Calendar

Join San Francisco writer Evette Davis for a reading from her debut novel Woman King, as well as a discussion about the lessons she's learned preparing to become a self-published author.   She will tell you about the importance of using professional editors and designers, as well as how to build a marketing plan.  Woman King is the first installment of a paranormal trilogy featuring intrepid political consultant Olivia Shepherd and her adventures with the Council, a secret supernatural political organization, as well as her romance with William Ferrell, a mysterious musician with his own complicated personal history. Davis takes some of San Francisco’s most recognizable landmarks, and transforms them into magical places where people are never quite sure if what they're seeing is real. She maintains a website at www.evettedavis.com, or you can follow her on Twitter at @SFEvette.

Chinese Poetry reading and  new book talk.

Robert Henry Johnson’s 60 Million Plus Theater presents The Commission Project, a play reading series which features new and unproduced work of African American dramatists.

Robert Henry Johnson’s Sonders, a three act play, set in 1898, explores the themes of legacy, emancipation and the black family structure.

Author and photographer, James Martin, presents a slide show of over 220 photographs from his coffee table-sized book. The Islands of San Francisco Bay chronicles the Bay’s 48 islands, and aims to capture the wildness of these Island habitats. Learn more about Island ecology, the birds, animals, plants and Island topography.

David Johnson, a photographer of African American life in San Francisco during the middle of the 20^th century will present his photographs.  There will be a book signing for his collection of photographs, A Dream Begun So Long Ago.

The San Francisco Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated and the Bayview Branch of the San Francisco Public Library presents a discussion and readings by three authors:

• Mykah Montgomery: The Girl Who Wanted a Tail (children’s book)
• Patricia Saunders: Through the Fire (poetry)
• Lisa White: Pink Milk (children’s book)

Moderated by Karen Johnson of Marcus Bookstore

Join renowned architect and Chinese American studies historian Philip P. Choy for an insider’s guide to the history and architecture of San Francisco’s Chinatown in his book San Francisco Chinatown: A Guide to Its History and Architecture.  In this lecture and slide presentation, witness the triumphs and tragedies of the Chinese American experience in the United States from the city's earliest days to its post-quake transformation into an "oriental" tourist attraction as a pragmatic means of survival.

Mr. Choy co-taught the nation's first college level course in Chinese American history at San Francisco State University.  He has served on numerous boards including the California State Historic Resource Commission, the San Francisco Landmark Advisory Board, and the Chinese Historical Society of America.  He is the recipient of the prestigious San Francisco State University President's Medal.

This program will be conducted in English.

 Join music historian Richie Unterberger for  "The Golden Age of Soul Vol. 3"  The program will feature rare clips of  performers such as Mary Wells, Jackie Wilson, Major Lance, Jimmy Cliff, Little Eva, the Four Tops, and Les McCann & Eddie Harris.  Also featured will be performers spotlighted in the previous two programs, such as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Sly Stone, and Stevie Wonder.

In commemoration of Juneteenth,  artists who are included in the Afro-Futurism: Envisioning the Year 2070 and Beyond  will discuss their work and the exhibit.

Join us for a reading and booksigning with Alysia Abbott, author of Fairyland,  a  vibrant memoir about growing up motherless in 1970s and ’80s San Francisco with an openly gay father.

After his wife dies in a car accident, bisexual writer and activist Steve Abbott moves with his two-year-old daughter to San Francisco. There they discover a city in the midst of revolution, bustling with gay men in search of liberation—few of whom are raising a child.

In Alysia’s teens, Steve’s friends—several of whom she has befriended—fall ill as AIDS starts its rampage through their community. While Alysia is studying in New York and then in France, her father tells her it’s time to come home; he’s sick with AIDS. Alysia must choose whether to take on the responsibility of caring for her father or continue the independent life she has worked so hard to create.

Reconstructing their life together from a remarkable cache of her father’s journals, letters, and writings, Alysia Abbott gives us an unforgettable portrait of a tumultuous, historic time in San Francisco as well as an exquisitely moving account of a father’s legacy and a daughter’s love.

This event is co-sponsored by the Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center and the San Francisco History Center.

Join Tammy from Destiny Art Center and learn a new skill! Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial-art that incorporates dance, agility, grace, music, instrumentation and play. Participants will learn the fundamentals of capoeira movements, philosophy, instruments and call and response songs. For ages 5-up, space limited to 30 participants arriving day of class.

Afro-Futurism:  Envisioning the Year 2070 and Beyond uses art to create a future for us to aspire to.  It comes from an African American perspective.  Runaway slave and heroine Harriet Tubman once said, "I freed a thousand slaves; I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."  

Over 100 years later, writer James Baldwin praised Black revolutionaries for daring to break down barriers.  He wrote in a 1970 letter to activist Angela Davis:  "The enormous revolution in black consciousness which has occurred in your generation, my dear sister, means the beginning or the end of America. Some of us, white and Black, know how great a price has been paid to bring into existence a new consciousness, a new people, an unprecedented nation." 

What will be the Black consciousness in the year 2070, one hundred years after James Baldwin's letter?  

Curated by  Kheven LaGrone

Related Event: In commemoration of Juneteenth, an artists reception/talk will take place on Sunday, June 16, 2013

Main Library, Lower Level, Koret Auditorium, 2 PM