*Untold and Intimate Stories of the Alcatraz Occupation

Join California Historical Society at the San Francisco Public Library’s Main Library for a powerful evening of stories from the Occupation of Alcatraz, in commemoration of its 50th anniversary.

A group of original occupiers will tell the rich, untold stories of organizing and living on Alcatraz Island. We will be joined by Eloy Martinez (Southern Ute, original occupier), La Nada War Jack (Shoshone Bannock, leader and original occupier), Geneva Seaboy (Dakota/Chippewa, original occupier), Blair Ryan (Seminole/Chickasaw, a child on Alcatraz), William Ryan (Seminole/Chickasaw, a child on Alcatraz) and Kent Blansett (Cherokee/Creek/Choctaw/Shawnee/Potawatomi, professor and author of A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and Red Power). Additionally, Brooks Townes, one of the three skippers who brought the Indians to Alcatraz, will show his photographs of the first 9 days of the occupation, many of which have never been seen before.

Photographs by Ilka Hartmann will introduce the event.

Kent Blansett will also be speaking on Friday, November 22, 4:00 p.m., Skylight Gallery, 6th Floor, Main Library100 Larkin St.

Ilka Hartmann will also be speaking, Documenting the Occupation of Alcatraz: An Afternoon with Photographer Ilka Hartmann, Saturday, November 9, Noon, Saroyan Gallery, 6th Floor, Main Library100 Larkin St.

Join the Library's celebration honoring the voices of Indigenous and native peoples for National American Indian Heritage Month.

One City One Book is San Francisco's annual citywide literary event, encouraging our community to read the same book at the same time and then discuss it in book groups and events throughout the City.
In 2019, we're reading There There by Tommy Orange.
Find out more at: One City One Book.

*Funded by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.