A thinkering workshop series by Book and Wheel Works + Collaborators
(aka artists Kate Connell & Oscar Melara) + collaborators Jarrel Phillips, Alisa Messer, Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin and Amber Straus
Collective Curatorial Statement
How can we sustain place? Come play your way with us to devise some solutions and ask deeper questions as we examine the social forces of urban renewal, development and displacement. We will play our way to an exchange about nurturing an authentic San Francisco, supporting labor, allying with public education and services, paying living wages and cherishing and defending our neighborhoods and our homes. Sustaining vital institutions that support and lift up our communities, such as City College of San Francisco, is essential to maintaining an affordable San Francisco. As we “thinker” our history together, sending our roots deeper, we value our city’s strong African American, Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islander, LGBTQ, and working class communities. Our hands and bodies build mutual respect as we commit to a San Francisco that sustains all of us.
Family Capoeira: A Place for Play and Recreation
SAT. – MAY 30th / 12 - 1:45PM
As part of the Sustaining Place Series, Jarrel Phillips will lead a playful family-centered exercise designed for both a parent and a child or two people to actively explore the art of Capoeira. Through guided exploration together we will develop strength, coordination, and an appreciation for the culture and community that capoeira cultivates.
Please Note:
+ Wear loose clothing.
+ A family-friendly activity for a parent and child ages 6+ + Limited for 8 people total; 2 members per family only
[Sustaining Place Series: Workshop-1 / MAY CALENDAR]
Facilitator: Jarrel Phillips Director and Founder of AVE (Access Via Exposure) Jarrel Phillips
Play with Us: Unfold your Story
FRI – JUNE 26th / 3 - 5PM & 5:30 - 7:30PM
Learn to design, play, and tell your story of home through the use of large origami fortune tellers or cootie catchers. Drawn from their magnificent giant cootie catchers that unfurl stories of the San Francisco’s Potrero neighborhood, Book and Wheel Works (aka Kate Connell and Oscar Melara) + collaborator Alisa Messerwill demonstrate how to design these unique large-scale paper structures to unfold complex stories of place and home. So, bring your stories, pictures and images of your place, your home, and be ready to play together at the end of the workshop. Other materials and basic tools will be provided.
[Sustaining Place Series: Workshop-2 / JUNE CALENDAR]
Facilitators: Book and Wheel Works (aka Kate Connell and Oscar Melara) + collaborator Alisa Messer
Rooted in Place: Bayview Hunters Point and City College after 1966
SUNDAY. AUG. 2nd / 1 - 4PM
Using 1966 as a starting point, Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin, professor of History at City College of San Francisco (CCSF), will explore the histories of San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. She will explore how City College became an institution that sustained its communities after Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” policies made community colleges accessible to diverse communities. As people and the histories they carry are displaced, understanding history is integral in helping to sustain San Francisco’s rich culture. Dunn-Salahuddin believes that in the face of rapid urban development and increasingly higher cost of living if we hope to “sustain place we must know where we have been”. Amber Straus, also a CCSF instructor, will lead us in crafting our way through crisis as we screen print T-shirts, posters, and bags with slogans and ephemera that we can wear and carry on our bodies, bringing history and meaning into our everyday. Come make and screen print text and images on t-shirts, posters, bags, and wish boxes.
Things to bring: Pictures or images and a t-shirt you want to use or share San Francisco images from various archives, we will provide other materials. No screen printing experience necessary.
RSVP the facilitators - Limited for 10 participants.
[Sustaining Place Series: Workshop-3 / JUL-AUG CALENDAR]
Facilitators: professor, Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin and artist, Amber Straus.