February 14, 2019 edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 49 • No. 7 • February 14-20, 2019

SF leaders OK Eagle Plaza permit

by Matthew S. Bajko

C Ed Walsh

Marjorie Knoller sits at a table during her parole hearing Thursday at the California Institution for Women in Corona.

Parole denial of Knoller wins plaudits by Ed Walsh

hose who prosecuted Marjorie Knoller in the 2001 dog-mauling death of lesbian Diane Whipple say a state board’s decision last week to deny parole to her is justice. The February 7 decision by the state parole board came at the conclusion of an emotional two and a half hour hearing that included statements from Sharon Smith, who was Whipple’s partner at the time of her death, as well as Whipple’s brother, Colin Kelly. But the most stunning statements came from Knoller herself, who at first seemed to argue for her parole but then later said she was not ready for it. Jim Hammer, a gay man who was the lead prosecutor in the case in 2002, told the B.A.R. this week that the tragedy of Whipple’s death is only made worse by Knoller still not taking responsibility for her actions. “I would have hoped that at some point, she would have accepted responsibility,” said Hammer, who is now in private practice. “She could have stopped this.” Last Friday, a day after the hearing, the second prosecutor in the 2002 case, Kimberly Guilfoyle, tweeted: “Great news out of California.” “Marjorie Knoller, who I helped convict for 2nd degree murder in 2001 for letting her dog murder her neighbor, was denied parole,” she wrote. “Justice served.” After the trial, Guilfoyle eventually went on to work as a Fox News host but resigned last year and currently is the vice chairwoman of America First Policies, a pro-Trump super PAC. She is dating Donald Trump Jr. Smith said this week that she was still processing the hearing, which she appeared at via a video link from the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. “I just felt like I was hit by a bus,” Smith told the B.A.R. in a phone interview Tuesday, reflecting on her feeling after the hearing last week. See page 12 >>

onstruction on a public parklet honoring San Francisco’s LGBT and leather communities in the South of Market neighborhood is set to soon start now that city leaders have granted the project the street closure permit it needed. Named after the gay-owned bar it will front on a portion of 12th Street, Eagle Plaza is seen as a focal point for the LGBTQ cultural heritage district city officials created in western SOMA. The aim is to see the landscaped open space built in time for this year’s Folsom Street Fair, held annually the last Sunday in September. To help meet that deadline, Mayor London Breed last month took the lead in introducing the permit request to the Board of Supervisors in order to cut through the bureaucratic red tape that had stalled the project since first being proposed five years ago. District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents SOMA, and gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman signed on as cosponsors of the legislation. The supervisors, without any discussion, voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the street encroachment permit. It was submitted as a resolution rather than an ordinance so that it did not require being voted on twice by the board.

Courtesy Build Inc./Place Lab

An artist rendering of Eagle Plaza looks north along 12th Street toward Bernice Street.

Breed planned to sign it into law once she received it, likely as soon as Wednesday afternoon. “Our LGBT and leather communities have a long history in San Francisco and western SOMA and they will now have a permanent home in the neighborhood,” stated Breed following the supervisors’ vote

February 12. “The new Eagle Plaza will celebrate our diversity and the pride we all have in these communities, while also creating a much-needed new open space for all of our residents.” Local development firm Build Inc. will See page 5 >>

San Francisco’s ‘Winter of Love’ turns 15 by Tony Taylor

t was 15 years ago this week that then-San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom ushered in a bold stand for same-sex couples when he ordered city officials to issue them marriage licenses. The surprising thing was that the marriages continued for about a month, as the courts refused to halt them despite opponents’ arguments that they violated state and federal law at the time. That was due to sharp legal work by City Attorney Dennis Herrera and his team, including his former chief deputy Therese Stewart, a lesbian who is now a justice on the state Court of Appeal. Newsom’s action was also unpopular among some political leaders. Most notably, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who called it “too much, too fast, too soon.” By the time marriages did end on March 11, approximately 4,000 couples had tied the knot in a show of civil disobedience. The marriages were later invalidated by the state Supreme Court, but Newsom’s action on February 12, 2004 began the long march to legalized samesex marriage, which was restored in California in 2013, and the rest of the nation two years later. (There was a brief window of time between May and November 2008 when same-sex couples could legally wed in the Golden State before the passage of Proposition 8.) For those 30 days, lines snaked around City

Rick Gerharter

A newly-married couple triumphantly exit San Francisco City Hall following their wedding ceremony on February 15, 2004

Hall as same-sex couples came from near and far to get hitched. It became known as the “Winter of Love.” Newsom, now California’s governor, mentioned the Winter of Love in his first State of the State address Tuesday, when he said that President Donald Trump’s “border emergency” was a “manufactured crisis.”

“For me, this is an echo from 15 years ago,” Newsom said. “I was a new mayor sitting in the gallery at the State of the Union when President Bush said LGBT Americans should not be able to get married. “It was an attack on our friends and neighbors, and on California’s values,” the governor added.

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n what prosecutors are calling a confession, James Rickleffs admitted to tying up Steven “Eriq” Escalon, stealing items from his home, and leaving him bound and gagged in a two and a half hour video interrogation shown to the jury this week during his trial. Rickleffs was charged with murder and first-degree residential burglary in 2012 in connection with Escalon’s death. Escalon, a 28-yearold gay man, was found dead in his apartment that he shared with two other roommates on June 12, 2012 after allegedly meeting and bringing home Rickleffs, 52, the night before. Escalon’s hands and feet had been bound, a cloth gag was in his mouth, and he’d been wrapped in a blanket. A responding police officer tried to resuscitate Escalon shortly after 6 p.m., but he was soon declared dead. The twisted piece of cloth wrapped tightly around Escalon’s mouth “smelled strongly of apparent amyl nitrate,” according to the medical examiner’s report. It stated that Escalon’s cause of death was an overdose of a mixture of amyl nitrates, commonly known as poppers, and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, commonly known as GHB. Rickleffs, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, has been in custody since September 2012 and is being represented by Deputy Public Defender Niki Solis. The case is being heard by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Gerardo Sandoval. The prosecution’s last witness called by Assistant District Attorney Julia Cervantes this week was the lead investigator in the case, Sergeant Scott Warnke with the San Francisco Police Department. A video was played in court that showed a couple of hours of an almost seven-hour interrogation of Rickleffs by two detectives in August 2012. Police considered Rickleffs a person of interest in the case when he was arrested the day after Escalon’s death for an unrelated incident and found with a suitcase filled with items from Escalon’s apartment including a laptop, Escalon’s checkbook, and a bankcard of one of Escalon’s roommates, according to police. The video began with police asking Rickleffs if he ever visits the

Courtesy SFPD

Defendant James Rickleffs

bars in the Castro and if he’s ever been to Diamond Heights, where Escalon’s apartment is located. Rickleffs denied knowing where Diamond Heights was and said the Castro was “not for me. No offense.” Warnke began asking if Rickleffs knew Escalon or his two roommates. Rickleffs replied, “I think you have the wrong guy.” The police then began to question Rickleffs about the items found in the suitcase the day of his first arrest and why his fingerprints were found on them. Rickleffs told police he stole the suitcase from a guy he sat next to at a “porn booth” in the city. After more denial, police told Rickleffs they had witness testimony from the cab driver who drove Rickleffs and Escalon to Escalon’s home the night before his death, had ATM surveillance footage of the two men together that night, and that a knife was found in Escalon’s home with Rickleffs’ DNA. “I think there is something about that incident you don’t know,” Warnke told Rickleffs in the video. “Eriq died. He’s dead.” “I don’t know about that,” Rickleffs replied. Police inferred that Rickleffs knew Escalon was dead. “No I don’t. No I don’t,” Rickleffs said. “I don’t hate anybody. I am friends with all kinds of people,” Rickleffs continued. “I didn’t mean to harm anybody.”

‘Like an escort situation’

He then began to tell the story of how Escalon offered to pay Rickleffs to take naked pictures of him that night, “it was like an escort situation,” Rickleffs said. He then said that they went back to Escalon’s apartment, had more drinks, and later in the night Escalon asked to be tied up.

“He had some weird requests,” Rickleffs said. “He wanted to get tied up. I’ve heard of that before and stuff.” Prior to tying up Escalon, Rickleffs mentioned that he went to put his pants back on and realized Escalon had taken back the money that was given to him to take the naked pictures. This was a point Rickleffs mentioned several times in the video, seeming to be offended by it. “He took the money back. He’s rich, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. The defendant admitted that he used zip ties to tie up Escalon, which he said he found in Escalon’s room. Rickleffs first tied Escalon’s feet then his hands. “He said make it rough. Stop being such a nice guy,” Rickleffs said of what Escalon kept telling him that night. At one point in the video, Rickleffs said, “I’m fucked.” Rickleffs also talked about using drugs that night. “He liked that breathing stuff. He wanted to be gagged with it,” Rickleffs said of Escalon, further explaining that with both hands and feet tied and a gag in his mouth, Escalon allegedly tipped over a bottle of amyl nitrate on a table, then dragged his face through the liquid, Rickleffs said, adding that he told Escalon to “slow down.” One of the detectives responded to this saying, “Did you pour it on him? This makes more sense to me.” Earlier in the trial, prosecutors said that the cab driver’s testimony described how it was Rickleffs who wanted to stop for drugs and Escalon did not want to, but eventually gave in to the request after Rickleffs refused to stay the night with Escalon unless he got drugs. Police took issue with Rickleffs’ explanation of Escalon’s drug intake. “There are two issues with that,” one of the detectives said in the video. “We asked [Escalon’s] friends and people who knew him and no one said he was into those kinds of things,” referring to BDSM activity as well as GHB or amyl nitrate. “The second is the way he was discovered,” the detective said. “He was completely immobilized. His torso and arms were wrapped.” The detective also asked how Escalon could have knocked over See page 12 >>

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<< Open Forum

t Nonprofits should diversify leadership

4 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Volume 49, Number 7 February 14-20, 2019 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Alex Madison CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani • Dan Renzi Christina DiEdoardo • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • Juanita MORE! David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Tony Taylor • Sari Staver Jim Stewart • Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez Ronn Vigh • Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan • Fred Rowe Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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eadership changes are coming to LGBTQ nonprofits. That means that board members of these organizations, which often look to executive search firms to fill the top positions, need to be more proactive in soliciting potential executive directors (or CEOs or presidents, as title creep has permeated the upper echelons of many nonprofits) who are women, transgender, people of color, or a combination of those. The LGBTQ community, especially since the election of President Donald Trump, has worked to strengthen relationships with other minorities, even among our own ranks, but one issue that remains stubbornly elusive is diversifying top leadership of organizations that work in, and for, the community. There has been progress, to be sure. Just last week we reported that Aria Sa’id, a black trans woman, has been named the new executive director of the Compton’s Transgender Cultural District. She replaced Honey Mahogany, also a black trans woman, who left to go work for new District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney. But at the national level, progress has not been so clear. Right now, the Human Rights Campaign is searching for a new leader after President Chad Griffin announced last November that he was stepping down this year. HRC, as many readers will recall, has had a complicated relationship with the trans community that was torn open in 2007 when the nation’s largest LGBT rights group decided that trans people need not be part of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act because it would be too heavy a lift to get Congress to approve it. (That was before Griffin’s tenure.) Well, ENDA never did pass – it’s been rebranded as the Equality Act – and HRC leaders learned a valuable lesson: you don’t leave out a key constituency for political expediency. To his credit, Griffin has brought in trans people for important posts, and we think

Courtesy HRC

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin has announced he’s departing the agency this year; the board should look to a trans person or person of color to replace him.

it would be a step forward if HRC hires a trans person or LGB person of color to be its next leader. Trans issues are at the forefront of the LGBTQ movement right now. The U.S. Supreme Court last month granted the Trump administration’s request to temporarily vacate two national injunctions that have prevented a ban on transgender people in the military from going into effect, meaning that it’s likely a matter of time until a third injunction is lifted, allowing the administration to start the ban. Racism continues to rear its ugly head, whether it’s politicians who have acknowledged wearing blackface when they were younger or working to curtail voting rights. The president himself is a racist. The LGBTQ community also must address issues of race and class. The National Center for Lesbian Rights,

which is based in San Francisco, is also searching for a permanent leader following longtime executive director Kate Kendell’s departure at the end of 2018. Its board, too, should consider a person of color or trans person as its next leader. Shannon Minter, a trans man, has ably served as the agency’s legal director for decades, and NCLR has long been at the forefront of advocating for the entire LGBT community. Kendell’s progressive values instilled in NCLR a commitment to justice, and that’s something the board should strive to maintain with her successor. One obstacle to diversifying top leadership ranks at LGBTQ organizations is that there isn’t a large pool of qualified applicants. This is a result of systemic problems related to trans people being able to get the kinds of jobs that provide necessary leadership experience, such as fundraising, program development, and resource management. Only by increasing the talent at lower leadership ranks will organizations be able to have a pool of qualified applicants. We see hope on the horizon, however, with the next generation of LGBTQ leaders who are in college now or working at nonprofits. Still, the time has come for someone other than a gay white man to lead HRC, which has had women leaders before. And we think larger and smaller LGBTQ nonprofits should examine ways to increase diversity both with their staff and boards. Executive search firms should be given clear guidance on diversity by the boards they are hired by. These organizations should adopt something akin to the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which states that when there is a head coaching vacancy, teams have to interview at least one or more diverse candidates. That doesn’t mean they always hire a person of color, but they at least have to interview one. Only by taking proactive action can the leadership ranks of our organizations begin to change and better reflect the entirety of our community. As more people come out at younger ages, this opens the door to their choosing professions that aid LGBTQs and society as a whole. t

A Valentine’s Day alternative by David and Constantino Khalaf

acebook recently reminded us of a screenshot we posted a couple of years ago, the day before our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple. “Do you want to do something special tomorrow?” one of us had asked in a text thread. “Nah, but I’m open if you do,” the other replied. “Nah,” said the first one. Neither of us has a schmaltzy affinity for roses, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, or candlelit dinners. We even resist Valentine’s Day a little bit because of its origins in consumerism and the heteronormative narrative it has historically espoused. That’s not to say we’re not romantic. We love the idea of celebrating love and romance but – as with so many facets of being in a samesex marriage – we’ve just had to figure out a way to do it that feels true to us and our relationship. This year, our Valentine’s Day celebration will consist of the two of us and a raucous group of 12- to 15-year-olds. We’re hosting a hangout for our church’s youth group. The idea dropped into our lap months ago when our church’s youth pastor asked if we would host one of the group’s regular get-togethers, and we saw that the February date fell on Valentine’s Day. We looked at each other and immediately knew there was no better way for us to celebrate the holiday. Having our church’s youth over on Valentine’s Day is a perfect fit for us because it puts into practice two of the values we seek to live out in our marriage: service and hospitality. We’re helping our adult friends out by making it easier for them to go on a romantic Valentine’s date without having to worry about child care. And by hosting our younger friends, we’re helping them cultivate friendships and a sense of community. We don’t have children of our own, and so it has been meaningful for us to participate in the lives of our friends’ children. In our new book, “Modern Kinship: A Queer Guide to Christian Marriage,” we explain that we think marriage is at its best when it is something more than a self-centered venture. We write, “a good marriage is outwardly focused; it carries a mission and seeks to make the world a more loving, peaceful place.”

Lehua Noelle Faulkner

David Khalaf, left, and his husband, Constantino, are the authors of “Modern Kinship: A Queer Guide to Christian Marriage.”

To us, marriage has never been just about the love we feel for each other. We came of age in the 1990s, and came out of the closet in the early 2000s, when marriage wasn’t even an option for people like us. So we knew, when we met and fell in love in our mid-30s, that we didn’t need the government or a church to validate our love. We got married because we wanted to establish a lifelong covenant to honor, cherish, and support each other. And we wanted to do it surrounded by our friends and family, not only because we realize marriages need community support in order to last and thrive, but also because we wanted to make a commitment to them. We wanted to give back to our community the same support and love we give and get from each other. As a marginalized group, the LGBTQ community has long recognized the importance of community. The rejection many of us have experienced from our families of origin has moved us to find family elsewhere. We’ve opened up our homes to each other and we have established traditions, celebrating holidays and doing life with one another. Now that marriage is an option for us, and becoming more common, it’s important that we don’t leave that communal spirit behind.

Single people often complain that, when a friend gets married, it’s as if they drop off the face of the earth. It’s easy for couples to become insular units that no longer engage their wider group of friends. We are both homebodies, so we are all too familiar with this temptation. But this is a norm that queer couples are perhaps better poised to challenge than straight folks. The fact that marriage as an institution is newer to us means that we get to deconstruct it, tossing away what doesn’t make sense, and keeping only what truly works. And this is something each couple gets to do for themselves. If you love Valentine’s Day, and a romantic date alone with your beloved is what will make you happiest, go for it! Being outwardly focused doesn’t mean a couple shouldn’t enjoy private holidays. In fact, all couples need to create time to celebrate their relationships in order to strengthen and maintain their bonds. We believe it’s important to fill our emotional tanks inwardly first so that we then have the energy to turn outward. If you’re anti-Valentine’s or blasé about it, consider establishing a new tradition this year – one that gives the day meaning and purpose beyond the boundaries of your relationship. You could reach out to friends who are single and perhaps feeling lonely and throw a party where couples aren’t the emphasis. Or you could take Valentine’s weekend to volunteer for a cause you both believe in. You could even start with just having a conversation about the ways in which you can turn outward and serve others as a couple. Whatever you do, giving your marriage a sense of mission will strengthen your union, and together, you can help make the world a kinder, more beautiful place. t The Khalafs are the authors of “Modern Kinship: A Queer Guide to Christian Marriage” (https://amzn.to/2SjDBSh) (Westminster John Knox Press, 2019). They live in Portland, Oregon, where they spend most of their time drinking tea, coffee, wine, and whisky. They sometimes try to eat healthy.

Politics >>

t Interim CA AIDS chief returns

February 14-20, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

by Matthew S. Bajko

arisa Ramos, Ph.D., is back as interim chief of the Office of AIDS within the California Department of Public Health. As the Bay Area Reporter noted in early January, Ramos had taken on the role in July but then returned to her old job as acting chief of the Surveillance, Research & Evaluation Branch in the state AIDS office in December. The move came after the state’s human resources department refused to grant an extension beyond the initially approved timeframe for Ramos overseeing California’s statewide AIDS efforts. But last week came word that Ramos had once again been cleared to serve as acting AIDS office chief. The need for interim leadership came about last summer with the departure of Dr. Karen E. Mark, a lesbian who had overseen the state AIDS office since 2011, to become the medical director for the California Department of Health Care Services. During the brief interregnum of Ramos being the acting chief, Dr. Gil F. Chavez, the state epidemiologist and deputy director for infectious diseases at the state public health agency, and Drew Johnson, the assistant deputy director of the state’s Center for Infectious Diseases, which oversees the AIDS office, co-managed the AIDS office’s affairs. It will be up to Governor Gavin Newsom to name a new, permanent state AIDS czar. But the search to fill the position has yet to formally begin. “We are working earnestly, at all levels of government, to finalize the recruitment for the chief, Office of AIDS. We expect to announce this in the near future,” wrote Johnson in a recent email to department staff that was shared with service providers across the state. The leadership marry-go-round at the state AIDS office comes as nonprofits focused on HIV prevention and caring for people living with HIV and AIDS press state officials to develop a statewide plan to end the interrelated epidemics of HIV, hepatitis C, and sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea. They are also seeking $60 million in dedicated funding in the state budget to address the trio of health concerns.

Eagle Plaza

From page 1

construct the plaza as part of a $1.5 million in-kind agreement with the city for approval of its mixed-use development across the street from the Eagle bar on what was a surface parking lot. Construction began last summer at 1532 Harrison Street on three seven-story buildings consisting of 136 rental homes. Place Lab, started by Build and now part of the nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance, is overseeing the design of, and permits for, Eagle Plaza. It will be approximately 12,500 square feet in size. “The SF Parks Alliance is thrilled that the Board of Supervisors and the mayor’s office have approved the resolution that will allow Build to deliver Eagle Plaza, a new public gathering space that celebrates the LGBTQ community and leather culture of the neighborhood,” wrote Place Lab Director Brooke

Courtesy CADPH

Marisa Ramos, Ph.D., is again the state’s interim AIDS czar.

Courtney Mulhern-Pearson, the senior director of policy and strategy for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, told the B.A.R. this week that it is unclear who may be chosen to lead the state Office of AIDS. “I have not heard about anyone who wants the job,” she said. “We are waiting until the job is posted to have conversations about who we want to see in that permanent role.”

Laird picks up more LGBT support for Senate bid

Gay former lawmaker and cabinet secretary John Laird has picked up additional LGBT support for his 2020 state Senate bid. One of the first two out gay men elected to the state Assembly in 2002, Laird is running to succeed Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel). Due to term limits, Monning is ineligible to seek another term representing the 17th Senate District seat along the Central Coast. Laird, 68, lost a 2010 Senate bid, leading to former Governor Jerry Brown appointing him as California’s secretary for natural resources in January 2011. He stepped down from the cabinet post January 7 hours after Newsom took his oath of office. This week the Santa Cruz resident announced he had won endorsements from both the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, comprised of the seven out lawmakers serving in the Statehouse, and BAYMEC, the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee that aims to elect LGBT leaders and straight allies in the South Bay and Central Coast.

Ray Rivera in an emailed reply to the Bay Area Reporter. “We look forward to continuing our work with the community and the other city agencies involved in the process to move this important project forward.” A main issue had been ensuring the plaza’s design allowed adequate access for fire trucks and other safety vehicles. As the B.A.R. noted last fall, the concerns voiced by public safety officials led to a scaled down proposal for the plaza. Rather than completely shut down the block of 12th Street between Harrison and Bernice streets to traffic, it will remain open to vehicles in both directions via a curving, 28-foot-wide two-lane roadway through the plaza. Bollards will be used to close off the street at both ends for special events. The Eagle bar’s flagpole sporting the leather flag will be moved into one of the plaza’s planting

The news of the two groups’ support was hardly a surprise, as Laird had already received individual endorsements from gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), the current and immediate past chairs of the LGBT caucus, and gay former Santa Clara County supervisor Ken Yeager, who co-founded BAYMEC. During his time in the Assembly, Laird chaired the LGBT caucus. He is seen as the heavy favorite to win the Senate race next year, helping to bolster the ranks of the affinity group for out state lawmakers. The caucus will see two of its current members depart at the end of the 2020 legislative session while the five others are seeking re-election next year. As of Tuesday, according to the Secretary of State’s online campaign finance database, Laird was the lone person to have filed paperwork to seek Monning’s seat. The 17th Senate District includes Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties, the coastal areas of Monterey County, and southern Santa Clara County.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on lesbian Palm Springs resident Joy Silver planning to run again for a state Senate seat in 2022. Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes. Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

areas in front of it. Sidewalks at both entrances into the plaza will sport the colors of the leather flag, which features a red heart and blue, black, and white stripes. It is unclear when work on the plaza will officially begin. There are currently no plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony with city and community leaders so as not to further prolong the start of construction. A ribbon cutting is instead being planned for when the project is complete. The parklet’s estimated cost is $1.85 million. In addition to Build’s contribution, the city awarded $200,000 in grant money to the plaza. The Friends of Eagle Plaza is aiming to raise $150,000 by this spring. t For more information, and to donate, visit http://www.eagleplaza.org/.

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<< Commentary

6 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

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by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

“S

upergirl,” the television show based on the comic book character of the same name, is currently in its fourth season on the CW Television Network. It is part of the so-called Arrowverse of DC Comics-based TV shows that began with 2012’s premier of “Arrow,” and includes “The Flash,” “Vixen,” “Legends of Tomorrow,” and “Freedom Fighters: The Ray.” The current season of “Supergirl” has centered its current arc on bigotry against extraterrestrials, of which – for those who are not familiar at all with the comic book background of the characters – Supergirl, also known as Kara, is one. The new season has also introduced a new character to the story: Nia Nal. She too is a superhero, known as Dreamer, who possesses precognitive powers. Unlike the comic book, this version of Nia Nal/Dreamer is transgender. What’s more, the character is portrayed by Nicole Maines who is herself a transgender woman. “Supergirl” is not the first scripted TV show where a transgender person has been cast in a transgender role: The first such that I know of was Jessica Crockett back in 2001, who played Louise in an episode of James Cameron’s “Dark Angel” series. Since then, we’ve seen other examples, with Laverne Cox as Sophia Burset in Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” and Cameron Wirth in CBS’ “Doubt;” Indya Moore, Mj Rodriguez, and more on FX’s “Pose;” Scott Turner Schofield on

Christine Smith

“The Bold and the Beautiful” in 2015; Jamie Clayton’s portrayal of Nomi Marks on Netflix’s “Sense8;” and a few others. This, of course, does not include trans people appearing in reality TV and other such venues. Transgender people had been hard to come by in comics, at least as superheroes. A lot of early examples are more “shapeshifting” characters, including at least one in the “Supergirl” series in 1997, though one can find Kate Godwin/Coagula in 1993’s “Doom Patrol” and Masquerade in “Blood Syndicate” back in 1994, both from DC, and a handful of more modern examples. Nevertheless, the casting of an actual transgender person to play

a superhero on a weekly TV show is still a big step forward, especially in an era dominated by superhero movies and television shows. I want to contrast Nia Nal/ Dreamer with so many other film and television portrayals of transgender characters. She comes across as authentically transgender in a way you see in other performances with a trans actor in a trans role – and don’t see when Jared Leto portrays Rayon in “Dallas Buyers Club,” Eddie Redmayne plays Lili Elbe in “The Danish Girl,” or Jeffrey Tambor plays Maura Pfefferman on “Transparent.” The difference, to me, is simple: each of the above characters are presented as an example of what non-transgender people think transgender people are: members of their birth sex who are acting out the gender role they have chosen. Meanwhile, actual transgender people like Maines and others are presenting the reality of the transgender experience. The character of Nia Nal/Dreamer was introduced into the series, and her transgender identity has been in the forefront. This has not been a “Dumbledore is gay, but I never actually show it in the books” J.K. Rowling-style move. I suppose it would be wise at this point to say that there are spoilers ahead.

Trans vocal symposium coming up for singers

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compiled by Cynthia Laird free vocal symposium for transgender people will be held Saturday, February 23, from 2:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Community Music Center, 544 Capp Street in San Francisco. “Trans and Singing” is a day of presentations and discussions on transgender singing for voice teachers and singers of all genders. The CMC Voice Department and New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus are hosting it, with funding provided by a CMC partnership grant. Last fall, CMC launched New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus, a mixed voice, tuition-free vocal ensemble for self-identified trans, intersex, and genderqueer singers. “Community Music Center’s intention is to create a great choral ensemble and to provide a safe, creative space for transgender, intersex, and genderqueer singers to make music, learn, and create community together,” Julie Rulyak, CMC executive director, said in a news release. The chorus not only strives to create musical spaces for the local TIGQ community, but also to encourage voices that have been silenced or shamed to grow and be heard, the organization said in the release. Made up of singers from beginners to professional, the chorus performs music from diverse traditions. “As a transgender singer and conductor, I have experienced firsthand the barriers that TIGQs face to musical participation,” said Reuben Zellman, director of the New Voices chorus. “Singers tend to be rigidly and often thoughtlessly sorted by sex. Yet, TIGQ vocal stories are often more complex.” While there is no cost to attend, registration is required and can be

Courtesy CMC

Members of the New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus performed at last year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.

done at http://tinyurl.com/transand-singing.

Wiener introduces sex worker bill

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has introduced a bill that would protect sex workers from arrest when reporting violent crimes or come forward as a witness or victim of a specified violent and serious crime. Senate Bill 233 also provides that the possession of condoms may not be used as evidence to arrest someone for engaging in sex work. The San Francisco Police Department and district attorney’s office several years ago developed a policy that bans documenting condoms as evidence of prostitution locally. The violent or serious crimes that Wiener lists in his legislation include sexual assault, human trafficking, stalking, robbery, assault, kidnapping, threats, blackmail, extortion, and burglary.

“We’re all worse off when crime victims do not feel safe coming forward,” Wiener said in a news release. “This legislation is about protecting victims and increasing public safety.” Wiener and the bill’s supporters pointed out that treating condoms as evidence of sex work exacerbates an already unsafe work environment because it discourages sex workers from practicing safer sex. “Predators view sex workers as easy targets because the illegality of their work makes the police a natural threat; abusers know sex workers will never go to the police, and they take advantage of that,” said Pike Long, deputy director of St. James Infirmary, a nonprofit occupational health and safety clinic for sex workers where Wiener announced his legislation Monday, February 11. SB 233 will be set for a hearing soon. See page 13 >>

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<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Valentine Project brings cheer to sick kids by David-Elijah Nahmod

unique project likely will bring smiles to the faces of ill children on Valentine’s Day. The Valentine Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, provides gifts to children suffering from cancer or other chronic illness. A couple of weeks ago, it held the first of several “packing parties” at Sessions, a restaurant in the Presidio. Around 20 volunteers packed and addressed boxes filled with gifts that were being sent to children across the Bay Area for Valentine’s Day. The atmosphere at the packing party was festive and upbeat. The Valentine Project was cofounded by gay San Francisco resident Greg Margida, 25, who started it in his hometown of Alliance, Ohio, where, when he was younger, he had a friend who was battling cancer. Margida saw how this affected the girl’s family, and it showed him that there was a lot of room for him to do something nice for other kids who were going through the same thing. As the project began, Margida enlisted the aid of his classmates, and they made gift boxes for about 80 kids. The project caught on. Other parents began signing their kids up, and more people enlisted as volunteers. The operation still exists in Ohio, where around 900 kids are served each year, Margida said. The Valentine Project expanded to the Bay Area last year when Margida

Rick Gerharter

Greg Margida, right, co-founder of the Valentine Project, helped pack gift boxes for distribution to children in the Bay Area at a packaging party January 31. Other volunteers included, from left, Caitlin Keep, Erick Felder, and Amit Lal.

moved to San Francisco. It now serves about 100 children in the Bay Area. “We’re about spreading joy, love, and hope to children who have cancer or chronic illness or who have a sibling who has cancer or chronic illness,” Margida said. “The main thing we do is that on Valentine’s Day, we send a oneof-a-kind gift box, made by a volunteer. They go online and sign up to sponsor a child, and then they make a specialized box just for that kid.” Margida said that gifts were chosen in part from suggestions made on the website. Volunteers can also add a little flavor of what they like. Margida’s

boyfriend, Raul Del Barco, who works at the Academy of Sciences, included an Academy of Sciences hat in the box he put together for his child. Other gifts included teddy bears and dolls. “It’s less about what’s actually being given to the child and more about showing love and joy and a random act of kindness for that child,” Margida said. Margida added that the project was expanding operations beyond Valentine’s Day. “We are a year-round organization,” said Margida. “It started out just on Valentine’s Day, but now we send cards year-round to kids, not for any

special occasions, but just to be nice. That’s what our organization is about, to let the kids know that someone is thinking of them, that someone wanted to do something nice for them. These kids deal with so many unexpected negative things in their lives, and we feel that they deserve some unexpected positive things as well.” The annual budget for the Valentine Project’s Bay Area operation is $3,000, which Margida said is used to cover the cost of shipping the gift boxes. The funding, and the gifts, are all donated. He noted that the volunteers were found through grassroots efforts. “We started out in Ohio with family and friends,” Margida said. “Then it spread to their family and friends, and now I’ll see on our social media my mom with kids I’ve never seen before, running around and packaging things up at our house. And the same thing happened here. I started with people I knew, and the word started to spread. Social media helps out a bit as well. We’ve grown our own family here.” The Valentine Project does not have a physical location, Margida said. Sessions volunteered its space for the packing party, going so far as to receive and store packages for the project. Evin Gelleri, general manager of Sessions, spoke of why the restaurant got involved. “When Greg explained what they were doing with everyone bringing gifts to wrap for the needy I thought it was

a great community outreach,” he said. “We have such a large space so I thought it would be a great place for the group to come and do this project. I’m hoping it’s a big success for Greg. He has a lot of passion for a great cause.” Volunteers were also excited about the project. Sukanya Kalia, 36, spoke of why she was participating. “I’ve always had a passion for health care,” she said. “I feel like, besides having a baby there are very few enjoyable health care experiences. I wanted to be part of a community that brings joy to children and their loved ones.” “It’s the ability to make a difference in a child’s life,” added Del Barco, 56. Gilroy resident Liz Torres told the Bay Area Reporter that the gifts mean a lot to her and her daughter Sophia, who lives with brain cancer. “It brings her joy and happiness knowing that she has a volunteer gift from someone,” said Torres. “I’m very happy with the Valentine Project because of what they’re doing for kids like my daughter. I’m very happy that there are people like Greg and his friends. I hope they keep doing this so they can bring joy to kids fighting cancer and other illnesses.”t To volunteer with the Valentine Project, to donate gifts, or to receive gifts for a sick child, visit https://thevalentineproject.org/. The Valentine Project can also be found on Facebook.

Gay, black comedian’s new film debuts in Oakland by Tony Taylor

s one of the first out black men in stand-up comedy, Sampson McCormick has created a short film that’s anything but a laughing matter. “A Different Direction” is centered on issues of mental health, highlighting an unpopular narrative in black queer cinema. Played by McCormick, the protagonist of the 22-minute film is Frankie Bailey, a 30-something writer and photographer struggling to make ends meet while yearning for respect from his overbearing, religious mother. After a heart-to-heart with his best friend, Travis Mitchell, played by gay actor Darryl Stephens (“Noah’s Arc”), Frankie is forced to face his internal demons. “The creative inspiration [partially] came from a dysfunctional relationship I had with my mother,” McCormick told the Bay Area Reporter during a phone interview. “A lot of us, whether LGBT or black, have problematic relationships with our parents that are unresolved.” McCormick hopes the themes of “A Different Direction” can be a tool to aid important conversations

Adam McMath

Travis Mitchell (Darryl Stephens), left, talks with his best friend, Frankie Bailey (Sampson McCormick), in a scene from McCormick’s new film, “A Different Direction.”

around reclaiming mental health and building healthy relationships within and outside of oneself. As a screenwriter and director, the 33-year-old comedian said he wanted to develop a script based on experiences he’s witnessed within the black LGBTQ community. “A Different Direction” is his fifth scripted film. “As a gay man, we see it a lot, being in relationships with family that

aren’t good for us; and sometimes we have to step away from that,” McCormick said. “Nobody wants to feel like they’re abandoning their family in any capacity. It’s about creating a dialogue around what a healthy relationship should be.” McCormick produced this film, which took six months to complete, out of his own pocket. “Anything that takes that long and is that short,” he

said, “not only is it meticulous, it’s a passion project.” McCormick called the film “very relatable” and “very black.” “I realize that our complexities as minorities are missing from the screen,” he said. “There are too many stories that simply focus on sex or us being victims of our various circumstances. “[That] is not the case with the majority of people of color and LGBTQ people, who find the courage to take on our challenges and move forward as best we can in our lives,” he added. “That part of the story needs to be told more often.” He’s often bothered by Hollywood’s casting decisions, McCormick admitted. Recent breakout films “Call Me By Your Name” and “Moonlight” (the 2017 Academy Award winner for best picture) centered on gay male characters, but were portrayed by heterosexual actors. And last summer, cis female actress Scarlett Johansson withdrew from playing a transgender woman in the upcoming “Rub & Tug” film after backlash from the LGBTQ community. “Imagine if one of us would’ve been in a film like ‘Moonlight,’” Mc-

Cormick said. “All these black gay films, except for a couple by [gay film director] Patrik Ian Polk, most of the people who play those roles are straight, and I think that’s awful.” While filming “A Different Direction,” McCormick said the entire production staff was either black, LGBTQ, or female. “As ‘progressive’ as Hollywood is, we still have a long ways to go as far as diversity and inclusion,” he added. “A lot of folks wait for [black gay films] to get on HBO or something. But if they want to see our stories, they have to support them at this grassroots level,” said McCormick. “In order for us to really see our stories, we have to show up for them in whatever capacity we can.” t “A Different Direction” will have its Bay Area premiere during Black History Month at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, 3207 Lakeshore Avenue (entrance on Rand Avenue) Saturday, February 16, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at https://bit.ly/2E6kDpz. Visit http://www.sampsoncomedy.com for more information on the film and upcoming comedy events featuring Sampson McCormick.

Apothecarium to be acquired by Canadian company by Sari Staver

he swanky San Francisco-based cannabis dispensary the Apothecarium has entered into an agreement to be acquired by a publicly traded Canadian corporation, making the dispensary’s 200-plus employees among the first local industry workers to benefit from the corporate takeover of the cannabis industry. The acquisition, valued at $118 million in cash and stock, was announced Monday, February 11, in a joint news release by the Apothecarium and TerrAscend, a Toronto-based biopharmaceutical and wellness company that is focused on the cannabis market and operates a number of other entities, including

Sari Staver

Apothecarium CEO Ryan Hudson

a manufacturer and distributor of hemp-derived products. The transaction is pending approval from regulators in Califor-

nia and Nevada, according to the Apothecarium. The Apothecarium was founded in the Castro in 2011 by three first cousins and two family friends. Architectural Digest named it the bestdesigned dispensary in the country shortly after its flagship store at 2029 Market Street opened. It has also been a favorite of Bay Area Reporter readers in the paper’s Besties readers’ poll. The Apothecarium also has two other dispensaries in San Francisco and one in Las Vegas. In a prepared statement Apothecarium CEO Ryan Hudson said, “teaming up with a larger company means that we will be able to bring

the Apothecarium dispensary experience to more people, in more cities around the country.” “Our customers won’t see major changes inside our dispensaries,” he added. “I’m especially happy that so many LGBTQ folks, women, and people of color have chosen to be part of the Apothecarium’s team,” said Hudson, who is straight. All full-time employees will receive shares of stock in TerrAscend Corp., traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange (TER), and over the counter on the OTCQX (TRSSF). This includes its cannabis consultants, aka budtenders. Additionally, the release said the

Apothecarium’s CEO and leadership team will be staying on in their current roles. Hudson said he was also very proud of the firm’s philanthropic efforts, having donated over $425,000 in cash to local nonprofits and another $300,000 worth of in-kind donations for support groups and other community efforts over the years. Currently, the Apothecarium has job openings for budtenders in San Francisco and for a team leader at its Castro location. Additional information about the jobs at the Apothecarium is available on its website, http://www. apothecarium.com. t

Community News>>

February 14-20, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Nonprofits work to recover from SF fire by Heather Cassell

he gas explosion in San Francisco’s inner Richmond district last week affected two organizations that serve the LGBT community. Offices of Huckleberry Youth Programs and the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project were both affected by the February 6 gas pipe explosion in front of the Hong Kong Lounge II at the corner of Geary Boulevard and Parker Avenue. The fire that ensued after the explosion at 1:18 p.m. burned for nearly two and a half hours in the Jordan Park neighborhood on the edge of the Richmond district and Laurel Heights neighborhood. A Pacific Gas & Electric crew was able to successfully access the main gas line and shut it off around 3:30 p.m. Firefighters contained the blaze

shortly before 4:15 p.m. and kept it from spreading beyond the four buildings that were affected. During those intense hours, flames shot more than 30 to 40 feet into the air during the three-alarm blaze that shut down Geary Boulevard and affected thousands of residents. Officials from Cal/OSHA, the California Public Utilities Commission, and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident. Huckleberry’s building, which is adjacent to the Hong Kong Lounge II, was yellow-tagged last Thursday. The organization has served the city’s youth since 1967, said Heather Matthews, director of marketing at Huckleberry. Executive Director Doug Styles said the organization has been housed at 3310 Geary Boulevard for

Heather Cassell

A Pacific Gas & Electric truck sits outside the burned-out Hong Kong Lounge II, right, and Huckleberry Youth Programs, left, which sustained damage during a gas pipe explosion fire February 6.

about 25 years. The agency provides a variety of services, including temporary shelter at Huckleberry House and Huckleberry health center in the city and in Marin. Its juvenile justice diversion programs were administrated from the Geary building. It serves 7,100 youth, said Matthews. In its direct service programs, where the organization tracks sexual orientation and gender identity demographics, 18 percent out of the 2,290 youth served identified as LGBT during the 2017-2018 fiscal year. (The organization doesn’t ask about sexual orientation and gender identity at some of its programs and workshops.) Huckleberry hosted trainings and advice services for first-generation, low-income college students and their families at the Geary office, said Styles, a 54-year-old straight ally who has led the organization for nearly five years. The building also housed Huckleberry’s archives and business records, including a letter from slain gay supervisor Harvey Milk, Matthews and Styles said. The letter, which suffered some smoke damage, is at a restoration company. The 15-member staff was at the beginning of a training for about 25 service providers focused on transgender and nonbinary youth, and one youth was receiving college advice when the explosion happened. At the moment of the blast, Styles, who was out of the office, said his staff described it like a small earthquake. Some dismissed it as ongoing construction outside the building. “One of our staff was alert enough

he federal government has thrown up another roadblock to supervised injection sites, filing a lawsuit against Philadelphia’s Safehouse, which had hoped to open the first such facility in the United States. On February 6, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced a civil action for “declaratory relief,” intended to prevent Safehouse from opening its planned site. This is the first federal attempt to legally thwart the implementation of a safe injection site, according to the Drug Policy Alliance. “The federal government should not attempt to obstruct the ability of a city or state to effectively address the deaths in their own backyard,” DPA director of public health law and policy Lindsay LaSalle said in a statement. Supervised injection facilities allow people to use drugs under the watch of medical staff, reducing the risk of overdose deaths. They provide sterile needles, which prevents transmission of HIV and hepatitis B and C, and offer clients an entry point for seeking medical care and addiction treatment. Indoor sites also reduce street-based drug use and improper syringe disposal. There are currently around 120 safe injection sites worldwide. Philadelphia and San Francisco are among several cities vying to open the first U.S. site. Safehouse was established as a nonprofit last year to open a safe injection facility with private funding, in an effort to reduce Philadelphia’s high rate of overdose deaths. Former Philadelphia mayor and Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell is a member of the board. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has said he would not prosecute a responsibly run harm reduction program. The site was slated to open as early as this spring. The federal lawsuit contends that supervised injection facilities violate the

YouTube

Lindsay LaSalle with the national Drug Policy Alliance, shown here speaking at a harm reduction conference, criticized the federal government’s effort to block a proposed safe injection facility in Philadelphia.

Controlled Substances Act, in particular a “crack house” provision that makes it a crime to operate a site where illegal drugs are produced or consumed. “For purposes of this action, it does not matter that Safehouse claims good intentions in fighting the opioid epidemic,” the complaint reads. “What matters is that Congress has already determined that Safehouse’s conduct is prohibited by federal law, without any relevant exception.” Safehouse supporters argue that the law was not intended to apply to public health efforts. “Safehouse believes that supervised consumption sites are legal and save lives,” the organization states on its website. “We welcome the opportunity to present to the court the credible evidence and research that has informed our belief.” Safehouse did not respond to a request for comment from the Bay Area Reporter.

San Francisco stalled

In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed and other city officials support supervised injection facilities, but the

and you could feel the heat from it at times,” said Styles. “It was very scary, very dramatic.” “It was, on average, three stories high and then it would plum higher than that and smoke was coming out,” he said of the fire. “The fire department was dousing that building on the corner, the Hong Kong Lounge. I could see on top of our building. See page 13 >>

Outreach February 2019 Events for San Francisco Chinese New Year 2019 will take place soon–and you can’t miss the Grand Parade on February 23! Starting on the corner of 2nd and Market streets, this parade is one of the largest Chinese New Year’s celebrations in the world. People will come from near and far to help ring in the Year of the Pig. And if you’re attending, Muni can help you get to there and back again, car-free. Save time and avoid crowds by purchasing your fare before boarding Muni with MuniMobile®. Skip the lines and buy tickets ahead of time or on the go, then activate when you are ready to ride. With MuniMobile, your phone is your fare. FIND FREE TO LOW-COST IMMIGRATION LEGAL HELP IN SAN FRANCISCO Visit the City of San Francisco’s Immigrant Support Hub (immigrants.sfgov. org) to find immigration legal service providers that speak your language, are high quality, trusted, free to low-cost, and help you with your application fees. Get connected to information on immigration screenings, DACA, asylum, green card renewal, TPS, deportation counsel and much more at: immigrants.sfgov.org. Come see your local government at work! The Board of Supervisors hold weekly meetings most Tuesdays at 2:00 p.m. in Rm. 250 of San Francisco City Hall. Upcoming Meetings: • February 5 • March 5

• February 12 • March 12

• February 26 • March 19

Share Your Best Thinking Attend public comment during the full Board of Supervisors meetings, or a Committee meeting held weekly in the Legislative Chamber or the Committee Room (Rm. 263 of San Francisco City Hall) UNABLE TO ATTEND A COMMITTEE OR BOARD MEETING IN PERSON? 1. Watch the rebroadcast on Channel 26. 2. Watch live online at sfgovtv.org. 3. Obtain Agendas and Minutes at: sfbos.org/events/calendar/upcoming. Use Your Subject Matter Expertise Apply to serve on an Advisory Body. Before long you will be advising the Board and the Mayor on City policy! Visit our Vacancy page: sfbos.org/vacancy-boards-commissions-task-forces CONTACT US TO LEARN HOW TO SEARCH FOR WHAT’S BEING PLANNED FOR YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Online: Board.of.Supervisors@sfgov.org By Phone: (415) 554-5184 In Person: Room 244, San Francisco City Hall #1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, SF, CA, 94102 Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Federal suit against Philly safe injection site draws criticism

by Liz Highleyman

to say, ‘I’m going to check that out. That doesn’t quite sound right,’” he said, adding the staffer quickly responded, “We’ve got to evacuate.” The staff member went throughout the building making sure everyone got out safely, he said. As soon as Styles received the news, he raced across town to witness flames billowing above the buildings on the busy corner. “I was a good block and a half away,

CNS-3213426#

effort stalled after outgoing Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have allowed a local site on a pilot basis. Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and lesbian Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) reintroduced the legislation this month, and newly elected Governor Gavin Newsom has said he is open to the idea. “Less than 12 hours after Trump promised in his State of the Union [address] to ‘defeat AIDS,’ his Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to block implementation of a safe injection site in Philadelphia,” Wiener said in a statement responding to the federal move. “Safe injection sites are a proven HIV prevention strategy, in addition to reducing overdose deaths and helping people into recovery services. The president is a hypocrite, and his words mean nothing. We are fully committed to legalizing safe injection sites in California and piloting them in San Francisco.” The Philadelphia lawsuit takes a first step toward carrying out a threat U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made in an opinion piece in the New York Times last August. “It is a federal felony to maintain any location for the purpose of facilitating illicit drug use,” he wrote. “Because federal law clearly prohibits injection sites, cities and counties should expect the Department of Justice to meet the opening of any injection site with swift and aggressive action.” But harm reduction advocates remain determined to move forward, citing other examples where local authorities have defied federal drug laws to further public health goals. “The federal government initially attempted to interfere with state and local syringe exchange and medical cannabis programs, but hindsight has proved they were on the wrong side of science and history. And they will be here as well,” said LaSalle. t

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<< Business News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Gay crime novelist launches own press with podcast by Matthew S. Bajko

year ago this month celebrated gay crime novelist Michael Nava secured the rights for all of his published works, including the seven titles in his acclaimed series featuring the gay criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. Nava aims to republish the series under his own imprint, Persigo Press, named after the Spanish word for “to seek.” But first, he intends to publish the ninth Rios novel, “Carved in Bone,” this September. “My contract with Open Road expired and I didn’t renew it. I wanted to control my work,” said Nava during a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter over breakfast in San Francisco’s gay Castro district. Ahead of the new novel’s release, Nava has debuted an 18-episode serialized podcast based on his 2016 book “Lay Your Sleeping Head.” It was a revised, more sexual version of the first Rios novel published in 1986 under the title “The Little Death.” Fans of the books will find the same mix of mystery, sex, and course language on The Henry Rios Mysteries Podcast, which is free to download on various podcast platforms. It is believed to be the first of its kind to serialize a work of gay fiction. It is also the public debut for Persigo Press, as it is the first project Nava has unveiled under his imprint. “I mistakenly thought it would be easy,” said Nava, 64, who lives with his husband in Daly City. “It was supposed to be just promotion for the books, but it became this monster.” Starting last spring Nava rewrote his novel so it would work in the format of a classic radio program. He then sought a dozen actors to cast in the various roles, secured studio space in Oakland to record the episodes, and then edited the roughly 20-minute episodes to include an intro he

Armando Rey voices the character of Henry Rios in “The Henry Rios Mysteries Podcast.”

narrates, theme music composed specifically for the podcast, and sound effects. “It’s like producing a movie. I had to write the script from the book. I had to rewrite the dialogue because what is written on the page doesn’t necessarily work when spoken by actors,” said Nava, who had been a staff attorney for retired California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno and lost a bid to become a Superior Court judge in 2010. He is spending $30,000 on the project and began rolling out the first podcast episode on January 14. New episodes in the first season are released weekly, and the cast is recording the final six in March. “Podcasting is new and no one knows how to monetize it, so once I develop an audience I hope to raise the money to produce season two,” said Nava. Within the first week of uploading his podcast’s debut episode, Nava said it had been downloaded 1,000 times. Reviewing it for the Lambda Literary website, fellow gay author John Copenhaver called it “an electric combination of storytelling, voice-acting, and noir-ish ambiance.” Playing Rios is former San Fran-

cisco resident Armando Rey, 47, an actor now based in Ventura. While he has done voice over work and radio shows, Rey had never performed in a podcast prior to being cast by Nava. Landing the role was particularly special for Rey since, like Rios, he is gay and Latino. “As an actor I play all different kinds of characters and sexualities and whatever you want,” said Rey. “This is really special to me. I am portraying somebody very positive to our LGBT community and to the Mexican-American community. That is what I work hard for.” Rey was aware of the books and aware of the character, which remains to this day one of the few out people of color to carry a crime novel. Many of Rey’s friends are fans of the books, and when they learned he would be playing the role, they would ask how to listen to the show. Unfamiliar with podcasts, Rey admitted he didn’t really know himself. “I would tell them, ‘I don’t know, but if you do, tell me,’” said Rey, whose 28-year-old nephew showed him how to listen to it. “When the first episode came out my nephew, who is also gay and is loving the podcast, he sent it to me to make sure I heard it.” To come up with a voice for Rios, Rey read the novels again to pick up on clues Nava had inserted into his manuscripts about the character. With sharing Mexican ancestry with the character, and himself fluent in Spanish, Rey said having a bit of a Mexican accent for Rios came naturally, such as when he rolls his r’s. “I just wanted it to be a straightforward voice. In a way I came to that conclusion when doing the character analysis. Henry Rios is a serious guy;

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he wants to be taken seriously,” said Rey. “He’s got this masculinity to him, and so when I created that personality, that is what naturally came out that way.” Also performing in her first podcast is Scarlett Hepworth, who plays Detective Terry Ormes and Katherine Paris, the mother of Rio’s lover Hugh Paris. She said she could easily see it be turned into a scripted show for television. “I think the writing and the plot is very cinematic,” said Hepworth, 66, who lives with her wife in El Cerrito. “I think that an out private eye is a really cool character. He is a wonderful amalgamation of different types.” Various entertainment producers have optioned the rights to the Rios novels to turn them into a movie or television series over the last 25 years, with production company Working Title currently paying for them. But no project has ever come to fruition, leading Nava to contend his character has “been orphaned” in Hollywood. Hepworth expects the podcast will find its audience. “Clearly, there are mystery and noir readers out there who want to read about a gay detective,” she said. “I think Michael Nava is brilliant in having invented this character Henry Rios.” According to the website Podcast Insights, there were more than 630,000 podcasts by the end of 2018. Los Angeles-based Revry, which bills itself as the first queer global streaming network, has added a number of podcasts to its library since launching in 2016. But they are mainly talk shows created by queer and transgender people of color. “Off the top of my head, I can’t think of one that serializes an LGBT novel or work of fiction,” said Revry co-founder Alia J. Daniels, 33, a straight ally. “We are definitely looking for podcasts that are innovative.” While the platform’s podcasts have largely stuck to a “talking heads” format, Daniels said they are open to hearing pitches from LGBT authors who want to serialize their work. “We are looking at, in the future, having more scripted type podcasts,” she said. “We think the genre has such an opportunity to expand.” Nava hopes other out authors will follow his lead and experiment with the podcasting platform to promote their work. “I think you should just do it and I hope more people will,” he said when asked what advice he would give to podcasting novices. “There is not enough queer content on podcasts.” Eventually, Nava envisions using his Persigo Press to launch the careers of other authors who are LGBT or people of color. Should all go well, the first such book would be released in the fall of 2020. “My dream is to publish other queer writers and writers of color who write genre stuff, from sci-fi and speculative fiction to mysteries,” said Nava. “I would especially love to publish transgender writers.” To learn more about Nava, his works, and the podcast, visit https:// michaelnavawriter.com.

Blanket designed by two-spirit artist for sale

Eighth Generation, the first Native American-owned company to offer beautifully crafted wool blankets, has partnered with two spirit and queer indigenous artist Ryan Young to create a blanket inspired by a traditional Ojibwe story about crows. Young, 27, a member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, answered a call last year that the Seattle-based company put out announcing it wanted to partner

with a two-spirit artist as part of its Inspired Natives Project it launched in 2014. It is aimed at offering community-based artists business skills development and mentorship to build their business capacity and distribute artwork globally. Young’s blanket, made from New Zealand wool, is two-sided and features two soaring black crows that are losing several feathers. One side the background features muted rainbow colors, while the other is all black. It is based on an Ojibwe tale about how the once rainbow-colored birds lost their ability to sing aiding other woodland creatures escape a forest fire. The soot blackened their feathers and damaged their vocal cords. “It is a symbol of the huge sacrifices the crows had to make to help their community,” explained Young in a phone interview with the B.A.R. “It ties into Native Americans and the LGBTQ community.” Having earned a BFA at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Young is currently living in Champaign, Illinois and working as the Native American students services outreach coordinator for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Young would like to move to Seattle and focus fulltime on their art. “I went there when they did an early release of the blanket. To see all the space there for indigenous artists was really inspiring,” said Young. As a child Young felt discouraged by a teacher who called a painting they did about mental health issues “too sad.” So it has been a delight, Young said, to now have people emailing photos of themselves wrapped in their blanket. “It makes my heart happy to see people really identify with the blanket and to see everyone who has been able to enjoy it,” said Young. The queen-size blanket costs $208, with 5 percent of the proceeds going toward the program for emerging arts entrepreneurs. To order one online, go to https:// eighthgeneration.com/collections/blankets/products/two-spirit-wool-blanket.

Courtesy Eighth Generation

Ryan Young’s blanket was inspired by a traditional Ojibwe story about crows.

Honor Roll

For Your Eyes Only Optometry, at 552 Castro Street, has been granted legacy business status by the city. The program is aimed at ensuring longtime locally owned businesses remain in San Francisco. The late Dr. Kenneth Agues first opened the optometry practice in 1983. A member of the LGBT community, Agues treated people living with HIV and AIDS who were susceptible to an aggressive eye infection that led to blindness. In 1991, Dr. Kathleen Kennedy, a straight ally, bought the business and has continued to welcome all clients to the practice. “At For Your Eyes Only Optometry we love San Francisco and we especially love our Castro community,” stated Kennedy. “For over 35 years we have proudly provided compassionate care of the highest quality to our neighborhood during times of hardship and joy.” t Got a tip on LGBT business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

Sports>>

February 14-20, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

The novel that sparked a generation by Roger Brigham

he sad news came last weekend that lesbian author Patricia Nell Warren had died at the age of 82. Her landmark novel, “The Front Runner,” decades ago had provided a spark of hope for a youthful generation of gays and lesbians desperate to know they were not alone. To paraphrase songwriter Bernie Taupin, Warren “had put down in words how wonderful life is, now we’re in the world.” To understand the impact Warren’s novel had when it was first published back in the 1970s – and the profoundly moving effect it still had on the lives of so many young gay men and women, especially athletes, when they were belatedly discovering it for the first time more than a decade later – you must insert yourself into that time and place in American culture, when instantaneous communications technology was still a dream, nondiscrimination laws were almost nonexistent, and the world seemed to be one enormous inhospitable closet. Her story of a growing love between a closeted track coach and a gay runner headed for the Olympics warned us of the perils we would all face going forward – but also showed us the promise of love and beauty we might find if we held strong and true to ourselves. “I was a track athlete and a distance runner in high school,” said Mark Chambers, founder of the National Gay Basketball Association. “I was that track athlete. I met her at a house party years later and told her

Courtesy Federation of Gay Games

Patricia Nell Warren, right, celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Gay Games in 2012 in West Hollywood with David Kopay, left, and Bay Area Reporter columnist Roger Brigham.

it was the first book I ever read that I connected with. I did have crushes on my track coach and my basketball coaches.” I was in my early 20s, living in Kodiak, Alaska, when I started to question my sexuality. I had no gay friends, I knew no gay leaders, I knew of only a couple of gay individuals in sports, and I had limited access to any answers to my never ending supply of questions and doubts. But there was a bookstore on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood I would encounter on my occasional trips to California, a bookstore that held the promise of answers. If you entered the front and went to the right, you could find copies of mainstream newspapers and magazines. Enter the swinging

door to the left and, well, you would enter a world of Colt Studios porn magazines, raunchy little paperback sex novels, and a trove of contemporary gay fiction and nonfiction. Literary pay dirt. It was in that grubby but well lit setting that I discovered Warren and John Rechy and Larry Kramer and Andrew Holleran and Rita Mae Brown and Andrew Tobias and countless others. It was by reading their books late at night back in my darkened apartment in Alaska that I realized being gay did not mean having to be isolated in a tiny village in Manhattan but could lead me on ventures and an open, productive life in the world at large. In the context of my life, “The Front Runner” held a special significance. I was at the time an active

recreational athlete and, more importantly, a volunteer coach. Most of my friends connected with the work through the eyes of the young gay athlete, but I saw it through the prism of the closeted coach. At about the same time, local wrestler Gene Dermody was a wrestling coach in New Jersey when he first read Warren’s book. I asked him what he thought of it then and now. “There was not much in the way of good LGBT coach mentoring, and we struggled to find beacons of encouragement and wisdom,” Dermody said. “The most influential LGBT books for me were ‘Gay Olympian: The Life and Death of Dr. Tom Waddell,’ ‘The David Kopay Story,’ and ‘The Front Runner.’ They were real, they were positive, and I could relate to so much of what was in them.” As a coach, Dermody said he was aware of the perils involved in coach-athlete relations. It was an era when gays and lesbians were fighting for the right to be allowed to teach and homophobes endlessly droned on that gays were out to recruit young children to perverse lifestyles. “As a young gay coach in high school wrestling, I was scrupulously careful about protecting not only my own reputation, but that of my school, my program, and my wrestlers,” Dermody said. “I overreacted in terms of my behaviors and inter-

actions to ensure integrity, probably too much by today’s standards, and it impacted my overall effectiveness. I never allowed myself to go that extra step to develop that level of trust so needed for young fatherless boys craving for a male mentor in their coach. I made the decision to sometimes avoid my responsibilities to help a possible struggling gay youth because I feared it would limit my effectiveness with a greater number of boys. It was technically wrong, but I would make the decision again given the hysteria around gay coaches at the time.” For years, Dermody said, the dynamic of the coach-athlete relationship in “The Front Runner” disturbed him. “It still does,” Dermody said. “However, as I have aged another 30 years, coaching mores have evolved as this sex taboo becomes more irrelevant. I now realize that the power of ‘The Front Runner’ that initially captivated me was the effective mentoring of LGBT youth through whatever vehicle. Having effective visible gay coaches encouraged to do their job without fear was a major step in high school athletic policy. Thank you, Patricia Nell Warren, for taking the bold step when it was so needed.” And thank you for letting us know how wonderful life is when we are actually in the world rather than hiding from it. t

Patricia Nell Warren, author of gay classic, dies by Roger Brigham

estselling novelist, social activist, and longtime LGBT sports advocate Patricia Nell Warren died Saturday, February 9, at the age of 82. A cause of death was not immediately reported, but Ms. Warren had been battling various health issues for several years. Ms. Warren burst into international fame with her second novel, the best-seller “The Front Runner,” in 1974, the same year she came out as lesbian. “The Front Runner,” about a closeted coach mentoring a young gay male track athlete in the Summer Olympics, was the first modern gay novel to crack the New York Times best-seller list. For many LGBT individuals at the time, it was the first non-pornograph-

Patricia Nell Warren was induced as a lifetime member of the International Front Runners last October.

ic depiction of gay life that they had ever read. Later novels of hers included “The Fancy Dancer” in 1976, “The Beauty Queen” in 1978, and two sequels to

“The Front Runner” – “Harlan’s Race” in 1994, and “Billy’s Boy” in 1997. Frontrunner and Front Runner LGBT running clubs all over the world are named in honor of Ms.

Warren’s seminal novel. Last October at the Pride Run in Palm Springs, she was inducted into International Front Runners as its first lifetime member. “Initially, I had not heard of the book until I read the SF Front Runner website,” Reggie Snowden, sports officer of the Federation of Gay Games, said. “Eventually, I read the book and related to the novel. Being an out, proud runner, ‘The Front Runner’ spoke volumes with my struggles earlier on in life with coming to terms with accepting my sexuality. We will miss Patricia Nell Warren, but she will not be forgotten.” Ms. Warren was born in Montana on June 15, 1936. She married Ukrainian poet Yuriy Tarnawsky and wrote Ukrainian poetry. She worked for Reader’s Digest for more than two decades.

In the late 1960s, Ms. Warren had been one of the first women to coach the Boston Marathon, which barred women competitors at the time. Later, she and others succeeded in getting the women’s marathon added to the Olympics. She was active in the fight against the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, served as an education commissioner for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and made an unsuccessful run for the West Hollywood City Council in 2007. Ms. Warren had long expressed interest in having “The Front Runner” turned into a full-length motion picture. Film rights were sold to Paul Newman in 1975 and later passed through multiple hands through options and buyouts. Currently, her estate holds the film rights. t

Acting AG says LGBTs aren’t protected by Title VII by Lisa Keen

uring a House Judiciary Committee hearing Friday, acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker stood by the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to argue that federal civil rights law cannot be read to include protections for LGBT people. Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Florida), whose district includes heavily LGBT Key West, used her five minutes of hearing time to note that in October 2017, the DOJ withdrew an Obama administration memo that advised that the Title VII section of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in the workplace, could be read to encompass anti-transgender discrimination. “The new memo,” said Mucarsel-

Courtesy AP

Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker

Powell, “instructs the Department of Justice attorneys to now argue that federal law does not protect transgender workers from discrimination. Are you familiar with both memos?” “Yes, I am familiar with those memos that do not extend Title VII to LGBT [word could not be heard],” said Whitaker.

“At the time of the reversal, were you serving as chief of staff for Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions?” asked Mucarsel-Powell. Whitaker acknowledged that he was chief of staff from October 4, 2017, until November of last year, when President Donald Trump fired Sessions. Asked whether he believes LGBT people should face discrimination in the workplace, Whitaker said, “I personally believe discrimination of any kind shouldn’t happen,” but he added that he thinks the “plain reading” of Title VII does not provide protection for LGBT people and that DOJ’s responsibility is to “merely enforce the law.” “If Congress wants Title VII to extend to transgender people, you can change the law,” said Whitaker. Whitaker was before the House

Judiciary Committee February 8 as part of the committee’s oversight responsibility. Many Democrats on the committee sought to determine to what extent Whitaker may be using his position to convey to Trump information from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker refused to disclose any information about his conversations with Trump but did state that he did not brief the president or any “senior” White House staffers about Mueller’s probe. He also said he hasn’t “interfered in any way” with the investigation. Gay Congressman David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) used the hearing to point out that, prior to being appointed the acting attorney general, Whitaker told a law professor in June 2017 that he was hoping

for a Trump administration appointment and that a replacement for Sessions could kill the Mueller investigation by reducing its budget. Congressman Jamie Raskin (DMaryland) noted that Whitaker, as a U.S. attorney in Iowa, tried to prosecute the state’s first openly gay state senator on “trumped up” charges of abusing his position. Raskin noted the charges were dismissed by the jury in about an hour. Whitaker has only days left as acting attorney general. The U.S. Senate is expected to confirm former U.S. Attorney General William Barr to return to the position. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and 30 other LGBT groups opposed Barr’s confirmation, saying he has a track record of “impeding and resisting civil rights.” t

<< Community News

12 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Knoller

From page 1

Smith said she was advised to talk in the hearing about the impact the crime had on her and her relationships but when it came to her turn, she spoke extemporaneously. “I decided I am not going to give her that power,” Smith said. Smith said that Knoller’s statement that she wasn’t ready for parole may have been the most stunning and surprising thing that she heard at the hearing. Smith added that she didn’t believe Knoller would ever change and admit responsibility for what happened. The parole hearing was held at the California Institution for Women in Corona, in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles. Smith attended via a video link from the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. Kelly and his wife, Cayce Kelly, were in attendance and seated behind Knoller. Smith could be seen in the video display wiping tears from her face starting at the point in the hearing where Knoller described the events leading to Whipple’s death. Kelly and his wife were also in tears when Knoller recounted Whipple’s death. Smith could be seen in the video feed being supported by her spouse, Hillary Ware, as well as Assistant District At-

Transmissions

From page 6

Nal first came out to her boss James Olsen on “Supergirl,” using her experiences as a trans woman to explain why the company should take a stand against anti-extraterrestrial sentiment, a plea that falls largely on deaf ears. It is, nevertheless, handled well in the story. The next episode focuses on Nia Nal’s/Dreamer’s backstory, as she and Kara/Supergirl travel to Nal’s

torney Allison Macbeth, who read a statement opposing parole. In denying parole, the board cited Knoller’s disciplinary record while in prison, which includes eight incidents, mostly due to her not showing for work assignments, which Knoller said was related to her physical and mental health. Knoller, 63, was in a wheelchair during the hearing but it was unclear why. Knoller’s most serious disciplinary incident involved her being convicted of a misdemeanor assault of a guard in 2016. Reading from the record, Parole Commissioner Rosalio Castro said that while being treated in an emergency room after fainting, Knoller slapped away and grabbed a nurse who was trying to put a medical monitoring device on her finger and then kicked and bit a guard. The guard was so concerned for his safety that he activated his personal safety alarm. Knoller said she was disoriented and didn’t like being touched. She said she didn’t remember the attack on a guard. Knoller said that if she were paroled, she would either move into traditional housing or move to Texas to the home of a friend and one of her late husband’s former colleagues. She said she would continue to undergo treatment for her issues with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety. But Knoller seemed to

contradict herself by telling the two commissioners “I don’t really feel like I am ready for parole.” Later, Knoller’s attorney, Jesse Hoffs, noted Knoller’s statement about not being ready for parole. “That does not mean she is not capable of parole,” Hoffs said. “I believe that if she is given a parole date she will rise to the occasion.” Hoffs also read from the transcript of Knoller’s 2002 trial in which she was asked by her then-defense attorney Nedra Ruiz how she was doing and Knoller responded by almost immediately segueing into a lengthy statement expressing remorse over what happened. Knoller also expressed remorse before and after her conviction in jailhouse interviews with the Bay Area Reporter. Both Smith and Kelly were given opportunities to speak but they were cautioned not to speak directly to Knoller. Kelly read from a prepared statement noting that although Whipple’s death resulted in some positive change, the tragedy deeply hurt his family and the relationships within his family. He said that not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about the loss of his sister. Smith moved closer to the camera for her turn to speak. Her image diagonally faced Knoller. At times Smith, her voice choked with emotion, broke

down in tears before regaining her composure and continuing. “I will never know the real truth because she refused to speak it,” Smith said. Briefly going against the rules of the hearing by speaking directly to Knoller, Smith vowed, “As much as I don’t want to see you again. I will show up every time you have a parole hearing.” After a recess, both of the board commissioners announced that they agreed to deny parole. Speaking for the panel, Castro said that Knoller’s release would pose a “potential threat to public safety.” He also noted Knoller’s prison record and that she is not taking responsibility for her actions in the crime. Referring to the apartment hallway attack on Whipple, 33, which occurred in January 2001, Castro said, “When you went out in the hallway you cared more about the dog’s health than the public.” Earlier, Knoller had told the board that she took Bane, her male Presa Canario, to the roof of her building because he was having bowel problems and she couldn’t wait for her husband to come home and walk the dog. The attack happened just after Knoller returned from the roof. Knoller had also referred to the attack as an accident. “This was not an accident Ms. Knoller and you need to see that,” Castro said.

Knoller had said that she didn’t know her dogs were dangerous to people but Castro said that was contradicted by the facts of the case. Castro noted that the board has the option of scheduling her next parole hearing in three, five, or seven years and that the board decided on three years, in part because of Knoller’s age and her adherence to psychiatric medication. Outside the hearing, Kelly told the B.A.R. that he was happy parole was denied but not pleased that the commissioners scheduled the next parole hearing in three years instead of the longer options. The denial of parole means that Governor Gavin Newsom won’t have to deal with a possible conflict of interest in the case, as he would have had final say over the decision had the two-member board recommended parole. Guilfoyle is Newsom’s ex-wife. The dog-mauling case was one of the most publicized trials in Bay Area history and generated nationwide headlines. Knoller was with the dogs during the hallway attack on Whipple and was convicted of second-degree murder. Her husband, Robert Noel, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. As the B.A.R. previously reported, Noel died last year of heart failure in a San Diego nursing home on his 77th birthday. t

hometown. Nal’s “coming out” to Kara on the way to Nal’s hometown was, well, pretty close to how I handle coming out. It was very matter of fact, just a part of the discussion between two close friends. It wasn’t treated as a big deal by Nal, nor did it include a lot of over the top backstory. I think Kara was a bit patronizing at first when Nal came out, but I also think it was intentional to the story and some of what Kara herself was dealing with at the time. The storyline of the episode hit a

lot of right notes, and the biggest to me is this: while Nal’s transness was integral to the plot, it wasn’t the only thing the story was about. It was a part of a larger whole, an element of an otherwise well-told story. She is a trans character, but her being trans isn’t the only thing she is. It informs her choices, but she is more than a cardboard cutout standing in for a real backstory. I would be remiss if I did not mention one scene in particular, where Nal’s sister, fueled by anger at not getting the superpowers that are

passed down between mothers and daughters, attacks Nal for not being a “real woman.” While this gets resolved, and maybe a bit quickly, it is handled well, without it being the sole defining characteristic of their relationship. As I said, Maines is not the first trans actress to play a trans character – but what truly feels refreshing about her isn’t so much that she is transgender, but that her transgender identity isn’t treated as that big a deal. Yes, it informs the issues of bigotry in the main storyline, but

that bigotry isn’t necessarily aimed at her as a trans woman. This is another contrast to the usual portrayal that tends to treat transgender people as someone to be either pitied or reviled – and not the hero of the story, even when they may be the lead character. Would that we see more of this to come. t

progress that the LGBT community has made. I’m very cognizant of work we still have to do, especially with those who are most economically marginalized. “The thing I find really fascinating to look back on,” she added, “is those marriages were so high profile and so poignant and moving. To have all those images of samesex, beautiful couples surrounded by friends and family, that’s really key. It brought the human story to public awareness.” Also participating in the discussion will be John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, who met in 1987 and were one of the first 10 couples to be married at City Hall on February 12, 2004. Now celebrating nearly 32 years together, Gaffney told the B.A.R., “It’s an exciting opportunity to revisit the magical moment that is now forever known as the Winter of Love and the magic that we experienced.” He called getting married that day an absolute life changing experience. “On a personal level, it changed our lives certainly,” Gaffney said. “On a political level, we felt for the first time that our government was treating us as equal and our relationship was being given respect of the law just like everybody else.”

stitutional. (Walker was outed as gay after the trial but before he released his opinion.) The matter was later taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, which in June 2013 tossed out Prop 8 on a technicality. Samesex weddings resumed in California, this time for good. “Winter of Love is so important because it was about so many different things,” said Lewis. “One of the things was then-mayor Gavin Newsom and the city of San Francisco doing the right thing when it wasn’t popular, when it wasn’t clear what the right thing was.” Gaffney believes many wonderful things emerged from the marriage equality movement, including a ban on conversion therapy, which he called “an outgrowth of the Prop 8 trial.” Fifteen years later, the longtime couple hopes attendees at the “Love, Marriage, and Queers” event will come out for the evening to relive or get a taste of the Winter of Love magic. t

At the time of the Winter of

Love, Lewis and Gaffney had been together for 17 years. And on that February day the couple showed up for a Marriage Equality California rally on the steps of City Hall having no idea at that very hour San Francisco would begin marrying LGBT couples. The late Del Martin and her spouse, Phyllis Lyon, were the first to be married. Six months after San Francisco married thousands of queer couples, California’s state Supreme Court ruled that the city had overstepped its legal authority and declared all the same-sex marriages null and void on August 12, 2004. Then, in May 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples could not be denied the right to marry, and the following month, same-sex marriage became legal again in California. Lewis and Gaffney married once more, as did many other couples, including Martin and Lyon. When Prop 8, a measure banning same-sex marriage, passed in the November 2008 election, once again blocking Golden State same-sex couples’ access to marriage, Lewis and Gaffney joined many other LGBTQ people in the community to fight for their rights through Marriage Equality USA. To this day, their advocacy work continues worldwide. Following a trial in federal court, Judge Vaughn Walker ruled in August 2010 that Prop 8 was uncon-

pen, it was all just a game.” At the end of the video, as the detectives were walking Rickleffs out, Rickleffs again mentioned that he couldn’t believe Escalon would take his money back that was given to him in exchange for the naked pictures. San Francisco’s chief toxicologist, Luke Rodda, Ph.D., who works in the city’s medical examiner’s of-

fice, also took the stand last week. From his testimony it was revealed that Escalon’s blood tested positive for GHB and amyl nitrate and that THC was found in his urine. There was no alcohol found in his blood at the time of his autopsy. Public defender Solis tried to argue that certain substances are known to have different levels of concentration before and after

death. Rodda did confirm this, saying that there are known cases in which GHB concentrations have increased and decreased after a person has died, adding however, “GHB does not have a significant amount of degradation 24 to 48 hours after death,” which is the timeframe of Escalon’s autopsy. The defense is expected to begin calling witnesses February 13. t

’Winter of Love’

From page 1

Bush’s speech was what prompted Newsom to issue the order to city officials to marry same-sex couples. “I was so proud to watch brave Californians answer those attacks with love and courage. Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin made history when they were married 15 years ago to this very day,” he said. “Now, just like back then, we must stand up for those maligned, marginalized, and scapegoated.” Later this month, the GLBT Historical Society will hold a panel discussion, “Love, Marriage, and Queers: 15 Years of Bliss?” It will explore progress of the LGBTQ community since that month of nuptials. The panel is part of the society’s monthly “Fighting Back” series that takes on contemporary queer issues in a historical context. This month’s community panel will look back at the history and outcomes of the marriage equality movement in San Francisco and nationally. Julie Nice, the Herbst Foundation professor of law at University of San Francisco School of Law who identifies as lesbian, will moderate the event. “After I was banished from my family and hometown when I came out over 40 years ago, I could not

Gay stylist’s death

From page 2

the bottle and wiped his face in the liquid when his hands were tied in the back. The investigators asked if Escalon was still alive when Rickleffs left the apartment. He replied, “I talked to him the whole time. I could hear him.” Police refuted this

Courtesy Stuart Gaffney

Stuart Gaffney, left, and John Lewis hold their marriage license on February 12, 2004.

have imagined we’d have same-sex marriage in my lifetime,” Nice told the Bay Area Reporter. “I do hope the Fighting Back event will provide an open forum for the community to reflect on, celebrate, and possibly critique the marriage victory.” Nice said she hopes that participants in the forum will consider next steps toward addressing the ongoing backlash and persistent resistance to LGBTQ equality and also the alarming rates of economic insecurity among huge swaths of the LGBTQ community. “It’s been a long journey for me,” Nice said. “I’m just so proud of the saying, “He was gagged.” Rickleffs corrected himself, saying he could only hear him breathing. Rickleffs also admitted to selling the TV and Escalon’s iPhone he stole from the apartment and described a mini tool kit found in the suitcase as “burglary tools.” At one point in the video Rickleffs began crying, saying, “I never wanted anything like that to hap-

Marriage history

Gwen Smith wants to see a trans person in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You can find her at www.gwensmith.com.

“Fighting Back: Love, Marriage, and Queers: 15 Years of Bliss?” takes place Thursday, February 28, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the GLBT Historical Society Museum, 4127 18th Street in the Castro. Admission is free for members and $5 for non-members. For more information, visit http://www.glbthistory.org.

t <<

Community News>>

SF fire

From page 9

There was a good, probably, dozen firefighters making sure that it didn’t spread, but it kept going and going and going.” Two blocks away and around the corner on Cook Street, Kebo T. Drew, the managing director at the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project, began receiving alerts and sheltered in place for most of the afternoon into the evening with another staff member and an intern. QWOCMAP Executive and Artistic Director Madeleine Lim was out of the office teaching at the University of San Francisco. As the alerts flooded her cellphone, Drew, a cis queer femme, frantically reached out to her friends at Huckleberry to check on them and respond to incoming calls checking on the organization, she said. Her team was able to finally leave

News Briefs

From page 6

Meeting on street homelessness

Saint Francis Homeless Challenge, a group founded by queer nonbinary former San Francisco mayoral candidate Amy Farah Weiss, will hold a meeting to talk about street homelessness Thursday, February 21, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Manny’s, the gay-owned cafe and discussion space at 3092 16th Street (at Valencia). Weiss noted in a news release that more than 400 city residents have signed a petition calling for safe organized spaces, or SOS. While the city’s leaders work to activate Proposition C resources (which have not yet been released to be spent), windfall money from an education fund, and other local and state funding to expand housing subsidies, supported housing units, Navigation Centers, and other types of supported transitional shelter, Weiss said safe organized alternatives are needed.

the area after some blockades were lifted around 6 p.m. she said.

Be prepared

The fire was a reminder of the importance to be prepared. Both Huckleberry and QWOCMAP’s offices were actively improving their emergency plans and policies when the explosion happened. Drew had become certified with San Francisco’s Neighborhood Emergency Response Team training and was undergoing additional training with Roadmap and Mutual Aid Disaster Relief organizations, she said. “I recommend that everybody take that training,” said Drew. She expressed concern about queer people’s emergency preparedness. “I tend to worry about queer folks in general because ... we are not always included in that kind of stuff, so we really need to do it for ourselves,” she said, noting her concern for disabled people and pets too. There are “1,000-plus people sleeping in crisis conditions on our streets and sidewalks each night,” Weiss said in the release. Weiss added that the state adopted new building codes in December that allow San Francisco and other cities and counties experiencing a shelter shortage crisis to legally use “tiny homes,” mobile homes, tents, and transitional villages as part of a triage approach to alleviate the health and safety concerns around street homelessness. There is a suggested donation of $10 for the event, and free tickets are also available. For more information, contact info@saintfrancischallenge.org.

Strut celebrates black LGBTQ history

Strut, the men’s health center in the Castro that is a program of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, will celebrate Black History Month Friday, February 22, with an evening of music, art, and performances by Bay Area African-American artists. The event will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at SOMArts Cultural Center,

February 14-20, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

However, the training kicked in and knowing what to do was “more reassuring” during the hours they were sheltered in place. “It’s just really weird timing because this is something that we’ve been working toward and thinking about,” said Drew, who said QWOCMAP is moving its office in March. “Incidents like this make it even more important.”

Assessing the damage

Huckleberry’s office is severely damaged from the fire, smoke, and water, said Matthews, who is unsure about how much can be salvaged. “We are clearly not going to be using the building for quite a while,” he said, grateful for the immediate outpouring of support from the San Francisco community, including donations and offering temporary space for the organization. “It’s really amazing how many people have stepped up in a short amount

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934 Brannan Street in San Francisco. Helping curate the program will be members of the DREAAM Project and Black Brothers Esteem. DREAAM is a Strut program for GBTQQI men of African descent age 30 and under. BBE is a program of SFAF for African-American gay, bi, and same-gender loving men. For more information, visit http://www.strutsf.org.

involved in city affairs.” In order to serve, volunteers must be U.S. citizens; at least 18 years of age; have lived in San Francisco for at least the past 12 months; have no felony convictions; and be able to communicate in English. The civil grand jury is independent and selects its own topics for investigation. The term runs from July 1 through June 30. After an initial screening, volunteers are interviewed by the judges on the civil grand jury committee who select a pool of 30 jurors. From that pool, 19 jurors and 11 alternates are randomly selected. Breall said that a combination of diverse backgrounds, skills, and interests makes for the most effective grand juries. “San Francisco is a vibrant and diverse city,” Breall said, “and we want our civil grand jury to reflect that diversity.” Applications and detailed information are available at http://civilgrandjury.sfgov.org. The deadline to apply is May 17.

Civil grand jurors sought for SF

The San Francisco Superior Court is seeking volunteers for civil grand jury service for the 2019-2020 term. “As chair of the court’s civil grand jury committee, I would like to encourage San Franciscans who want to make a difference in our city to apply to become a member of the civil grand jury,” Judge Susan M. Breall said in a news release. “The civil grand jury offers the opportunity to contribute to our community by examining city government to identify inefficiencies, to suggest reforms, or to highlight things that are not working well. This is a unique and exciting way to become

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of time [and] offered their support,” said Styles. “We are all in a little bit of shock and the community is banding around us and supporting us and that just feels wonderful and amazing.” Huckleberry will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its juvenile justice program at a gala at the San Francisco Four Seasons April 11. To donate, visit http://www.huckleberryyouth.org/thank-you-for-yoursupport.

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SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT RFP NO. 6M3426 EXTENSION OF TIME FOR RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the General Manager of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District has extended the time of receipt of proposals until the hour of 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 19, 2019, by hand delivery or special delivery, at the District Secretary’s Office, 23rd Floor, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California 94612 for the Production Rail Profiling Services, RFP No. 6M3426. Dated at Oakland, California, this 1st day of February 2019. /S/ Oji Kanu Oji Kanu, Manager, Contract Administration San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 2/14/19 CNS-3219279# BAY AREA REPORTER

The city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development is working with businesses and nonprofit organization affected by the fire, according to a news release from Mayor London Breed and District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, whose district includes the site. The Fire Response team from the San Francisco Human Services Agency will provide assistance to residents unable to safely return to their homes.

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Residents living in rent-controlled apartments might be eligible for a monthly rent subsidy that pays the difference between the rent at the tenant’s permanent residence and a comparable apartment leased at the current market rate. Residents living in rent-controlled apartments damaged by the fire have a right to return after repairs are completed. Residents living in non-rent-controlled apartments affected by the fire may be eligible for a subsidy to cover moving expenses to a new unit. Residents displaced by the fire should call the Red Cross at (415) 427-8010 to register for services and assistance. Businesses and their employees should call the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development at (415) 554-6969. Recovery info can be found at www.sf72.org. To get alerts, text ALERTSF to 888777. t

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Hostelling International USA has announced its Explore the World Travel Scholarships for low-income travelers. The $2,000 scholarships are for trips that include an educational component, such as learning another language, volunteering, or studying abroad. People must be 18-30, among other eligibility requirements. This year, 15 Bay Area young people from Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, and San Francisco counties will be selected to receive the scholarships, granting them the opportunity to travel with an educational or service program. Awards are split into two payments: an initial $1,000 payment prior to departure and the remaining $1,000 after return. Travel must be completed between May 15 and August 31. The application deadline is March 2. For more information, visit https://www.hiusa.org/programs/travel-scholarships/explorethe-world.t

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Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554562

In the matter of the application of: ANNWEN CAROLINE HUGHES-WHITE, 4132 26TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ANNWEN CAROLINE HUGHES-WHITE, is requesting that the name ANNWEN CAROLINE HUGHES-WHITE, be changed to GWENDOLEN ANNWEN CAROLINE WHITE HUGHES. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 7th of March 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554540

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554557

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554556

In the matter of the application of: JULIE FARRIS, 1142 FILBERT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JULIE FARRIS, is requesting that the name JULIE FARRIS AKA JULIE HANNA, be changed to JULIE HANNA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 5th of March 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

In the matter of the application of: BECKY DENISE WONG, 260 WAWONA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner BECKY DENISE WONG, is requesting that the name BECKY DENISE WONG, be changed to BECCA WONG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 7th of March 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

In the matter of the application of: BRIAN DEREK WONG, 260 WAWONA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner BRIAN DEREK WONG, is requesting that the name BRIAN DEREK WONG, be changed to BRIAN TAK YAN WONG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 7th of March 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019

BURK CHUNG FOUNDATION

The Annual Report of the Burk Chung Foundation, 465 Clementina Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 is available at the Foundation’s office for inspection during regular business hours. Copies of the Annual Report have been furnished to the Attorney General of the State of California. Burk Chung, Trustee. Fiscal year ended November 30, 2018.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038485000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO COUNSELING & CONSULTING, 55 NEW MONTGOMERY ST #323, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARAH COX. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/18/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/18/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019

<< Legal Notices

14 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038484300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ENLIVEN HEALTH AND WELLNESS, 582 MARKET ST #314, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BETHANY RICHARDSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/18/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038483000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JM DISCOUNT LIQUORS, 3801 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAWANDEEP SINGH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038473800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PHO LIEN PHAT VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT, 2109 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HOA TU LAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/14/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038449400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EDNA SPECIAL LIGHTING EFFECTS; EDNA SLE; EDNA, 2621 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRUCE JOHNSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/28/18.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038468800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION BLUE, 1384 11TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALEXIS NAHABEDIAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/15/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/09/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038478700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MFY TALENT, 355 1ST ST #S1505, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL YAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/16/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038474400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOB HILL PSYCHOTHERAPY, 842 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARC ANTHONY ROMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/14/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/14/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038469500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VEGA PROJECT, 298 FAIR OAK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JEFFREY M. CALDWELL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 04, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038451000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OBLIQUE CITY, 1143 SHRADER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed SHAUM MEHRA, DAN HOGMAN & SEPIDEH MAJIDI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/28/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/31/18.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038479500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GREAT ESCAPE FIRE ESCAPE SERVICE, 2277 MCKINNON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TRALOCH HOLDINGS (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/16/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038483500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DROPBAGTOUS, 900 FOLSOM ST #153, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed STARTUPMOZO, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/17/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038483200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JJ O’SULLIVAN ELECTRIC, 36 AGNON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DOWNEY ELECTRIC, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/16/06. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038478000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 7 NAIL SPA, 4907 A MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NEW 7 NAILS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/15/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038483600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CIAO BELLA NAILS SALON, 2277 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed PHONG THANH DOAN & TRANG KIEU DANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038460300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE VALENCIA ROOM, 647 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 1750 CROCKETT LANE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038461900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BUSTER’S CHEESE STEAK, 366 COLUMBUS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PHILLIES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038479200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROY; ROY-A-HOSPITALITY DESIGN STUDIO, 3616 LAWTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HANNAH COLLINS DESIGNS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/19/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/16/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038467000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOGWOOD BOTANICALS, 2442 GREAT HWY, #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DIANA UNLIMITED LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/09/19.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 07, 14, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036482700

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: HAPPY DONUTS, 299 ELLIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by RATHA VANN. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/14/15.

JAN 24, 31, FEB 04, 14, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554563

In the matter of the application of: HIROKO CAROLINE WONG, 509 LINCOLN WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner HIROKO CAROLINE WONG, is requesting that the name HIROKO CAROLINE WONG, be changed to CAROLINE HIROKO WONG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 7th of March 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038498800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHOSEN ROOTER & PLUMBING, 463 23RD AVE #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DENIS TSEYREF. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038490500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EXCELSIOR LIQUOR, 4501 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ABDO ALAWDI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038455100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALFARO CLEANING SERVICES, 358 PARIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FANNY ALFARO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/03/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/03/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038484900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GET IT DONE; GETITDONE, 350 TURK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAPHNE JOMO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/18/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038488800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BANOGUE BUILDING SUPPLIES, 2406 42ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NATASHA M. MCPARLAND. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038479800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BSR SHOP, 709 LARKIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed QUOC NAM LE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/16/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038480000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A TWIN SWEET, 709 LARKIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BINH VAN NGUYEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/16/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038470000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAMEN CITY, 1398 GRANT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed WJH ENTERPRISE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038487000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TYCOON KITCHEN, 425 MISSION ST #121, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MR. EAST INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/22/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038487600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO ARTS HIGH SCHOOL; SAN FRANCISCO ARTS ACADEMY, 1950 PAGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INSTITUTE FOR ARTS & CULTURE, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/22/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038486200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TEAMLOGIC IT #60537, 12 GEARY ST #401, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JCE SERVICES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038492700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GLOWING, 3281 20TH ST # 250J, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GLOWING INVESTMENT INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038491400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LUXE PREMIER TRAVEL, 601 VAN NESS AVE #3145, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GREENFORCE WINDOWPRO (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038491500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOLIOAVENUE PUBLISHING SERVICE, 601 VAN NESS AVE #3145, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GREENFORCE WINDOWPRO (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038458700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DAVE’S FOOD STORE, 1601 20TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DAVE’S FOOD INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/04/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/04/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038489300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OPUS JEWELERS, 888 BRANNAN ST #1150, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed PETER K. CHEN & FLORENCE K. CHEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038485200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OPTIONONE CARE AT HOME, 649 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed OPTIONONE HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/28/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/18/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038485900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WEST PORTAL ANTIQUES, 254 WEST PORTAL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed WEST PORTAL ANTIQUES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/19/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019___ FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038482700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ERNEST GOODS COMPANY, 1468 WALLER ST, #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ERNEST GOODS COMPANY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/09/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/17/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019___ FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038490400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SMOOCH TARTSHOP, 1 HAWTHORNE ST, UNIT15A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SMOOCH BAKEHOUSE, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/15/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019__ FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038493000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SFNEWA, 407 ELLIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NEWA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/19.

JAN 31, FEB 07, 14, 21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038509100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MASSAGELOGIC BODYWORK, 582 MARKET ST, #908, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARRIE ANN STONE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/30/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038473900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INCA JUICES, 2301 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DORA J. PAREDES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038509000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038497000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GROVE ENGINEERING, 2038 19TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GEAROID CROWE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOMEOSTASIS, 200 BRANNAN ST #205, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IRENE SLEIGHT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/11/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038499800

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038519700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOGG BOOKS, 2200 PACIFIC AVE #4D, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALISON FOGG CARLSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/13/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/29/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ELLISON ROOFING; ACE ROOFING, 130 STAPLES AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ELLISON J. MA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/18/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038480100

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038513700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EARTHWHILE ENDEAVORS; EARTHBATH; EARTHWHILE PET CARE, 231 9TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EARTHWHILE ENDEAVORS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/05/95. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/16/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038508400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GASPARE’S PIZZA HOUSE AND RESTAURANT, 5546 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INDELICATO, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/06/85. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038508000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LINGUA FRACA TUTORING, 2 PLAZA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAHAF ABUOBEID. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038478200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARIANNA TRADING COMPANY, 70 LAPIDGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GEORGE S. MENZELOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/28/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/06/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038512600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PARALEGAL HOPE, 407 CAMBRIDGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HOPE ARNOLD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/05/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038515000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WORKOUT ON THE HILL, 370 THE ALAMEDA, SAN ANSELMO, CA 94960. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KRISTINA SCHUBERT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/06/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038486700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NEXT STEPS TOURS, 3099 MARKET ST #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PHILIP DOBBS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/15/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/15/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISS TOMATO SANDWICH SHOP / GEARY STREET, 577 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NABEEL ABDALLAH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038486900

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038486800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JUNKLY, 3207 JENNINGS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JULIAN BRADFORD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038499600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACE ACCOUNTING & MANAGEMENT, 1874 11TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM C. CHANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/07/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/29/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038493100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OUT OF THE FRYING PAN PRODUCTIONS, 1479 14TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed LORRAINE HESS, KEITH FULTON & ERIN CRYSDALE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/24/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038488400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WHOLESOME BAKERY, 295 DIVISADERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HARPER RYAN HOLDINGS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038509200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MASSAGE LOGIC, 787 BRANNAN ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MASSAGE LOGIC LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/22/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038501700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SF QUEST KIDS LLC, 351 5TH AVE #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SF QUEST KIDS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/30/19.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037813700

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: LITTLE KITE, 3515 20TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ALICE HO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/23/17.

FEB 07, 14, 21, 28, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554609

In the matter of the application of: NATHAN LEE RICHARDSON, 573 DOLORES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner NATHAN LEE RICHARDSON, is requesting that the name NATHAN LEE RICHARDSON, be changed to CAMILO MOSES VILLALPANDO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 21st of March 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISS TOMATO SANDWICH SHOP, 388 MARKET ST #106, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAREK SAIDI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038498500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HONG KONG ALTERATIONS & TAILORING, 1832 BUCHANAN ST, #D, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARRIE LAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/28/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038520400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO TREASURY SYMPOSIUM, 1750 GRANT AVE #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO TREASURY MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/19/97. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038488300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GLYMPS, 1238 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CHATZAPP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038509500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHEESEQUAKES! 1 FERRY BUILDING KIOSK 06, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CHEESEQUAKES! LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/05/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038510100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JOLI BIJOU SALON, 2550 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HAIR BY GEORGETTE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/04/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/19.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035767400

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: JOLI BIJOU, 2550 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by MADALENA G. SEMEDO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/07/14.

FEB 14, 21, 28, MAR 07, 2019

ebar.com

Irish eyes

Choral master

Grand daddy

Gender benders

Vol. 49 • No. 7 • February 14-20, 2019

Caleb Deschanel, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

www.ebar.com/arts

Turning away from tyranny

by David Lamble

n Germany’s official entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar “Never Look Away,” director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck takes us through a horrific episode from the WWII genocidal tragedy known as the Holocaust. See page 22 >>

Tom Schilling as Kurt Barnert in “Never Look Away.”

Do we hear a waltz? by Philip Campbell

Joe Giammarco

tephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music,” inspired by an Ingmar Bergman movie, endures as one of his most successful shows. It’s that “Send in the Clowns” musical, as marketers are quick to remind, with an amusing book by Hugh Wheeler that perfectly suits the composer’s knowing wink at Mozart and the frothy conventions of classic operetta. San Francisco’s Lamplighters Music Theatre, world-renowned purveyor of Gilbert & Sullivan, has stepped outside its staple repertoire with a lush revival, currently in a four-city run, which ends this weekend at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. See page 16 >>

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Amy Bouchard, Jonathan Smucker, Elana Cowen, Amy Foote, and Chris Uzelac in Lamplighters Music Theatre’s “A Little Night Music.”

<< Out There

16 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Out of the city & into the sheets Joni forever

is an important part of any getaway. So we were lucky to get to stay at the Olea Hotel, a charming boutique hotel a bit off the beaten track in the quaint Sonoma hamlet of Glen Ellen. The Olea has been completely refurbished following smoke damage from the devastating October 2017 Northern California wildfires. Nestled into a hillside and surrounded by ancient oak and olive trees in the heart of wine country, the inn boasts a new pool, hot tub and fire

pit, fresh landscaping, and interior updates to the entire property. Our room had a cathedral-high ceiling, a good firm bed, mid-centurymodern light fixtures, a gas-jet fireplace and a balcony. The bathroom offered a rainforest shower head and a heated floor. We had dinner reservations at the nearby rustic restaurant Glen Ellen Star and were glad we did, because every table was full. Our first course was “ribolita,” a Tuscan bread soup with hearty vegetables served in a sourdough bread bowl. Next came striped bass “a la bouillabaisse,” with mussels, potato, artichoke, fennel & chorizo. We rounded it out with a side of Brussels sprouts in brown sugar bacon marmalade, and washed it all down with a flask of French rose. Every stay at the Olea comes with a chef-prepared breakfast, which turned out to be quite hearty. Two courses: first, a bowl of warm oats, baked apples, housemade yogurt and walnut streusel; then, gingerbread waffles with pumpkin crème fraiche mousse, strawberries and maple butter syrup, and a fried egg topping a squash and potato rosti, sautéed kale and mushrooms, caramelized shallots and housemade sage ginger sausage. Yum to the nth degree. Glen Ellen, we’ll be back when next we need to get away!

“A Strange Boy”), Norah Jones (“Court & Spark”), Diana Krall (most Joni-like, “For the Roses,” “Amelia”), Kris Kristofferson (most touching, duet with Brandi Carlile on “A Case of You”), Graham Nash (his Joni-love song “Our House”), Rufus Wainwright (looking like Orson Welles, pitch-perfect on “Blue,” “All I Want”), Emmylou Harris (somber on “The Magdalene Laundries”), Chaka Khan (ecstatic “Help Me”), Glen Hansard (great “Coyote”), Brandi Carlile (“Down to You”) and Los Lobos with La Marisoul (“Dreamland”). At concert’s end, all the stars sang “Big Yellow Taxi” and presented Joni with a birthday cake. Though she didn’t speak, it was great to see her, having survived a brain aneurysm a few years back, fully present for her tribute, and triumphant. (Coming out on CD & DVD next month.) PS: Don’t forget the series of Nite Out dates in this year’s San Francisco Ballet season, three Friday night performances and post-show parties for the LGBTQ community. The revelry begins downstairs in the Opera House after final curtain with specialty cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, music, and gay dancing. Sometimes SFB dancers appear after they shed their tights. If you see OT, come over and say hi! (Feb. 15, March 29, April 19) www.sfballet.org.t

a special place in the wordsmith’s hall of fame. And, contrary to some critics, his music is full of catchy tunes and haunting expressivity. The Lamplighters and Stephen Sondheim is really a match made in operetta heaven. Hearing a cast of accomplished singer actors actually sing the lilting “Night Music” score in the rich Jonathan Tunick orchestrations is reason enough to attend, but the Lamplighters’ commitment to high production values sets the seal on a satisfying revival. New Lamplighters artistic director Dennis M. Lickteig deftly moves the large ensemble through designer Brian Watson’s functional and attractive set, often in waltz tempo, smoothly choreographed by Jayne Zaban. Brittany Mellerson’s evocative lighting highlights Judith Jackson’s sumptuous costumes and the expert wigs and makeup by

Kerry Rider-Kuhn and David Kirby, respectively. A quintet of liebeslieder singers – Amy Bouchard, Elana Cowen, Amy Foote, Jonathan Smucker and Chris Uzelac – starts the music, vocalizing the nostalgic Overture with refined sophistication. They return frequently as an urbane Greek chorus, commenting on and participating in the action. The Night Waltz that follows introduces players in the masque as the full Lamplighters Orchestra swells sonorously to Conductor/ Music Director Karl Pister’s lead. His attention to detail and sympathetic support bring fresh insight to the subtleties of the score. Like Bergman’s “Smiles of a Summer Night,” Wheeler’s libretto focuses on the endearing humanity of the characters, gently observing their anxious and often comical at-

tempts at finding love on Midsummer’s Eve. The young, middle-aged, and old are humorously examined, but director Lickteig permits contemporary attitudes towards social inequalities between genders and classes to show through. Adultery, female subservience and macho bullying are mined for laughs like most romantic farces, but this “A Little Night Music” is more than the sum of its pleasurable parts. Each memorable song gets the deluxe treatment, and “A Weekend in the Country,” the intricate Finale to Act I, would have Sondheim himself chuckling at his cleverness. Jennifer Ashworth stands splendidly at the center of the plot as the famous actress Desiree Armfeldt. Her carefree approach to career and other women’s husbands is wearing thin, and she’s ready to settle down with her adoring daughter Fredrika (sweet and pure-voiced Ella Bleu Bradford), retired courtesan mother Madame Armfeldt (a regally jaded Barbara Heroux) and lost love Fredrik Egerman, portrayed with droll understatement by Robby Stafford. The trouble is that lawyer Egerman has married a woman more than half his age, the stubbornly virginal Anne, delightfully sung and acted, in her Lamplighters debut, by Josselyn Ryder. Living with the newlyweds is Fredrik’s pious (and horny) seminarian son Henrik. Tenor Samuel Faustine, ris-

ing star on the Bay Area scene and Lamplighters regular, gets some of the show’s biggest laughs as he pines for his stepmother and derides his hypocritical elders. Secondary roles are vividly portrayed by Cary Ann Rosko as Anne’s friend, the disillusioned Countess Charlotte, married to military peacock Count Carl-Magnus, who openly philanders with Desiree. William Giammona is funny and convincingly pompous as the selfish louse, but Rosko wins compassion as she stands by her man, dishing out sarcastic zingers. As Petra, the Egermans’ saucy maid, Lindsay Stark voices the showstopping “The Miller’s Son” in Act II. The song celebrates making the most of circumstances, and Stark belts it with full-throated enthusiasm and a touch of rueful wisdom. When the final curtain falls, the clowns have all been sent in, and everyone has received a smile from the summer night. G&S couldn’t have tied it up better. It’s “The Marriage of Figaro” meets Anton Chekhov meets Ingmar Bergman. Sondheim and Wheeler’s entrancing musical fusion has become another jewel in the Lamplighters’ crown.t

Courtesy Olea

The Olea Hotel is a tranquil getaway in Glen Ellen, Sonoma County.

by Roberto Friedman

ven though Out There is a very urban person – urbane, even – we know that it’s very important to get out of the big city every now and then. So we try to get away, and high on our list of destinations are the resorts, eateries and wineries of Sonoma County. As immortal wit Fran Lebowitz once wrote, “Some people want to go back to nature. I want to go back to the hotel.” A good hotel

Little Night Music

From page 15

Catching the new production in a Super Bowl Sunday matinee at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theatre in San Francisco offered an elegant alternative to nachos and beer. The Lamplighters were serving champagne and caviar instead, to a house packed with Stephen Sondheim fans. The connection between Sondheim and G&S seems fairly obvious, but the dyspeptic old genius has actually expressed an indifference to the legendary pair. Never mind, Sondheim and W.S. Gilbert share a gift for patter songs and parody, and he has made catty remarks about Oscar Hammerstein, Noël Coward, and Lorenz Hart, too. We give him a pass for the grouchy opinions. The virtuosity of his own invention has earned him

N EW CO N S ERVATO RY TH E ATR E CE N TE R In Association with Season Producers: LOWELL KIMBLE TED TUCKER

Executive Producers: CHARLES MATTESON & OAKLEY STEPHENS STEAMWORKS - BERKELEY

Producers: DAVID MEDERS KEN PRAG & STEVE COLLINS

Presents

Our dear friend Billy and Out There are both “Joni heads” from way back. He reminded us that we once wrote we could start a support group for gay men who love Joni Mitchell – too much. So when we got word of a screening of the concert film “Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration” last week at the Smith Rafael Film Center, we made sure we were there. Filmed over two nights at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, the film boasts an amazing lineup of performers paying tribute to the legendary singer-songwriter in person. Singing songs from every phase of Mitchell’s career are James Taylor (“River,” “Woodstock”), Seal (“Both Sides Now” at Joni’s request,

“A Little Night Music” continues at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, Feb. 16-17. Info: www.lamplighters.org.

Mar 1-31, 2019 By Mark Gerrard Directed by Becca Wolff HBO's Sex and the City meets HBO's Looking meets NCTC Ben Brantley’s Top Ten in 2015 in THE NEW YORK TIMES

“…some of the funniest dialogue in town”

“Mark Gerrard’s sad and hilarious—sadlarious?— new play”

—NEW YORK TIMES

—VULTURE

Originally Produced in New York City by The New Group: Scott Elliot, Artistic Director, Adam, Bernstein, Executive Director Permission granted by ABRAMS ARTISTS AGENCY, 275 Seventh Ave./26th Floor, New York, NY 10001. All inquiries concerning rights to the Play shall be addressed to the above.

BUY TICKETS AT NCTCSF.ORG BOX OFFICE: 415.861.8972 25 VAN NESS AVE AT MARKET ST

Joe Giammarco

Jennifer Ashworth and Robert Stafford in Lamplighters Music Theatre’s “A Little Night Music.”

Theatre>>

February 14-20, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Rory O’Malley on shamrocks & pansies by Jim Gladstone

hen Broadway veteran Rory O’Malley, a Tony nominee as gay Elder McKinley in “Book of Mormon,” comes to town later this month, he’ll drop in on a couple of earlier chapters of his life. He plans to stop by the Orpheum Theater to greet friends in the cast and crew of “Hamilton.” Two years ago, after a stint in the role on Broadway, he played King George in the first touring company of the show when it settled into San Francisco for a four-month run. But the way-back machine will really kick into hyperdrive when O’Malley takes the stage at Feinstein’s at the Nikko for a two-night run of “Pub Crawl,” his deeply personal one-man show, on February 22 & 23. In it, the 38-year-old spins a pint-pulling, tear-jerking yarn that follows him from pre-school to his late teenage years. “It’s a story,” he says, “about growing up the son of a single mom in Cleveland, Ohio. My mom had grown up in Cleveland, too, in a close-knit Irish neighborhood. She, her siblings and a close group of their friends have stuck together ever since they were teenagers, like one big extended clan. They went into the work force right out of high school. And they were weekend warriors in the pubs. “My mom got pregnant with me

in a one-night-stand with a visiting Irishman,” O’Malley says. “She worked in an office daytimes, and in a pub at night to make ends meet, so that’s where I was raised.” Unlike most Broadway performers who put together a cabaret act, O’Malley has not a single showtune in his set. “It just doesn’t fit,” he explains. “This story is set in a pub, and I want to pull you into that world: U2, Van Morrison, Mumford and Sons. Songs inspired by traditional Irish music.” But O’Malley says it’s important for audiences to know that they’re not in for a straight shot of Irish whiskey. His story has several twists. He won’t share them all in advance, but the first goes like this: “My mom picked me up from daycare one day. She said she needed to talk to me about my uncle – not a blood uncle, but the most charismatic man among all of her friends, a firefighter and pub owner. ‘He’s very sick,’ she said. ‘He’s gay, and he has AIDS.’ “She didn’t go into much detail. Whatever I knew was from the stories I’d been seeing about Ryan White on TV. But what she did was very quickly take the conversation somewhere else. ‘He wants to make us a family,” she said. ‘This is his dying wish.’ “It was the 1980s,” recalls O’Malley. “He wasn’t out to anyone. He was a gay man who went to

Catholic Mass every Sunday. And he wanted us to be able to receive his pension. I was the ring-bearer at their wedding at St. Malachy’s church. We were a family, and we were loved. “I was nine years old when he died in 1990. I was able to go to the private boys’ high school in Cleveland. And now I’m trying to live the legacy, to live the life he wasn’t allowed to have.” In 2009, along with fellow actor Gavin Creel and production coordinator Jenny Kanelos, O’Malley started Broadway Impact, a political awareness and fundraising organization that worked in support of marriage equality. He has also been involved with countless AIDS and LGBTQ charity projects. O’Malley has only performed “Pub Crawl” three times prior to this month’s engagement at Feinstein’s, and the last of those was almost five years ago. But in November, O’Malley and his husband Gerold Schroeder adopted a newborn boy. “Time is so valuable to me, and I really want to do work that is worth my time,” O’Malley says. “I feel drawn to this story again.”t Courtesy the subject

Broadway actor Rory O’Malley: “Now I’m trying to live the legacy.”

Rory O’Malley in “Pub Crawl,” Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason St., SF. Feb. 22-23. Tickets from $55: (415) 394-1167, www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com.

Queer historical choral work out on CD

Matthew Murphy

“Unbreakable” composer Andrew Lippa.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

“U

nbreakable,” an epic choral work performed with San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus last summer, is now available on CD and streaming platforms. The piece, which had its world premiere at the Nourse Theatre in June 2018, features music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, the composer of the groundbreaking work “I Am Harvey Milk.” The episodic work recounts little-known chapters in LGBTQ history from 1900 to the present day. Among the stories it shares is that of Bayard Rustin, a sometimes forgotten gay African American man who worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King in organizing the historic March On Washington

in 1963. Another is the life of Sylvia Rivera, a gay and transgender activist from the Stonewall era. “Unbreakable” first came about when Dr. Timothy Seelig, SFGMC artistic director, approached Lippa and asked him to create a new work that the chorus could perform in conjunction with their 40th anniversary. In an interview, Lippa told the B.A.R. that he was given carte blanche to create whatever he wanted. “I wanted to write something about the LGBTQ community, and I thought about our history,” Lippa said. “I thought of August Wilson, who wrote his cycle of 10 plays about the 20th-century African American experience. I thought, this has never been done with LGBTQ

life, and that was what gave me the idea for ‘Unbreakable.’ I was looking for LGBTQ stories, the good, the bad and the ugly, the happy, the sad, and everything in-between. Some of them are well-known stories, and some are hardly-known stories. I wanted to combine them all into one evening so the audience could get the breadth of some of the experiences of the LGBTQ community throughout the decades.” In addition to the vocals of the Gay Men’s Chorus, “Unbreakable” features solo performances by Broadway’s Britney Coleman, tenor Marcus J. Paige, soprano Lisa Vroman and Lippa himself. All of them portray historical figures whose stories are told in the piece. One of the lesser-known figures brought back to life is Jane Addams (18601935), a lesbian who won the Nobel Prize in 1930. In 1889, Addams cofounded Hull House, a settlement house to help the poor in Chicago. “She couldn’t be out as a lesbian in the early 1900s,” Lippa said. “Yet she did all this incredible social activism work helping so many people.” “Unbreakable” ends with a song called “Good Things Take Time,” an idea Lippa said he got from a greeting card. “Education, relationships, progressiveness and democracy take time,” he said. “At the very beginning of ‘Good Things Take Time’ the chorus sings, ‘I’m not afraid of what’s to come, I know there’s work I still can do. With you my hands are strong, with you it can’t be wrong, I’m right where I belong.’ Community is the answer, and the question. Can you be part of a community? Can you hold together and be unbreakable? What makes one unbreakable? And the answer is that we just have to hold hands and work towards something better.” Lippa noted that of all the stories in “Unbreakable,” his favorite is the fourth, “Already Dead.” It’s the story of a young man at Harvard in 1920 who was accused by the school of being guilty of “homosexual practices.”

“This boy asks the question, Why does it feel like I’m already dead?” said Lippa. “What does that mean? Are you dead emotionally and spiritually? Are you in hell right now?” The chorus relentlessly sings, “Guilty of homosexual practices” as the boy sings, “I’m not alone, I know I’m OK.” Lippa said that his hope for “Unbreakable” is that it will open minds. He hopes that listeners will get a sense of personal and communal responsibility, community involvement and community engagement. “The whole point of gay and lesbian choruses across the country is to present excellent music, but also to create community,” he said. “Both for the LGBTQ community and the community at large, so that people can say ‘Hey, we’re fine, we’re people, we have feelings, we’re not going to hurt you, we’re not going to

take away your religious liberties.’” Lippa is delighted that “Unbreakable” is coming out on CD. It’s his 11th CD, and he’s touched by the fact that he’s created a number of works over the past 25 years that people are interested in. He recalls that when his first CD came out in 1996, his father went to a record store to purchase the disc, recognizing that his son’s musical career was real and not a hobby. Whenever Lippa produces a CD, he said, it feels like that moment with his father. “I’m a professional, and I make things, and I hope that other people can get something out of them,” he said. “It’s a wonderful way to live your life.”t Unbreakable is available at Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify and iTunes.

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<< Fine Arts

18 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Gender fluidity & mutable identity by Sura Wood

an unseen figure on its hands and knees; a pair of how Me as I Want hands edges beyond the curto Be Seen,” a scintain, and fingers from a third tillating in-house exhibitease a back flap, hinting the tion filled with the new veil is about to be lifted and and different, is, by turns, the truth exposed. revelatory and unsettling, A number of the show’s and one of the most inworks concern the body, triguing shows mounted distorted internal percepby the Contemporary tions of it or dysmorphia, Jewish Museum in a while. and the involuntary visceral Curated by Natasha Matresponse to perceived deteson, it showcases the formity in oneself or others. path-breaking work of Isabel Yellin’s soft corpotwo French artists, activreal sculptures, composed of ists and card-carrying contorted limbs and torsos Surrealists: queer phoand given incongruously tographer Claude Cahun upbeat names, are emblemCourtesy CJM-SF (born Lucy Schwob into atic of dysphoria, thwarted Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob) a family of Jewish inteldesire and general physical and Marcel Moore (Suzanne lectuals) and her longtime discomfort. “Erin/Heather” Malherbe), “Untitled [I am in partner in love and art, seem to be connected by an training don’t kiss me]” (1927). Marcel Moore (nee Suumbilical cord, and “Penny,” zanne Malherbe). Their a short stuffed sculpture early-20th-century colwith two stubby legs and no “Perched” (2016), a large laborations produced neck, covered in mustard-colored canvas of collaged handmade Don Ross imaginative black & white leatherette and urethane, could be paper and paint. On a backportraits of Cahun. Radi- Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob) and Marcel Moore a science experiment gone wrong or ground of circus colors, eyes cal for her time, she has (Suzanne Malherbe), “Untitled” (1928). Gelatin a primitive creature that wandered peer out as the saucy central attracted a cult following silver print. out of the ocean too soon. “Felix,” figure sits with her back to a since being rediscovered made of nylon and corset boning, is mirror offering ops for selfover 20 years ago. Wearing sans head, limp-legged and pinned admiration. In a near-perfect roughly one-third of the 90 pieces masks and assuming a variety of to the wall on its side. Other sculpmatch-up, “Self ’s Sunshine” (2016), in the show, they’re exhibited in inguises and expressions of ambigutures look like refugees from nighta collaged fabric and paper work of formal conversation with artworks ous gender, she inhabits simultamares or botched surgeries. a woman with pouty blue lips and by 10 contemporary artists, many neous selves and a world that’s a Oakland artist Rhonda Holbera nimbus of curly hair, is shown of them knockouts who, in a myrimovable feast of personas. Some ton is represented by nine instalalongside a picture of Cahun, whose ad of wildly inventive ways, explore are mischievous, such as one in lations, each more fascinating and wavy mop frames her face like a the concept of mutable identity. which Cahun is lodged in an open mind-boggling than the next. Too halo. In the gender-bending “Uncupboard; others are mysterious, bad there weren’t more. Among Young Joon Kwak, founder of titled (I am training don’t kiss like “Portrait of Claude naked near other things, she envisions a world Mutant Salon, a traveling beauty me)” (1927), Cahun is an impish rocks” (1930), where she’s face where the human body is obsolete, platform for queer, trans, femme, bodybuilder in full face makeup and down in the sand, seaweed twined a relief or a disaster, depending POC artists and performers, riffs on lipstick. Spit-curls coyly pasted on around her body. Is she a goddess, a on one’s point of view, but at least the Greek deity Hermaphroditus, her forehead, flat-chested with fake beached mermaid, or is it Deborah there’d be no hay fever. For the the embodiment of fluid sex and nipples, and heart shapes painted Kerr washed in by the tide after the digital animation “The Ground gender. Kwak’s sculpture “Heron her cheeks, she’s a muscled Betty passionate lip-lock with Lancaster Was Never Stable in the First Place” maphroditus’s Reveal I” (2017), a Boop with crossed legs and barbells in “From Here to Eternity?” Yes, the (2015), she tried on football padwave-like arc of fiberglass cloth and emblazoned with Totor and Popol, time frame of the latter is off by a ding and riot gear, 3-D scanned her resin coated in gold enamel, relates the names of popular comic book few years, but these small, potent, body, then animated the scan walkto Cahun’s masks and intentional figures of the time created by Herge staged images stimulate unaning forward, combining movement enigma. Installed on the floor, the of TinTin fame. The photograph is ticipated associations. Constituting of soldiers marching and fashion metallic surface appears to harbor displayed next to Tschabalala Self ’s

“S

models strolling down the runway. The result: a plaster-white, robotic space soldier of indeterminate gender, wearing breastplate armor and arm and shin guards, its face halfblown off a la “The Terminator” on a bad day. Soulless and unstoppable, it strides relentlessly toward the viewer. Even spookier is “The Italian Navigator Has Landed in the New World” (2014), for which Holberton also used keyframe animation techniques similar to puppetry or stop-motion. Headless, missing part of an arm, and the flesh-tone of raw chicken, a limber figure resembling a ripped egg carton goes through the paces of a virtual yoga routine, a spectacle disturbing in a way that’s difficult to overstate. South African photographer Zanele Muholi, who established a forum for queer and visual media activists seeking “to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa at the height of hate crimes in SA,” contributes a succession of powerful black women in glossy, staged self-portraits. In a gesture aimed at reclaiming their blackness, they’ve darkened their skin and stare down the camera with an air of defiance, each an imposing presence to be reckoned with. The same could be said of Cahun and Moore, rebels to the end whose in-your-face, fuck-you attitude extended to the Nazis. During WWII, the couple lived on Jersey, a Nazioccupied Channel Island, where they smuggled treason-inciting notes into soldiers’ quarter, acts for which they were arrested, imprisoned and sentenced to death. Fortunately, the war ended before the execution could be carried out. A 1945 photograph taken upon their release shows a gray-haired Cahun with a Nazi badge clenched between her teeth, as if to say: Up yours!t Through July 7. thecjm.org

Sundance winners by David Lamble

very year the Sundance Film Festival sets the agenda for independent cinema in the U.S. Here’s a rundown of 18 Sundance 2019 winners, along with a brief description of why they stood out among the thousands of submissions received by the Sundance judges every year.

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the totoaba fish, described by some as the “cocaine of the sea.” “Extremely Wicked” Netflix is close to a deal for Zac Efron’s drama about serial killer Ted Bundy. “Clemency” Years of carrying out death-row executions have taken a toll on warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares for another execution, Williams confronts her emotional demons. Winner of the U.S. dramatic competition, AfricanAmerican filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu directs Alfre Woodard as the warden who connects with a death-row inmate. “One Child Nation” The top U.S. documentary honors went to Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s personal look at the suffering and aftermath of China’s infamous populationcontrol policy, through co-director Wang’s family. “Honeyland” A deft portrait of a Macedonian beekeeper struggling to defend her livelihood earned three jury prizes. “Brittany Runs a Marathon” Paul Downs Colaizzo’s weight-loss/ soul-gain dramedy scored one of the biggest deals from Amazon Studios. Rachel Lears’ “Knock Down the House,” about the election of Congresswoman Alexandria OcasioCortez and her fellow Democratic disruptors, was another Sundance winner. “Honey Boy” One of three special jury prize winners in the U.S. dramatic competition, helmer Alma Har’el declared, “I’m really proud to be here in a year where 44% of the directors are women,” adding, “The hustle is real. We’re here, we’re ready.

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Alfre Woodard stars in director Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency.”

Stop sending us to shadow fucking white men!” Chiwetel Ejiofor’s “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” won the $20,000 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, for a film that focuses on science or technology. “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” Joe Talbot won for his film in which a young man searches for home in a changing city that seems to have left him behind. This Bay Area drama stars Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors and Danny Glover. “The Souvenir” won the World Cinema Dramatic prize. A child actor works to mend his relationship with his hard-drinking, lawbreaking father. Director Alma Har’el also won the Special Jury Award for Vision and Craft. “Share” Pippa Bianco won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award; Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance for Rhianne Barreto. A teen discovers a disturb-

ing video from a night she doesn’t remember. “American Factory” Steven Bognar & Julia Riechert won for this doc set in post-industrial Ohio, where a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned GM plant, hiring 2,000 blue-collar Americans. “Always in Season” Jacqueline Olive received a Special Jury Award for Moral Urgency for this story about 17-year-old Lennon Lacy, found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014. His mother’s search for justice and reconciliation begins. “Jawline” Liza Mandelup received a Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmakers. The film follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester, a rising star in the live-broadcast ecosystem who built his following on wide-eyed optimism and teen girl lust, as he tries to escape a dead-end life in rural Tennessee. “Apollo 11” Todd Douglas Miller won a Special Jury Award for Editing. A look at the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon led by commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin. “Midnight Family” Cinematographer-writer-director Luke Lorentzen won for this study of one of Mexico City’s wealthiest neighborhoods, where the Ochoa family runs a private ambulance for patients in urgent need of help. “We Are Little Zombies” A Special Jury Award for Originality was given to Makoto Nagahisa’s film. A quartet of Japanese orphans forms a rock band.t

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<< TV

20 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Lavender Tube in Black History Month by Victoria A. Brownworth

t’s Black History Month – unless you’re in Virginia, in which case it’s Blackface History Month. We were raised by socialist Civil Rights worker parents, so we don’t get how or why this was ever a thing. We’ve never been to a party where anyone wore blackface, and we’ve never known anyone who wore blackface. Seeing a new story nearly every night on TV news in recent days about another politician having worn blackface, approved it for a yearbook, or just shrugged it off with an “it was a long time ago” dismissal has been a reminder of how close we remain to America’s worst legacies of institutional racism. That legacy is often highlighted by TV news coverage, which is itself frequently racist in how it approaches and televises news involving black and brown people. After black gay actor Jussie Smollett was attacked in Chicago on Jan. 29, bleach poured on him and a noose tied around his neck, we watched a roundtable discussion on Logo TV called, “Under Attack: Black and Queer in America.” The show was described by Logo as “LGBTQ artists, leaders, and intellectuals within the black queer community address the attack on Jussie Smollett (“Empire”) and how it is endemic of a larger problem facing queer people of color in America, while placing the attack in the context of lynching and this country’s history of anti-black terrorism.” “Under Attack” premiered on Feb. 6, and it was painful viewing. The immediacy of fear that these black queer men and women felt after learning of the assault is something all of us who are queer can relate to. But that legacy of lynching, exemplified by the noose around Smollett’s neck – the historical triggering engendered by that incident, the echo of the 4,000 black men and women lynched in America now memorialized at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Alabama – we can’t know how that feels if we aren’t black. The show of solidarity for Smollett among fellow actors of all races, as well as politicians and presidential hopefuls, was extraordinary. Even Pres. Trump, whose racebaiting comments have been linked to other attacks, told the press when asked for his response, “That I can tell you is horrible. It doesn’t get worse.” Chicago affiliate ABC7 on Feb.

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what do you think is going to happen? Kids are going to be abused, and they are going to kill themselves, and people are going to be beaten on the street. I have traveled the world, and I have met the most marginalized people you can meet. I am lucky to have this time and the privilege to say this. This needs to fucking stop.” The audience responded with wild applause. Part of “connecting the dots” is representation. We felt such a swell of solidarity, seeing all those left DMZ women dressed in suffragist white at the SOTU. RepBlack gay actor Jussie Smollett (“Empire”). resentation matters. Part of why that attack on Smollett 8 aired an interview with the man loomed so large is that we see him who called 911 the night the “Emevery week on “Empire.” We’ve been pire” actor was assaulted. Frank watching him for several years. He Gatson is a well-known choreografeels familiar to us. We need those pher who has worked with Jennifer connections with TV characters. Lopez and Beyoncé. He is Smollett’s Think of all the years where there creative director. Of the attack he were no black characters, let alone said, “I feel so selfish I didn’t walk queer ones. We need to see ourselves with him that night. I’m the one that represented. called 911. I’m the one who took him to the hospital. And it was so scary, man. And I was responsible. I said, let’s call the cops. Let’s go to the hospital.” According to Chicago police, Gatson was there when Smollett came home with a rope around his neck and a cut on his face. Gatson said, “I’m just glad I was the old man at his apartment when he got there. That was a scary night, my stomach was numb.” Freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the first Muslim woman elected to Congress, tweeted about the incident, “When one of the most famous black and gay men in America is not safe, the message is clearer than it has ever been. The dangerous lies spewing from the right wing are killing & hurting our people. Thinking of you, Jussie Smollett, and my LGBTQ neighbors.” The revelations about politicians with a history of blackface so soon after the Smollett attack underscored Tlaib’s message. Who is safe in this climate? How many are hiding a racist history, when even those on our side of the aisle have been found complicit in the most egregious aspects of structural racism? Watching the glib news conference on CNN by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, where he offered to dance like Michael Jackson, was stunning. Just days earlier, when Northam stood so declaratively in defense of a woman’s right to choose, we had thought of him as one of the good guys. “Under Attack” asks us to see through a different lens: a black and queer lens. A lens that shows the heartbreaking reality black queers like the panel and Smollett must endure. As Tlaib noted, if someone of Smollett’s celebrity is not safe, where does that leave the rest of us? (If you don’t have Logo TV, you can watch “Under Attack” on YouTube.) Ellen Page asked that question when she appeared on “The Stephen Colbert Show” after the attack. In a deeply emotional interview Page told Colbert, “I am fired up tonight, it feels impossible not to feel this way right now, with the president and Vice Pres. Mike Pence, who wishes I couldn’t be married. Let’s just be clear. The Vice President of America wishes I didn’t have the love with my wife. He wanted to ban that in Indiana.” Page went on to say, “Connect the dots. This is what happens. If you are in a position of power and you hate people and you want to cause suffering to them, you spend your career trying to cause suffering,

Black list

We were thinking about how many black LGBTQ characters there are for Black History Month. We have long said that TV series often do a two-forone diversity statement by making characters of color LGBTQ. We made a little list of just current black queer characters on current TV series so you could put them in your DVR to check out. No series on TV has more black and queer people than “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” now in its 10th season. The inimitable RuPaul has become a queer icon over the years, and has brought many queens of color onto the show. Among the other series that highlight queer black characters: “American Housewife,” Angela (Carly Hughes), Katie’s lesbian best friend (season three began Feb. 5); “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” Titus (Titus Burgess) is Kimmy’s gay bestie; “How to Get Away with Murder,” Annalese (Viola Davis) is bisexual; “Black Lightning,” Nafessa Williams plays Anissa Pearce, TV’s first black lesbian superhero. On “Queen Sugar,” black queers are represented by Nova Bordelon (Rutina Wesley) and Brian Michael Smith, a trans man whose character Toine came out on the show. On “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” Ambrose Spellman (Chance Perdomo) is pansexual. “Sex Education” has Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) in a lead role as the flaming black queen bestie of Otis. On “Dear White People,” Lionel as gay (DeRon Horton), as is Moira (Samira Wiley) on “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Tess (Eris Baker) just came out as a lesbian to her aunt and parents on “This Is Us.” On “The Bold Type” Kat Edison (Aisha Dee) is bisexual, and Oliver Grayson (Stephen Conrad Moore) is the openly gay head of fashion. “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” has Captain Holt (Andre Braugher), who is happily married and openly gay. It’s not a lot of characters who are black and LGBTQ, so it’s critical that they be highlighted, not just on Black History Month, but as we work to achieve some measure of parity for both black and LGBTQ people on TV. Lena Waithe made history by being the first black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 2017, for her work on “Master of None.” She is openly lesbian and beautifully butch. Waithe is executive producer for

the new BET comedy series “Boomerang” that follows the 1992 same-named film. Waithe paired with Halle Berry, who starred in the film, to produce “Boomerang.” Of the series, Waithe told Variety she is hoping to “change the face of BET” with the reboot of the film, “by being phenomenal.” She noted, “I’m not even saying that out of shade. It’s just going to be a phenomenal experience, and I’m going to be in Atlanta making shit happen.” Of working with Berry, she said, “It was me calling Halle and going like, ‘Look, I think I’m going to do this. If you had a good experience and you want to do it with me, let’s go.’ She said, ‘I had a great experience, and I’d love to work with you.’” Yas queen. Among the characters on “Boomerang” are two lesbians. BET describes Tia (Lala Milan) as a “misguided performance artist with high ambitions, a classically trained dancer who wants to topple the patriarchy. She’s charismatic and wildly unique. Tia is an activist at heart, but she doesn’t mind being a little ratchet every now and then.” Tia’s girlfriend Rocky (Kimberly Hall) is described as “a lesbian with a dominant personality” who is “very protective over her girlfriend Tia and her career.” The series began on Feb. 12, and you can watch online as well. Everything Waithe does is fabulous, so be sure to set the DVR. There’s a slew of new series in the coming weeks, but we bingewatched an Australian series on Netflix last weekend that was so powerful we can’t stop thinking about it. “Deep Water” is a crime drama based on the unsolved hate-crime murders of nearly 80 gay men in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and beaches in the 1980s and 90s. The four-part miniseries debuted in Australia in 2016, but is just now available on Netflix. For once we are deeply grateful for the algorithm that suggested we would like it. Two things: It’s powerful af, and it’s brutal. The violence against gay men happens mostly off-screen, but it does detail some gruesome killings. It’s easy to spoil the main story here by giving too many details, but a woman detective, Tori Lustigman (Yael Stone), uncovers a hate crime that leads her to delve into a pattern of murders. This series is amazingly good, and the acting is superb. Lustigman’s quest for justice for gay victims is compelling, and the final scenes in the series will leave you breathless. You can watch it all at once, but it’s intense. Two sittings is best. Netflix also told us to watch the 2018 gay film “Alex Strangelove,” which debuted at the SF International Film Festival last spring, so we did. If you missed the film when it premiered, it’s delightful. The boys are beautiful, it has the insouciance of youth that’s always life-affirming, and it is thoroughly gay. Netflix describes it: “This coming-of-age comedy-drama follows Alex Truelove (Daniel Doheny), a high school senior who plans to lose his virginity to his girlfriend Claire (Madeline Weinstein). His life is thrown upside-down when he falls for a handsome gay teenager (Antonio Marziale) from the other side of town and discovers his ‘true authentic self.’” When is being pretty not enough? When Ryan Murphy signs out gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy for the next season of “American Horror Story,” apparently. There’s a backlash against Murphy for casting Kenworthy, who has no acting ex-

perience. Kenworthy, whose goodsportsmanship was in evidence at the last Olympics, tweeted, “Interviewer: So how did you prepare for this role? Me: I actually played ‘straight’ for the first 23 years of my life.” Thank u, next. Kenworthy is an eight-time world champion skier and Olympic silver medalist, and we look forward to his official acting debut. We also loved him tweeting his support for RuPaul: “I love ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ more than my family or friends. Congrats on 10 years, RuPaul!” You do not get gayer than that. You also do not get gayer than the gay parts of the new Netflix series “Russian Doll,” which gets 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which we thought was impossible. But “Russian Doll” is taking comedy to a new level and taking us with it. The series was created by “Orange Is the New Black” star Natasha Lyonne with comedy genius Amy Poehler and lesbian director, screenwriter and playwright Leslye Headland. It’s good. Really good. Lyonne, whom we all love in “OITNB,” stars as Nadia Vulvokov, a software engineer who finds herself reliving her 36th birthday party in an ongoing time loop wherein she repeatedly dies and the process begins again. Therein lies the device and the doyour-head-in that is this series. If “The Good Place” was hard on your sense of linear narrative, prepare to surrender to “Russian Doll” before you open your Netflix window. That said, it’s full of queerness and fascinating elements that really demand a lot of the viewer. Some have called it the most innovative new series of the past few years. We’re not sure about that, but we are sure that it’s worth your eight hours of binge time that you will never get back. Settle in, enjoy the ride, try to figure it out after. The fact it’s created by an all-female writing team directed by lesbian Jamie Babbitt, and features some spectacular actors including the great Elizabeth Ashley and Chloë Sevigny, is more than reason to watch. Remember Tyler Posey from “Teen Wolf?” He’s playing gay in the new 10-part series from Starz “Now Apocalypse.” The comedy series has Posey playing the love interest of the gorgeous Avan Jogia. Starz describes the series as following Ulysses (Avan) and his friends Carly (Kelli Berglund), Ford (Beau Mirchoff) and Severine (Roxane Mesquida) as they navigate love, sex and fame in Los Angeles. Tyler will play Gabriel, a “charismatic and mysterious guy” who meets Ulysses on a dating app. But the group’s lives are interrupted when Ulysses becomes convinced that the nightmares he’s having are hinting at a “dark and monstrous conspiracy.” Premieres March 10. Some returning faves with queer content include a show we really liked when it debuted last year, “For the People,” which we describe as “Grey’s Anatomy” with lawyers. It’s got Anna Deveare Smith and Hope Davis, and returns to ABC on March 7. It has a strong lesbian storyline, a maybe gay storyline, and is chock-full of social justice stories ripped from the headlines of this abominable administration. It’s one of those shows that will give you hope that we can make it through the next two years to a woman president and Trump in prison without LGBTQ people, women and POC being decimated. We need shows like that, don’t we? So for all things black and queer, upsetting the time-space continuum, the always-disturbingbut-cannot-look-away accident that is Washington politics, and some banging new series with a lot of queers, you really must stay tuned.t

Music>>

February 14-20, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Getting personal with Steve Grand by David-Elijah Nahmod

teve Grand will be performing at Feinstein’s at the Nikko on Feb. 20 & 21. The openly gay singer-songwriter will present “Up Close and Personal,” a show in which he’ll sing songs from his new album “Not the End of Me,” as well as songs from his debut album, “All-American Boy.” Grand is a self-made success story. In 2013 the video for the “AllAmerican Boy” single went viral, landing Grand on “Good Morning America” and CNN. During these first interviews he talked about how difficult it was for him to come out to his parents during high school. He soon found himself included in Out magazine’s “Out 100” list, and is now an advocate for LGBT equality. His first full-length album was self-financed through a successful Kickstarter campaign, and both albums are self-distributed through Grand Nation, his own label. “Being my own boss has been a challenge for me,” Grand told the B.A.R. “On one hand, you have all the flexibility you want. But you have to be very disciplined and try to structure your time. That’s something I struggle with. It’s also a lot of pressure on me.” But being an independent artist also has its rewards. “I can create whatever I want, and there’s no one above me to tell me no.”

The “All-American Boy” video shows Grand sitting around the fire with his friends as he watches his buddy, whom he’s secretly in love with, making out with a girl. When the two guys go swimming together, Grand kisses his friend and is harshly rejected. Grand was labeled a country musician after the song’s release. “I suppose my sexuality influences the music I make just about as much as a straight man’s heterosexuality influences the music he makes,” Grand said. “‘All-American Boy’ was a bit of a country ballad, but most of the music I’ve done since hasn’t been very country. I never know how to classify what I do. I would just say singer-songwriter, because the songwriting is at the center of it all for me.” Coming to terms with his sexuality wasn’t easy for him or for his family. He was brought up in a community, family and religion at odds with that part of himself. His parents didn’t understand him, but he always thought they were doing what they believed what was best for him. “Like many parents do, they finally came around, and now we have a really solid, loving relationship,” he said. “I think being our open, honest selves is always the most powerful thing any of us can do. Just being visible goes a long way, though it’s not everything.

The other part is being decent, compassionate people who are also open and honest.” Like his earlier work, Grand’s new album is very much a one-man show. He wrote the music and lyrics, did most of the production, and even did the artwork for the album. “It really is a genuine piece of me,” he said. “I wrote most of the songs over the last two years. A lot of the album deals with the inner turmoil I’ve faced over that time, but what I really want people to take away from this record is a sense of resilience – that no matter what you go through, you can make it through, and often the challenges you face in life will make you better and stronger.” When he takes to the stage at Feinstein’s, Grand will be singing and switching between his guitar and the piano. In addition to songs from both of his albums, Grand will perform songs from Queen, Elton John, Neil Young and Lady Gaga. “It’s going to be a night of great live music,” he said. “I want the audience to feel like they’re friends in my living room, listening to me play and talk about music that I’ve written, and music that has moved me throughout my life.”t

William Dick

Steve Grand: “There’s no one above me to tell me no.”

Steve Grand: Up Close and Personal, Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason St., SF. Feb. 20, 7 p.m.; Feb. 21, 8 p.m. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com.

Batched Beethoven & Brahms

Eva Vermandel

Pianist Pavel Kolesnikov has carved out a niche for himself.

by Tim Pfaff

rahms’ last piano compositions are often recorded together (at least three new sets have just hit the market) but hardly ever performed complete in recital. They last only an hour, but it’s one that requires intense concentration from all involved and is parsimonious with the flashy, virtuosic passages. Even when they are technically demanding, they conceal the sweat behind the veil of subtlety, often spiritual, that is their calling card and the reason they hold a special place in the hearts of Brahms-lovers. For much the same reason, even more seldom heard is Brahms’ final collection of keyboard music – for organ – the 11 Chorale-Preludes of Op. 122, which many listeners are as happy to hear at home in the quiet

communion that digital technology allows, and where the music feels heaven-sent. Every living pianist has approached the late Brahms in the shadow of Radu Lupu’s unsurpassed Opp. 117-19 for Decca. Out San Francisco-based pianist Garrick Ohlsson has just released a set for Hyperion (Clavierstucke, the cover has it, with, a “C” rather than a “K) that substitutes the six Fantasias of Op. 116 for the four pieces of Op. 119. It turns out to be a savvy decision, since the more extroverted quality of the fantasias is better suited to Ohlsson’s bold take on these works. His is, overall, big-boned Brahms, often accenting keyboard pyrotechnics over the subtleties that lurk in these works. It’s hardly that his playing lacks the requisite sensitivity for this

refined, often spare music. Some of the intermezzi express the ache for which Brahms-lovers cherish them, and Ohlsson brings a commendable variety to the set. But the flame of inner incandescence that imbues this material can seem matter-of-fact when not turned up high. The stormy 1851 Op. 4 Scherzo appended to the program feels like its goal. The 29-year-old Siberian-born, London-based pianist Pavel Kolesnikov recently toured a program (on BBC3 iPlayer until Feb. 14) entitled “Framed by Brahms.” It confronted the hazards of performing all the late Brahms intermezzi together by focusing on Op. 117. He opened with No. 1, ending the first half with No. 2 and closed with No. 3 – between them playing works by composers as disparate as Louis Couperin and Tchaikovsky, in sum a compelling musical conversation. Kolesnikov has already carved out a niche for himself in what is almost an embarrassment of riches in the new generation of pianists, in no small part by his innate desire to play compellingly and to add a sometimes childlike sense of caprice to the mix of his strengths. His versatility goes beyond playing both concertos and solo pieces to a lively predilection for human interaction that has made him an increasingly valued participant in Europe’s dynamic ensemble- and chamber-music scene. It would

also be a slight not to mention that among his extra-musical passions is collecting perfumes, many of rare vintage. It’s not going too far to say that you hear it the refined, exquisite nose in his playing. His latest CD, for Hyperion, is all-Beethoven, including the “Moonlight” Sonata, no less. He doesn’t lead with this best-known of Beethoven sonatas (hearing the famous opening movement in an episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” was core to my childhood initiation to music) but, as in his London recital, surrounds it with smaller, mostly earlier Beethoven pieces and the lively, delectable sonata Op. 14, No. 2. In one sense, Kolesnikov is as forthright with the “Moonlight” opening as Ohlsson is with Brahms Op. 117, No. 1, a comparable audience-grabber. The “moonlight” shines with a steadiness that enhances rather than dulls its inescap-

able beauty, and Kolesnikov tastefully resists the temptation to leave, as is sometimes said, not a dry seat in the house. Rank sentimentality is not among his arsenal of wiles as an interpreter. As his recent tour suggests, he is by inclination a master programmer. As he arranges and plays these mostly early pieces, they show each other in the best possible light. The disarming simplicity, even naivete of some of them give their dancing, presto counterparts shine without extraverted barn-storming. Not a note in the scores goes unheard, but Kolesnikov’s finely calibrated touch and deep, elastic, natural sense of rhythm yield music-making that makes magic of coherence and thought. Least of all would Beethoven – who, despite his reputation for fiery temperament put a premium on what he called “cheerfulness” – have minded that this program of his music that now often goes unplayed for its familiarity and “earliness” could be such unalloyed fun. The Op. 33 Bagatelles are pungently aphoristic, and the free-standing Allegrettos, Andantes and Prestos sparkle. Kolesnikov closes with an irresistible account of the zestiest of the “Woos” – the “Werke ohne opus” Beethoven wrote before sanctioning others with opus numbers: the astonishing, ebullient 32 Variations on an Original Theme, WoO 80.t

<< Books

22 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Remembering Jerome Robbins by Brian Bromberger

endy Lesser, in her wellresearched analysis of Jerome Robbins, writes in her introduction, “He may well have been the most hated man on Broadway. ‘Mean as a snake,’ said Helen Gallaher, a performer who worked with him on several shows, and her words echoed the abundant testimony of others.” Thus her book, “Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance,” published by Yale University Press as part of its “Jewish Lives” series, is no love letter. Lesser bravely faces the contradictions that made Robbins both an artistic genius and a tortured, angry perfectionist who could be a terror-ridden collaborator. Last year was the centennial of choreographer Robbins’ birth as well as the 20th anniversary of his death, fitting occasions to reevaluate his career and influence. Lesser, a critic and founder-editor of The Threepenny Review, acknowledges her concise book is not meant to be a traditional biography, but an extended, wellargued thesis, using personal anecdotes and incidents, that Robbins’ ballets, which pundits have seen as inferior to his Broadway work, need to be reexamined and appreciated as his greatest achievement.

Lesser sketches the basic outline of Robbins’ life. He was born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz in 1918 on the Upper East Side, where his RussianJewish immigrant parents owned a kosher delicatessen. Several years later, they moved to Weehawken, NJ, and opened the Comfort Corset Company, hoping Jerome would continue the family business. His father was distant and unaffectionate, while his mother rarely gave him her approval despite Jerome desperately seeking it, even faking a phone call to an orphanage to come pick him

up. But by age 17, he began working with Gluck Sandor, who ran a dance group and convinced him to change his name to Jerome Robbins as well as study ballet. By age 20 he was resident choreographer at Camp Tamiment in the Poconos along with other aspiring creative artists. While performing in Broadway musical revues he met George Balanchine, founder of the new Ballet Theater (later the American Ballet Theater). Because he had received a 4F deferment from military service, admitting he had engaged in homosexual experiences, he was free to both dance and choreograph new ballets, such as “Fancy Free” in 1944, about sailors on shore leave, with his friend Leonard Bernstein providing the musical score, later transformed into the hit Broadway musical “On the Town.” He swayed back and forth between Broadway and ballet for the next 25 years, but after 1969 concentrated solely on ballet. He choreographed such classics as “Peter Pan,” the masterpiece “West Side Story” (also co-directing the film and winning an Oscar), “Gypsy,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” In his original ballets he was influenced by Balanchine, but according to Lesser, they failed to get the attention they deserved, because they were seen as lowbrow, populist, and too story-driven for the abstract

ballet world, at best considered second-tier to Balanchine, the god of ballet. Still, his ballets “Afternoon of a Faun,” “Age of Anxiety,” “The Concert,” “The Cage,” “Dances at a Gathering,” and “The Goldberg Variations” were hits during their time, and are now considered classics. Lesser feels Robbins belongs alongside, not behind Balanchine as one of the greats of 20th Century ballet. Last spring the New York City Ballet showcased a major retrospective to honor Robbins’ centennial. In 1953, due to his early 1940s membership in the Communist Party, he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he named colleagues and longtime friends, a mistake both he and many in the arts community could never forgive. In 1975 he committed himself to a mental hospital for depression. In the 1980s he dedicated himself to the fight against AIDS, writing a ballet, “In Memory Of,” to commemorate those who died of the disease, took care of ill friends, and organized the major 1987 “Dancing for Life” benefit. He received the Kennedy Center Medal of Honor in 1981. He died of a massive stroke on July 29, 1998. Lesser explores his relationships with both women (particularly the tragic dancer Tanaquil Le Clerq, later afflicted with polio) and men (inNew Objectivist stuff. They chose the ones they felt were the most absurd – Kandinsky’s shapes and circles, or a blue horse, why would a horse be blue? – and showed them in this awful exhibit where they posted the exact amount in marks that taxpayers had paid for the art, at a time when Germans were very poor. Of course, most people were uneducated about new movements in art and were outraged. But many others went to the exhibit because they knew this would be the last time while the Nazis were in power that they would see great art. After that exhibit, the Nazis did an impromptu exhibit in Switzerland, sold a few of the paintings, and what was not sold was burned. We had a whole team of artists working on reconstructing these paintings. Often there were just little B&W pictures to draw from.

cluding a three-year romance with actor Montgomery Clift before he left for Hollywood), though the latter lasted much longer and were more frequent than the former. Robbins was afflicted with guilt about being homosexual and Jewish. One wishes Lesser had spent more time correlating how Robbins’ ambivalence about his sexuality impacted his creative work (especially as a brilliant outsider challenging and satirizing dancing conventions); his notorious HUAC testimony, which he later confessed was due to his fear of being outed and ruining his career; and the way he bullied dancers and actors with insults, vicious outbursts, and cruel, unrealistic expectations. Amazingly, many dancers did love him, praising his helping them discover their conception of a role, inspiring their imagination and motivation, conscious of the dancer’s impact on the audience, who participate in deciphering the emotional meaning of the ballet. Lesser gives detailed descriptions of Robbins’ ballets and musical numbers that will appeal to dancing aficionados, but will be less thrilling to those not as technically inclined. Still, most readers will concur with Stephen Sondheim’s assessment that “Jerry was the only genius I’ve ever met, my definition of genius being endless invention. The end product was always worth it.”t

You’re right, Tom Schilling is truly a brilliant young actor. I enjoyed him in “Coffee in Berlin.” He doesn’t say that much, and that’s something I always look for in an actor: if someone is so compelling that merely watching him watch other people is interesting. Then there was his role in “Generation War,” a huge TV series filmed from the point of view of WWII German soldiers sent to die on the Russian front. His was such a compelling performance that I enjoyed watching him through the whole series. In our camera tests I could never get what I needed from him. I wondered what the problem was. Is Tom intimidated because I’m seven feet tall and he’s a foot-and-a-half shorter? I had him come in seven times. Afterwards he handed me a letter saying, “Florian, I know you didn’t get what you wanted from me, but Caleb Deschanel, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classic you’ll never get that in a casting I call your lead actor, Tom situation. Because to give you what Oliver Masucci as Professor Antonius van Verten in “Never Look Away.” Schilling, the “German Jimmy you need for this complicated, MacAvoy” because both actors artistic character, I have to know specialize in roles where their loosely based on the life of German Florian Henckel von Donnersthat I can open up, to feel wanted, Never Look Away characters are exposed to painter Gerhard Richter, is haunted marck: It’s a film about someone From page 15 loved, accepted, which is impossible unreasonable amounts of danger. by the atrocities inflicted by his Nazi breaking free, who discovers that the in a casting situation. So trust me: Here Shilling plays an intrepid officer father. only way to be a real artist is to shrug The film covers an impressive timeI know what you need, I know I’m young artist whose adventures My chat with director Florian off everything he’s learned. First the span, from 1937 Dresden, where a the right man for the part.” take us through a very dangerous Henckel von Donnersmarck began Nazis try to shape him into someyoung woman is sacrificed on the I was really conflicted. Against period in German history. with asking about the powerful feelone who glorifies the Nazi ideology; altar of Nazi eugenics, sterilized, the advice of all my friends I called ings invoked by the English transthe Communists want then gassed in a concentration Tom and said, “You have lation of his film’s German title. him to paint pictures camp; to the early-1950s Cold War the part.” He said, “Are “Werk ohne Autor” literally transof workers to inspire in divided Germany, where ambiyou sure I didn’t just lates as “Work Without Author.” people to believe in tious young people head for the seduce you with my letFlorian Henckel von Donnersextreme socialism. politically liberated Western sector; ter?” I replied, “You did marck: I’m happier with the English Then he flees to the to the mid-60s struggles of a young seduce me, but I think title than with the German title. West and has to find artist to create a legitimate style that you’re right for this.” his own voice. First he “Never Look Away” was not really while settling old scores with his exHe was exactly right for looks at what the martranslatable into German because Nazi father-in-law. The filmmaker the part. Without Tom ket’s doing, and that German is a language that sounds dazzles with the bold strokes of a I’m not sure I could have can be a form of ideolvery strict, so “Never Look Away” generation that turns its back on the completed the picture. ogy. Finally he sees that sounds like a really strict teacher tyrannies of both the Hitler right This incident has made the only place to look is admonishing a student. In English it and the Stalin left. me reconsider the whole within. carries so many different meanings: Right out of the box, von Doncasting process. During One of the most Never look away when you see innersmarck boldly subjects us to a the shoot I told Tom to extreme examples justice. That’s the very least you can Nazi propaganda harangue against forget the real-life artist of ideology trying to do. It also means never look away “decadent” (meaning, modern the story is based on, and influence art was that because you might be caught up Western) art. Our attention is fixed remember this is a film 1937 degenerate art in prejudice: even if you think you on impressionable 10-year-old Kurt, about you. It has to come exhibit. Historically, know what you’re going to see, you accompanied by his young mother. from you. I completely it was one of the most might have to question your beliefs. The film begins with an atrocity believe that the actor is successful art shows in I think that’s an important mescommitted against the mother, then the character. Schilling is history: over two milsage. A lot of catastrophes in history delves into the devastating trauma one of those actors who lion people saw it. Goecould have been avoided if people experienced by survivors of the Sony Pictures Classics keeps amazing you with bbels and his people had not just averted their gaze. Third Reich. The survival strategies his subtlety, his precision, “Never Look Away” director went into the museof Kurt, a young painter, are brought his transparence. You can David Lamble: Why did you Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. ums and removed the robustly to life by the boyish young look through his eyes into open the film with a 1937 talk on Expressionists, all that screen actor Tom Schilling. Kurt, his soul.t “degenerate art” by a Nazi officer?

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Vol. 49 • No. 7 • February 14-20, 2019

Nightlife Events

Feb. 14-21, 2019

Sat 16 Macho Macho @ SF Eagle

Listings on page 25 >

Melissa Hawkins

Kid With a Camera

Can you stand the sheer variety of nightlife fun yet to come? What if you closed your eyes and just pointed at the listings page, web or print? Go where you’ve never been before. Make adventure where you can find it, even in your own zip code.

Life during wartime Melissa Hawkins’ nightlife photos at the GLBT History Museum by Michael Flanagan

he late 1980s and early ‘90s were a complex time in San Francisco. The city had gotten beyond the initial shock of living during an epidemic and had begun to react. See page 23 >>

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24 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Melissa Hawkins

Phatima and MichaelAngelo.

Life During Wartime

From page 23

The takeover of Burroughs Wellcome in January 1988 was a signal that people were not satisfied with the high cost of AZT and the slow development of other treatments. In 1989 ACT-UP blocked the Golden Gate Bridge and disrupted the San Francisco Opera. And in 1990 all hell broke loose with streets blocked with a die-in and the disruption of the Health and Human Services secretary during the International AIDS Conference in San Francisco. At the same time nightlife was exploding in the city. The Stud, Club Chaos and Uranus were an opportunity for dance clubs that veered toward the edge of performance art. The Box took over the Kennel Club (628 Divisidero) on Saturdays and Thursdays with Page Hodel as the mixtress and a fun, vital and diverse dancefloor. Colossus, Dreamland

and I-Beam provided large dance floors to dance the night away. As a photojournalist for The Sentinel, Melissa Hawkins was there to document it all. The GLBT Historical Society and Museum is presenting the exhibition SoMa Nights: The Queer Nightclub Photography Of Melissa Hawkins, curated by Melissa Hawkins and nightlife historian Marke B. from February 15 through May 27, 2019. The photos in the exhibition are a veritable explosion of talent and fun from this period, depicting both the movers and shakers and party-goers alike. In one image, DJ Page Hodel is seen celebrating the third anniversary of The Box in 1991 with a prize for a contest. In another, Colossus owner Gus Bean is seen with the legendary promoter and party planner Ggreg Taylor (at Colossus, which was at 1015 Folsom). D’Arcy Drollinger and Jason

Mecier (then the band Enrique) are seen at Colossus. Jennifer Junkyard Morris poses with her friend Shannon at the Endup (most likely at Club Uranus). The pictures of party-goers are equally stunning. In one photo at the Eagle, two friends in leather and Levi’s, he with a leather cap and mirror sunglasses and she with a buzz cut, pose for the camera. In another Alex Fazekas-Paul poses at Club Uranus in an outfit that appears inspired by Madonna’s cone bra. Some of the photographs are particularly poignant. Hawkins snapped a photo of Sluts A Go-Go (Doris Fish, Tippi and Miss X) at an event that may be the Drag USO Show that Ggreg Taylor produced to entertain the ACT-UP “troops” during the sixth International AIDS Convention in 1990. Doris Fish wrote a column for The Sentinel from October 1989 to October 1990, the same time period that Hawkins Hot Shots photo column appeared in the paper. In November 1990, she snapped a photo at the Doris Fish benefit. By August 1991, both Doris Fish and Tippi had died. In discussing the work with Hawkins, she said that she has often reflected on the similarity between life in this period and life during wartime (particularly World War Two). “In movies, servicemen in Italy or London were celebrating because your next assignment could be your last,” she said. “Performance and

drag responded to the AIDS crisis with a counterbalance of an outlandish expression of creativity.” It’s clear that her work was a very moving experience for her. “There were personas like nothing I ever saw,” said Hawkins. “They put so much time into their outfits. They were like gifts. “In the daytime, you’d read an entire section of the paper filled with the names of people who had died. Then at night, you would go to the craziest parties on earth. It truly was about living every moment as if it were your last.” Hawkins also reflected on the impact that this culture had on the broader art world, with artists like Madonna and Vivienne Westwood taking inspiration from it, and performers like Leigh Bowery expanding the horizons of both visual and performance art. Simultaneous to the explosion of creativity inspired by AIDS and the specter of mortality, the lesbian club scene was exploding as well, with new dance venues like Code Blue and Skirts popping up on a nearly weekly basis. It too was a vibrant renaissance moment. Hawkins was there and her photography also chronicles these developments. Aside from being a photojour-

nalist for the Hot Shots column, Hawkins ran a longtime “person on the street” column entitled Photo Op in The Sentinel. The serious moment that the community at large faced struck me by one particular column in this series where she asked men and women, “Would you help a friend commit suicide if they were terminally ill?” These were the issues that people in their 20s and 30s were dealing with on a daily basis at this time. With apologies to Dickens, it was the best of times and the worst of times for our community. If you were around at this time, you owe it to yourself to see this stunning body of work. If you weren’t here yet, you should treat yourself and see how the community responded to tragedy with art and creativity. The GLBT Historical Society, Marke B. and Melissa Hawkins have provided us with a wonderful picture of how to respond to difficult times with the power of the human spirit and deserve to be thanked for their work by a visit this show.t ‘SoMa Nights: the Queer Club Photography of Melissa Hawkins 1986-1994,’ opens Feb. 15, 7pm-9pm at the GLBT History Museum, 4127 18th St. $5. www.glbthistory.org

Melissa Hawkins

Dancer at 1015 Folsom 1991.

Melissa Hawkins

Sister of Perpetual Indulgence with revelers, SoMa.

February 14-20, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 25

Reddroxx @ Lone Star Saloon

Steven Underhill

Nightlife Events>> DJ Brd spins at the bear bar. $5. 9pm-12am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Sex Cells @ Mezzanine

Sat 17

D.A.D. @ Driftwood

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events

Thu 14 Amanda King @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The acclaimed chanteuse performs her new cabaret show, Movie Musical Magic. $30-$55 ($20 food/drink min.) 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Juanita’s Family Dinner @ MORE/Jones Juanita MORE’s loving dining experience, with delish food and drag performers. 6pm-8:30pm. 620 Jones St. www.juanitamore.com http://620-jones.com/

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Parties at the fascinating spacious nature and science exhibits; Feb 14, Noise Pop DJs galore. Feb 21, Lunar New Year with lion dancers, martial arts demos, and real pigs! $12-$15. 6pm-10pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. calacademy.org

Queer Prom @ Jolene’s Crowns, gowns, tuxedos and festive attire are requested at the full-on queer prom, with retro DJed grooves. $15-$25. 9pm-2am. 2700 16th St. www.jolenessf.com

Valentine’s Day Comedy @ Ashkenaz Love Thy Neighbor, a comedy concert benefit for the Alameda County Community Food Bank, with Sampson McCormick, Clara Bijl, Nicole Tran and Lisa Geduldig. The show is a benefit for Alameda County Community Food Bank, and attendees are encouraged to bring canned food items and grains like oatmeal. $15-$20. 8pm. 1317 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley. ashkenaz.com

You’re the Scrunchie @ The Stud DJs La Fraicheur, Trevor Sigler and Siobhan Aluvalot spin at the historic bar. $10. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Fri 15 Bare Chest Calendar Prelims @ Powerhouse Meet early candidates for next year’s fundraiser calendar; weekly for a while. 8pm-10pm. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio The monthly LGBT-inclusive comedy night features Karen Ripley, Eloisa Bravo, Nick Leonard, Nicole Tran, and Lisa Geduldig. $ 7pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Furrplay @ Oasis Dance night for cubs, bears and fans. $15-$25. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Trade @ The Stud Barbie Dream Dumpster, with DJs William Francis (NYC) and Scotter McCreight (Toronto); hosted by porn stud Colton Grey. $10. 10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Tuck & Patti @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The talented jazz duo perform a new cabaret concert. ($20 food/drink min.) $50-$85. Also Feb 16. 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Uhaul @ Jolene’s The popular roving women’s dance party returns at the new nightclub, now weekly. 10pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. http://jolenessf.com/

Wuhfff @ Powerhouse Pedal Pups’ AIDS LifeCycle Ride fundraiser. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

You Betta Work Comedy Fiesta @ San Mateo County Pride Center Jesus U Bettawork hosts the monthly gigglefest. $5. 7:30pm. 1021 South El Camino Real, San Mateo. www.sanmateopride.org

Sat 16 Beatpig @ Powerhouse Juanita MORE! welcomes guest-DJ Entrée, plus fun saucy entertainments. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www. powerhousebar.com

D.A.D. @ Driftwood Dudes and Disco’s latest edition features DJs Mike etc, Kelly Naughton and Ben Foxy. $5-$10. 9pm-2am. 1225 Folsom St. driftwoodbarsf.com

Heat @ Great Northern DJs Mohammad and Alexander spin a Presidents Day circuit event, with gogo dancers, acrobats, food trucks outside, and more. $25-$40. 10pm-3am. 119 Utah St. www.thegreatnorthernsf.com

Macho Macho @ SF Eagle Monthly Latin leather night, with Mr. SF Eagle 2019 Manny Ojeda, DJs Pinche Pobrecito and Sucia playing rock & house en Espanol, plus drag acts and lucha libre gogos. $5-$10. 9pm-2am. 398 12th St. sf-eagle.com

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s popular weekly drag show, with special guests and great music themes. Feb 15 is ‘Fresh Pop’ night. $15-$20. 10pm-3am (11:30pm show). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

DJ sets with Hercules & Love Affair, Matthew Pernicano, Danny Lethal and live sets with Light Asylum and Sateen. $20$25. 9pm-2am. 444 Jessie St. https://mezzaninesf. com/events/sex-cells-sf/

Sun 17 Carolee Carmello @ Orinda Theatre The thrice-Tonynominated Broadway actor-singer (Scandalous, Mamma Mia!, Finding Neverland) performs her new cabaret concert. $45-$100. 7pm. 2 Orinda Theatre Square. www.lamorindatheatres.com

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle DJ Bus Station John’s monthly groovy retro fest and T-dance. $5-$7. 7pm1am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Imagina @ City Nights DJs Danu Toro and Paulo spin at the Preisdent Weekend circuit dance party. $20-$62. 10pm-5am. 715 Harrison St. www.eventbrite.com

Shag, Fur for All @ Powerhouse Nic Candito, sleazy tracks, MaShugganutz, Sister Mary Ralph, Mutha Chucka & BearZbub bring it on. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Mon 18 Munro’s at Midnight @ Midnight Sun Drag night with Mercedez Munro. No cover. 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Underwear Night @ 440 Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. the440.com

Tue 19 Cock Shot @ Beaux The weeknight party gets going with DJ Chad Bays. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Gaymer Night @ Midnight Sun Weekly fun night of games (video, board and other) and cocktails. 8pm12am. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

Retro Night @ 440 Castro Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am. 44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Vice Tuesdays @ Q Bar Queer femmes and friends dance party with hip hop, Top 40 and throwbacks at the stylish intimate bar, with DJs Val G and Iris Triska. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Wed 20 B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland Olga T and Shugga Shay’s weekly queer women and men’s R&B hip hop and soul night, at the club’s new location. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

Pan Dulce @ Beaux Drag divas, gogo studs, DJed Latin grooves and drinks. 9pm-2am (free before 10:30pm). 2344 Market St. www.clubpapi.com

Thu 21 Fuego @ Watergarden, San Jose Weekly DJed sex party with Latin videos and musics, free salsa bar, half-price lockers, at the famed South Bay bath house. 4pm-12am. 1010 The Alameda, San Jose. www.thewatergarden.com

Haters Roast @ Palace of Fine Arts The Shady Tour 2019, a drag celeb comedy show with a bevy of RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni doing routines. $35-$150. 8pm. 3301 Lyon St. http://dragfans.com/

Latin Explosion @ Club 21 Latin beats, Lulu and Jacqueline’s drag show, gogo hotties and a packed crowd. $10-$15. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. www.club21oakland.com

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<< Leather

26 • Bay Area Reporter • February 14-20, 2019

Women take the stage Ms. San Francisco Leather contest at SOMArts

Both photos: Rich Stadtmiller

Left: Ms. SF Leather 2019, Bobbee Trans Mooremon (left), and Ms. SF Leather 2018, Haley (right). Right: Ms. SF Leather contestants Bobbee Trans Mooremon (left) and Reika (right) await the announcement of the judges’ final decision on the winner.

by Race Bannon

ne of the biggest annual local gatherings for leatherwomen took place this past Saturday, the Ms. San Francisco Leather contest at SOMArts Cultural Center. Every year the producers of the contest create a weekend and contest that celebrates our diverse and dynamic Bay Area leather, kink and fetish communities while also raising funds to support the work of small nonprofit organizations. This year’s contest was well executed by Executive Producer Daddy Sal Hopkins and Sal’s competent staff. I particularly appreciated that the contest moved along without gaps. More than one audience member commented how pleased they were that the contest didn’t extend to many hours, as contests often seem to do. Kudos to the production staff and volunteers for running a tight ship. It was noticed and appreciated. The weekend began with a meet and greet at the SF Eagle, where the public could mix and mingle with the contestants and judges while enjoying some casual socialization time. On Saturday, the contest kicked off with a welcome by the evening’s delightful emcee, Val Langmuir. Then the presentation of colors, a lovely rendition of “America the Beautiful” sung by Rio Spooner,

and a hot opening entertainment number by Evil Mommy Tina led the audience into introductions of the contestants and judges and the first phases of the competition, the fantasies and speeches. Contestants this year were Bobbee Trans Mooremon, SF Sober Kinkster 2019, sponsored by Leather Etc., and Reika, sponsored by Society of Janus. I can confidently say that both contestants presented themselves beautifully throughout the competition and as an audience member I felt they both would have done the title proud. Judging the contest were an esteemed collection of leatherfolk to whom the producers entrusted to as objectively as possible select their next titleholder. They were Nyna Kaiser, Daddy Vick Germany, Victoria, Zane, Girl Complex, Meryl, and Jay Harcourt. I know these people and I’m sure they judged the contest honorably. Like most leather contests, the judging was comprised of categories with a maximum point total designated for each. The categories were interview in street casual wear (75 points), speech and formal wear (45 points), fantasy performance (35 points), on stage pop question and cruise/bar wear (20 points), and overall competition deportment (25 points). Both contestants did a superb job with their fantasies and speeches.

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The fantasies were entertaining and gave some insight into the inner kinky workings of the contestants themselves. The speeches were delivered from the heart. Prior to the intermission a professional auctioneer took the stage

to auction off the contestant baskets of donated kinky goodies. Both baskets raised similar sums from the enthusiastic bidding audience. After the intermission, a parade of club colors preceded the next phase of the competition, the pop question. I always feel for contestants when the pop questions come up. You just never know what’s going to be asked. I’ve seen some wacky –and sometimes in my view a bit unfair– questions asked of contestants. I loved that the contest producers ensured that the questions were ones they might be asked by people they would meet during their title year, should they win. I hope other contests emulate this approach to pop questions. After the contestants answered their pop questions, the judges began tallying their scores, followed by a nice recognition of the staff that works so hard to put on this contest. Stela D. Love then gave the audience a sexy visual performance. Before the final winner was announced though, Haley, Ms. SF Leather 2018, gave her stepdown speech, recounting some of her year and thanking her supporters. Thanks, Haley, for a great year. After the difficult work of judg-

Leather Events, February 14–28, 2019 Thu 14

Tue 19

Poly Happy Hour @ SF Eagle

SF Young Leathermen’s Discussion Group @ Mr. S Studio

An LGBTQ+ kinky poly people social happy hour that happens every second Thursday of the month. Meet on the upper patio. 398 12th St., 6-8pm. sf-eagle.com

Rope Burn SF: Valentine’s Day @ SF Catalyst Rope burn is a group dedicated to creating a safe space for those interested in learning the art of rope restraint, every third Thursday. Open to all skill levels and sizes. $20 suggested donation, 1060 Folsom St., 7-10pm. Tickets at https://goo. gl/jmwcqD. www.ropeburnsf.com

Fri 15 Beards & Booze @ The Edge This weekly happy hour event is for bearded guys and their fans. 4149 18th St., 5pm. www.edgesf.com

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. castrocountryclub.org

Gear Party @ 442 Natoma Gear play party (leather, rubber, harnesses, etc.) for gay men. 442 Natoma St., $15 (requires $5 membership), 10pm. www.442parties.com

Mon 18 Ride Mondays @ Eros A motorcycle rider and leathermen night at Eros, bring your helmet, AMA card, MC club card or club colors and get $3 off. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

Kink 101 @ Wicked Grounds Brand new to kink, or to the San Francisco kink scene? Want to learn more about local BDSM play and education? Or perhaps you just want to know what the heck happens at a kink cafe. Join us. $15-$35, 289 8th St., 7-9pm. www.wickedgrounds.com

Predicament bondage with Vincent Sparacio. SFYLDG is a men’s BDSM/ kink educational organization for men under 40 years of age. Each month they feature a different topic. 385-A 8th St., 398 12th St., 7:30-9:30pm. www.sflyldg.org

Wed 20 Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District Meeting @ SF Catalyst The Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District now exists, but how will it be managed and overseen? Help decide by attending this next community meeting. All are welcome. 1060 Folsom St., 6:308:30pm. www.sfleatherdistrict.org

Fri 22 The 15 Association 39th Anniversary Dinner @ Patio Español 2850 Alemany Blvd., 6-10pm. Tickets at www.the15sf.org.

Beards & Booze @ The Edge Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Gear Party @ 442 Natoma

ing both of the fine contestants, the points were tallied, and the new Ms. SF Leather 2019 is Bobbee Trans Mooremon. I asked Bobbee how she felt about being the new Ms. SF Leather. “At this time when trans people are constantly under attack by the imposter in the White House and all his sheep, and with funding for HIV/AIDS services and access to HIV meds always at threat of disappearing for so many in our country, I am so honored to be able to serve the community as Ms. San Francisco Leather 2019. I am a disabled HIV-positive transgender leatherwoman and I am so honored to be able to be a voice for not only the trans community but the HIV-positive community, and to be of service to the larger San Francisco leather community.” Contestants, judges, staff and audience members convened after the contest at the SF Eagle for a celebration party where the contest and monthly Pound Puppy party crowd mingled and had a great time.t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. www.bannon.com

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events Sober Munch @ Wicked Grounds A group meeting every 4th Saturday of each month where people get together and have fun and discuss addictions, sobriety, and recovery. All invited. 289 8th St., 6pm. www.wickedgrounds.com

Men’s BDSM Play Party @ SF Catalyst Check website for attendance details. 1060 Folsom St., 7pm12am. www.the15sf.org

Code (FistFull of Love) @ The Edge For the month of love, Code features the Red Hanky. Coat check available. 4149 18th St., 9pm-2am. www.edgesf.com

Sun 24 Free Men’s BDSM Play Party @ SF Catalyst Join the men of The 15 as they celebrate their 39th anniversary of hosting men's SM parties in San Francisco. This party is free. 1060 Folsom St., 2-6pm. www.the15sf.org.

Wed 27 Leather and Underwear Buddies @ Blow Buddies

See Fri 15

A men’s leather/gear and underwear play night. $15 with membership, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Sat 23

Thu 28 – Sun 3

The 15 Association 39th Anniversary Brunch @ Hamburger Mary’s With Sadie Payne. 531 Castro St., 11am. RSVP to RSVP@the15sf.org.

Gear Up & Go Out: A Leather & Gear Invasion of the Castro Grab your favorite gear and go out to 8 great venues in one of the world's most well-known LGBTQ districts. Visit the website for schedule/details. https://goo.gl/ QdQ18H

Leather Alliance Weekend 2019 The San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance produces the Leather Alliance Weekend. The weekend includes the 53rd Annual Community Awards, the 37th edition of the Mr. SF Leather contest, the 2nd annual SF Bootblack contest, and some brand-new happenings as well. (Note: Not all Weekend events are listed separately elsewhere on this calendar. For full event information and pricing check out www. leatherallianceweekend.org

Arts Events>>

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events

February 14-20, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

Arts Events

Wonderland @ Berkeley City Club Gary Graves’s dark comedy mixes Kafka and Alice in Wonderland. $15-$38. Thu & Fri 8pm, Sat 7pm, Sun 5pm, thru Mar 17. 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. centralworks.org

Feb. 14-21, 2019

Thu 14 Alexander String Quartet @ Herbst Theatre The Quartet performs the West Coast premiere os Samuel Carl Adams’ Quintet with Pillars with pianist Joyce Yang, plus Mozart works. $45-$70. 7:30pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.sfperformances.org

Sat 16 Black Choreographers Festival @ Dance Mission Theater

Forever, a Moment: Black Meditations on Time and Space @ SOMArts Opening reception (6pm-9pm) for a group exhibit; curators Yetunde Olagbaju and Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye feature 15 Bay Area artists who explore Black identity. Thru April 6. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Dance Lovers 8 @ Joe Goode Annex Choreographer James Graham presents the eigth annual concert of Duets by couples, crushes and comrades, with Sebastian Grubb, Molly & Avilla RoseWilliams, Byb Chanel Bibene & Daiane Lopes Da Silva and other dancers. $18-$38. 8pm. Also Feb 15 & 16. 401 Alabama St. jamesgrahamdancetheatre.com

I, Too, Sing America @ Brava Theater Poetic works by Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Beyonce and poets of color, set to music and dance. $15$45. Thu-Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm, thru Feb 24. 2781 24th St. http://www.sfbatco.org/

Solo Performance Festival @ Potrero Stage

Her Portmanteau @ Strand Theatre

PlayGound’s annual showcase of two dozen-plus performers’ shows, including Marga Gomez, Matthew Martin, Nina Wise, Michael Phillis and others. $31-$93 (full pass). Thru Feb 10. 1695 18th St. www.playground-sf.org

Nigerian playwright Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle thru Mar. 31 at 1127 Market St., and In Old Age at the Magic Theatre, 2 Marina Blvd, Mar. 27-April 21. $40-$100. www.ufotplays-sf.com

Fri 15 Events @ Alley Cat Books Feb 15: Andrea Brady and Evan Kennedy, 7pm. Feb 14: Open mic, 6:30pm. Feb 17: poets J. Gordon Faylor, Lily Bartle, Becca Abbe and Simon Crafts, 6pm. 3036 24th St. www.alleycatbookshop.com

Every Day Alice @ PianoFight Utopia Theatre Project’s production of Anne Yumi Kobori’s modern take on Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan as a couple. $12-$35. 7pm. Thru Mar. 9. 144 Taylor St. www.utopiatheatreproject.com

Sat 16 Black Choreographers Festival @ Dance Mission Theater African Americn dances performed by several companies. Thru Mar. 10, 3316 24th St. Also Mar. 2-3 at SAFEhouse Arts, 145 Eddy St, and Mar. 9-10 at Laney College Theater, Oakland. www.bcfhereandnow.com

Overlooked Latinas @ Brava Theater Studio Tina D’Elia’s solo show about queer telenovela characters and family drama. $10-$25. Sat 8pm, Sun 3pm thru Mar. 3. 2781 24th St. at York. www.brava.org

Sun 17 Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill @ Palace Theatre The Speakeasy nightclub/ theatre hosts a once-monthly production of the Billie Holiday musical, starring Doris Bumpus. $37-$63. 4pm & 7pm. Also April 21, May 19, June 16. 644 Broadway St. www.boxcartheatre.org

Not My F***ing President’s Day @ Brava Theater Center Rebellious comedy sets with Sampson McCormick, with Shanti Charan, Kiran Deol, Matt Lieb, Carmen Morales, and host Francesca Fiorentini. $25-$30. 7pm. 2781 24th St. www.brava.org

Mon 18 Show Me as I Want to Be Seen @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Show Me as I Want to Be Seen, the work of groundbreaking French Jewish artist, Surrealist, and activist Claude Cahun (1894–1954) and her lifelong lover and collaborator Marcel Moore (1892–1972), thru July 7. 736 Mission St. https://thecjm.org/

Tue 19 Cats @ Center for the Performing Arts, San Jose The hit musical based on the T.S. Eliot poems, with singing cats; now and forever. $43-$153. 7:30pm, thru Feb 24. 255 S. Almaden Blvd., San Jose. www.broadwaysanjose.com

Wed 20 Black Refractions @ MOAD Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, a new traveling exhibition showcasing a century of artworks. Thru April 14. Free/$10. Museum of the african Diaspora, 685 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

Thu 21 Galatea @ CounterPulse New rock musical adaptation of Ovid’s classic story Pygmalion. $20$35. Thu-Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm, thru Feb. 24. 80 Turk St. www.counterpulse.org

Risa Jaroslow & Dancers @ ODC Theater At Your Service, a wait staff and wage-rights-themed dance, is premiered. $15-$30. Thu Sat 8pm thru Feb 23. 3153 17th St. www.odc.dance

Show Us Your Spines @ SF Public Library Radar Productions presents and evening of interdisciplinary performances by Jose Figueroa, Tanea Lunsford Lynx, Gato Rodriguez, and Juniper Yun. 6pm. James C. Hormel Center, 3rd floor, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

Boy Division @ Cat Club B

oy Division, the monthly New Wave, goth, queer pop night, included groovy retro sounds, plus drag queens and puppets! The diverse crowd enjoyed the Dark Room drag show, and grooving to The Cure, Depeche Mode and other faves with DJ Xander. The fun takes place monthly at The Cat Club, 1190 Folsom St at 8th. www.sfcatclub.com www.facebook.com/boydivisionsf See plenty more photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at StevenUnderhill.com.

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