Photograph submitted anonymously My breaking point came late one Tuesday night, about a week into the shutdown. I had just finished reporting (virtually) on a local school board meeting after multiple 12-hour-plus workdays, and the thought of writing one more word about the pandemic made me feel like crawling into bed and never re-emerging. I […]
Darius Foster is heading into his final season as a USF baseball player and one of two Black teammates on the roster. Photograph by Chris M. Leung, courtesy of USF Dons Athletics. Within seconds of seeing his future teammates, Darius Foster knew he’d be representing his race alone. As he was ushered around the University […]
Along with tens of thousands of San Franciscans, Margaret Valentine LeLong embraced the freedom and mobility bicycling offered. Illustration by Colin Hunt. When Margaret Valentine LeLong decided in 1897 to ride a bicycle, alone, from Chicago to her home in San Francisco, everyone around her implored her to reconsider. No woman had ever dared try […]
Illustration by Danielle Calibird Fernandez “The ballrooms were like a big announcement and front door…into The Life.” – Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Listen to the curated playlist that accompanies this piece to hear a selection of live and studio recordings from the height of San Francisco’s rock ballroom era. A show at one […]
In pre-digital SF, writer Richard Loranger roamed and occasionally wreaked havoc in the streets of the city as a bike messenger. Illustration by Nien-Ken Alec Lu. For a couple of years in the mid-1980s I was a private bicycle delivery person for ARCH Drafting Supply in San Francisco. I’d been a bike courier for a […]
Filmmaker Jacalyn Evone directs her team in an outdoor shoot. Photograph by Pauline Russell. When the lockdowns began, we turned to art—particularly of the streaming variety. We binged Tiger King, Bridgerton, the last of Schitt’s Creek, and dabbled in at least three Marvel spin-offs. Some of us hit a nostalgic ’90s phase, returning to ER […]