No Kings, No Queens Chess Club is the super-chill community chess club that gathers the 1st Sunday of every month in the galeria. Hosted by Danny Cao, all ages and skill levels are encouraged to come. Never played chess? We'll teach you! Come hang out, talk chess and play a few games.

As part of the MAPP, this event is a tribute to one of MAPP's founders, Manuel Trujillo. We honor the cultural work Manuel promoted in the Mission as a Mexican immigrant and artist who reshaped and reimagined the Mission. 

Manuel not only co-founded MAPP, but he also brought other projects to the Mission, such as Noches Bohémias and, most recently, Dueto Arte, with Artemisa. His passion for making spaces and music accessible for our Mission community created community ties in San Francisco and beyond. In Jalisco, Manuel was born and raised in a family of musicians, whose values and stories cross borders, as the genres Manuel played, especially ranchero and corrido, which he often delighted us with.

The event's program will have performances by Manuel's family, Pablo and Martha Trujillo, and friends such as Alfredo Gómez, Enrique Ramiréz, Francisco Ferrer, Erika Cruces, Ricardo Torres, and many more, who will be playing a repertoire of the various genres to remember Manuel's generous work that enriched our community with familiar and new tunes, a passion Manuel shared around our barrio. 

Curation:Veronica Solis Mora and Armando Ortiz

Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of musical medicina.

Tonight the sonic sustenace is being brought to you by Mutant Audio(Scott Foster-guitar, David Boyce-reeds and efx)

Noche de Movies is back! Our monthly movie series returns just in time for those chilly San Francisco summer nights. This month we are over la luna excited to be screening Kent MacKenzie’s The Exiles.

The Exiles is a 1961 film by Kent MacKenzie chronicling a day in the life of a group of 20-something Native Americans who left reservation life in the 1950s to live in the district of Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California. Bunker Hill was then a blighted residential locality of decayed Victorian mansions, sometimes featured in the writings of Raymond Chandler, John Fante, and Charles Bukowski. The structure of the film is that of a narrative feature, the script pieced together from interviews with the documentary subjects. The film features Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, and Tommy Reynolds.

Microwave palomitas will be provided.

An Evening of Powerful Workers Justice Storytelling, combining fiction, spoken word, theater and oral history. From the picket line to the coal mine to the streets of the Mission, we will resist ICE, celebrate work, honor the people who do it and support their struggles for freedom. Do you like the Union? Yes! Do you like the Bosses? No! Union-Bashing’s Got to Go!

Una velada de historias poderosos sobre la justicia laboral, que combina ficción, poesia, teatro e historia oral. Desde los piquetes a las minas de carbón hasta las calles del barrio de Mission, resistiremos al ICE, celebraremos el trabajo, honraremos a quienes lo realizan y apoyaremos sus luchas por la libertad. ¿Se

puede? ¡Si, se puede!

The Nuevo Sol Domestic Workers Teatro performers are part of a fighting organization of day laborers and domestic workers who tell their stories with humor and heart. Award-winning Lead Organizer Guillermina Castellanos will introduce the presentation/Codirectora Guillemina Castellanos presentará las participantes y su obra de teatro.

Jenny Worley is an English professor at City College, past president of the college’s faculty union, AFT 2121, and was a dancer-organizer in the historic Lusty Lady unionization campaign

Jenny Worley es una profesora, ex-presidenta de AFT 2121 y una bailarina y organizadora del Lusty Lady Eroticl Dance Club.

Bahaar Tadjbakhsh is a Bay Area-based artist, labor educator and organizer. She is a core ensemble member of the San Francisco Neo-Futurists theater ensemble and on staff at the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center

Bahaar Tadjbakhsh es actriz, dramaturgo, organizadora y educadora.

Bill Shields is a retired union organizer and labor educator, co-founder of the Bay Area Labor Theater, and an oral historian, writer and performer

Bill Shields es maestro y sindicalista jubilado y un escritor y actor.

Michael Dunn is a novelist whose terrain is working class history, a union activist and a high school teacher.

Michael Dunn es novelista, activista sindical y profesor de secundaria.

Harvey Schwartz is the in-house historian for the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union, a leading labor oral historian in Northern California, a teacher and the author of numerous labor oral history books, including Solidarity Stories

Harvey Schwartz es un líder importante en la historia laboral de California y un profesor y autor.

James Tracy is the Chair of the Labor and Community Studies Department of City College of San Francisco, a housing and labor organizer and author of many books on organizing and people’s history

James Tracy es profesor, escritor y organizador.

Jacqueline Ramos is a Mission District native, City College of San Francisco teacher, public health advocate, poet and performer

Jacqueline Ramos es de la Mision, una profesora, poeta y luchadora por la justicia.

Tina Martin is a core member of the City College faculty union AFT 2121’s oral history project which culls fighting lessons for labor from the school’s union activist retirees.

Tina Martin es miembra central al proyecto Voces de los Jubilados de City College y Renato Larin desempeñó un papel historíco al unir City College y la Misión.

Renato Larin played a central role in bringing City College to the Mission and la Misión a City College

What Concrete Cannot Cover is an artist talk by Maya Kaqchikel artist Marilyn Boror Bor. Through her ongoing research on concrete as a material tied to colonialism, dispossession, and the transformation of Indigenous territories, Boror reflects on memory, the body, and the forms of knowledge and resistance that persist despite historical violence. The program includes a conversation about her artistic practice followed by a live performance.

Marilyn Boror Bor (Guatemala, 1984) is a Maya Kaqchikel artist, educator, curator, and cultural worker from San Juan Sacatepéquez, Guatemala. Working across painting, installation, performance, photography, video, and research, her practice explores Indigenous memory, language, territory, and the ongoing effects of colonialism through Maya knowledge systems.

Her work has been presented internationally at the 35th São Paulo Biennial (2023), Aichi Triennale (2025, Japan), Museu do Amanhã (2025, Brazil), Kunst Meran (2025, Italy), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (2021, Spain), and Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo (MADC) (2025, Costa Rica). She has participated in international residencies including Art Omi (2026, New York) and The Rooming House Residency (2026, San Francisco). Through materials such as concrete, textiles, clay, and archival documents, Boror creates works that reflect on dispossession, resilience, and Indigenous ways of knowing.

A welcoming space for queer musicians and songwriters to share their work, connect, and build community. Performers can sign up online in advance, join as walk-ins, or be featured as a monthly Featured Artist.

Daniel Lyons (he/él), also known as the QueerCowboy, is a West Marin County-based writer, storyteller, artist, and therapist currently working on a memoir about leaving the evangelical church to find his truest self as a bisexual trans man. The music he covers intimately reflects the highs and lows of this journey, weaving together themes of love, heartache, and survival.

Join us for an afternoon of tatreez, Palestinian embroidery, as we come together in community to stitch. A tatreez circle is a gathering of tatreez artists who stitch together while sharing stories and learning from each other. All levels of experience are welcome but this is not meant to be a workshop. We will not be teaching tatreez but are happy to help guide you on what you need to get started before the event. **Bring your own projects and your own supplies.**

What is Tatreez? Tatreez is the art of Palestinian embroidery that has been practiced in Palestine for centuries. A practice passed down generationally from mother to daughter. Taking inspiration from the land and everyday life, Palestinian women hand stitched motifs and patterns directly onto their thobe that represented their social status, the villages/regions from which they hailed and their individuality.

Can I join if I'm not Palestinian? YES! This is a space for Palestinians and non-Palestinians who share a love of tatreez. Regardless of who practices tatreez, it is important to always remember the history of this beautiful art and the role it plays today in the Palestinian resistance movement, both in Palestine and within the diaspora. These circles are a safe space for Palestinians and our allies.

If you’re new to tatreez and have questions please reach out to sfbaytatreez@gmail.com.

Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of musical medicina.

Tonight we are blessed with a Boohabian night of afrofuturists jazz grooves courtesy of the one and only Broun Fellinis(David Boyce-reeds and efx, Kevin Carnes-percussion and Kirk Peterson-bass)

!TONIGHT we have poets in our front window!

Come by tonight and listen to poets reading their work in our front window to Calle 24, the most living loving street in all of San Francisco.

This month’s poets are Rebeca Abidaíl Flores, Ellie Lopez, Mauricio Castro Vargas, and Marisol Medina-Cadena

Rebeca Abidaíl Flores is a Salvadoreña and Mexican American poet and visual artist from Fresno, California, currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco. Flores's work explores the intersection of land, culture, and community. She frequently writes about her identity as a daughter of immigrants and the intersection of work and play. Her poetry has been published in literary magazines and journals such as El Tecolote, The Acentos Review, and Invisible City.

Ellie Lopez (she/her) is a storyteller from Tracy, CA. Her poetry has been featured in numerous publications most recently Mobile Data Mag and KALW BAY POETS. Ellie has released a BuiLit Zine “While in Mourning” via Sampaguita Press. “Chillona” is her first full length poetry collection and was released October 2025.

Mauricio Castro Vargas es inmigrante, poeta, trabajador cultural de 34 años. Llego a la bahía hace más de una década, donde encontró la poesía como medio para escapar, reconectar, crear y construir su identidad fuera de traumas intergeneracionales ocasionados por la colonización y el capitalismo. Tiene dos gatos.

Plactica con Regina José Galindo/Artist talk with Regina José Galindo

Regina José Galindo (Guatemala, 1974) es una artista visual y poeta reconocida internacionalmente por su trabajo en performance. Vive y trabaja en Guatemala. A lo largo de más de tres décadas ha desarrollado una práctica artística en la que el cuerpo funciona como territorio político, archivo de la memoria y espacio de resistencia. Desde su contexto inmediato examina las implicaciones éticas de la violencia, las relaciones de poder y las desigualdades estructurales que atraviesan las sociedades contemporáneas, abordando temas como la violencia de Estado, los feminicidios, el racismo, el colonialismo, las migraciones y las distintas formas de exclusión y discriminación. Su trabajo se caracteriza por convertir la experiencia corporal en un lenguaje crítico capaz de confrontar al espectador con las múltiples manifestaciones de la violencia y la fragilidad de la condición humana. Su práctica ha sido reconocida con algunos de los premios más importantes del arte contemporáneo internacional, entre ellos el León de Oro al Mejor Artista Joven en la 51.ª Bienal de Venecia (2005); el Premio Príncipe Claus de los Países Bajos (2011); el Gran Premio de la 29.ª Bienal de Artes Gráficas de Ljubljana (2011); el Robert Rauschenberg Award de la Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Nueva York (2021); y el Gladys Eljuri Acquisition Prize en la XVII Bienal Internacional de Cuenca (2025). Anteriormente, en Guatemala, recibió el Premio Único de Poesía de la Fundación Myrna Mack (1998) y el Primer Premio Juannio (2010), entre otros reconocimientos. 

Regina José Galindo (Guatemala, 1974) is a visual artist and poet internationally recognized for her performance art. She lives and works in Guatemala. Over the course of more than three decades, she has developed an artistic practice in which the body functions as a political territory, an archive of memory, and a space of resistance. Drawing from her immediate context, she examines the ethical implications of violence, power dynamics, and the structural inequalities that permeate contemporary societies, addressing themes such as state violence, femicide, racism, colonialism, migration, and various forms of exclusion and discrimination. Her work is characterized by transforming bodily experience into a critical language capable of confronting the viewer with the manifold manifestations of violence and the fragility of the human condition. Her practice has been recognized with some of the most important awards in international contemporary art, including the Golden Lion for Best Young Artist at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005); the Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands (2011); the Grand Prize at the 29th Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts (2011); the Robert Rauschenberg Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York (2021); and the Gladys Eljuri Acquisition Prize at the XVII Cuenca International Biennial (2025). Previously, in Guatemala, she received the Myrna Mack Foundation’s Poetry Prize (1998) and the Juannio First Prize (2010), among other honors.

Author Jesse Montgomery tells the story of the Young Patriots Organization, poor white people who worked with the Black Panthers and Young Lords of the First Rainbow Coalition. Joined in conversation by Chika Okoye (Center For Political Education) and Finn Finneran

Formed in the late 1960s, the Young Patriots Organization was a Chicago-based radical group made up of young white migrants from Appalachia and the South who helped found Black Panther activist Fred Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition. The YPO grew from a local street gang into a powerful political and social force in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, where it fought against police brutality, racism, economic exploitation, and displacement through community organizing, the establishment of survival programs, and working-class cultural organizations.

In this first stand-alone history of the YPO, Jesse Montgomery presents the group as one of the New Left’s most enigmatic anti-racist organizations—one inspired by the moral and political power of the civil rights movement and the street corner socialism of the Black Panthers but also one that embraced regressive Southern identifiers, such as Confederate flags, that belied its liberatory message. Though the YPO’s existence was short-lived, its story helps us to reimagine radical unity in the face of dislocation, political oppression, and the brutal incentives of racial capitalism. As Montgomery argues, its work to cross racial and class lines and build coalitions for the greater good is a symbol of the America that could still be.

Jesse Montgomery is an Assistant Professor of English at Berea College and the author of It Is Not Enough to Survive: The Young Patriots Story. 

Chika Okoye: Lead Educator, who has been a long-time educator for CPE's Marxism 101 programs

Finn Finneran (he/they) is a writer and organizer living in the Bay Area Originally from the south, Finn studies history at UC Berkeley

Note; Friends of the author will gather from 6-7pm to play old-time Appalachian and honky tonk tunes in honor of the Young Patriots and the role country music played in their community organizing."

At a time when eugenics is resurgent in public health and tech capitalists intent on evolving beyond the human talk in colonial metaphors of inevitable progress through competitive individualism, The Mutual Aid of Language argues that human language could not have evolved in the survival of the fittest story to which they’ve reduced human nature. Language rather requires our mutual aid and tells a different story of our past and future. This event will feature a book talk sketching anthropological and anarchist critiques of evolutionary egoism and illustrating the anarchic organization language through analysis of videorecorded interactions. We’ll then facilitate an open discussion on the place of conversations in organizing strategy and as everyday tactic for prefigurative social change.

Mark Sicoli works as an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Virginia on Monacan Land in Charlottesville, where he teaches on Language Evolution, Multimodal Interaction, History of Linguistic Theory, and Anthropology and Anarchy. He researches language in everyday interactions and collaborates for Indigenous language revitalization with Zapotecan people of Oaxaca, Mexico, and with Tribal Nations of Virginia. He is author of Saying and Doing in Zapotec // Decir y Hacer en Zapoteco.

Rooted in Indigenous wisdom and a four-element framework, this book invites readers to rediscover and re-embody the truth that caring for ourselves and caring for the living Earth are one and the same. Healing the Land Teaches Us Who We Are helps us reconnect to the innate, embodied wisdom that many of us in modern Western society have abandoned—or been forced to forget.

Maceo Carrillo Martinet, PhD, builds on the work of Indigenous scholars like Robin Wall Kimmerer and Jessica Hernandez to share how not only are climate solutions still possible, they already exist—and they’re being practiced by communities around the world. Explicitly decolonial, this book offers a framework rooted in reciprocity, resistance, and kinship with the living Earth, and is built around four life-giving elements:

Water: How ancient Indigenous water-harvesting technologies, like the Pueblo peoples’ arid-garden systems, Peru’s siembra y cosecha de agua, and women-led practices, are vital for sustaining water, land, and community—and are essential for climate resilience

Earth: How successful community land stewardship—like Mexico’s ejidos, Maghrebian agdal, and Southeast Asian rotational farming—continue to support ecological health and human life in spite of colonial desecration

Fire: How “Indigenous fire”—frequent, low-intensity burns rooted in deep cultural relationship—functions as a crucial medicine for restoring forest health, preventing wildfires, and sustaining cultural and environmental resilience

Air: The profound connection between linguistic diversity and biodiversity—and how language can be weaponized to colonize and erase or nurtured to heal and awaken

This book invites readers not only to learn but to participate—to re-member, practice, and defend the Indigenous ways of knowing, sustaining, and resisting that are vital to our collective future.

For over twenty-four years, Maceo Carrillo Martinet, PhD, has been co-creating and implementing community-based ecological restorationand education projects across New Mexico and beyond. His award winning and community-affirming work is born mainly from an obligation to the earth, the youth, and the ancestors. The proceeds from this book will go toward the community work highlighted and sprouting across the world. Originally from San Francisco, but now lives in New Mexico with his family, where he takes care of a small farm, which, in return, takes care of him and his family.

Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of musical medicina.

Tonight’s extra special dose of sonic sustenance is being provided by Red Fast Luck(David Boyce-reeds and efx, PC Munoz-percussion, boom stick, and intergalactic hook rug)

TONIGHT come hear decolonized verses, spanglish poesia, Latine spokenword, Pocho poemas and neighborhood chisme at Speaking Axolotl, the Bay Area’s long running monthly Latine Reading series. 10 slot open mic goes up a las 6:50PM. Open mic poets have 5 minutes to read.

!This month’s feature is Gabriel Cortez!

Gabriel Cortez is a poet, educator, and organizer based in the Bay Area, California. His work has appeared in Poem-A-Day by The Academy of American Poets, The New York Times, The Rumpus, The Breakbeat Poets Anthology Volume 4, and elsewhere. A VONA, Poetry Incubator, and #BARS workshop alum, he has received awards from the Gerbode Foundation, the Rainin Foundation, the National Performance Network, the University of California, Palette Poetry, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He is pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at St. Mary’s College of California. Gabriel’s debut one person show, Between Two Rising Seas, premieres at Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) in Fall 2027. He is a member of the artist collective, Ghostlines, and co-founder of The Root Slam, an award-winning poetry venue dedicated to inclusivity, justice, and artistic growth, as well as Write Home, a project working to challenge public perceptions of houselessness and shift critical resources to houseless Bay Area youth through poetry and arts programming. Gabriel was the inaugural poet in residence at The Ecology Center, Shelterwood Collective, and Art Farm at West Dry Creek, where he used poetry and arts education to uplift local legacies of resistance rooted in environmental justice and food and land sovereignty. Gabriel has served on the board of directors for Performing Arts Workshop and currently serves on the board of The Bay Area Book Festival. From 2014 to 2023, he was Lead Poet Mentor and Director of Programs at Youth Speaks. Gabriel is of Black, white, and Panamanian descent. His work explores power, identity, belonging, and gold teeth. For more, visit GabrielMCortez.com

NOTE; Speaking Axolotl is a BIPOC reading series which means BIPOC poets only on the mic. White folks are welcome to sit and listen but their presence is not required.

Relief Event happening tonight to help raise funds and resources for familias affected by the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela.

There will be a poetry reading(poets TBA), a live dance performance by Dulce Tricolor Venezolano, pop up from Arepas San Francisco, an art raffle with art donated by local artists and a film screening of the amazing Venezuelan music documentary Un Solo Pueblo.

Join us tonight for an art platica with Rebeca Abidail Flores y Samantha Maria Espinoza, whose collaborative show “It Repeats, El Paso Poetico”, is currently on view in our galeria.

Rebeca Abidail Flores is a Salvadoreña and Mexican American artist from Fresno, CA. She has an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco. Her work is centered on ideas of work and play and how land interacts with culture and community.

Artist Statement; My work is an attempt at a reconciliation between land and work. As a child of an Indigenous—Mixtec mother and a father who came to the U.S. as a refugee from El Salvador, I’ve witnessed the labor that is forced upon our communities regardless of border. Through the use of storytelling and multidimensional work — installation, video, and textile: I attempt at creating meaning out of items found in everyday life that can anchor memory to land. I’m interested in the ways work and play interact with culture and community. More specifically, how art can remain accessible and sustainable.

Samantha Maria Xochitl Espinoza is a Chicana artist coming from a Mexican and Salvadoran family. She grew up in L.A and in Denver, CO and currently resides on Lisjan Ohlone land (Oakland, CA). She references living in between worlds, identities, and homes as a marker of her queer, Chicana experience. Her work reveals her generational and personal history, moments, and traumas as openings for wider conversations on racialized, gendered, and capitalist oppressions. She creates art solely for other brown women to enjoy, and as a gift to her communities in the hopes that they will see parts of themselves reflected or whispered within her work. She is a youth educator, organizer, daughter, sister and falls in love frequently. 

ARTIST STATEMENT; Using found fabric and paper that may otherwise be considered scrap, I recreate and reimagine scenes of our racialized realities, the testimonies of Chicanas with emphasis on our innermost thoughts. Through printmaking and the incorporation of fabric, my work illustrates the precarities that Chicanas exist within this imposed country, our emotional lives, and how nature reflects our collective circumstances. Within my print and textile explorations exists an ongoing conversation regarding the borders of this land and how our patterns of migration, separation, and generational trauma can be found in our surroundings, emphasizing the colonized history of all that we interact with. By incorporating writing into my printwork – not as captions, but as integral images within a print – I choose to emphasize the distinct stories that inspire the visuals so that the work is unmistakable in meaning. In highlighting the narratives of ignored perspectives, there is a distinct choice in listening prior to drawing, inking, and creating.

Enjoy Zine Festival was started as a response to folks expressing their fears around once radical creative spaces leaning apolitical and narrowing whose art and how art is represented.

Enjoy Zine Festival is different by clearly defining our intentions of hosting a space for people to connect in person, highlighting intersectionality, giving priority to BIPOC creatives, and being a source of crowdfunding for local or global community needs. Join us July 11th 1-6pm and open to all ages. Hosted in the gallaria at Medicine for Nightmares. 

Our location choice continues in highlighting our goals of intersectional storytelling and community connection as Medicina has been doing the work which has made them an emblem in the mission district. Enjoy Zine Festival offers snacks, art supplies, poetry readings, and 10 vendors from across the bay.

Guests that have come to EZ Fest expressed learning new things from our variety of artists. They have connected with folks which has led to new collaborations and opportunities for both vendors and guests. Some have made their first zine. Poets have shared new work. Kids have taken home their first comics. We hope you can join us for our 3rd year!

Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of musical medicina.

Tonight’s dose of musical medicina is being brought to you by the Free/Wong/Boyce Saxophone Trio(Nore Free, Francis Wong, and David Boyce-reeds)

Join beloved authors Beth Piatote and Aimee Suzara at Medicine for Nightmares for a reading and celebration of their newly released poetry collections, distant water and birth language.

Beth Piatote is a Nez Perce scholar, playwright, poet, and associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books include The Beadworkers, which was longlisted for the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection and the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the scholarly monograph Domestic Subjects. Her play, Antíkoni, had its world premiere with Native Voices in Los Angeles in November 2024. Her poems, scholarly essays, and short stories have appeared in multiple journals and anthologies, including American Quarterly, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, World Literature Today, and PMLA. An enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Piatote is devoted to the study of her heritage language of Nez Perce and is an Indigenous language revitalization activist. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Filipino-American poet, playwright, performer, and educator Aimee Suzara is the author of the forthcoming poetry book BIRTH LANGUAGE (Tia Chucha Press, Aug 2026), SOUVENIR (Wordtech Editions 2014), which was a Willa Award Finalist, and two chapbooks, Finding the Bones and The Space Between. Her poems, prose and plays have appeared in Kartika Review, California Language Association Journal, Orion Magazine, Raising Mothers, Poets.org, Mom Egg Review, and Women Re-Creating Classics (Bloomsbury 2025), among others. Her commissioned play THE REAL SAPPHO was supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation New Works program and the National Endowment for the Arts. Suzara was a 2025 San Francisco Foundation / Nomadic Press Literary Award winner, and has been been awarded fellowships and residencies by Poetry and the Senses at UC Berkeley, Mesa Refuge, the Key West Literary Seminar, A Room of Her Own Foundation, Hedgebrook and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.  As a multidisciplinary performer, she has collaborated with dance theater and music ensembles such as Deep Waters Dance Theater and the Grammy-Award-winning Kronos Quartet. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Mills College.  Based in Oakland, California, she teaches writing at Bay Area colleges and universities and through her coaching business Wild Tongues.

Block printing workshop for community activists. We'll have tools, paper, tinta, and small blocks, and start off with a conversation about printmaking as cultural and political expression. Second Wednesdays in March, April, and May. Suggested donation $20 for artist and book store.

Clase de grabado para activistas de la comunidad / Tendremos herramientas, papel, tinta, y pequeños bloques, y empezamos con una conversación sobre el grabado como expresión cultural y política. Segundo Miercoles en marzo, abril, y mayo. Donación sugerida $20 para artista y librería.

Fernando Martí (he/him) is an artist, poet, community architect and housing activist, originally from Ecuador, based in San Francisco, Ramaytush Ohlone land.

Fernando Martí (el) es un artista, poeta, arquitecto comunitario y activista de vivienda, originario del Ecuador, y basado en San Francisco, tierra Ramaytush Ohlone.

No Kings, No Queens Chess Club is the super-chill community chess club that gathers the 1st Sunday of every month in the galeria. Hosted by Danny Cao, all ages and skill levels are encouraged to come. Never played chess? We'll teach you! Come hang out, talk chess and play a few games.

Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of musical medicina.

Tonight double dose of sonic sustenance is being provided by String, Skin & Breath (1st set) and Bristle(2nd set)

String, Skin & Breath is a global ensemble blending ancient traditions with contemporary expression through spontaneous, deeply collaborative performance. Drawing from Persian and North African modes, chamber music, global folk traditions, and jazz improvisation, the group moves fluidly between original compositions, reimagined songs, and in-the-moment creation. Their music moves from meditative stillness to intricate rhythmic interplay, guided by deep listening, collective intuition, and a borderless musical spirit.

A welcoming space for queer musicians and songwriters to share their work, connect, and build community. Performers can sign up online in advance, join as walk-ins, or be featured as a monthly Featured Artist.

This month’s featured artists is Nush.

Nush infuses contemporary jazz and indie with the depth of Hindustani classical and pop traditions. With a bright and bold voice, she aims to create moments of warmth and connection. Still exploring the nuances of her unique sound, Nush invites listeners on a journey of discovery and emotion.

Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of musical medicina.

Tonight we have two solo sets by the Boohabian Black Edgar (1st set) and Angel(2nd set)

This special evening brings together an incredible lineup of writers, artists, and storytellers for a celebration of queer storytelling, humor, and community. Expect a lively, thoughtful, and unforgettable night of literary conversation, comic brilliance, and creative connection. Hosted by Charlie Jane Anders and Baruch Porras Hernandez. Featuring Kim Shuck, Gwendolyn Paradice, Ajuan Mance, Rebecca Hall, Maria Minguez Arias, and Ginny Berson.

Charlie Jane Anders is the award-winning, nationally bestselling author of Lessons in Magic and Disaster. Her other books include All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night, and the young adult Unstoppable trilogy. She also published a book about how to use creative writing to get through tough times called Never Say You Can't Survive. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, Conjunctions, ZYZZYVA, the Paris Review, McSweeney's, Esquire and the Catamaran Literary Reader. She’s currently writing the comic book Star Trek: Zero Point for IDW.

Baruch Porras-Hernandez is a writer, performer, organizer, professional MC/Host, curator, stand up comedian, and the author of the chapbooks “I Miss You, Delicate” and “Lovers of the Deep Fried Circle” both with Sibling Rivalry Press. He had the honor of touring with the legendary Sister Spit Queer poetry tour in 2019, is a is a two-time winner of Literary Death Match, a regular host of literary shows for KQED, and was named a Writer to Watch in 2016 by 7×7 Magazine. His poetry can be found with Write Bloody Publishing, The Tusk, Foglifter, Assaracus and many more. He has been an artist in residence at The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, a Lambda Literary Fellow in Poetry, and Playwriting. He’s been featured in shows with The Rumpus, Writers with Drinks, has performed several times with Radar Productions, LitQuake, and Quiet Lightning. His solo show “Love in the Time of Piñatas” got a clapping man from the SF Chronicle and was performed to sold-out houses at Epic Party Theatre in December of 2019. He is the head organizer of ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? a Latinx literary performance series, he is an immigrant originally from Mexico, and is currently the lead artist in a multidisciplinary project that will create new Queer Latino Superheroes with MACLA, which stands for Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana in San Jose. He lives in San Francisco.

Kim Shuck embraces the fool and jester qualities of being a modern poet and artist. She is a devotee of San Francisco, whose hills she wanders nearly always on foot. Her maternal grandparents met at the Polish Hall on Shotwell and she spent many hours with her mother and grandmother wandering the Mission St. Miracle Mile, taking books out of the Mission Branch library and watching aquarium fish on the ground floor of what used to be Hale's. She firmly believes in carrying a bubble wand, keys, pen and notebook and cats cradle string at all times. Shuck is widely published in journals, anthologies and a couple of solo books. She enjoys volunteering in SFUSD elementary school classrooms to share her loves of origami, poetry and basket making... in other words, math of various kinds. In 2019 Shuck was awarded an inaugural National Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, and a PEN Oakland Censorship Award.

Gwendolyn Paradice writer professor editor scholar genre/gender bender

Ajuan Mance is a Professor of African American literature at Mills College in Oakland, California. A lifelong artist and writer, Ajuan has participated in solo and group exhibitions as well as comic and zine fests, from the Bay Area to Brooklyn. In her art, illustration, and comics, Ajuan uses humor and bright colors to explore race, gender, power, and the people and places in which they intersect. Her work has appeared in a number of digital and print media outlets, including, most recently, The Women’s Review of Books, Blavity.com, BET.com, Transition Magazine, Buzzfeed.com, KQED.org, the San Francisco Chronicle, NYTimes.com, KPIX News, and Publisher’s Weekly. You can reach Ajuan at 8rockart@gmail.com

Rebecca Hall, JD PhD is an independent scholar, activist, and educator. Her paternal grandparents were born enslaved and she is the daughter of Harry Haywood. Dr. Hall writes and publishes on the history of race, gender, law, and resistance as well as articles on climate justice and intersectional feminist theory. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College, Berkeley Law, and University of Santa Cruz.

María Mínguez Arias es narradora, ensayista, editora circunstancial y traductora. Es autora de Nombrar el cuerpo (Editorial Egales/España y El BeiSmAn PrESs/USA, 2022), elegido en España entre lo mejor de la literatura Queer del 2022 por la revista Qué Leer, e incluida entre las recomendaciones de Vanity Fair Spain para el mes del orgullo 2025 ; y de la novela Patricia sigue aquí (Editorial Egales, 2018), ganadora de un premio ILBA en Estados Unidos. Sus relatos y ensayos aparecen en antologías y revistas de Estados Unidos, México y España, fue co-editora de la antología #NiLocasNiSolas: narrativa escrita por mujeres en Estados Unidos (El BeiSmAn PrESs, 2023), y editora (2021-2024) de la sección Letras USA de El BeiSmAn, revista de literatura en español de Estados Unidos. La autora parte de su identidad como inmigrante, mujer queer, madre y escritora en español en EE.UU para explorar temas como la memoria digital, familiar e histórica, la maternidad, el lenguaje, el cuerpo o la cotidianeidad y la fortaleza de la vida cursada desde los márgenes. Mínguez Arias trabaja como directora de operaciones y co-directora interina en la editorial feminista Aunt Lute Books en la Bahía de San Francisco donde reside con su compañera e hijes.

Ginny Z Berson is a long-time political activist driven by a longing for justice.  She was a member of The Furies-- a radical lesbian feminist separatist collective in Washington, D.C.  that lived and worked collectively to develop lesbian feminist political thought and philosophy.  The group produced a newspaper, The Furies, that had a significant impact on women’s groups in the U.S.  Ginny was a contributor and member of the editorial staff.  

The SF Indian Classical Session at Medicine for Nightmares is back June 24th! 7pm show starts, $10! The Indian Classical Sessions are an informal gathering dedicated to sharing the meditative beauty, ecstatic energy, and sheer majesty of South Asian music. Hosted by percussionist, drumset and tabla player Sameer Gupta, this gathering focuses on curating 4 short live sets that represent different influences and traditions surrounding South Asian music. Our goal is to connect, build our raga music loving community, and share South Asian classical music in an impromptu, casual and attentive setting.

Featured sets are:

Meghana Kumar

voice

Gaurav Kale

tabla

Gayatrhi Srinidhi

voice

Madhurranjan Mohaan

voice

Suggested Donation; $10

In the early 2010s, San Francisco experienced a tech boom that created both great wealth and great inequality. The city became known for runaway gentrification, a major housing crisis, and an "eviction epidemic" of long-term tenants. Yet there was also an inspiring housing justice movement. This book documents this moment. In this book event we will discuss the powerful anti-eviction movement of the 2010s and  its connections to housing struggles and justice today.

Manissa Maharawal works as an assistant professor of anthropology at American University in Washington DC. She is also a member of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project. 

Join us for an afternoon of tatreez, Palestinian embroidery, as we come together in community to stitch. A tatreez circle is a gathering of tatreez artists who stitch together while sharing stories and learning from each other. All levels of experience are welcome but this is not meant to be a workshop. We will not be teaching tatreez but are happy to help guide you on what you need to get started before the event. **Bring your own projects and your own supplies.**

What is Tatreez? Tatreez is the art of Palestinian embroidery that has been practiced in Palestine for centuries. A practice passed down generationally from mother to daughter. Taking inspiration from the land and everyday life, Palestinian women hand stitched motifs and patterns directly onto their thobe that represented their social status, the villages/regions from which they hailed and their individuality.

Can I join if I'm not Palestinian? YES! This is a space for Palestinians and non-Palestinians who share a love of tatreez. Regardless of who practices tatreez, it is important to always remember the history of this beautiful art and the role it plays today in the Palestinian resistance movement, both in Palestine and within the diaspora. These circles are a safe space for Palestinians and our allies.

If you’re new to tatreez and have questions please reach out to sfbaytatreez@gmail.com.