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These Are My [Confession]s
Queer cruising in the 1880s, San Francisco Art Week, and a groundbreaking Californian politician
My all-girls schooling left me well-prepared for the academic rigors of college and woefully unskilled in the art of flirting. I had a crush my freshman year, and I had a vague inkling the boy fancied me too. We’d spend hours on the steps of Widener Library sharing our iPod headphones and chatting about life, but I concluded that our most intimately subtle flirtation was him parking his bike next to mine. My now-husband has since advised he had no idea what my bike looked like and any parking proximity was pure accident.
Learn about queer flirting in 19th century Europe, hear jazz that intersects with both Japanese and American tradition, and celebrate the kickoff of San Francisco Art Week.
Book Talk | The Italian Invert: A Gay Man’s Intimate Confession to Émile Zola
Category: Literary
Date: Thursday, January 16th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: GLBT Historical Society Museum (SF)
Price Range: $10 (Free for members)
Why I Care: 19th century cruising was an art form all to itself: “If those of my sex turn around to look at me and smile at me, it’s because of the bold and persistent looks that I give them when a fire burns deep inside me.” An anonymous Italian aristocrat wrote this, and pages more, to writer Émile Zola describing his homosexual pursuits in 1880s Europe. Unwilling to risk controversy, Zola passed the writings to a doctor open to publishing the works as heavily redacted examples of sexual deviancy. The anonymous aristocrat fought back with a letter defending his sexuality, and author Michael Rosenfeld has carried the torch with releasing this uncensored publication of the Italian’s tales.
Join GLBT Museum founding member and historian Gerard Koskovich as he speaks with Rosenfeld on his research and the legacy of 19th century queer culture.
San Francisco Art Week Kickoff Party
Category: Art
Date: Saturday, January 18th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: ICA SF (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: San Francisco Art Week launched under the tutelage of several Bay Area art heavyweights to celebrate galleries, FOG Design + Art Fair, and the general cultural depth of the Bay. Last year’s kickoff party also had dope free tacos. The ICA SF will host this year’s celebrations with the joy and creative energy needed to ignite a week of honoring our city’s arts and culture. A special shout out to Art Week Director Emily Counihan for putting together such an extensive and vibrant schedule of events across the city.
So start your Art Week off right at the ICA SF and be on the lookout next newsletter for an SF Has [No] Culture art crawl to wrap up the week.
Akira Tana and Otonowa
Category: Music
Date: Friday, January 10th @ 5:30pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Piedmont Piano Company (East Bay)
Price Range: $20
Why I Care: Percussionist Akira Tana is a California native that used his art form to support victims of natural disaster. He co-founded jazz band Otonowa in the aftermath of the devastating 2011 Japanese tsunami and earthquake, with the quartet's music evolving into an amalgamation of Japanese tradition and American jazz. The band’s origins and mission further resonate in the face of the Los Angeles wildfires that have impacted loved ones, wildlife, and arts institutions alike.
Opening Night Launch Party: Karl
Category: Art
Date: Friday, January 17th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Levi’s Plaza (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: This Karl is true to its Bay Area roots, just with a sunnier disposition than atmospheric celebrity Karl the Fog. Eight local galleries, including COL gallery, Jonathan Carver Moore, and Root Division, are joint curating this inaugural SF Art Week show to showcase Californian artists in a location that is thoroughly Bay Area: The plaza is tied to the Haas line of the Levi Strauss and newly inaugurated SF mayor’s family tree.
No guarantees the moodier Karl won’t try and steal the spotlight, so outerwear is highly recommended.
Book Talk| The March Fong Eu Story: An Authorized Biography of an Unauthorized Woman
Category: Literary
Date: Saturday, January 18th @ 1pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Oakland Asian Cultural Center (East Bay)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: March Fong Eu was born in a laundromat. She was also America’s first Asian-American woman to be elected to a statewide office. ‘First’ was a word commonly associated with Eu, who also became our state’s first female Secretary of State in 1975. This book talk is different from most as it won’t be limited to the author’s reflections on the subject’s impact. The event will also give space for those who personally knew Eu and want to share their stories about her work and impact.
If the event conflicts with nap time (a child’s or yours; no judgement), honor Eu next time you’re in Sacramento with a visit to the March Fong Eu Secretary of State complex, which in 2019 became the first state-owned building honoring an Asian-American woman.
Groundfloor Vintage Market
Category: Art
Date: Sunday, January 12th @ 11am (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Groundfloor Club (SF)
Price Range: Free to enter
Why I Care: The people are looking for community. While
is an initiative supporting that effort, Groundfloor Club is an institution that has prioritized shared experience in tandem with the needs of a co-working space. I’ve had the chance to attend a mezcal tasting and Sofar Sounds concert as a member plus one, and the warmth from those events makes me excited for a community of vintage vendors selling in their space.And if you’re concerned shopping in the wake of the holidays, consider this a chance to make yourself whole for any gifts that underdelivered.
Opening Reception: El Listón Café
Category: Art
Date: Saturday, January 11th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Glass Rice (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: In the words of exhibition curator Alma Lopez: “design fosters innovation and community.” Lopez, a fellow Texan, launched Of Threads just a mere few weeks ago in order for her and her partner Sergio Mondragón to curate exhibitions like El Listón Café. Their lived Mexican-American experiences have helped inform their art and the curation of this exhibition highlighting 12 California-based Mexican-American artists and designers. The artists engage with a range of mediums, from fashion to furniture, in their storytelling of multicultural upbringing and the ability to straddle worlds.
Next Drop: Monday, January 20th