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  • The Indigo Project Opening Reception

    As part of SOMArts' 12th Curatorial Residency season, The Indigo Project opens with a free, all-ages exhibition unveiling on December 9, 6–9 PM PST. Curated by Bushmama Africa and Isha Rosemond, this landmark multidisciplinary exhibition centers Black artists and their stories as means to combat the erasure of African American history, culture, and creativity. Informed by academic research, decades of traditional African spiritual initiation, and the ethics of communal collaboration, The Indigo Project unravel narratives that [...]

  • The Indigo Project: Denim Camp

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Led by Lucumi Priestess and Independent Curator Bushmama Africa, the Denim Camp invites participants to create unique denim pieces that will be placed in “The Indigo Project” archive.Participants are walked through contextual research and ancestral memory practices before learning and practicing the technical skills necessary to upcycle their textiles into new adornments. Isha Rosemond will be using the materials made from this workshop to create an online archive that serves as a public point of reference.This [...]

    Free

  • SOMArts presents Hey Chica!! Comedy Variety Show

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Hey Chica!! is a comedy variety show that aims to capture the feeling of the unlikely, beautiful friendship between you, an exceptional freak, and that girl in school who would greet everyone with a "HEY CHICA!!" every single day — weird, but fun. Hosted by the two first ever bipolar lesbians with IBS in history, Amanda-Faye Jimenez and Lauren White. Accessibility Reach out to gallery@somarts.org to inquire about specific accessibility needs Performances by Ta'vi, @tavitalkstrash Sophia [...]

  • The Indigo Project: Ancestral Reverence Revival Virtual Artist Panel

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    On Thursday, February 2, 6–7 PM PST, join The Indigo Project Co-Curator & Lucumi Priestess Bushmama Africa and Co-Curator & Founder of the Black Freedom Fellowship Isha Rosemond for a free, all-ages virtual event! Alongside exhibiting artists Stephen Hamilton, Sasha Kelly, Bryan Keith Thomas, and Rachel Parrish, this virtual artist talk and communal conversation explores the role of ancestral reverence within Black & Indigenous arts practices. In the Lucumi tradition, February 2 is the feast day [...]

    Free

  • Muni Raised Me Opening Reception

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Join curators Meymey Lee, Sasha Vu, and Celi Tamayo-Lee for the opening of Muni Raised Me on Thursday, February 23, 6–9 PM PST! Featuring San Francisco-born and raised artists and community organizers, this free, all-ages celebration also showcases a customized Muni bus. Attendees are welcome to bring offerings, stories, and prayers to the bus altar installation. RSVP today!AccessibilityReach out to gallery@somarts.org to inquire about specific accessibility needsHealth & SafetyMasks are recommended when guests are not drinking.If [...]

    Free

  • Muni Raised Me presents Pop Culture was Black Culture First

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    As part of the Muni Raised Me exhibition programs, join us on Friday, March 17, 7–10 PM PST for Pop Culture was Black Culture First! This free, all ages event features SF-rooted rappers like Qing Qi, The Jealous Guys, and A-1, and an artist market. Pop Culture was Black Culture First is a practical and spiritual act of honoring Black people as the nucleus of so much of Frisco’s culture. About Muni Raised Me Curated by [...]

    Free

  • Muni Raised Me Closing Reception: Hyphy Ever After

    SOMArts’ Muni Raised Me closes with Hyphy Ever After on Friday, April 7, 6PM PST! Hyphy Ever After features a Vogue and Tone dance workshop with SirJoQ, musical performance by Maya Songbird, local vendors, and dance party with FNG DJs. This celebration embodies the queer, trans, and artistic legacies that have shaped this home and continue to combat capitalism with joy and love. About the Exhibition Curated by Meymey Lee, Sasha Vu, and Celi Tamayo-Lee and [...]

  • Water.Bodies.Land

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Water.Bodies.Land is a fiscally sponsored program with music by Amie Cota and choreography by Sarah Crowell with Nicole Klaymoon. This two-day performance event weaves together poetry, music, and dance in celebration of the Black female body and our place in the natural world. Performance dates Thursday, July 14, 7:30 PM Friday, July 15, 3:00 PM & 7:30 PM Get your ticket today! Featuring Amie Cota Sarah Crowell Clarissa Dyas Ny’Aja Roberson Makhissa Sano Nakachi Clark-Kasimu Water.Bodies.Land [...]

  • Node Mulch

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Node Mulch is a free, public exhibition of new work from London-based artist John Walter created during his tenure as inaugural QBI artist-in-residence. For this work, Walter partnered with QBI scientist Antoine Forget, and the exhibition is curated by Glen Helfand, critic and chair of Graduate Curatorial Practice at California College of the Arts. Node Mulch will be open from July 26-30 at the SOMArts Cultural Center. The exhibition consists of multiple events, so make [...]

  • In This House We Are All Buried Alive Opening Reception

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Celebrate the opening reception of Paola de la Calle's In This House We Are All Buried Alive on Friday, July 28, 7:30–10:00 PM PST. Drawing inspiration from Colombian poet María Mercedes Carranza’s piece “La Patria” (“The Motherland”), De la Calle threads together personal and collective memory to repair the ruptures of historical amnesia. Through her multidisciplinary practice, her debut solo exhibition examines the relationship between power and memory. What becomes the memory of a culture? Of [...]

  • In This House We Are All Buried Alive Closing Reception

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Join us for the closing reception of Paola de la Calle's In This House We Are All Buried Alive on Thursday, August 24, 6:30–9:00 PM at SOMArts Cultural Center. This gathering features an artist talk between Paola de la Calle and poet, installation and adornment artist Dr. Alan Pelaez Lopez and free community portraits by photographer Lara Kaur. RSVP today!   https://somarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Paola-de-la-Calle_portrait02-scaled.jpeg Paola de la Calle is a Colombian-American multidisciplinary artist whose work examines home, identity, [...]

  • Calaveritas de Amor: Día de Los Muertos Drag Show

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Get your tickets to Calaveritas de Amor: Día de Los Muertos Drag Show, Friday, October 20, 8–9:30 PM, a special evening of remembrance. Curated and hosted by beloved queen Per Sia, join new and returning drag artists as they embody their experiences of queer resilience, love, and individuality through a night of tender, powerful performance. Get your tickets! Tickets $10 general admission RSVP today, this event may sell out! Calaveritas de Amor: Día de Los Muertos [...]

    $10

  • The Hummingbird’s Visit Closing Reception

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Join us for the closing reception of this year’s Día de Los Muertos exhibition on Friday, November 3, 6–9 PM PST! Curated by Rio Yañez and Bridgétt Rex, The Hummingbird's Visit: Día de Los Muertos 2023 honors, celebrates, and mourns those whose work, vision, and brilliance have helped to shape our lives. Tickets $10 general admission, youth 16 years old and under free NOTAFLOF at the door Dedication This year's exhibition is dedicated to Raul Pizzaro, [...]

    $10

  • Reclaiming Our Image through Muralism and Photograpahy

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    On Friday, February 9, 6–9 PM, join Palestinian artists Lara Aburamadan, Chris Gazaleh, and Roula Seikaly for a free, all ages film screening, conversation, and artwork presentation. Reclaiming Our Image through Muralism and Photography is presented by SOMArts in collaboration with Bay Area Palestinian artists. This program is intended to affirm the role of the arts in collective liberation. Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (Sut Jhally, 2006) serves as a starting point to [...]

    Free

  • Dancing the Afrofuture Book Launch

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    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 and [...]

    $10
  • Mary Lovelace O'Neal

    The Black Woman is God: Assembly of Gods Opening Reception

    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 [...]

  • HOMIES & HOMOS: SOMArts Dance Party Fundraiser

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Kick off 415 Day weekend with HOMIES & HOMOS: SOMArts Dance Party Fundraiser on Friday, April 12, 7–11 PM PST! This all-ages, intergenerational celebration raises crucial funds for SOMArts’ René Yañez Legacy Fund, which supports artist fees for emerging and mid-career artists as well as the renovation of the garden that René so lovingly tended. Yes, I'll be there! Hosted by Per Sia and curated by Muni Raised Me’s Meymey Lee, Sasha Vu, and Celi Tamayo-Lee, [...]

    $20

  • Climate Cabaret: A Fundraiser for Climate Defiance

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Welcome to the Climate Cabaret, which features a night of entertainment and awareness at SOMArts Cultural Center on Friday, April 20, 7:30–8:30 PM PST. Organized by Ceci Walken, get ready for a fun and impactful evening filled with circus arts, laughs, and awe-inspiring aerialists all centered around saving our planet. Come together with like-minded individuals to enjoy performances that will inspire you to take action and make a difference. Don't miss out on this unique event [...]

    $10 – $45

  • Computer Ambiences with Chia Amisola

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    With a phone or laptop, experience a beginner-friendly workshop-performance that emphasizes the interdependent and intimate networked ecologies that can emerge with our computers. We'll learn light coding to modify, maintain, and steward programs that activate computers as flowers, clouds, containers, and vessels - interacting with each other in a situated, contextual, and temporal sense. Our relationships with our devices will be nurtured symbiotically, reimagining more agentic & environmental ways of thinking about computers, networks, and code. [...]

  • soft alchemy with Kelsey Chen

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Please join us for a tea service, tattooing performance, and guided movement practice in an open space of meeting. soft alchemy invites you into communion with the closest planets of our bodies; to feel the gravitational conversations between; and, through the gentlest of practices, to seep through and with the people, art, and space of the gallery. Chris Giang will offer tea service from handmade ceramics during the event. RSVP required. soft alchemy is part of APICC’s [...]

  • In Solidarity: Queer and Trans Artists for a Free Palestine Opening Reception

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Join the Queer Cultural Center on Friday, June 7, 6–9 PM PST for the opening reception of In Solidarity: Queer and Trans Artists for a Free Palestine.  As part of their 27th Annual National Queer Arts Festival, this year’s installation affirms that queer and trans liberation are fundamentally intertwined with Palestinian and Indigenous liberation, and global land back movements. This collaborative mural offers space to gather in solidarity and mourning to remember, honor, and call the names [...]

  • In Solidarity: Teach-In for a Free Palestine

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    As part of QCC's National Queer Art Festival visual exhibition, BLOOM Collective and xtal azul will host In Solidarity: Teach-in for a Free Palestine on Sunday, June 16, 12–5 PM PST. Featuring a day of intensive workshops, participants will learn how to collectively fight intersecting oppressions by building power, strategy, and creating art.  Mx. Yaffa, Executive Director of the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD), will lead the first hour followed by breakout [...]

  • In Solidarity: Queer and Trans Artists for a Free Palestine Closing Reception

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Join the Queer Cultural Center on Thursday, June 27, 6–8 PM PST, all ages for the closing reception of In Solidarity: Queer and Trans Artists for a Free Palestine. Performances will start at 7 PM PST. Guests are required to wear K/N95 masks indoors and are available on-site. Food and nonalcoholic beverages will be provided in the garden patio. Event ticket information: The closing reception is free for Palestinians and others directly impacted by the ongoing [...]

  • A Soft Place to Land Opening Reception

    SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA, United States

    Across the country, we’ve witnessed an unprecedented number of legislative actions threatening trans, immigrant, and reproductive rights, the growing criminalization of dissent, and the continued funding of genocide abroad. As many brace themselves for another politically charged election year, A Soft Place to Land defiantly centers joy as a relational and embodied practice worthy of archiving and passing on. Join us on Friday, July 19, 6–9 PM PST for the free, all ages opening reception of A Soft Place to Land, [...]

    Free