It is seems almost impossible that it was just a week ago that I was leaving Portland. Saying goodbye to the fast friends of the hostel, kind streets with cafes, art, rose gardens, parks, and Powell’s Books the monster book store I'd been swept up in for the past week, I was again so happy to have visited this lovely city. So it was with mixed emotions that I started the mile walk to the train station like a human turtle, loaded front and back with my 80 pounds of baggage. When the lady at the luggage counter weight my bags, I was inspired to rub my shoulders and question not for the first time how much I really care about my possessions.
I was thrilled to take a seat and settle in for the 18 hour train ride ahead of me. The train was packed unlike the other legs of my journey and I soon met my seat partner, a man traveling to Los Angels to visit his mother. As our introductory questions delved further to the root of personal mission and history, he quickly became interested in what I am researching. He shared his history of gang involvement, his struggles to break free of a violent life style and an incarceration system that perpetuates limited opportunities for gang involved youth and communities. He described the effect of violence, fear, and trauma on his community and family, and talked about the lack of opportunity and safe choices in his youth, and the choices he had to make to change his life and leave the gang. He said that unlike many Hollywood images of gangs being about money and women, much of gang life is based on the need for control and power, to feel important and recognized even if the primary way to achieve this is through fear and being 'the baddest guy around'. Furthermore, once in the prison system gangs become a necessary means for protection and self-preservation, creating a world of gang violence that flows easily between bars and prison walls. We talked about the need for more opportunities and positive alternatives for youth in their search for acceptance and strength, and the understanding that they are not a lost cause. We also talked about the need to recognize the trauma that the entire community experiences, and the daily fear that accompanies the strong presence of gangs in schools, businesses, and in the streets. Now working part time construction and running his own convenience store, he is happy just to be, and feels he has already accomplished so much by leaving the gang life. He visits his mother once or twice a year and is reminded of the fear and stress in his old community, and is much happier now on the quieter edges of Seattle. As the sun set outside the window, he offered up his seat for me to get a good night sleep and said he would go to another part of the train to find someplace to sit for the rest of the night. There was no refusing his offer, and as he insisted on this kindness I wondered what a thing it would be for his young self to see this other way he would eventually be in the world.
The long train ride from Portland transitioned into an early morning bus ride that would take me the rest of the way to downtown San Francisco. The city glittered as the rising sun hit water far below and the buildings sprouting from the edges of the bay, growing larger as we entered the heart of the city. As I stepped off the bus and re-assumed my double bagged turtle stance, I waddled off with the driver's directions towards my hostel. Settling into my hostel room I assessed the situation, top bunk this time, not supper squeaky, pretty good pillow, decent comforter, and the bathroom seemed pretty good with complimentary soap even if the curtain did quite cover all the window. I reminded myself it was just for one night, and then I would be off to stay with Penny one of the head Aikido Senseis(teachers) at the Heart of San Francisco Dojo. After a day of wandering downtown in the financial district, sifting through samurai statues and kimonos in Chinatown(and developing a strange urge to buy one or several), and running along the wharf, I was ready to relocate to the Mission District.
Arriving in Burnel Heights, Penny's distinct neighborhood in the Mission District, was like a breath of fresh air. Mexican markets and pastry shops lined the streets displaying boxes of cactus leaves and fruit I had never seen in the states, people bustled in a friendly familiar way, and murals EVERYWHERE! Yes this was what I could get into, really delicious, really colorful, and really interesting. So when Penny invited me into her home, and I was greeted by two super sweet cats, a warm and peaceful home created by the life of warm and generous people, I was struck with deep gratitude and delight that I would get to enjoy this space for the next week. To top it off I entered the living room to be greeted by a stunning view of the city stretching out from this smallish mountain, giving it the feel that we were in some secret tree fort far above the hub-bub of humanity below. I could definitely get use to this.
In keeping with the dreamy quality of this good luck, the organization I was scheduled to meet with that afternoon was right around the corner. Walking to Precita Eyes to talk with Eli, I realized the full extent of the murals I had seen in passing on the bus. It seemed like they were everywhere, and on anything, around every corner, and above every doorway. Nearly in a colortastic coma, I entered yet another muraled building and walked through what appeared to be an art store, and then a studio, and then a gallery, to the office where Eli sits. Chill as can be, Eli explained a bit of what I'd just seen. Largely responsible for the murals in the neighborhood, Precita Eyes is comprised of four major components: the store, mural painting program, youth programs, and mural tours. These programs and the people who run and participate in them are collectively a force that has both literally and figuratively changed the face of the surrounding community. The store I had walked through sells mural paint supplies, muraling manuals and books, and a variety of magnets, posters, calenders, and postcards with images of murals. The store also offers a place for people interested in painting their own mural to walk in and ask questions, get help, and talk with Precita Eyes staff and volunteers. In addition to this service, all proceeds go back into the organization, creating more opportunities to paint murals in the community.
Eli explained that through the mural painting program a number of on-call artist are contacted to do work throughout the community as the organization receives requests and commissions for new work and restorations. Sometimes these artists work individually, sometimes with groups of youth from schools or community centers, and sometimes with other professional artists. The murals that they produce range widely from colorful designs, to messages of political turmoil and persecution, to landscapes, to images depicting the individual and cultural history of people in the community. In addition to this, the youth program involves young people primarily ages 11-19 and young adults in a number of workshops and mural projects. Workshops are held twice a week where youth can drop in and work on murals that have been commissioned from individuals, businesses and organizations throughout the city. The youth work with at least one professional artist and are involved throughout the entire process, from planning to painting, and are taught skills in drawing, brush painting, and spray painting. About 90% of the youth in the program come from low-income backgrounds, and some are court involved. Eli explained that the courts will frequently send kids to them to fulfill their community service, and recently the court designated funds for youth to receive a stipend for working with Precita Eyes. In this way, the program is both their job and a way of doing restoration, which provides great opportunities for teaching life lessons as well as developing artistic skills(whoop whoop, Kathleen – yeah this is happening other places as well!). Precita Eyes also likes to publicly celebrate the youth in their program and community by holding an annual Youth Arts Festival where there is opportunities for community painting, skateboarding, and other fun activities.
Staff and volunteers also work to give tours of murals in the neighborhood throughout the week. I decided to take go on one of these tours and hear the history of the many beautiful murals I had been seen in passing. Our tour guide was a lovely woman who was one of the muralist who had been with Precita since the beginning and had undiminished enthusiasm for the work they were doing. Starting off with a slide show presentation, we got a glimpse of the vast array of work done over the last forty years, and the progression of the muraling movement as it shaped the Mission District. With waves of immigrants from Asia and Latin America, the cultural and artistic influences of a diverse community found voice on walls of homes and businesses. Eventually muraling became a shared culture, and as an individual or group had something to say or wanted to give back to the community, muraling was the common, thread of expression. With this in mind we headed down the block stopping every few yards at another mural, another story, another shared experience or memory of this place. Then we reached Balmy Alley, barely larger than a foot path, the alley has gained world wide recognition for its more than forty murals. I tried desperately to both ask questions and focus on the paintings, there was just so many of them. I resolved to come back, there just wasn't enough time. At the end of the tour we disbanded, and I walked away with images swimming through banks of possibility in my mind. Craving a wall and a paint brush, I had to tell myself to be patient. I thought back on Eli's comments that funding and maintaining a space are constant challenges, but the program keeps finding a way through grants, commissions, donations, and the store. In the face of this ever present challenge, Precita Eyes has become a force in the community that has touched not only those involved in the painting process, but anybody who passes by one of their many murals throughout the city. The shear number of murals they have produced and their process of creating them is astounding, and inspiring. It has been wonderful to see how a community has created such a sense of self-identity through and around this art form. Walking through the streets it is hard not to notice the power of this process, and for me to be enormously encouraged by it.
I promise to take many more pictures before I leave on Thursday for L.A., and I will try to post them in an attempt at technical savvy. In the meantime, I plan to enjoy the many flowering trees(my favorite one looks like lots of little ferns with brilliantly purple flowers hanging down like some Dr. Seussical imagining), and watch the figs ripen on the tree just outside the front door. Again I ask, is this real life? In the next few days, I look forward to several meetings I have with art and youth programs throughout the city, the first being a meeting this evening with a woman from the Mural Music Arts Program. I look forward to reporting back about my findings, as well as discoveries about Mexican pastries, I have a feeling all of it will be very good.
Hope you are all well!
No comments:
Post a Comment