When he was 11 and living in the Dominican Republic, Alejandro Cartagena started taking a bird watching class. The students went on field trips, took photos and learned how to develop the film. Cartagena enjoyed it, but after a couple of years, he became more interested in skateboarding and hanging out with his friends. In […]
Author Archives: Emily Wilson
Emily Wilson is a reporter in San Francisco. She has written stories for dozens of media outlets including SF Weekly, California Teacher, Hyperallergic, UC Santa Cruz Magazine, Latino USA, San Francisco Classical Voice, Photograph Magazine, SF/Arts, KQED, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, and the Observer. For years, she taught adults working towards their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Posted inArts & Culture, Community, Housing
Art Brings Filipinos’ Fight for Affordable Housing to New Audiences
An organization that Filipinos started 25 years ago to advocate for affordable housing in San Francisco is using art to share its message across wider circles.
Posted inArts & Culture
Looming Threat Informs Taiwanese Artist’s ‘Everyday War’ at Asian Art Museum
In Taiwan, the threat of invasion by China is ever present — maybe it will happen tomorrow, maybe next year, maybe never. Video artist Yuan Goang-Ming captures in his work this feeling of dread that pervades even the mundaneness of routine activities.
In “Everyday War,” an exhibit at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum through Aug. 4, Yuan, explores the unsettled and anxious nature of daily life in which violence feels close and security out of reach in more and more parts of the world.
Posted inArts & Culture
Pacifica Artist Ties Indigenous Themes to Lives of Immigrants and Farmworkers
Oscar Lopez has a reputation for building community and using his art to tie contemporary experiences to Indigenous history.
Posted inArts & Culture, Immigration
Artist’s Show Weaves Together Memories and Immigration Stories
In her exhibition at San Francisco’s Institute of Contemporary Art museum, artist Suchitra Mattai explores her immigration story and that of her ancestors, as well as the malleability of memory.
The works are entirely fabric, from two-dimensional pieces that resemble paintings to a nearly life-sized house, an ode to where Mattai was born.