Dennis Johnson's Extraordinary Piano Recital--Beautiful Music and Reunion

Dennis Johnson's piano playing is beautiful, amusing, and uniting.  He plays extraordinarily well, has funny and interesting things to say, and draws a crowd!

Asian Coalition Dinner

The Asian Coalition Dinner brings together a lot of people I  like--in the parking lot, at the door, at the table (where I took off my shoes, and never needed to get up until three hours later).

Frida Kahlo Is Missing--Revising Something a Friend Saved from a Long-ago Rivera Project

Yesterday a friend I hadn't seen in years met with our mutual friend I see more often and gave us both relics from the past.  Teresa knows Mary from College of Holy Names, 1958, and she brought her magazines from that era. 

What she brought me were newer items--just 15-20 years old.  Here's something I can no longer find on my computer:

Frida Kahlo Is Missing

"I'm sorry I'm late," Sesame said sweetly, coming in five minutes before the class was over.  "But--"

"Your dog ate your clock?" Ms. Tilleman asked, immediately regretting being so sarcastic with such an apparently guileless student.  Other students, when they came in late, looked slightly annoyed, as if they thought the teacher had her nerve starting the class on time.  Or else they would make a mockery of their apology.  "I'm soooooooooooo sorry!"  But Sesame always sounded so sincere, so warm.  It was hard to even consider the death penalty as appropriate punishment in her case.

"No," Sesame said in a tone that indicated no awareness of sarcasm.  "I don't have a dog."

"I'll bet you don't have an alarm clock either," Ms. Tilleman said.

"I was interviewing someone about the Diego Rivera mural."

Ms. Tilleman refrained from asking why the interview had to take place precisely during class time and asked instead, "OH?  Who did you interview?"  (No one said Whom anymore.)

"Someone named Frida Kahlo," Sesame said.

"Sesame," Ms. Tilleman said, "Frida Kahlo is dead."

"Oh!"  Sesame said, but not in a way that registered "Well, I got caught in that lie" or even "How did I confuse the names?"  Her "Oh!" came with a look of surprise mixed with delight, as if she were thinking, "So that was a ghost I was talking to!"

"She looked so alive," Sesame said, wandering to her desk.

Ms. Tilleman had just enough time to write the homework assignment on the board.

"Research report due."

The research was on components of the Diego Rivera Pan American Unity Mural, City College's not-quite buried treasure, in which Frida Kahlo was "Center stage"--or had been until just hours before.  Sesame, who'd gotten her name from the crackers, not from the street, was on to something this time.  Something remarkable had taken place the night before.

(To be continued tomorrow!)

Senior and People with Disabilities Vote! Candidates for SF Mayor

This photo  shows how many people showed up at the CARA-sponsored forum to hear the candidates for S.F. Mayor--and they really were listening--listening and hissing when the first-to-speak candidate (Michelle Bravo) used the word "feral" to describe homeless people and then apologized, etc.

I was worried when Jane Kim, Angela Alioto, and Mark Leno hadn't shown up by 1:30, but I think Leno made it in at 1:31, and the others followed soon after, and there wasn't really a noticeable "break."  Sandra Mack, the MC who had to deal with the uncertainty, was very gracious!

We knew in advance that Richie Greenberg wasn't coming; he declined right away, and London Breed had also declined--not at first but eventually. 

The candidates who showed up were Michelle Bravo, Ellen Lee Zhou,  Amy Farah Weiss, Mark Leno, Angela Alioto, and Jane Kim.  

I think it's great that CARA invited all the candidates so we got an idea of who's out there and how they compare to one another.

I think the score card was a good idea too--holding the candidates to addressing every question and asking it again when they didn't!

Angela Alioto, Amy Farah Weiss, and Ellen Lee Zhou really stuck around for the second part, which was nice.

Bufano Statue and the 50th Anniversary of MLK's Assassination

I had a problem with the blog I posted on April 4, so I'm trying again with my great tech-help Farah at my side.

It was 50 years ago April 4 that Martin Luther King was assassinated, a fact that Leslie Simon brought to our attention that morning, when Supervisor Norman Yee called a press conference to announce the renaming of Phelan Avenue to Friday Kahlo Way. (More on that later) She reminded us of the Bufano statue standing between us and the Science Hall, made from guns that people turned in at SF City Hall after the assassinations of both MLK and Robert Kennedy in 1968, five years after the assassination of President John Kennedy. Those guns are said to have been used to create this sculpture.

Sandra Pulido's Rap against Gender Labeling

Sandra Pulido was my student in two classes at CCSF as well as a student of Erika Delacorte.

She invited Erika and me to the Sixth Annual Colloquium put on by the Department of Modern Languages and Literature at San Francisco State University on Friday, April 6, 2018.

She played Diego Rivera in a couple of skits and then did an amazing rap.

Here are the words to the last part of her rap--the part I recorded.  You can hear it on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/JVhBbGBQ4Xo

Contra

Corriente

Contra

Corriente

YO te pregunto
qué es ser hombre qué es ser mujer
Porque de acuerdo a este mundo
Hombre no he de ser
Tampoco quiero

Pero tampoco encajo en la idea de lo que
“mujer” para este mundo raro significa.

Si te acuerdas de aquel científico
Que dijo que hombre y mujer
son el mismo sexo pero invertido
Vas entendiendo algo

Contra

Corriente

Contra

Corriente

Me convierten en un ser ambiguo
porque de acuerdo a las normas
no soy ni lo uno ni lo otro,
pero si a mí me preguntas,
entonces te respondo:
¿por qué tengo que elegir entre dos definiciones?

 Contra

Corriente

Contra

Corriente

si se puede
crear un mundo con palabras,
por qué entonces no puedo yo crear el mío,
donde no me sienta culpable por quien quiero

En el amor somos todas iguales,
si se ama con el alma,
¿por qué hay gente de mente cerrada?
somos iguales

Contra

corriente

Contra

Corriente

Contra corriente voy,

Contra corriente estoy

Contra corriente sigo
porque si soy

yo vivo

Press Conference at CCSF for Frida Kahlo Way

Supervisor Norman Lee called a press conference today for the renaming of Phelan Avenue to Frida Kahlo Way.  Leslie Simon had a lot to do with the success of the recent votes for this change, but she stayed in the background.  I was part of the mass standing beside the speakers, so I took pictures just from time to time.  Phil Ting spoke first, then Chancellor Mark Rocha, the President of the Board of Trustees Davila, the president of Associated Students Tameem Tutakhil, and Alissa Messer.