred Alvarado, Thomas Jones, and David Petrelli reimagine SOMArts’ Main Gallery into a site for collective liberation and hope for educators, community organizers, and youth alike. Critically engaged teachers work collaboratively with young people in confronting and subverting systemic oppression. Through an Ethnic Studies, social justice oriented lens, [...]

Future Relations: A Resource for Radical Teaching presents F.T.P. is the first exhibition of SOMArts 2019-20 Curatorial Residency season. With a combined 30 years of teaching experience, curators Fred Alvarado, Thomas Jones, and David Petrelli reimagine SOMArts’ Main Gallery into a site for collective liberation and hope for educators, community organizers, and youth alike. Critically engaged teachers work collaboratively with young people in confronting and subverting systemic oppression. Through an Ethnic Studies, social justice oriented lens, [...]

Curated by Vanessa Chang and Lindsey D. Felt, Recoding CripTech reimagines enshrined notions of what a body can be or do through creative technologies, and how it can move, look, or communicate. As the term “crip” reclaims the word for disability culture and recognizes disability as a cultural and political identity, so too do artists hack technologies to dismantle barriers to access. By creating new kinds of social and sensory interactions with technology, these artists portend [...]

RSVP to this free, all ages program today! Space is limited to 12 participants  Curated by Vanessa Chang and Lindsey D. Felt, Recoding CripTech reimagines enshrined notions of what a body can be or do through creative technologies, and how it can move, look, or communicate. As the term “crip” reclaims the word for disability culture and recognizes disability as a cultural and political identity, so too do artists hack technologies to dismantle barriers to access. [...]

Curated by Vanessa Chang and Lindsey D. Felt, Recoding CripTech reimagines enshrined notions of what a body can be or do through creative technologies, and how it can move, look, or communicate. As the term “crip” reclaims the word for disability culture and recognizes disability as a cultural and political identity, so too do artists hack technologies to dismantle barriers to access. By creating new kinds of social and sensory interactions with technology, these artists portend [...]

UPDATE: Due to the growing concerns regarding COVID-19, we have postponed the Unbound Roots opening reception. In lieu of an opening reception, we will be extending gallery hours on Thursday, March 12 from 12:00–9:00pm.   This decision comes with a heavy heart as we recognize the immense labor and love that was poured into the exhibition. We invite you to visit SOMArts during regular gallery hours throughout the exhibition run of Unbound Roots. Entry to our exhibition [...]

 Unbound Roots presents Acceptance is now a virtual panel discussion and will occur at the above date and time! Join here Curated by Alie Jones and Toshia Christal, Unbound Roots challenges the self-care industry by expanding discussions around Black wellness practices rooted in mental, spirituality and community care. Unbound Roots transcend through acceptance, pleasure, and liberation providing a safe space that encourages individual awareness, generational healing, and high vibratory engagements. Acceptance Digital Panel Panelists Aïma Paule Alie [...]

 Unbound Roots presents Pleasure is now a virtual artist talk and will occur at the above date and time! Join here Curated by Alie Jones and Toshia Christal, Unbound Roots challenges the self-care industry by expanding discussions around Black wellness practices rooted in mental, spirituality and community care. Unbound Roots transcend through acceptance, pleasure, and liberation providing a safe space that encourages individual awareness, generational healing, and high vibratory engagements. Unbound Roots presents Pleasure Digital Artist [...]

From Stonewall to Rupaul, drag has been central to queer life from the very beginning. As the art form establishes itself as a pop culture mainstay, how do we preserve drag’s revolutionary beginnings? Join radical performance trio Toxic Waste Face for an online crash course in drag’s lesser-known herstories as we excavate the genre’s punk rock past to envision an equally transgressive future. Set your makeup and strap into some heels, because this is what they [...]

SOMArts’ Please Stand By: Virtual Summer Solstice affirms that the fight for a more just and equitable future doesn’t stop when we are sheltering in place. This pandemic has revealed the systemic failures that continue to disproportionately impact communities of color. Now, we are witnessing people across the world protest for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless other Black lives violently stolen by the police and white supremacy. In lieu [...]

In partnership with SOMArts, Rashaad Newsome’s semi-annual King of Arms Art Ball (KOAAB) takes the digital stage on Friday, July 10, 5pm PDT/ 8pm EDT. This one of a kind event has been bringing together a global panel of ballroom legends and emerging artists since 2013, and this year's categories are inspired by Black artists who center legacies of resilience in their creative practice. KOAAB provides a platform for up-and-coming artists and performers to explore social [...]

Dancing the Afrofuture: Hula, Hip-Hop, and the Duhman Legacy. Published with the University Press of Florida, the book is forthcoming in February 2024 and will be available for purchase at the event. The launch features a book reading by Dr. Osumare and performances by PUSH dance company. Dancing the Afrofuture: Hula, Hip-Hop, and the Dunham Legacy is the sequel to Dancing in Blackness, A Memoir (2018). It chronicles the next stage in Halifu Osumare’s life [...]

SOMArts is proud to present The Black Woman is God: Assembly of Gods, a multidisciplinary exhibition with free admission from August 30–October 2, 2018, celebrating the Black female presence as the highest spiritual form. More than 50 intergenerational artists working in sculpture, painting, new media, and photography create new myths to challenge Eurocentric notions of God. Now in its third year at SOMArts, the exhibition’s theme represents the various spiritual traditions of the African diaspora that encourage members of the Black [...]