Classes Archives — Page 12 of 32 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Saving City College

Andrew Lam

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July 10, 2012

By Chris Jackson

Although a recent accreditation report levels a long list of criticisms of City College, some of them legitimate issues that need to be addressed, the real problem is the state’s defunding of public education and its disinvestment in our community-college system.

There’s no question that everyone is going to work to keep City College open and serving our communities.

City College of San Francisco serves more than 90,000 students each year, trains (and retrains) our workforce, teaches English to our immigrant populations, fosters lifelong learning, and provides affordable, accessible pathways into all of higher education’s opportunities. But five years of drastic cuts in state funding has resulted in shrinking programs and overflowing classes; skyrocketing costs to students and families; employee furloughs, pay cuts, and givebacks; shutting the doors on far too many students who are unable to get the classes they need; and an increasing sense that community college education and its mission are wholly threatened for our city’s diverse students.

Overall, if you read the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior College’s report, the commission is asking City College to shrink its mission of providing a high quality, affordable education to all who come to its doors. The ACCJC wants City College to step away from its San Francisco value of “chopping from the top” — cutting administration instead of teachers.

Let’s be clear, the buck stops with the elected Board of Trustees. We as a board are going to work together with the entire City College family to save the college and its accreditation and look at and resolve all of the issues brought up in the accreditation report.

With that said, it’s important to understand that California’s institutions of higher education have taken huge cuts during our historic recession and subsequent unemployment — a time when more and more people have come to use our educational resources to help in their quest to find jobs.

Over the past four years, the state has cut more than $1 billion from the community college system. That includes a $17 million cut to City College last year — and this year, we’ve worked to close an additional $14 million budget deficit. Last year, more than 10,000 students were unable to attend City College due to lack classes.

While students are scrambling for classroom seats, the commission is arguing that City College has too few administrators. But we’re proud of the fact that every available dollar continues to go to saving City College classes and student access.

City College has spent the last year planning to place a parcel tax on this November’s ballot — to raise funds specifically to address many of the problems cited in the report. If the City College parcel tax and Governor Brown’s tax both pass, City College will have the money to restore many of the classes, services and liabilities that we’ve been unable to address.

As the largest community college in California, our mission and values are to serve all that come to the doors of City College, and let this be clear to our communities: We will never shrink away from that mission.

Chris Jackson is a member of the San Francisco Community College Board of Trustees

Film Listings

Andrew Lam

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July 3, 2012

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Film listings are edited by Cheryl Eddy. Reviewers are Kimberly Chun, Max Goldberg, Dennis Harvey, and Lynn Rapoport. For rep house showtimes, see Rep Clock. For complete film listings, see www.sfbg.com.

OPENING

Beasts of the Southern Wild See "Delta Delight." (1:31) Embarcadero.

Katy Perry: Part of Me The candy-colored pop star makes the logical leap to big-screen 3D. (1:57) Metreon.

Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present Matthew Akers’ sleek and telling doc explores the career and motivations of the legendary Serbian-born, New York-based performance artist on the occasion of 2010’s major retrospective and new work at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Abramovic, self-styled the "grandmother of performance art" at an eye-catching 63, steels herself with rare energy — and a determination to gain equal status for performance in the world of fine art — for an incredibly demanding new piece, The Artist Is Present, a quasi-mystical encounter between herself and individual museum patrons that takes the form of a three-month marathon of silent one-on-one gazing. Meanwhile, 30 young artists re-perform pieces from her influential career. Akers gains intimate access throughout, including Abramovic’s touching reunion with longtime love and artistic collaborator Ulay, while providing a steady pulse of suspense as the half-grueling, half-ecstatic performance gets underway. A natural charmer, Abramovic’s charismatic presence at MoMA is no act but rather a focused state in which audiences are drawn into — and in turn shape — powerful rhythms of consciousness and desire. (1:45) SF Film Society Cinema. (Robert Avila)

Nobody Else But You The Marilyn Monroe pop-culture resurgence continues with director and co-writer Gérald Hustache-Mathieu’s appealingly low-key mystery, which pays homage to the iconic blonde while borrowing liberally from a pair of noir Lauras: Vera Caspary’s back-from-the-dead heroine, and Twin Peaks‘ unfortunate Ms. Palmer. Fortunately, Nobody Else But You is original enough to remain both suspenseful and highly entertaining. David (Jean-Paul Rouve), a detective novelist with writer’s block, travels from Paris to a small village where a Monroe-esque local beauty named Candice (Sophie Quinton) has just been found dead in a snowdrift. The official word is suicide, but David suspects something more sinister. With the help of a local cop (Guillaume Gouix), the newly inspired author investigates, urged onward by Candice’s evocative diary entries. Though it tries a little hard at times (drinking game: keep track of how many times the number five appears onscreen), Nobody Else But You is well worth seeking out; it layers European flair (translation: lots of casual nudity) over a plot that wouldn’t be out of place in an American indie — but relocated, memorably, to "the coldest town in France." (1:42) Lumiere, Shattuck. (Eddy)

Savages Weed dudes (Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch) break bad, bro, by taking on a Mexican cartel in Oliver Stone’s latest. (1:57) Four Star, Marina.

Take this Waltz See "Sad Romance." (1:56) Embarcadero, Shattuck, Smith Rafael.

ONGOING

The Amazing Spider-Man A mere five years after Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man 3 — forgettable on its own, sure, but 2002’s Spider-Man and especially 2004’s Spider-Man 2 still hold up — Marvel’s angsty web-slinger returns to the big screen, hoping to make its box-office mark before The Dark Knight Rises opens in a few weeks. Director Marc Webb (2009’s 500 Days of Summer) and likable stars Andrew Garfield (as the skateboard-toting hero) and Emma Stone (as his high-school squeeze) offer a competent reboot, but there’s no shaking the feeling that we’ve seen this movie before, with its familiar origin story and with-great-power themes. A little creativity, and I don’t mean in the special effects department, might’ve gone a long way to make moviegoers forget this Spidey do-over is, essentially, little more than a soulless cash grab. Not helping matters: the villain (Rhys Ifans as the Lizard) is a snooze. (2:18) Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Presidio. (Eddy)

The Connection The first re-release in a project to restore all of quintessential 1960s American independent director Shirley Clarke’s features, this 1961 vérité-style drama was adapted from a controversial off-Broadway play by Jack Gelber. Set exclusively in a dingy Greenwich Village crash pad, it captures a little time in the lives of several junkies there — many off-duty jazz musicians — listlessly waiting for the return of their dealer, Cowboy. To mimic the stage version’s breaking of the fourth wall between actors and spectators, Clarke added the device of two fictive filmmakers who are trying to record this "shocking" junkie scene, yet grow frustrated at their subjects’ levels of cooperation and resistance. With actors often speaking directly to the camera, and all polished stage language and acting preserved, The Connection offers a curious, artificial realm that is nonetheless finally quite effective and striking. A prize-winner at Cannes, it nonetheless had a very hard time getting around the censors and into theaters back home. Hard-won achievement followed by frustration would be a frequent occurrence for the late Clarke, who would only complete one more feature (a documentary about Ornette Coleman) after 1964’s Cool World and 1967’s Portrait of Jason, before her 1997 demise. She was a pioneering female indie director — and her difficulty finding projects unfortunately
also set a mold for many talented women to come. (1:50) Roxie. (Harvey)

Magic Mike Director Steven Soderbergh pays homage to the 1970s with the opening shot of his male stripper opus: the boxy old Warner Bros. logo, which evokes the gritty, sexualized days of Burt Reynolds and Joe Namath posing in pantyhose. Was that really the last time women, en masse, were welcome to ogle to their heart’s content? That might be the case considering the outburst of applause when a nude Channing Tatum rises after a hard night in a threesome in Magic Mike‘s first five minutes. Ever the savvy film historian, Soderbergh toys with the conventions of the era, from the grimy quasi-redneck realism of vintage Reynolds movies to the hidebound framework of the period’s gay porn, almost for his own amusement, though the viewer might be initially confused about exactly what year they’re in. Veteran star stripper Mike (Tatum) is working construction, stripping to the approval of many raucous ladies and their stuffable dollar bills. He decides to take college-dropout blank-slate hottie Adam (Alex Pettyfer) under his wing and ropes him into the strip club, owned by Dallas (Matthew McConaughey, whose formidable abs look waxily preserved) and show him the ropes of stripping and having a good time, much to the disapproval of Adam’s more straight-laced sister Brooke (Cody Horn). Really, though, all Mike wants to do is become a furniture designer. Boasting Foreigner’s "Feels like the First Time" as its theme of sorts and spot-on, hot choreography by Alison Faulk (who’s worked with Madonna and Britney Spears), Magic Mike takes off and can’t help but please the crowd when it turns to the stage. Unfortunately the chemistry-free budding romance between Mike and Brooke sucks the air out of the proceedings every time it comes into view, which is way too often. (1:50) 1000 Van Ness, Presidio, SF Center. (Chun)

Ted Ah, boys and their toys — and the imaginary friends that mirror back a forever-after land of perpetual Peter Pans. That’s the crux of the surprisingly smart, hilarious Ted, aimed at an audience comprising a wide range of classes, races, and cultures with its mix of South Park go-there yuks and rom-commie coming-of-age sentiment. Look at Ted as a pop-culture-obsessed nerd tweak on dream critter-spirit animal buddy efforts from Harvey (1950) to Donnie Darko (2001) to TV’s Wilfred. Of course, we all know that the really untamable creature here wobbles around on two legs, laden with big-time baggage about growing up and moving on from childhood loves. Young John doesn’t have many friends but he is fortunate enough to have his Christmas wish come true: his beloved new teddy bear, Ted (voice by director-writer Seth MacFarlane), begins to talk back and comes to life. With that miracle, too, comes Ted’s marginal existence as a D-list celebrity curiosity — still, he’s the loyal "Thunder Buddy" that’s always there for the now-grown John (Mark Wahlberg), ready with a bong and a broheim-y breed of empathy that involves too much TV, an obsession with bad B-movies, and mock fisticuffs, just the thing when storms move in and mundane reality rolls through. With his tendency to spew whatever profanity-laced thought comes into his head and his talents are a ladies’ bear, Ted is the id of a best friend that enables all of John’s most memorable, un-PC, Hangover-style shenanigans. Alas, John’s cool girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis) threatens that tidy fantasy setup with her perfectly reasonable relationship demands. Juggling scary emotions and material that seems so specific that it can’t help but charm — you’ve got to love a shot-by-shot re-creation of a key Flash Gordon scene — MacFarlane sails over any resistance you, Lori, or your superego might harbor about this scenario with the ease of a man fully in touch with his inner Ted. (1:46) California, Four Star, Marina, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Sundance Kabuki. (Chun)

To Rome with Love Woody Allen’s film legacy is not like anybody else’s. At present, however, he suffers from a sense that he’s been too prolific for too long. It’s been nearly two decades since a new Woody Allen was any kind of "event," and the 19 features since Bullets Over Broadway (1994) have been hit and-miss. Still, there’s the hope that Allen is still capable of really surprising us — or that his audience might, as they did by somewhat inexplicably going nuts for 2011’s Midnight in Paris. It was Allen’s most popular film in eons, if not ever, probably helped by the fact that he wasn’t in it. Unfortunately, he’s up there again in the new To Rome With Love, familiar mannerisms not hiding the fact that Woody Allen the Nebbish has become just another Grumpy Old Man. There’s a doddering quality that isn’t intended, and is no longer within his control. But then To Rome With Love is a doddering picture — a postcard-pretty set of pictures with little more than "Have a nice day" scribbled on the back in script terms. Viewers expecting more of the travelogue pleasantness of Midnight in Paris may be forgiving, especially since it looks like a vacation, with Darius Khondji’s photography laying on the golden Italian light and making all the other colors confectionary as well. But if Paris at least had the kernel of a good idea, Rome has only several inexplicably bad ones; it’s a quartet of interwoven stories that have no substance, point, credibility, or even endearing wackiness. The shiny package can only distract so much from the fact that there’s absolutely nothing inside. (1:52) Albany, Balboa, Embarcadero, Sundance Kabuki. (Harvey)

The People’s School

Andrew Lam

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July 3, 2012

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yael@sfbg.com

Oakland elementary schools that were packed with kids until a few weeks ago are now closed for the summer — and five are closed for good. In October the school board voted to close them in a move that would save about $2 million per year.

But many Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) residents are not pleased. At the Oct. 26 meeting where the vote was cast, 500 protested. Concerned parents and teachers have been petitioning and meeting with school board members and Superintendent Tony Smith for months, trying to reverse the decision.

“No one wants to close schools, but the OUSD made this difficult decision because it’s in the best long-term interest of students,” reads a June 22 press release.

Resistance to that decision now continues at one school that was supposed to close June 18. To the dismay of the district, it remains open. Lakeview Elementary is the site of a sit-in and free school, orchestrated by parents and teachers.

“Lakeview has strengths,” the June 22 press release goes on to say. “It has shown improved academic performance in recent years and, boasts a strong sense of community and close alignment with its afterschool programs.” But low rankings in attendance and test scores overshadowed those strengths in the decision to close the school.

Yet it seems that “strong sense of community” seems to be more powerful than the school board thought.

SENSE OF COMMUNITY

Joel Velasquez, a parent of three and PTA member who has had children at Lakeview for 10 years, didn’t think it would come to this.

“I’ve watched everything that went on as a parent here for 10 years,” Velasquez said. When the school was threatened, “I probably spent 20 hours a week meeting, talking, emailing, researching, sending, forwarding — I mean, this is something that has been ongoing.”

“I met with Tony Smith for an hour,” Velasquez said. “I sat with board members.”

But as the end of the school year approached, he was growing more desperate, so he ended up making an announcement: “On the last day of school, I’m not going to leave. And I hope that people join me.”

They did. Lakeview’s building is slated to be turned into administrative offices, and that process was scheduled to begin two weeks ago.

Now, the school that should be filling up with district employees’ office supplies still has children running around its grounds. Organizers opened the People’s School for Public Education, and classes, taught by an army of credentialed teachers and qualified volunteers, run from 9am to 3pm, Monday through Friday.

At a June 27 visit, I toured the school and sat in during a Social Justice class. In the People’s School’s organic garden, a smiling gardening teacher had to stop an overzealous six-year-old from drowning the kale. “They love watering!” he shrugged. Another child, still mesmerized 30 minutes after the official end of music class, improvised on the djembe along with the drumming teacher. From a balcony, a volunteer called to him: “There’s ice cream!” he looked up, considered, and then kept drumming.

The group of kids has grown since the school opened June 15, as parents hear about the summer school and come see it for themselves. The Lakeview sit-in is unlike other recent occupations in the careful vetting process each visitor gets. After all, protecting the kids and their education is the most important goal of the project. But during school hours, parents are permitted to come inside and stay with their children as long as they want, seeing what the school is like.

Still, getting parents to send their children to a summer camp that isn’t technically legal isn’t always easy. “I think our society, not just parents, are really reluctant to do something like this,” Velasquez said. “But I see it as a positive service to the community. We’re using the building for what it’s intended to be used for.”

Julia Fernandez, a high school math teacher, got involved with the effort to save the schools through the Occupy Oakland Education Committee, and her two children, ages 2 and 4, are enrolled in the summer school.

As a nine-year resident of Oakland, Fernandez says, the cuts affect her and her family. She’s taking part in the demonstration partly “for my own kids,” Fernandez said. She said the cuts “affect the school where my kids would go. It’s likely that it’s going to be closed or turned into a charter school.”

“But the thing that motivates me the most is all these attacks that are happening against people,” Fernandez said. She guessed that it was adversity of many kinds, not just school closures, that motivated many parents to join the protest and send their kids to the People’s School.

“People are really upset about all the attacks that are being done on regular working class people. People are losing their homes, they’re getting laid off, and now their schools are closing. It just seems like all these services, all these rights people should have, are being taken away”

MORE THAN MONEY

Organizers emphasize that the money saved seems paltry, just $2 million for five functioning schools.

“Think about it, this is not very much,” Velasquez said. “And they’re wasting almost $4 million to do these transitions to close the schools. They’re spending more than the savings.”

OUSD spokesperson Troy Flint confirmed that the savings will be “in the $2 million range,” and that the total cost of the transition is about $3.7 million.

These expenses include about $117,000 one-time moving related costs and about $200,000 in staffing, including paying a transition director.

They also include $95,000 in transportation costs, which may not be one-time expenditures; they may “as needed for an additional year or more,” Flint said in an email.

Meanwhile, about 1,000 students will be displaced by the move. Many will move to Grass Valley and Burckhalter, and these school’s capacities will be expanded with portable classrooms.

“The promise that we made to students was that we would guarantee students at the closing school a place at a school that was higher performing than the one we were leaving. We were able to live up to that promise,” Flint said.

However, there was a problem: “Most of the schools that perform in the top tier are already subscribed to capacity, so we had to expand the capacity using portables.”

Will these high performing schools remain high-performing as an influx of new students show up at their doors in the fall? After all, Oakland has many more elementary schools than comparable districts, a result of the small schools movement, a policy adopted in 2000 that led to the closure of some larger schools, which were replaced by smaller ones. According to a study conducted by Brown University’s Annenburg Institute for Education Reform, Oakland small schools are “safer, calmer, and more welcoming to families” than the schools they replaced.

But as private donations from those excited about small schools, notably the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, run out — along with federal and state money — Oakland may be reverting to larger institutions.

And as the OUSD sees it, that may not be a bad thing.

“To build toward the day when every OUSD school is a high-quality school, we need to concentrate our time, attention and resources in a manageable number of sites instead of spreading ourselves too thin,” he said in an email. “Quality over quantity is the goal when we can’t do both and the current financial environment prevents us from properly caring for 101 schools.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD PROBLEM

One of the reasons for the stated school closure is that it ranked in “the bottom quarter of elementary schools in terms of the number of children living within a half-mile of the school or within the attendance area” and the “lowest percentage of neighborhood students attending the school (30 percent).”

The school is also 99 percent children of color.

As Oakland Tribune education reporter Katy Murphy has written, about half of students in Oakland attend schools outside their district. As a statement from the group Decolonize Oakland points out, “We have to question why the families of black and brown students who live outside of Adams Point have chosen Lakeview.”

Maybe it’s that strong sense of community? All of the other schools slated for closure are also in the flatlands and serve mostly African American and Latino students.

Root, formerly Occupy the Hood Oakland, has played a big part in the organizing. So has Education for the 99 Percent, Occupy Oakland’s education working group, and other Occupy Oakland volunteers.

“A lot of people from Occupy have been extremely supportive and we wouldn’t be able to do this action without that support,” Velasquez said. “For example, the food, they have come every single day to feed, not just breakfast, lunch and dinner, but snacks and drinks.”

The sit-in has also received support from labor groups. A letter signed by more than 50 teachers’ union leaders and local school employees declares, “An injury to one is an injury to all. Let’s seize this opportunity to fight alongside parents, students, and community. We will mobilize our members to support this struggle.”

LEADERSHIP?

The demonstration has not, however, received support from the city of Oakland. Officers from the OUSD Police Service has visited the school several times (and Velasquez says they have done so without warning, despite agreeing to call first to avoid scaring children). Oakland police have been on site as well, and the protesters have received warnings to leave.

“I still remain hopeful that the protesters will see that the most forward-looking resolution to the standoff is to disperse peacefully and to concentrate their efforts on improving the school district for the year 2012/2013 and beyond,” Flint told me. “Right now we still believe that if there’s a relatively prompt resolution to the standoff, we’ll be able to meet our targets to get the facilities ready.”

“It’s not clear why they’re doing this sit-in in Oakland, an overwhelmingly Democratic district where Republicans can’t get elected,” Flint said. “The fundamental problem with this issue is all the Republicans have taken a no taxes pledge.”

Velasquez agrees. “It’s criminal what the state of California is doing right now,” he said. “But we’re focusing our attention on Tony Smith and the board because they’re accepting these conditions, and they shouldn’t…So if they feel that way, why are they not doing something about it, instead of accepting the conditions, and hurting the families and the students? Most importantly the kids.” Flint said the board would be willing to work with the group, but that the sit-in is pointless. “I don’t view this current action as something that is providing us any additional leverage,” he said, though he noted that his office had not attempted to use the sit-in to pressure the state. “We’ve coordinated people across the state, sending in postcards and petitions,” he explained. But when asked what worked best, he said nothing has. “I can’t name a time we’ve been successful,” he said, “because I don’t think we’ve been successful.” As budget cuts sweep the country many governments are feeling this kind of defeatism. The Peoples School for Public Education may not last forever. But they’ve taught 30 kids for free for more than two weeks now, and despite limited time and resources, show no sign of stopping.

Cash your bowl

Andrew Lam

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July 3, 2012

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caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE It’s time to get a Discover card. As of July 1, you can no longer use your Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card to buy medical marijuana. And of course, American Express cards have been out of the question since spring 2011. Electronic Merchant Systems, which handles card processing for most of the nation, sent out an announcement last month to its vendors, raising the stakes for dispensaries across the country that seem to be coming under a coordinated federal attack. Cash-only cannabis? That’s pretty bad, maybe just as bad as the next thing I have to tell you about…

MORE BAD NEWS

The Vapor Room is closing. Yes, the perennial Best of the Bay-winning, nine-year old Lower Haight dispensary-lounge (607 Haight, SF. www.vaporroom.com) will be closing its doors as of July 31, according to the nonprofit’s executive director Martin Olive. Olive told the Guardian in a phone interview that the dispensary learned an undisclosed amount of time ago that its landlord had received one of the doom-bearing letters now so familiar to San Francisco dispensaries from US Attorney Melinda Haag declaring that the dispensary was within 1,000 feet of Duboce Park. The city’s permitting laws, Olive told us, are concerned with how far cannabis clubs are from playgrounds, not park grounds. Vapor Room has a long-standing relationship with the Harvey Milk Rec Center that anchors the park — the nonprofit actually sponsors free yoga classes and health counseling that take place in the center itself. Olive wouldn’t confirm rumors that Vapor Room’s stock will continue to be available for delivery, but that’s the word on the street.

PLEASE NO MUNCHIES JOKES

The “bath salts” face-eater didn’t have any bath salts in his system. In fact, the only drug authorities uncovered through post-humous tests was cannabis.

UNDISCLOSED THING

As an events editor, organizations that don’t send us the vital information we need to cover their event are the bane of my existence. It is another thing entirely, however, when an organization requests that vital information be kept out of the newspaper. A sign of the times when it comes to cannabis journalism, I’m afraid. And as such: check out a happy hour benefit at El Rio for “an organization supporting low-income, AIDS-HIV, and cancer patients with free medicine.” Sigh. It’ll be running semi-concurrently with pop-up Mugsy Wine Bar’s hat-tip to Bastille Day (5:30pm-8:30pm). Drown your frustrations with some nice sparkling Blanc de Noir Cremant de Bourgnone, why don’t you.

Fri/13 4pm-6pm, free. El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF. www.elriosf.com

AND FINALLY

Search YouTube for “Conan O’Brien and Martha Stewart Get Crafty with Pot.” Discussion question: for all the weirdness that you just read, is marijuana becoming more or less accepted in mainstream culture?

Sit-in at Lakeview elementary raided, free classes continue, rally at 5pm

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July 3, 2012

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This post has been updated

A sit-in at Oakland’s Lakeview Elementary School ended early this morning as police from the Oakland School Police force entered the school building, making two arrests.

The dispersal was calm by all accounts, although protesters say that officers threatened to use chemical weapons to disperse the crowd, which included young children.

Officers from the Oakland School Police force, the Oakland Housing Authority Police force, Oakland Police Department, and California Highway Patrol were deployed to end the protest, according to a statement from OUSD Superintendent Tony Smith.

“There were children there, parents and teachers and a few occupiers,” said Lola, an organizer with Occupy Oakland who was supporting the sit-in on 4am security duty when police arrived.

There were 20-25 sit-in participants present when police arrived, according to Lola and another Occupy Oakland participant who was on the scene, Alyssa Eisenberg. “There were at least 15 police cars when I drove up,” Eisenberg said.

“The officers were saying, we’ve given you notices now we’re going to give you 15 minutes to leave. Then they gave an official dispersal order and they said, ‘If you do not disperse we’ll use chemical agents against you,’” Lola recounts.

Oakland parents, teachers, elementary school-aged children and supporters had been demonstrating at the school for 17 days. The school is one of five marked for closure by the Oakland School Board, a move that parents and teachers opposed.

The demonstration consisted of a free day camp for children called the People’s School for Public Education, a community garden, and a 24-hour sit-in involving half a dozen tents on the school property.

As protesters left the school, “it was very calm,” Lola said. “All the people that were there left willingly except two,” a parent organizer and an alum of the school who sat in a classroom rather than leave when police arrived. The two were cited for trespassing and released.

Police then erected a new fence outside the public school, and demonstrators went to a park across the street with the goal of continuing to teach free classes to children.

“Officers wouldn’t let [National Lawyers Guild] legal observers or journalists into the building,” said Lola, describing these observers standing on concrete structures outside the gates of the school in order to see what happened.

Organizers have planned a rally in protest of the raid and the ongoing school closures. They plan to meet today at 5pm outside of Lakeview Elementary.

“People who were occupying said this isn’t the end, they have more direct action civil disobedience plans,” Lola said.

Occupy brings the noise to the Canadian consulate for Quebec students

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June 29, 2012

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Activists with Occupy San Francisco, Occupy Education Northern California and other groups staged a small demonstration outside the building that houses the Canadian consulate to express solidarity with student strikes in Quebec.

Protesters brought pots and pans to the building at 580 California, banging them in tribute to the casserole marches that have characterized the Quebec strikes.

Students in Quebec province have been on strike since February. School has let out for the summer, but the uprising shows no sign of stopping- in a massive demonstration June 22, some reports showed 100,000 marching in the streets of Montreal, and recently teachers have pledged to join students.

“Last Friday, they had 100,000 people in the streets,” cried Stephan Georgiou, a former CCSF and UC Berkeley student. “The students of Quebec have continued to take to the streets despite Bill 78.”

Bill 78, passed as an emergency measure May 18 by the National Assembly of Quebec, forbids protests on or near school grounds, requires that march organizers submit their route to police in advance of demonstrations, and attempts insure that all classes resume in late summer.

Security guards allowed two protesters into the building and representatives from the consulate came to the lobby to receive a list of demands written by the group, which included the release and dismissal of charges against imprisoned students, the repeal of Bill 78, and “the end of all austerity measures for students, because education is a human right.”

Protests in Quebec began over proposed tuition hikes, and at yesterday’s rally, students from area high school and colleges told stories of their student loan debt during the rally.

“I was a senior in high school in the 2011/2012 school year. I applied to SF State,” said Hannah Stutz, 17. “My parents are currently in debt, so I needed to apply for financial aid.”

With a loan offered by FAFSA, Stutz said, “I was awarded $70 if I take out a $30,000 loan.”

“I’m a single father, I have yet to graduate college, and I’m $60,000 in debt,” said another protester.

Last March, US total student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion.

“It’s approaching the amount of the bank bail outs,” said one protester. “They should have just bailed out all the student debt. The money would have gone to the banks anyway.”

Indeed, activists and polticians have thrown around the idea of widespread student loan debt forgiveness, as well as a debt strike– simply refusing to pay.

“The average debt people graduate with is now $25,000,” said Beezer de Martelly, a graduate student at UC Berkeley, “and we all know how quickly these prices are escalating.”

“On November 9, we were beaten in exchange for trying to keep dept down for future generations,” she said, recalling Occupy Cal protests against tuition hikes during which students were notoriously beaten by police.

“There is a large group of students here in California planning on forming our own student union,” said Georgiou.

After leaving the building’s lobby, satisfied with proof that the consulate had faxed the group’s demands to Canadian Premier Jean Charest, Occupy CCSF organizer Janice Suess thanked the crowd for coming out.

“Not only are we in solidarity with the students in Quebec,” said Suess, “but we’re building our own movement here.”

Public teacher in a public hospital

Andrew Lam

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June 26, 2012

7

By Sasha Cuttler

OPINION San Francisco Unified School District teachers and Department of Public Health nurses are going through difficult times. Despite years of service reductions, layoffs, and ceaseless budget pressures, teachers continue to educate San Francisco’s young people while nurses care for the sick and injured.

One week before the end of this school year, Balboa High School math teacher Ruth Radetsky was found unconscious after flying over the handlebars of her bicycle. She was brought to San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, where she was treated for broken ribs, scapula, and cracked vertebrae. Although she suffered a concussion, she avoided a more severe head injury because she wore her bicycle helmet.

After being stabilized in intensive care unit and transferred to the step-down unit, Ruth was instructed by nurses to call for help before trying to get up. She was afraid of the pain but understood the importance of regaining mobility. Her injuries and the side effects of the pain medication put her at high risk for falling. Noting how busy the nurses were, however, Ruth felt badly about having to “bother” the staff.

Ruth and the nurses at SFGH who cared for her have a lot in common. Both education and health care rely upon appropriate ratios: teachers to students and nurses to patients. Students and patients alike benefit from these ratios. Despite the need for enough human resources, adequate staffing depends on other factors as well.

Ruth explained how a reduced class size is not enough. In one of her classes, nearly half of the students had learning needs that required preferential seating. Not everyone can sit in the front seat. Nurses with a floor full of patients who need close observation because they are experiencing delirium tremens, traumatic brain injury, or even a mass casualty event have to do similar triage. In both cases, maintaining the minimum staffing may be inadequate — which is why nurses and teachers need support to achieve quality education and healthcare. And UCLA researchers have demonstrated that lower nursing staffing in hospital wards is associated with increased patient mortality.

While researchers argue about the effect of increased class size and nurse-patient ratios, teachers and nurses in the public sector struggle to maintain professional standards of education and care. Ruth is worried about the effects of teacher layoffs on her students. At the same time, the nurses who cared for her at San Francisco General Hospital are being told that layoffs could result if wages and benefits and staffing aren’t reduced. In both professions, staff is concerned about maintaining adequate services with fewer resources.

Teachers and nurses in the public sector continue to be predominately female. Perhaps because of traditional gender roles, teachers and nurses tend to be apologetic about taking a stand for their own working conditions. Unlike an assembly line worker, a teacher or nurse’s profession is all about people, not things. It is only logical that too many students make it difficult for each to receive the amount of support needed. It’s dangerous for nurses to not have enough time for patient assessment and care.

Teachers such as Ruth Radetsky and the nurses who cared for her embody the very best of public education and health. San Francisco Unified teachers and Department of Public Health nurses should not have to apologize for upholding high standards and demanding a professional environment to teach the young and care for all of San Francisco.

Sasha Cuttler, RN Ph.D, is a nurse and activist in the SEIU Local 1021 RN chapter. He has been friends with Ruth Radetsky for more than 25 years.

Students, parents, teachers march in support of Lakeview sit-in

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June 24, 2012

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More than 100 gathered outside Oakland City Hall for a rally and march June 23 to celebrate the sit-in at Lakeview Elementary School. The school is one of five that the Oakland School Board voted to close last fall, in a move that would save the city $2 million per year.

The school’s unofficial reopening was initiated by Lakeview parents, and since has been organized and led by Lakeview parents and teachers. Organizers have also run a People’s School for Public Education, with more than 20 elementary-age children enrolled. Classes ran for the past week from 9am to 3pm and include music, art, gardening, social justice, and PE. A daily picket and rally was held to support the sit-in and the Peoples School at 5pm.

Organizers may extend the people’s school for another week.

The children and students involved in the effort led the march yesterday, which left from City Hall around 1pm. Protesters marched to the school, where they held a community barbecue.

At an Oct. 26 Oakland School Board meeting, the board voted to close Lakeview, along with four other elementary schools, at the end of the school year. The Save Oakland Schools campaign has been working to stop these closures. Lakeview officially shut its doors at the end of this school year, but with the ongoing sit-in, organizers hope to keep it open as long as possible.

The city plans to use the school’s building for administrative offices.

Speakers at the rally included parents and teachers of Oakland elementary school teachers.

On the march, demonstrators chanted “Whose schools? Our schools!” and “Education is a right! For our children we will fight!” In reaction to police at the kid-led march, some chanted “their kids! They’re cute! Get those guns up off your suit!”

“The Lakeview sit-in demands a stop to all school closure, or the resignation of Tony Smith, superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District. The Sit-In at Lakeview is held in solidarity with all parents and teachers struggling to demand quality public education across the country,” according to a press release.

The now week-long action is the result of collaboration between Occupy Oakland and its various offshoots and the parents and teachers of Lakeview, as parents and teachers lead the efforts.

Photo via Justin Beck

Free classes for all

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June 22, 2012

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Why should you need an expensive libereral arts education to ponder the question of realism, or pricey equipment to take a film making class? You don’t- the University of the Commons (UOTC) dove into its schedule of free, open to all classes a few weeks ago, and the effort is growing.

In a panel discussion at the summer session’s launch June 2, speakers placed the school in a radical context, mentioning other efforts such as D-Q University and Black Panther liberation schools like the Oakland Community School.

The group’s mission statement says that the UOTC “aims to inspire participants to evolve more equitable and just societies and live more empowered and fulfilling lives.” The school isn’t accredited and students won’t get any formal acknowledgment of having taken classes there.

It does, however, have some system-approved teachers. Dr. Barbara-Ann Lewis, who is teaching a class called Science Literacy to any and all who show up, is no newbie. She received her PhD in Soil Science from UC Berkeley in 1971, worked as a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory for seven years, and then taught environmental engineering at Northwestern for another 27. Since then she worked a stint as a violin-maker (“it’s good to have a trade,” she told me).

So what’s a pro like Lewis doing in a place like this? For her, its almost civic duty. “I want to teach the public,” she said. “The public votes, but has no idea about some of the real science behind the environmental issues.”

But in many of her university classes, “I had the standard students. They pay tuition, they come in, they don’t know too much about what’s going on in the world. They’ve lost their curiosity.”

She found students with that curiosity in her experience teaching with the Free University of San Francisco last year, Lewis says. “I had an 18-year-old and I had a 50-year-old in the class, lots of kinds of people, who all wanted to learn.”

Warren Lake of the San Francisco Free School, a similar effort that teaches free classes in the city, attended the launch in hopes of joining forces in some way with the UOTC. The Free School, Lake says, started with free yoga classes and has naturally offered movement, dance and other “right-brain pursuits,” compared to the UOTC’s heady academic offerings. Lake sees the Free School as “both a place to incubate teachers and for students to get together.” But when it comes to transferable skills and help along career paths, the picture is more complicated.

The Free School has been around for a few years now, and Lake says the accreditation issue is something he’s “thought about a lot.”

“There are different ways to show expertise,” said Lake. “Making a documentary or writing a book can often work as well as a college degree for showing you are interested of invested in something. There are different ways to market the experience.”

The University of the Commons is a great effort. But it brings up some questions. Who is it for? People who want an education but can’t afford one, now that the cost-free California community college system is a thing of the past? People who are already pretty well educated but always enjoy learning, not to mention generally fulfilling experiences? Students who want to supplement un-creative traditional schooling? People looking for friends and community who enjoy some learning on the side? Real change, liberation?

A Guardian article on a similar effort last year- the San Francisco Free University- pointed out that their effort was promising, admirable, and potentially very beneficial. It was also very white.

June 18, the pretty white- though, as members pointed out, also pretty female and queer- UOTC collective spent the majority of their meeting talking about “diversity and outreach.” They talked about teaching ethnic studies and women’s studies courses that are being cut out of public university curriculum. They talked about ideas for partnerships with organizations around the city that work with different groups, asking to see what kinds of free classes people there might want to participate in or teach. They talked about resources for classes in Mandarin and Spanish. They hope to plug in to existing efforts, and they hope to grow.

As of now, the classes range in the attendance. The students of Occupy U, a class discussing what worked and what didn’t in recent social justice efforts that focuses on Occupy, is about 11 mostly activist types, while From Mahler to the Music Video, a class tracing the history of music, has about 70 students that the instructor John Smalley says includes everyone from “professional musicians to homeless people.”

Next week will be the third week of classes, but you can still join in, although it might be a good idea to contact the instructor beforehand.

Science Literacy w/ Barbara-Ann Lewis

Tuesdays 5:30-7:30pm, Modern Times, 2919 24th St., SF

Responsive Cinema w/ Rand Crook

Tuesdays 7-9pm, the Emerald Tablet, 80 Fresno, SF

Intro to Western music: from Mahler to the music video w/ John Smalley

Saturdays 11am-1pm, Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room B, Main San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin, SF

History in digital culture w/ Molly Hankwitz

Sundays 6-8pm

Mutiny Radio Café, 2781 21st St

Occupy U w/ Stardust

Sundays 6-8pm, Modern Times, 2919 24th St., SF

www.uotc.org/wordpress

After the raid

Andrew Lam

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June 19, 2012

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caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE It is exceedingly difficult to get Oaksterdam University founder Richard Lee to talk about himself. I have him — the person who drove the Proposition 19 legalization campaign, whose house and cannabis trade school were raided by federal agents in April, who through his businesses’ success has helped revitalize and make safe a previously gloomy stretch of downtown Oakland — on the phone to talk about the lifetime achievement award he will be receiving from High Times at this week’s Cannabis Cup (Sat/23-Sun/24).

I want him to share his emotional journey since government agents poured into his home, what’s it’s like to be the public face of the flashpoint between California and national government over marijuana. High Times editorial director Malcolm MacKinnon calls Lee a “fearless trailblazer,” perhaps he’d like to make grand predictions about the future of pot? At least describe exactly what’s happening with Oaksterdam, post-raid. But Lee prefers to stress the latest poll numbers on legalization.

“All the national polls and the Colorado polls are going our way,” he says. “If you could get the word out about that, that’d be great.” FYI, on June 6 Rasmussen Reports found that 61 percent of Coloradoans support regulating cannabis like alcohol and cigarettes.

Lee has retired from university administration — he’s referred to as a professor emeritus, although he is still teaching classes in cannabis policy, history, and advocacy. In his “big Converse All-Stars” (as she calls them) now stands Dale Sky Jones. She once developed Oaksterdam’s curriculum and now joins a short list of female leaders in the marijuana industry as the university’s president.

“When the federal government came in, they took the curriculum, the computers — everything else that was the blood and breathe, heart and soul of the school short of the tables and chairs and teachers,” Jones says in a phone interview. Under her watch, the finances of “top-heavy” Oaksterdam’s gift shop, dispensary, and university have split and are now under separate ownership. Staff is attempting to rebuild curriculum from email records. 45 employees have lost their job because of the disruption in business affairs. “This was a violation on so many levels for the staff of Oaksterdam,” Jones says, sadly.

But life goes on. Lee says his “students are great, they have lots of energy and enthusiasm.” And the cultural contributions that the school and its founder have hardly been negated by federal intervention. “[Lee] brought the debate about marijuana policy reform to the kitchen table,” says Jones. “Before Prop. 19, the only time parents and kids had conversations around marijuana it was ‘where the hell did you find it? who are your jackass friends?’ It was always a negative discussion. This was the first time that families were able to discuss marijuana as a policy issue.”

This weekend’s Cannabis Cup will bring the pot world’s focus back here, as some of NorCal’s [author’s note: and hence, the world’s] best strains compete for the title of best indica, sativa, edibles, etc. Lee’s lifetime achievement award (presented at 7pm on Sun/24) will just confirm what we all already knew: even when it comes to activists, we grow things better out here.

HIGH TIMES CANNABIS CUP

Sat/23 noon-10pm, Sun/24 noon-9:30pm; one-day pass $40, two-day pass $65 advance, $80 at door

Craneway Pavilion

1414 Harbour Way, Richmond

www.medcancup.com

Hot pink action

Andrew Lam

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June 19, 2012

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ONGOING

Faetopia Tower Records building, 2286 Market, SF. www.faetopia.com. Through Fri/22, noon-midnight, (event times vary), $10 suggested donation. What’s a radical queer to do in the season of commercialized sexuality? Seize an empty records store and fill with blithe faggotry. The crew behind Faetopia is organizing nights of queer cinema, hip-hop and ecology classes, drag musicals, skillshares, and much more — drop in.

Frameline Film Festival Various times and venues, SF. Through Sun/24. www.frameline.org. The 36th year of this international gay and lesbian film fest has taken over SF — from a documentary on a female Olympian weightlifter to sweet tales of love, to goofy nights of short flicks.

National Queer Arts Festival Various times and venues, SF. www.queerculturalcenter.org. The fest has been raging since the start of the month, but this week you can catch Marga Gomez at the LGBT Center (Fri/22), darkly humored dance pieces at The Garage (Sat/23), and Ali Liebegott’s “Faggot Dinosaur” art exhibit at Alley Cat Books.

“Searching for Queertopia” Galeria de la Raza 2857 24th St., SF. www.galeriadelaraza.org. Through June 30. 7:30pm, free. An exhibition documenting Las Intrépidas, a traditional celebration of muxe (queer) culture in the Oaxacan town of Juchitán de Zaragoza.

WEDNESDAY 20

The Guardian’s 8th annual Pullin’ Pork for Pride Pilsner Inn, 225 Church, SF. www.sfbg.com. 5:30-9pm, free. Squee! Our annual meat treat (free pulled pork sandos for all!) will be soundtracked by Hard French heartthrobs, DJs Brown Amy and Carnita.

Gay Pride Comedy Show Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin, SF. (415) 346-2025, www.decosf.com. 7pm, $20. Camp out at this lineup of stand-up queers, compiled by hometown comedian Charlie Ballard in order to challenge the common perception of what a gay person is.

Bi-BQ bisexual pride potluck and promenade Dolores Park Café, 501 Dolores, SF. (707) 799-4343, www.sfpride.org. 5pm, free. The pre-party for Frameline Film Festival’s showing of Bi-Candy features a potluck barbeque, Dolores Cafe performances, and a promenade en masse to Victoria Theatre.

Booty Call QBar, 456 Castro, SF. www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm-2am, $3. The thing about Booty Call — besides its quickly-shirtless bevy of Castro babes — would be its extravagant photobooth, designed each week by a different, deserving SF creative type. Get trashed, dance crazy, but stay pretty for the camera (and hostess Juanita More.)

Stay Gold Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com. 10pm-3am; $3 before 11pm, $5 after. Suggested apparel for the Pride edition of the monthly queer hip-hop banger: vinyl flower print bodysuit, winged sneakers, ass.

THURSDAY 21

Dude magazine launch party Eros, 2051 Market, SF. www.erossf.com. 7-10pm, free. Australian transmasculinity zine is planting a flag in our soil, and celebrating with this reception at all-male sex club Eros.

“Fabulous” Creativity Explored, 3245 16th St., SF. www.creativityexplored.org. Through Aug. 1. Opening reception: 7pm-9pm, free. Artist Sara O’Sullivan curates this collection of gender-bending and queer culture at CE’s gallery for developmentally-disabled creative people. Inspired by O’Sullivans love of drag queens, the show features a life-size hot pink cardboard drum set.

OccuPride planning meeting Faetopia, 2286 Market, SF. www.faetopia.com. Perhaps you’re one of those radical queers looking for some outlet for your general angst regarding capitalism and the over-commercialization of even our most human desires. Hie thee to this get-together of like-minded souls who will be planning an action to take Pride back to its alternative roots.

Pride Nightlife California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse, Golden Gate Park, SF. www.calacademy.org. 6-10pm, $12. Sexologist Carol Queen, drag fauna Juanita More and Heklina, darling queer DJs, and other exotic fauna join Claude the albino alligator at the Academy’s weekly party night. Star”gay”ze in the planetarium and learn about the same-sex predilections of your fave constellations.

Stone Pony solstice anniversary Stone Pony, 3552 20th St., SF. 6-10pm, free. If you haven’t assembled your outfits for the weekend but can’t stomach the thought of hitting the thrift town racks, you’ve come to the right place — this mystical vintage boutique is celebrating its Pride season one-year anniversary with champagne, “epic floral arrangements,” music, and yes — style style style for sale sale sale.

Wrestle Mania Pride Kick-off Party Lexington Club, 3464 19th St., SF. www.lexingtonclub.com. 9pm, free. Do babes with biceps get you bent? Cruise to the Lex for its lezzie arm wrestling party — where you won’t need to strong arm anyone to get them moving to DJs Ms. Jackson and China G.

FRIDAY 22

Bearracuda Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com. 9pm-3am, $10–$15. Fluff your fur for this bear bash — Doc Sleep, Ted Eiel, dabecy from Electronic Music Bears, and Robert Jeffrey of Dial Up give you something to step to.

Bibi five-year anniversary Som Bar, 2925 16th St., SF. www.som-bar.com. . 9pm-2am, $15 advance tickets. This is the only Pride party featuring non-metaphoric sword acrobatics. The queer Middle Eastern-North African community will converge for the fifth anniversary of its favorite, undulating dance party. Belly dance and aforementioned sword play figures alongside DJs Emancipation and Nader.

Bustin’ Out! Official Trans March After-Party El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF. www.elriosf.com. 8pm, $5–$50. DJs Ome, Jillio, and Bobby of Tortillas Picantes will spin at the be-patioed, community-oriented Mission bar. The get-down is a benefit for TGI Justice, a network of transpeople in and out of jail who are set on defeating the unjust prison industry.

Horse Meat Disco Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. www.mezzaninesf.com. 9pm, $17. A huge mixed party (also including awesome local sunny electronic duo Poolside, the jubilant sounds of Crystal Ark, and the Honey Soundsystem DJs) will feature the beloved Horse Meat boys from London, who did much to stoke the last decade’s obsession with rare disco and classic house treats.

Marga and the Babes queer comedy LGBT Center, 1800 Market, SF. www.queerculturalcenter.org. Marga Gomez does a mean Desi Arnaz impersonation (among her other talents). Join the Bay favorite yuckster and adorable queer comics Natasha Muse and Justin Lucas tonight.

MR. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.clubmonarch.net. 9pm-4am, $15. It’s the last twirl for this fabulous annual dance-around hoo-haw: Slammin’ (real) house DJs David Harness, Ellen Ferrato, and Rolo spin some amazing tunes to help you find a fine fellow whisker whisperer or just a quick ride. Borrow a mustache; this’ll be a good one.

Neon Vinyl The Ambassador, 673 Geary, SF. www.ambassador415.com. 10pm, free. DJs Enso, Kool Karlo, and Ilya bring future-retro Pride beats and decades of dance tracks poured through a house filter.

Old French Hole The Knockout, 3223 Mission, SF. www.theknockoutsf.com. 9pm-2am, $5. Assemble your favorite old-timey dance partiers from up and down the West Coast (the Hard French kiddos, DJ Primo from the Knockout’s aces Oldies Night, DJ Beyondadoubt from Portland’s Hole in My Soul), pump them full of Pride-ful pleasure, and call it a really stupid amalgamation of their party names. Twist, and shake.

Radical Queer Vegan Anti-Social Modern Times Bookstore, 2919 24th St., SF. www.gayshamesf.org. 5:30pm, free. But what of the sober queer, or the queer that cares more for sustainable food systems than Absolut cocktail specials? This Pride-time edition of the monthly Gay Shame potluck-roundtable might be flush with fresh-faced, vegan out-of-towners, so start soaking those cashews now.

San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band Pride concert SF Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak, SF. www.sfcm.edu. 7pm and 9pm, $15–$30. Jack Curtis Dobowsky’s “Harvey Milk: A Cantata” will be featured at this musical celebration with SF community choral groups. Come early — 6:15pm — to hear Dobowsky talk about the creation of his piece, which features unpublished texts by Milk himself.

Steam Powerhouse, 1347 Folsom, SF. www.powerhouse-sf.com. 10pm-2am, $5. As far as partying in a towel goes, this party is the ultimate. Down cheap tequila in one of SoMa’s evolving sex clubs, cruise the man meat, get a buck-a-minute massage, and ditch the terrycloth for a spin in the famed Powershower.

The Super Queer Open Mic Show Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission, SF. www.sexandculture.org. 8pm, $12–$20. Eight years of queers grabbing the microphone are celebrated at this year’s Pride edition of the reading series. Trans artist Amy Dentata and genderqueer humorist Dana Morrigan star as featured guests.

Trans March Dolores Park, Guerrero and 20th St., SF. www.transmarch.org. 3:30-6:30pm park gathering; 6:30pm march to UN Plaza, free. Could this be our favorite parade of Pride? It’s hard to pick sides, but this all-ages gathering of the transgendered community makes a good case for itself. A First Peoples’ welcoming and blessing with Ohlones and two-spirit folks is one highlight of this feel-good manifestation.

Unofficial: the third annual Original Plumbing trans pride dance party Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com 10am-2pm; $7 before 11pm, $10 after. The all-around cutest transguy zine out there is throwing down the welcome mat for your post-march dancefest. Get snapped by photog Amos Mac and get it done on the dancefloor to DJ Rapidfire of Stay Gold and NYC’s DJ Average Jo. Kelly Lovemonster go-gos!

We’re Here, We’re Queer, We’re Some Thing The Stud, 399 Ninth St., SF. www.thestudsf.com. 10pm-late, $10. In honor of the swish season, SF’s weekly alt-drag dance party fantasy is staying up late. Cast of characters includes Glamamore, Ambrosia Salad, and NYC’s House of Stank. Host Vivvyanne Forevermore promises surprises, or rather “big, gay surprises.”

SATURDAY 23

A Coupla Old Crackpot Crones The Garage, 715 Bryant, SF. www.crackpotcrones.com. 8pm, $15. One-time Green Party mayoral candidate and playwright Terry Baum and comedian Carolyn Myers pull together a variety show to benefit the Pat Bond memorial Old Dyke Award. Mom coming out, Baum’s surprise 2011 election appearance, and Eleanor Roosevelt’s lady love all figure in sketches.

Bondage A Go-Go Cat Club, 1190 Folsom, SF. www.sfcatclub.com. 9:30-2:30am, $10-20. Wear your pink and black to this lustful benefit for struggling, worker-owned stripclub The Lusty Lady. Dancers from the Lusty will host a spank-a-thon, and offer lap dances in exchange for contributions towards the future of our favorite sex-positive titty bar.

Country Pride Sundance Pre-Party Sundance Saloon, 550 Barneveld, SF. 8pm-midnight, $10. There’s always quite a lineup of hot hoofers at this regular country line-dance hootenanny — but the pre-Pride bonanza will be full of new faces and spiffy boots and saddles.

Dark Room The Hot Spot, 1414 Market, SF. Dark electro, witchy goth, and cutting-edge spook-house darken the door of this Civic Center dive as the drag-and-laser-studded monthly freakfest raises money for Lyon-Martin Health Services. (100 percent of door proceeds will benefit reproductive health in SF!)

Dyke March Dolores Park, 20th St. and Guerrero, SF. www.thedykemarch.org. DJs noon-5pm, march at 6pm, free. Sit pretty in Dolo, swigging a homemade watermelon margarita made by your industrious neighbor at this centerpiece to ladylove Pride season. When you hear the revving of Dykes on Bikes, you’ll know it’s time to relocate to the parade route.

Go Bang! Go Pride! Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin, SF. www.decosf.com 9pm-3am, free before 10pm, $5 after. You better! The city’s loveliest underground disco tribute gives the Studio 54 treatmeant (gritty Tenderloin version) to Pride, with DJs Redux, Marcus Jerard, Steve Fabus (happy birthday!) and Sergio.

Good Vibrations Pink Pleasure Party Good Vibrations, 603 Valencia, SF. www.goodvibes.com. 8pm, free. This is not the weekend for a poorly-stocked bedside drawer. Good Vibes pulls in DJs Becky Knox and Dalle for its yearly Dyke March hang-out. Snag you a strap-on from SF’s most famous sex shop and get festivating.

It Gets Indie teen benefit concert Great American Music Hall, O’Farrell, SF. Facebook: it gets indie. 7:30pm, $25. Princeton and Local Hero top the bill at the show to benefit the “It Gets Better” campaign.

Lexington Club Dyke March after-party Lexington Club, 3464 19th St., SF. www.lexingtonclub.com. 9pm-2am, free. DJ Ms. Pop presides over the heaving, hot masses at this no-cover, low-attitude dance banger. Grind with your “love” in the post-March endorphin rush.

No Way Back and Honey Soundsystem Soundsystem Monarch, 101Sixth St., SF. www.clubmonarch.net. 7pm-2am, $5. No Way, Honey! Two of our favorite intelligent house and techno crews join forces for two levels of stratospheric bliss. Hot hot hot dancing and very smart dancers.

Pink Triangle installation and commemoration Twin Peaks Vista Overlook, SF. www.thepinktriangle.com. 7:30am installation,10:30am ceremony, free. Volunteers needed for this awesome tradition: putting that huge-ass pink triangle up on Twin Peaks. Get some elevation and lend a hand.

Pride Festival Civic Center, SF. www.sfpride.com. Noon-6pm; Also Sun/24 $5 donation. For a glimpse at the commercial pull of the LGBT community, check out the vendor stalls at this mega-mass. Gay doggie sweaters galore. But it’s not all commercial — BSDM and radical faerie areas give wandering attendees the chance to learn more about alternative sexualities from those who practice them in real life.

(p)RIDE Party Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com. 9pm-3am, $8–$10. A can’t-miss combination for those looking to pop ass all night: the Stay Gold DJs are teaming up with their friends from Ships in the Night, Party Hole, and Queer Qumbia. Hip-hop served all night long with a side of vogue.

SUNDAY 24

Continental breakfast at the Lex Lexington Club, 3464 19th St., SF. www.lexingtonclub.com. 3pm, free. Will there be food at this continental breakfast? Well… the press release didn’t specify but know that the Mission’s fave dyke dive will be hawking Pride-special mimosas and bloodies. DJ Katie Duck spins your hunger pangs away with sunny Sunday soul, blues, and rock 45s.

Hard French Hearts Los Homos SomArts Cultural Center, 4-11pm, $25–$60. hardfrenchpride2012.eventbrite.com. Eclectic electric! This year, the cruisey queer golden children pull out all the stops. Oakland soul legend (and Etta James’ homegirl) Sugar Pie DeSanto headlines, with mustache-lipstick indie electricians SSION and PDX bounce soundsmith Beyondadoubt in supporting roles. Wave (your hips) goodbye to Pride with resident HF DJs Brown Amy and Carnita and their patented soul 45s sunshine.

Honey Soundsystem Holy Cow, 1535 Folsom, SF. www.honeysoundsystem.com. 6pm-3am, $5. The queer techno crew’s weekly Sunday parties are absolute musts for sophisticated queers who love a transcendent musical and artistic mix of past-present-future sounds and sights. And then everyone makes out. (Special extended hours, y’all.)

Juanita More’s Pride Party Chambers, 601 Eddy, SF. 12:30-6pm; Jones, 620 Jones, SF. 3pm-midnight. www.juanitamore.com. $25 advance tickets. After eight years in the game, Juanita’s bash, the place to be for discerning queers, has outgrown the patio of the Phoenix Hotel — the action’s spread to encompass two venues, with shuttle buses ferrying drag groupies in between the two. Benefiting the LGBT Community Center, which turned 10 this year, the party will feature one of Pride’s annual highlights, a performance by the young Cougar Cadets drumline.

Pride Parade Begins at Market and Beale, ends at Market and 8th St., SF. www.sfpride.org. 10:30am, free. This is where you will try to catch Sarah Silverman (and try not to weep when the PFLAG contingent passes) before the hangover/desire for more alcohol overwhelms. Stay strong, soldier!

Queerly Beloved El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF. www.elriosf.com. 3-8pm, $7–$10. Glittorises will tremble for local alt-queer pornographer Courtney Trouble in a rare live burlesque performance — and she’s bringing a queer smut cavalcade with her to move the earth. FTM dreamboat James Darling burlesque babe Dorian Faust, and the crew from live sex sensation Cum & Glitter will perform sensual wonders; DJs and Lady Tragik provide dance party, and a kinky kissing booth will welcome those whose lips aren’t otherwise entertained.

TUESDAY 24

This is What I Want Various times and venues. www.whatiwantfestival.com. Through June 30. How does our desire shift with the economy? Links between the heart, loins, and stock market are explored at this performance art festival, which has an important symposium component in which attendees will lend their voice to to those on stage.

Our annual guide to the (actually!) coolest Pride events