In the 1970s, Bay Area Lesbians Created Their Own Economy
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"content": "\u003cp>In the 1970s, Valencia Street in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s Mission District became a lesbian cultural corridor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Women could openly hold hands at Artemis Cafe, clink glasses at Amelia’s and debate politics at the Old Wives’ Tales bookstore. Lesbian hairstylists and mechanics offered basic goods and services without harassment. Flyers advertised apprenticeships in male-dominated trades and legal help for navigating divorces from men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more than 50 years later, San Francisco boasts only a \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/08/sf-lesbian-bars-girls-and-gays/\">small handful of lesbian bars\u003c/a>. Nationwide, experts say establishments serving women-loving women are \u003ca href=\"https://www.autostraddle.com/lesbian-bars-disappearing/\">in danger of going extinct\u003c/a>. It’s a drastic change from the vast lesbian ecosystem that once offered a supportive lifeline in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to remember that many women who were identifying as lesbians were excluded from mainstream society — they couldn’t get jobs, couldn’t really be in formal education spaces,” says Dr. Kerby Lynch, the interim director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayarealesbianarchives.org/\">Bay Area Lesbian Archives\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro, Bay Area Lesbian Archives presents a new exhibit, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.glbthistory.org/dreams\">Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care, 1970–1995\u003c/a>,\u003c/em> which traces the history of an organized, self-sustaining community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kerby Lynch, lead curator of the exhibit ‘Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care 1970-1995,’ poses for a portrait at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Amid today’s resurgence of \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/05/gen-z-men-baby-boomers-wives-should-obey-husbands\">conservative gender politics\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://prismreports.org/2026/02/09/anti-transgender-bills-2026/\">anti-LGBTQ+ legislation\u003c/a>, Lynch wants to provide an example to young queer people on how to thrive in spite of discrimination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here we are once again, in the contemporary,” Lynch says, “needing to rely on each other and create these mutual aid networks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The women’s liberation movement left lesbians behind\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the walls of the GLBT Historical Society Museum, carefully arranged flyers, maps and business directories offer a glimpse of the lesbian scene that once flourished along Valencia Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so much about having community. Lesbians had been so invisible for so long, and so harassed,” Carol Seajay says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1976, Seajay co-founded the feminist bookstore Old Wives’ Tales, a flyer for which hangs in the exhibit. It was a narrow storefront that carried novels by women authors like Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987697\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987697\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ruth Mahoney (left) and Carol Seajay (right) pose for a portrait at the exhibit ‘Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care 1970-1995,’ on opening night at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. Seajay co-founded Old Wives’ Tales bookstore in 1976. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tucked in the back were shelves of lesbian books where one could browse away from prying eyes. Every weekend, the store would fill up with women who’d stop in between errands at the laundromat and grocery co-op to have spirited discussions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We needed a place for women to go, to be able to talk with each other about this women’s liberation stuff, gay liberation stuff,” Seajay says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1970s, the women’s liberation movement made many important legal gains. “On paper, we were getting more freedoms,” Lynch says. “But for lesbians, they were largely still feeling excluded.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987659\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13987659 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Directory of Dreams,” an archival exhibit of lesbian history in the Bay Area, is installed in the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Roe v. Wade gave women the right to end unwanted pregnancies, and the Equal Opportunity Credit Act allowed women to acquire loans and credit without male co-signers. Women began to buy homes and start businesses for the first time. Yet many straight women saw lesbians as a threat to the women’s liberation movement, and job and housing discrimination against LGBTQ+ people remained rampant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the ’70s, you’re in a time period of, really, lesbians coming together and being like, ‘You know, if we’re gonna be excluded by these dominant societies, let’s create some counterculture,’” Lynch says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A crucial connector for the Bay Area’s lesbian community was Gloria Pell, known to friends simply as Pell. She became active on Valencia Street while working at Old Wives’ Tales. In the early ’80s, she opened Woman Crafts West, a small boutique that carried work by hundreds of female artisans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1900px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1900\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2.jpg 1900w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2-768x539.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2-1536x1078.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1900px) 100vw, 1900px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gloria Pell (right), known to friends simply as Pell, was a crucial connector of the lesbian community on Valencia Street in the 1980s. \u003ccite>(Bay Area Lesbian Archives/Pell Collection)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the GLBT Historical Society, \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> features a display of crafts from Pell’s collection: shapely goddess statues, a flower-like labia sculpture and ceramic earrings in the shape of breasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pell didn’t just break barriers so she could succeed; she also helped build the infrastructure that allowed other lesbians to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was the central part of organizing different business owners being tenants on that street,” Lynch says. “She was a part of a feminist credit union helping women open up their own bank accounts, coming up with pool funds — like, really, startup funding — for other women.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lesbians strengthened the LGBTQ+ community during crisis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the ’80s, lesbian-owned businesses offered crucial support for gay men during the AIDS epidemic. Featured prominently in the exhibit is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/29308/lgbt-pride-remembering-the-brick-hut-cafe-part-1\">Brick Hut Cafe\u003c/a>, a Berkeley institution that drew lines down the block for coffee and muffins, as well as returning customers like Angela Davis and a free-spirited crew of gay men nicknamed the Shattuck Street Fairies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the wall of GBLT Historical Society, a 1992 poem by a customer named Cynthia describes the scene: “Flannel shirted wimmin / pierced and tattooed dykes / Bitchin’ dreadlocks, cool shaved heads / Feeding old folks and young tikes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987678\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1125px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987678\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/IMG_8997.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1125\" height=\"676\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/IMG_8997.jpg 1125w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/IMG_8997-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/IMG_8997-768x461.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sharon Davenport and Joan Antonuccio at The Brick Hut Cafe in the ’90s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ace Morgan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As AIDS began to decimate the gay community, and government officials ignored and stigmatized the disease, queer institutions like the Brick Hut became crucial resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We put up information, and we talked to people,” Brick Hut co-founder Sharon Davenport says. “You know, like, ‘Am I going to get AIDS from a toilet seat?’ No. ‘If I sit next to a gay guy, am I gonna get AIDS?’ No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During this era, lesbians across the country stepped up as advocates. They organized blood drives, protested for better public health policies, and even offered bedside care for gay men with AIDS whose families were afraid to come near them. At the Brick Hut, they also offered social support. “The important part was the personal interaction with people,” Davenport says. “So they wouldn’t be afraid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Lynch of the Bay Area Lesbian Archives, it’s stories like these that show that the establishments honored in \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> are much more than just businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re sustaining ourselves, providing for ourselves,” she says. “But we’re also at the same time organizing ourselves, collectivizing ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Younger generations take notes from lesbian herstory\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As it celebrates visionary lesbian activists and community builders, \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> is also honest about where the movement fell short. The exhibition’s wall text notes that racism at times alienated women of color from lesbian spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was messy,” Lynch says. “I mean, [white women] were coming into consciousness that they’re racist for the first time. Black women are coming into the consciousness that, ‘Oh my god, we’ve been serving Black men and the Black power movement, and we haven’t thought about our needs for ourselves.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987665\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guests observe the exhibit, “Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care 1970-1995,” on opening night at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Absent from the exhibit are the lesbian separatists who discriminated against trans women and wanted to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13977595/sandy-stone-olivia-records-jimi-hendrix-girl-island-documentary\">exclude them\u003c/a>. In the ’70s, many \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13976295/1970s-gay-transgender-rights-movement-san-francisco-pride\">gays and lesbians seeking mainstream acceptance\u003c/a> sought to distance themselves from trans people, who faced even worse discrimination. During our interview, Lynch acknowledged that history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the good, the bad, the ugly, but I love how those women got the conversation started for us to continue today,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the mid-1990s, as an influx of young artists began to transform the Mission District, long-running women’s spaces like Woman Crafts West and Old Wives’ Tales shut their doors. Many of the reasons were economic: Rising rents on Valencia Street meant that people could no longer afford to run radical spaces. In Berkeley, the Brick Hut shuttered because it was $30,000 in debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987663\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987663\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guests observe the exhibit, “Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care 1970-1995,” on opening night at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think some of the generations since then are kind of pissed that we let it go,” Seajay of Old Wives’ Tales says. “I am, too. I share that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, she wants this history to inspire young people to carry on that legacy. “You want something, make it happen,” she says. “You can do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the opening reception of \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> on March 11, lesbians and queer people in their 20s, 30s and 40s mingled alongside elders who shaped this golden era. Among those taking in the display of Pell’s goddess-themed jewelry and sculptures were Stephanie and Etecia Burrell, a couple who run The Sanctuary, an eclectic shop in Oakland that offers wellness services rooted in West African spiritual traditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987676\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1974px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987676\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1974\" height=\"1559\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival.jpg 1974w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival-160x126.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival-768x607.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival-1536x1213.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1974px) 100vw, 1974px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gloria Pell (fourth from right) and friends pose in front of her shop, Woman Crafts West. In the 1980s and ’90s, it was a prominent fixture of the lesbian cultural corridor on Valencia Street in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Bay Area Lesbian Archives/Pell Collection)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Burrells are both especially inspired by Pell’s legacy as a Black lesbian community builder. “It actually makes me feel like, ‘Wow, I can relax, I can feel more of what I’m doing and the power of it because someone else did it,’” Stephanie says. “And it gives me a sense of relief, a sense of calm. A sense like, ‘You got this.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesbian community in today’s Bay Area looks much different than it did during the second-wave feminist movement. Many millennials and Gen Z-ers opt for terms like “queer” and “sapphic” when throwing parties and events, so as not to exclude trans, nonbinary, bisexual or pansexual people. At queer parties raising money for immigration defense or humanitarian aid in Gaza, there’s a greater mindfulness around the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class, disability and immigration status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet Lynch says it’s crucial to learn from those who paved the way. As conservative legislators continue to attack LGBTQ+ rights and civil liberties more broadly, she wants \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> to spark people’s imaginations for how to thrive, even amid a hostile political climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a mausoleum — these are instructions,” Lynch told the crowd at the opening. “Each flyer, each menu, each business card tucked away is a small declaration. ‘We were here, we built this, and you can build it too.’ Because the question is not whether these women were extraordinary. Of course they were. The real question is, what happens when we remember that survival has always been collective?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the 1970s, Valencia Street in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s Mission District became a lesbian cultural corridor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Women could openly hold hands at Artemis Cafe, clink glasses at Amelia’s and debate politics at the Old Wives’ Tales bookstore. Lesbian hairstylists and mechanics offered basic goods and services without harassment. Flyers advertised apprenticeships in male-dominated trades and legal help for navigating divorces from men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more than 50 years later, San Francisco boasts only a \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/08/sf-lesbian-bars-girls-and-gays/\">small handful of lesbian bars\u003c/a>. Nationwide, experts say establishments serving women-loving women are \u003ca href=\"https://www.autostraddle.com/lesbian-bars-disappearing/\">in danger of going extinct\u003c/a>. It’s a drastic change from the vast lesbian ecosystem that once offered a supportive lifeline in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to remember that many women who were identifying as lesbians were excluded from mainstream society — they couldn’t get jobs, couldn’t really be in formal education spaces,” says Dr. Kerby Lynch, the interim director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayarealesbianarchives.org/\">Bay Area Lesbian Archives\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro, Bay Area Lesbian Archives presents a new exhibit, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.glbthistory.org/dreams\">Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care, 1970–1995\u003c/a>,\u003c/em> which traces the history of an organized, self-sustaining community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00211_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kerby Lynch, lead curator of the exhibit ‘Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care 1970-1995,’ poses for a portrait at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Amid today’s resurgence of \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/05/gen-z-men-baby-boomers-wives-should-obey-husbands\">conservative gender politics\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://prismreports.org/2026/02/09/anti-transgender-bills-2026/\">anti-LGBTQ+ legislation\u003c/a>, Lynch wants to provide an example to young queer people on how to thrive in spite of discrimination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here we are once again, in the contemporary,” Lynch says, “needing to rely on each other and create these mutual aid networks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The women’s liberation movement left lesbians behind\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the walls of the GLBT Historical Society Museum, carefully arranged flyers, maps and business directories offer a glimpse of the lesbian scene that once flourished along Valencia Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so much about having community. Lesbians had been so invisible for so long, and so harassed,” Carol Seajay says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1976, Seajay co-founded the feminist bookstore Old Wives’ Tales, a flyer for which hangs in the exhibit. It was a narrow storefront that carried novels by women authors like Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987697\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987697\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-directoryofdreams00367_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ruth Mahoney (left) and Carol Seajay (right) pose for a portrait at the exhibit ‘Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care 1970-1995,’ on opening night at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. Seajay co-founded Old Wives’ Tales bookstore in 1976. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tucked in the back were shelves of lesbian books where one could browse away from prying eyes. Every weekend, the store would fill up with women who’d stop in between errands at the laundromat and grocery co-op to have spirited discussions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We needed a place for women to go, to be able to talk with each other about this women’s liberation stuff, gay liberation stuff,” Seajay says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1970s, the women’s liberation movement made many important legal gains. “On paper, we were getting more freedoms,” Lynch says. “But for lesbians, they were largely still feeling excluded.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987659\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13987659 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00012_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Directory of Dreams,” an archival exhibit of lesbian history in the Bay Area, is installed in the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Roe v. Wade gave women the right to end unwanted pregnancies, and the Equal Opportunity Credit Act allowed women to acquire loans and credit without male co-signers. Women began to buy homes and start businesses for the first time. Yet many straight women saw lesbians as a threat to the women’s liberation movement, and job and housing discrimination against LGBTQ+ people remained rampant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the ’70s, you’re in a time period of, really, lesbians coming together and being like, ‘You know, if we’re gonna be excluded by these dominant societies, let’s create some counterculture,’” Lynch says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A crucial connector for the Bay Area’s lesbian community was Gloria Pell, known to friends simply as Pell. She became active on Valencia Street while working at Old Wives’ Tales. In the early ’80s, she opened Woman Crafts West, a small boutique that carried work by hundreds of female artisans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1900px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987686\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1900\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2.jpg 1900w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2-160x112.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2-768x539.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/pell-archival-2-1536x1078.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1900px) 100vw, 1900px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gloria Pell (right), known to friends simply as Pell, was a crucial connector of the lesbian community on Valencia Street in the 1980s. \u003ccite>(Bay Area Lesbian Archives/Pell Collection)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the GLBT Historical Society, \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> features a display of crafts from Pell’s collection: shapely goddess statues, a flower-like labia sculpture and ceramic earrings in the shape of breasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pell didn’t just break barriers so she could succeed; she also helped build the infrastructure that allowed other lesbians to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was the central part of organizing different business owners being tenants on that street,” Lynch says. “She was a part of a feminist credit union helping women open up their own bank accounts, coming up with pool funds — like, really, startup funding — for other women.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lesbians strengthened the LGBTQ+ community during crisis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the ’80s, lesbian-owned businesses offered crucial support for gay men during the AIDS epidemic. Featured prominently in the exhibit is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/29308/lgbt-pride-remembering-the-brick-hut-cafe-part-1\">Brick Hut Cafe\u003c/a>, a Berkeley institution that drew lines down the block for coffee and muffins, as well as returning customers like Angela Davis and a free-spirited crew of gay men nicknamed the Shattuck Street Fairies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the wall of GBLT Historical Society, a 1992 poem by a customer named Cynthia describes the scene: “Flannel shirted wimmin / pierced and tattooed dykes / Bitchin’ dreadlocks, cool shaved heads / Feeding old folks and young tikes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987678\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1125px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987678\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/IMG_8997.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1125\" height=\"676\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/IMG_8997.jpg 1125w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/IMG_8997-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/IMG_8997-768x461.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sharon Davenport and Joan Antonuccio at The Brick Hut Cafe in the ’90s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ace Morgan)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As AIDS began to decimate the gay community, and government officials ignored and stigmatized the disease, queer institutions like the Brick Hut became crucial resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We put up information, and we talked to people,” Brick Hut co-founder Sharon Davenport says. “You know, like, ‘Am I going to get AIDS from a toilet seat?’ No. ‘If I sit next to a gay guy, am I gonna get AIDS?’ No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During this era, lesbians across the country stepped up as advocates. They organized blood drives, protested for better public health policies, and even offered bedside care for gay men with AIDS whose families were afraid to come near them. At the Brick Hut, they also offered social support. “The important part was the personal interaction with people,” Davenport says. “So they wouldn’t be afraid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Lynch of the Bay Area Lesbian Archives, it’s stories like these that show that the establishments honored in \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> are much more than just businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re sustaining ourselves, providing for ourselves,” she says. “But we’re also at the same time organizing ourselves, collectivizing ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Younger generations take notes from lesbian herstory\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As it celebrates visionary lesbian activists and community builders, \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> is also honest about where the movement fell short. The exhibition’s wall text notes that racism at times alienated women of color from lesbian spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was messy,” Lynch says. “I mean, [white women] were coming into consciousness that they’re racist for the first time. Black women are coming into the consciousness that, ‘Oh my god, we’ve been serving Black men and the Black power movement, and we haven’t thought about our needs for ourselves.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987665\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00526_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guests observe the exhibit, “Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care 1970-1995,” on opening night at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Absent from the exhibit are the lesbian separatists who discriminated against trans women and wanted to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13977595/sandy-stone-olivia-records-jimi-hendrix-girl-island-documentary\">exclude them\u003c/a>. In the ’70s, many \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13976295/1970s-gay-transgender-rights-movement-san-francisco-pride\">gays and lesbians seeking mainstream acceptance\u003c/a> sought to distance themselves from trans people, who faced even worse discrimination. During our interview, Lynch acknowledged that history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the good, the bad, the ugly, but I love how those women got the conversation started for us to continue today,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the mid-1990s, as an influx of young artists began to transform the Mission District, long-running women’s spaces like Woman Crafts West and Old Wives’ Tales shut their doors. Many of the reasons were economic: Rising rents on Valencia Street meant that people could no longer afford to run radical spaces. In Berkeley, the Brick Hut shuttered because it was $30,000 in debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987663\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987663\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/260311-DIRECTORYOFDREAMS00303_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guests observe the exhibit, “Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care 1970-1995,” on opening night at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco on March 11, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think some of the generations since then are kind of pissed that we let it go,” Seajay of Old Wives’ Tales says. “I am, too. I share that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, she wants this history to inspire young people to carry on that legacy. “You want something, make it happen,” she says. “You can do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the opening reception of \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> on March 11, lesbians and queer people in their 20s, 30s and 40s mingled alongside elders who shaped this golden era. Among those taking in the display of Pell’s goddess-themed jewelry and sculptures were Stephanie and Etecia Burrell, a couple who run The Sanctuary, an eclectic shop in Oakland that offers wellness services rooted in West African spiritual traditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987676\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1974px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987676\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1974\" height=\"1559\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival.jpg 1974w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival-160x126.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival-768x607.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/woman-crafts-west-archival-1536x1213.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1974px) 100vw, 1974px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gloria Pell (fourth from right) and friends pose in front of her shop, Woman Crafts West. In the 1980s and ’90s, it was a prominent fixture of the lesbian cultural corridor on Valencia Street in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Bay Area Lesbian Archives/Pell Collection)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Burrells are both especially inspired by Pell’s legacy as a Black lesbian community builder. “It actually makes me feel like, ‘Wow, I can relax, I can feel more of what I’m doing and the power of it because someone else did it,’” Stephanie says. “And it gives me a sense of relief, a sense of calm. A sense like, ‘You got this.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesbian community in today’s Bay Area looks much different than it did during the second-wave feminist movement. Many millennials and Gen Z-ers opt for terms like “queer” and “sapphic” when throwing parties and events, so as not to exclude trans, nonbinary, bisexual or pansexual people. At queer parties raising money for immigration defense or humanitarian aid in Gaza, there’s a greater mindfulness around the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class, disability and immigration status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet Lynch says it’s crucial to learn from those who paved the way. As conservative legislators continue to attack LGBTQ+ rights and civil liberties more broadly, she wants \u003cem>Directory of Dreams\u003c/em> to spark people’s imaginations for how to thrive, even amid a hostile political climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a mausoleum — these are instructions,” Lynch told the crowd at the opening. “Each flyer, each menu, each business card tucked away is a small declaration. ‘We were here, we built this, and you can build it too.’ Because the question is not whether these women were extraordinary. Of course they were. The real question is, what happens when we remember that survival has always been collective?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "A ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave Brings Out San Francisco’s Yearners and Romantics",
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"headTitle": "A ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave Brings Out San Francisco’s Yearners and Romantics | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s no secret that the gals, gays and theys can’t stop talking about Canadian sports romance \u003cem>Heated Rivalry\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So much so, the fandom is bursting with an energy many of us haven’t experienced since our early teens. I’m talking peak \u003cem>Twilight\u003c/em> saga, or maybe even the same feral obsession many of us felt for *NSYNC or the Spice Girls. If this feels like an exaggeration, might I recommend falling down the \u003ca href=\"https://www.today.com/popculture/boy-aquarium-tiktok-slang-explained-rcna257032\">“Boy aquarium” rabbit hole\u003c/a> on TikTok?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With \u003cem>Heated Rivalry\u003c/em> raves popping up across the country, including many here in the Bay Area, hopeless romantics are coming out in droves to celebrate the show’s portrayal of yearning, intimacy and consent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just love the intimacy outside of the sex. It’s in the micro expressions, it’s in the consensual tension. Oh, my goodness, yes!” said Ahlea Castro, 30, who attended Klip Klop Productions’ \u003cem>Heaved Rivalry\u003c/em> Rave at The Stud in San Francisco on Feb. 6.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986496\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986496\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amanda Pineda, left, claps as Heiress Throttle Cakes performs at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Pineda enjoys the emotional intimacy of ‘Heated Rivalry.’ “Love should be vulnerable. I feel like with love now it’s like, you have to be stoic and kind of like you don’t care… but they’re showing, ‘I love you. I’m here for you,’” said Pineda. “The vulnerability, the passion, and it’s all that is brought into ‘Heated Rivalry.’ It’s a cult.” \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Castro eagerly bought tickets a month in advance and attended it with Amanda Pineda; they dressed as characters from \u003cem>Ember and Ice\u003c/em>, an audio erotica story narrated by \u003cem>Heated Rivalry\u003c/em> stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who says that queer people can’t be sporty?” said Silhouette, one of the many drag performers and who livened up the night in hockey glam. [aside postid='arts_13953910']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With several go-go dancers, intricate drag numbers and clips of the show playing the the background, the night also paid homage to the San Francisco Earthquakes, an LGBTQ+ hockey team that’s been out and proud since the ’90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’ll make a difference for a lot of younger people, and also people that play professional sports that are gay but don’t necessarily feel comfortable coming out,” said Mike Berry, a member of the San Francisco Earthquakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Earthquakes were among the dozens of people dressed on theme and ready for to take a \u003ca href=\"https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/heated-rivalry-filming-location-connor-storrie-hudson-williams/\">trip to the cottage\u003c/a> during Super Bowl weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986489\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rougui Diallo poses for a portrait during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Diallo said she relates to Shane Hollander’s character because, at the end of the day, he’s a “total lover boy.” “I think sometimes people think gay sex is very, like, pornographic, but I’m always like, ‘No, that’s genuine love,’” Diallo said. “All of us hook up with people randomly, and then we slowly started falling in love with each other. So what does it matter if it’s two men doing that?” \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986490\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986490\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rimsha Abid, center left, 27, poses for a portrait with her friends during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Abid is a big fan of the show and bought tickets for herself and her friends weeks in advance because she was so excited about the event. She enjoys that the show features characters from communities that aren’t often represented on television and portrays how deeply they grow to care for each other. “I think it’s one of the reasons why I love this show so much, because there’s so much yearning, but there’s also so much love between these characters,” Abid said.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986488\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986488\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Berry, center, poses for a portrait during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Berry is a member of the San Francisco Earthquakes. He enjoyed the show for several reasons. “I love hockey, and I’m gay, so it aligns with my interests, but mostly because it’s a love story, also because I feel like it’ll make a difference in professional sports, ” Berry said.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 889px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986514\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_22_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"889\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_22_qed.jpg 889w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_22_qed-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_22_qed-768x1152.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 889px) 100vw, 889px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The members of San Francisco Earthquakes pose for a portrait during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. The San Francisco Earthquakes is a LGBTQ+ ice hockey team, founded in 1998 and currently playing at Yerba Buena Ice in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986486\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986486\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attendees cheer as Heiress performs during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave as scenes from the television show project for the audience at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986494\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986494\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The audience cheers as Heiress Throttle Cakes pretends to take a call from “the cottage” during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave as scenes from the television show project for the audience at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986493\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986493\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heiress Throttle Cakes performs during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave as scenes from the television show project for the audience at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986485\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lizzy Trueblood, left, and her partner Sarah Benjamin wear a couples costume during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. The pair styled their outfits to mimic Kip and Scott’s, mostly going for a loose interpretation. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986483\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986483\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Efrain Balbuena, center, wears a cropped hockey jersey during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Balbuena was one of the many people dressed on theme for the rave. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986487\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986487\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The word “YEARN” decorates the DJ Booth at the Stud during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986497\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 889px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986497\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_23_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"889\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_23_qed.jpg 889w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_23_qed-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_23_qed-768x1152.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 889px) 100vw, 889px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Day, left, dances with John Flanagan during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986510\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986510\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Phoebe Cakes performs during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986491\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986491\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dancer performs in a jockstrap during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ticketmaster.com/heated-rivalry-san-francisco-california-02-20-2026/event/1C006435A4E8D35F\">The next ‘Heated Rivalry’-themed party\u003c/a> in San Francisco takes place Feb. 20 at August Hall. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s no secret that the gals, gays and theys can’t stop talking about Canadian sports romance \u003cem>Heated Rivalry\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So much so, the fandom is bursting with an energy many of us haven’t experienced since our early teens. I’m talking peak \u003cem>Twilight\u003c/em> saga, or maybe even the same feral obsession many of us felt for *NSYNC or the Spice Girls. If this feels like an exaggeration, might I recommend falling down the \u003ca href=\"https://www.today.com/popculture/boy-aquarium-tiktok-slang-explained-rcna257032\">“Boy aquarium” rabbit hole\u003c/a> on TikTok?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With \u003cem>Heated Rivalry\u003c/em> raves popping up across the country, including many here in the Bay Area, hopeless romantics are coming out in droves to celebrate the show’s portrayal of yearning, intimacy and consent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just love the intimacy outside of the sex. It’s in the micro expressions, it’s in the consensual tension. Oh, my goodness, yes!” said Ahlea Castro, 30, who attended Klip Klop Productions’ \u003cem>Heaved Rivalry\u003c/em> Rave at The Stud in San Francisco on Feb. 6.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986496\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986496\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_02_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amanda Pineda, left, claps as Heiress Throttle Cakes performs at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Pineda enjoys the emotional intimacy of ‘Heated Rivalry.’ “Love should be vulnerable. I feel like with love now it’s like, you have to be stoic and kind of like you don’t care… but they’re showing, ‘I love you. I’m here for you,’” said Pineda. “The vulnerability, the passion, and it’s all that is brought into ‘Heated Rivalry.’ It’s a cult.” \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Castro eagerly bought tickets a month in advance and attended it with Amanda Pineda; they dressed as characters from \u003cem>Ember and Ice\u003c/em>, an audio erotica story narrated by \u003cem>Heated Rivalry\u003c/em> stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who says that queer people can’t be sporty?” said Silhouette, one of the many drag performers and who livened up the night in hockey glam. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With several go-go dancers, intricate drag numbers and clips of the show playing the the background, the night also paid homage to the San Francisco Earthquakes, an LGBTQ+ hockey team that’s been out and proud since the ’90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’ll make a difference for a lot of younger people, and also people that play professional sports that are gay but don’t necessarily feel comfortable coming out,” said Mike Berry, a member of the San Francisco Earthquakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Earthquakes were among the dozens of people dressed on theme and ready for to take a \u003ca href=\"https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/heated-rivalry-filming-location-connor-storrie-hudson-williams/\">trip to the cottage\u003c/a> during Super Bowl weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986489\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_05_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rougui Diallo poses for a portrait during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Diallo said she relates to Shane Hollander’s character because, at the end of the day, he’s a “total lover boy.” “I think sometimes people think gay sex is very, like, pornographic, but I’m always like, ‘No, that’s genuine love,’” Diallo said. “All of us hook up with people randomly, and then we slowly started falling in love with each other. So what does it matter if it’s two men doing that?” \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986490\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986490\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_01_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rimsha Abid, center left, 27, poses for a portrait with her friends during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Abid is a big fan of the show and bought tickets for herself and her friends weeks in advance because she was so excited about the event. She enjoys that the show features characters from communities that aren’t often represented on television and portrays how deeply they grow to care for each other. “I think it’s one of the reasons why I love this show so much, because there’s so much yearning, but there’s also so much love between these characters,” Abid said.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986488\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986488\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_06_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Berry, center, poses for a portrait during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Berry is a member of the San Francisco Earthquakes. He enjoyed the show for several reasons. “I love hockey, and I’m gay, so it aligns with my interests, but mostly because it’s a love story, also because I feel like it’ll make a difference in professional sports, ” Berry said.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 889px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986514\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_22_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"889\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_22_qed.jpg 889w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_22_qed-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_22_qed-768x1152.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 889px) 100vw, 889px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The members of San Francisco Earthquakes pose for a portrait during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. The San Francisco Earthquakes is a LGBTQ+ ice hockey team, founded in 1998 and currently playing at Yerba Buena Ice in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986486\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986486\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Attendees cheer as Heiress performs during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave as scenes from the television show project for the audience at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986494\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986494\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The audience cheers as Heiress Throttle Cakes pretends to take a call from “the cottage” during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave as scenes from the television show project for the audience at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986493\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986493\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_11_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heiress Throttle Cakes performs during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave as scenes from the television show project for the audience at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986485\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_25_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lizzy Trueblood, left, and her partner Sarah Benjamin wear a couples costume during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. The pair styled their outfits to mimic Kip and Scott’s, mostly going for a loose interpretation. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986483\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986483\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_30_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Efrain Balbuena, center, wears a cropped hockey jersey during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. Balbuena was one of the many people dressed on theme for the rave. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986487\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986487\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_14_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The word “YEARN” decorates the DJ Booth at the Stud during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986497\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 889px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986497\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_23_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"889\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_23_qed.jpg 889w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_23_qed-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_23_qed-768x1152.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 889px) 100vw, 889px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Day, left, dances with John Flanagan during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986510\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986510\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_19_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Phoebe Cakes performs during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986491\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986491\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260205_HeatedRivalryRave_EG_27_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dancer performs in a jockstrap during the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Rave at The Stud on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ticketmaster.com/heated-rivalry-san-francisco-california-02-20-2026/event/1C006435A4E8D35F\">The next ‘Heated Rivalry’-themed party\u003c/a> in San Francisco takes place Feb. 20 at August Hall. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "castro-theatre-grand-reopening-film-movies-seats-san-francisco-review",
"title": "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Castro Theatre Again",
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"headTitle": "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Castro Theatre Again | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]F[/dropcap]irst things first: \u003cem>Priscilla, Queen of the Desert\u003c/em> at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/castro-theatre\">Castro Theatre\u003c/a> is not, strictly speaking, a “film event.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a film, sure. But it also doubles as the Castro Theatre’s long-awaited reopening after a two-year closure. It’s a celebration. It’s not Film 101 like \u003cem>Stalker\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Ikiru\u003c/em> or \u003cem>In the Mood for Love\u003c/em>; it’s \u003cem>Priscilla\u003c/em> — a communion, a camp fest, and a party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, since it is the first movie shown at the newly renovated Castro, once my favorite movie theater in the entire world, I am duty-bound to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>See, I have been talking my head off about the Castro to anyone who will listen for the past four years, ever since Another Planet Entertainment, the live music promoter, announced plans to convert it into a multi-use venue. I’ve \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908311/castro-theatre-to-become-live-music-and-events-venue-after-renovation\">reported\u003c/a> on the story \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13917362/theres-only-one-castro-theatre-why-change-it-now\">publicly\u003c/a>, and also, as my coworkers will attest, ranted pessimistically about it in private. I have been “that guy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986461\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986461\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-2000x1500.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ceiling in the balcony of the Castro Theatre is readied for reopening on Feb. 5, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like thousands of others, I’d loyally seen movies there for 30 years. I \u003cem>loved\u003c/em> the Castro. It was reasonable to be worried. Another Planet does not operate any other venue that shows film — how could they possibly uphold their requirement by the Planning Commission to do so, for 75 days out of each calendar year? And how could they destroy a beloved institution’s original floor seating to become yet another music venue, with a tacked-on film element, in a city with no other movie palaces? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, I never minded the run-down look of the Castro. While it was hard to argue with restoring the ceiling, upgrading the sound, fixing the roof and adding ADA compliance, was it a fair trade-off for losing around-the-clock film programming?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The whole thing felt like someone walking into \u003ca href=\"https://tommysjoynt.com/about\">Tommy’s Joynt\u003c/a> and saying, “Nice place, good potential. But let’s take all this garbage off the walls and repaint it. And say, why don’t we put in a matcha bar?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986460\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986460\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The newly renovated interior at the Castro Theatre during its grand reopening on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o while touring the theater the day before it opened, I was mainly fixated on how it would show movies. Another Planet needed to appease three contingents with this project: the LGBTQ community, the Castro neighborhood, and the film community. Their bookings so far lean very queer, a good thing, and they’ll easily bring people, and money, to the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Film, though, was still an open question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13917362']I was glad to learn that the projection booth retains both a 35mm and 70mm film projector, along with a new digital 4K BARCO projector. The screen is 36 feet by 25 feet, similar in size to the old one. There’s a new sound system, and in classic movie-palace style, the speakers sit behind the screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a bar at the back of the auditorium for concerts, but it’s fully removable and will be absent for film screenings. Film booking is done in-house, and festivals like Berlin & Beyond, the SF Silent Film Festival and Frameline are all returning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986458\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986458\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">New seats await filmgoers at the Castro Theatre during its grand reopening on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The seats are ugly. There’s no other way to say it. The point of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952358/sf-supes-ok-effort-renovate-castro-theater\">so much debate\u003c/a>, anger and town halls, the new seats aren’t technically folding chairs, but to me they still look like seats at a school assembly, with toothpick legs. They’re on six-inch risers with improved sight lines, and they’re padded and have cup holders, but if AMC installed these seats at their theaters they’d go out of business immediately. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sitting in the seats with Mary Conde, the senior vice president of Another Planet, I ask: you must know that some people will complain about this, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She nods. “We are prepared for that,” Conde says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986463\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986463\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) Another Planet Entertainment Senior Vice President Mary Conde, Senator Scott Wiener, drag artist D’Arcy Drollinger and Mayor Daniel Lurie help cut the ribbon during the Castro Theatre’s grand reopening on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he cops are milling around on Castro Street, trying to keep the teeming crowd on the sidewalk. It’s the Castro’s grand re-opening on Friday night, and politicians, drag queens, a marching band, a guy with a sign reading “\u003ca href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/gmeline.bsky.social/post/3mead4xikds26\">THIS SUCKS\u003c/a>,” security workers, lookie-loos, local merchants and movie fans have all congealed in front of the theater. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who’s Sam Smith?” one of the cops asks, looking up at the marquee. “Some singer,” another replies, disinterestedly. “Here for two weeks, they say.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruby Day from Beach Blanket Babylon sings “our national anthem,” “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/dv6mHsXKI2c?si=0ZOJwbwF341-ijm2\">San Francisco\u003c/a>.” Castro Supervisor Rafael Mandelman says “Go queers in construction!” Mayor Lurie does his we’re-so-back Lurie thing. The ribbon gets cut, the marching band strikes up, and we’re off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986464\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986464\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The newly renovated ceiling at the Castro Theatre during its grand reopening on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>People enter the theater and immediately look upward at the stunning new ceiling. One remembers “the \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/castro_2.8.22_rosasandrew_23-copy_custom-54d51f69ab1b36290c8f6c747b6061b3de0f0c3d-1920x1281.jpe\">brown expanse that it used to be\u003c/a>.” The new 2,000-pound digital organ emerges from the stage, and a standing ovation ensues for David Hegarty, the Castro’s organist since 1978. He’s canonized as “St. Mellifluous” by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. There’s a sing-along to “Mamma Mia” with 14 drag queens on stage. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, after 42 minutes of pre-show, the movie starts. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is my show-me-what-you-got moment. And, after the masking is adjusted, I have to say: the movie looks \u003cem>good\u003c/em>. The film print is clean, the focus is sharp and the presentation is bright, with a strong bulb in the projector. I also find that I don’t mind my seat at all, or how it feels. I am back at the Castro, this cathedral for film, watching a movie again. Could it be that all my worries were unfounded? What’s happening here?!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I will forever miss the old interior, and the sound system needs some fine-tuning. But I think to myself: I can live with this. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986465\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1447px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1447\" height=\"2000\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986465\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955.jpg 1447w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955-160x221.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955-768x1062.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955-1111x1536.jpg 1111w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1447px) 100vw, 1447px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Organist Dave Hegarty is honored at the grand reopening of the Castro Theatre on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At my age, I am trying to accept change. While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13965624/oakland-as-last-game-songs-played-coliseum\">watching my last A’s game\u003c/a> at the Oakland Coliseum, another Bay Area cathedral, I considered the possibility that what makes a place special isn’t the place so much as the people. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seared into my memory is the first movie I ever saw at the Castro: \u003cem>Grey Gardens\u003c/em>, which amazed me not only for its story but for the audience interaction. During \u003cem>Priscilla\u003c/em>, people cheer for Terence Stamp, who recently died, in the opening credits. They recite lines like “a cock in a frock on a rock” back to the screen. They laugh at the jokes, sing along to the drag numbers, and get silent for the emotional scenes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And me? For 104 minutes, I get lost in the film, forget about the past four years, and realize that when the lights go down, it’s still the same Castro magic. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "At the reopened theater's first movie screening, the pessimism I've carried for four years melted away.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">F\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>irst things first: \u003cem>Priscilla, Queen of the Desert\u003c/em> at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/castro-theatre\">Castro Theatre\u003c/a> is not, strictly speaking, a “film event.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a film, sure. But it also doubles as the Castro Theatre’s long-awaited reopening after a two-year closure. It’s a celebration. It’s not Film 101 like \u003cem>Stalker\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Ikiru\u003c/em> or \u003cem>In the Mood for Love\u003c/em>; it’s \u003cem>Priscilla\u003c/em> — a communion, a camp fest, and a party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, since it is the first movie shown at the newly renovated Castro, once my favorite movie theater in the entire world, I am duty-bound to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>See, I have been talking my head off about the Castro to anyone who will listen for the past four years, ever since Another Planet Entertainment, the live music promoter, announced plans to convert it into a multi-use venue. I’ve \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908311/castro-theatre-to-become-live-music-and-events-venue-after-renovation\">reported\u003c/a> on the story \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13917362/theres-only-one-castro-theatre-why-change-it-now\">publicly\u003c/a>, and also, as my coworkers will attest, ranted pessimistically about it in private. I have been “that guy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986461\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986461\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-2000x1500.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0897-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ceiling in the balcony of the Castro Theatre is readied for reopening on Feb. 5, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like thousands of others, I’d loyally seen movies there for 30 years. I \u003cem>loved\u003c/em> the Castro. It was reasonable to be worried. Another Planet does not operate any other venue that shows film — how could they possibly uphold their requirement by the Planning Commission to do so, for 75 days out of each calendar year? And how could they destroy a beloved institution’s original floor seating to become yet another music venue, with a tacked-on film element, in a city with no other movie palaces? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, I never minded the run-down look of the Castro. While it was hard to argue with restoring the ceiling, upgrading the sound, fixing the roof and adding ADA compliance, was it a fair trade-off for losing around-the-clock film programming?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The whole thing felt like someone walking into \u003ca href=\"https://tommysjoynt.com/about\">Tommy’s Joynt\u003c/a> and saying, “Nice place, good potential. But let’s take all this garbage off the walls and repaint it. And say, why don’t we put in a matcha bar?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986460\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986460\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The newly renovated interior at the Castro Theatre during its grand reopening on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>o while touring the theater the day before it opened, I was mainly fixated on how it would show movies. Another Planet needed to appease three contingents with this project: the LGBTQ community, the Castro neighborhood, and the film community. Their bookings so far lean very queer, a good thing, and they’ll easily bring people, and money, to the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Film, though, was still an open question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I was glad to learn that the projection booth retains both a 35mm and 70mm film projector, along with a new digital 4K BARCO projector. The screen is 36 feet by 25 feet, similar in size to the old one. There’s a new sound system, and in classic movie-palace style, the speakers sit behind the screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a bar at the back of the auditorium for concerts, but it’s fully removable and will be absent for film screenings. Film booking is done in-house, and festivals like Berlin & Beyond, the SF Silent Film Festival and Frameline are all returning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986458\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986458\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">New seats await filmgoers at the Castro Theatre during its grand reopening on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The seats are ugly. There’s no other way to say it. The point of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952358/sf-supes-ok-effort-renovate-castro-theater\">so much debate\u003c/a>, anger and town halls, the new seats aren’t technically folding chairs, but to me they still look like seats at a school assembly, with toothpick legs. They’re on six-inch risers with improved sight lines, and they’re padded and have cup holders, but if AMC installed these seats at their theaters they’d go out of business immediately. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sitting in the seats with Mary Conde, the senior vice president of Another Planet, I ask: you must know that some people will complain about this, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She nods. “We are prepared for that,” Conde says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986463\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986463\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-5_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) Another Planet Entertainment Senior Vice President Mary Conde, Senator Scott Wiener, drag artist D’Arcy Drollinger and Mayor Daniel Lurie help cut the ribbon during the Castro Theatre’s grand reopening on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>he cops are milling around on Castro Street, trying to keep the teeming crowd on the sidewalk. It’s the Castro’s grand re-opening on Friday night, and politicians, drag queens, a marching band, a guy with a sign reading “\u003ca href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/gmeline.bsky.social/post/3mead4xikds26\">THIS SUCKS\u003c/a>,” security workers, lookie-loos, local merchants and movie fans have all congealed in front of the theater. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Who’s Sam Smith?” one of the cops asks, looking up at the marquee. “Some singer,” another replies, disinterestedly. “Here for two weeks, they say.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruby Day from Beach Blanket Babylon sings “our national anthem,” “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/dv6mHsXKI2c?si=0ZOJwbwF341-ijm2\">San Francisco\u003c/a>.” Castro Supervisor Rafael Mandelman says “Go queers in construction!” Mayor Lurie does his we’re-so-back Lurie thing. The ribbon gets cut, the marching band strikes up, and we’re off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986464\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986464\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/20260206_CastroTheatreGrandReopening-8_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The newly renovated ceiling at the Castro Theatre during its grand reopening on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>People enter the theater and immediately look upward at the stunning new ceiling. One remembers “the \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/castro_2.8.22_rosasandrew_23-copy_custom-54d51f69ab1b36290c8f6c747b6061b3de0f0c3d-1920x1281.jpe\">brown expanse that it used to be\u003c/a>.” The new 2,000-pound digital organ emerges from the stage, and a standing ovation ensues for David Hegarty, the Castro’s organist since 1978. He’s canonized as “St. Mellifluous” by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. There’s a sing-along to “Mamma Mia” with 14 drag queens on stage. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, after 42 minutes of pre-show, the movie starts. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is my show-me-what-you-got moment. And, after the masking is adjusted, I have to say: the movie looks \u003cem>good\u003c/em>. The film print is clean, the focus is sharp and the presentation is bright, with a strong bulb in the projector. I also find that I don’t mind my seat at all, or how it feels. I am back at the Castro, this cathedral for film, watching a movie again. Could it be that all my worries were unfounded? What’s happening here?!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I will forever miss the old interior, and the sound system needs some fine-tuning. But I think to myself: I can live with this. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13986465\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1447px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1447\" height=\"2000\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13986465\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955.jpg 1447w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955-160x221.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955-768x1062.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/IMG_0955-1111x1536.jpg 1111w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1447px) 100vw, 1447px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Organist Dave Hegarty is honored at the grand reopening of the Castro Theatre on Feb. 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At my age, I am trying to accept change. While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13965624/oakland-as-last-game-songs-played-coliseum\">watching my last A’s game\u003c/a> at the Oakland Coliseum, another Bay Area cathedral, I considered the possibility that what makes a place special isn’t the place so much as the people. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seared into my memory is the first movie I ever saw at the Castro: \u003cem>Grey Gardens\u003c/em>, which amazed me not only for its story but for the audience interaction. During \u003cem>Priscilla\u003c/em>, people cheer for Terence Stamp, who recently died, in the opening credits. They recite lines like “a cock in a frock on a rock” back to the screen. They laugh at the jokes, sing along to the drag numbers, and get silent for the emotional scenes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And me? For 104 minutes, I get lost in the film, forget about the past four years, and realize that when the lights go down, it’s still the same Castro magic. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "shelterwood-collective-soloar-punk-farms-lgbtq-history-russian-river",
"title": "A Queer Climate Movement Takes Root Along the Russian River",
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"headTitle": "A Queer Climate Movement Takes Root Along the Russian River | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>There’s a certain kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997477/fishnets-and-fossil-fuels-meet-3-bay-area-climate-conscious-drag-artists\">queer magic\u003c/a> that thrives along the Russian River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more than a century, queer people have sought refuge in rural Sonoma County, leaving the stress of city life for the peace — and parties — of the sprawling river valley and redwood forests. Artists, hippies, nude sun bathers, cruisers and even disco legends like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13854644/how-the-world-caught-up-to-sylvester\">Sylvester\u003c/a> have all flocked there over the decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, two groups, \u003ca href=\"https://www.shelterwoodcollective.org/\">Shelterwood Collective\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.solarpunkfarms.com/\">Solar Punk Farms\u003c/a>, are actively calling queer people back to the land, and not only to party. They’re creating a different type of magic: Shelterwood is restoring acres of forest through Indigenous practices like controlled burns, and Solar Punk advocates for environmental policy and farms the land — all while making space for queer community-building, joy and self-expression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not selling this as a panacea, but as one small piece of a larger puzzle of correcting the arc of history,” said Shelterwood co-founder Nikola Alexandre. “It matters that the last gas station before coming to Shelterwood and leaving is in Guerneville, which is maybe the gayest rural town in the U.S.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984071\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984071\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED-768x589.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED-1536x1177.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nikola Alexandre, of Shelterwood Collective, poses for a portrait at the property in Cazadero on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Caring for our elders’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>About half an hour northwest of Guerneville, Shelterwood is an oasis that centers queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and disabled people. The property was once a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2020/04/18/looking-back-on-the-cazadero-cult-camp-hundred-years-later/\">religious cult \u003c/a>and later a Christian camp. Since 2021, Shelterwood Collective has cared for its 900 acres of forest through stream restoration, forest thinning and prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The forested valley, surrounded by a ridge, is home to wild boars, foxes, deer, mountain lions and the occasional bear. The Kashia Band of Pomo Indians stewarded these lands for thousands of years. White settlers and the federal government forced them from their ancestral lands in the 1800s, which also eliminated their practice of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13983729/good-fire-tending-native-lands-review-oakland-museum-california\">cultural burning\u003c/a>. In the mid-19th century, loggers turned the nearby town of Cazadero into a major timber hub. [aside postid='arts_13983729']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexandre said that when Shelterwood purchased the land, it was overgrown due to poor management and needed room to breathe. With a five-year grant from Cal Fire, the group is physically thinning the forest and using prescribed fire to allow native species such as blue oak, sword fern and hummingbird sage to thrive once again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not trying to micromanage a forest, we’re caring for our elders,” Alexandre said of large trees unscathed by fire during a prescribed burn in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing on a cascading hillside meadow, with billowing smoke around him, Alexandre said actively burning the crowded forest has a two-fold purpose: tending the land \u003ci>and\u003c/i> queer hearts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mythology that we are not part of these ecosystems, or that the only thing that happens to Black folk in the woods is negative or harmful, is one that I sought to truly push back against,” Alexandre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984073\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Free Freddie performs during Shelterwood’s summer campout in July 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brandon Simmoneau)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Giving ‘queerness space to breathe’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Shelterwood’s work isn’t just physical, it’s communal. The five people who live on the property, along with visiting friends and organizers, host weekend gatherings centered on queer folk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around Halloween, at a party called 900 Acres and a Ghoul, dozens of queer people dressed as sexy witches, a giant slice of pizza in a jock strap and horror movie characters like Casey Becker from \u003ci>Scream\u003c/i>. The group of mostly 20- and 30-somethings danced to techno under a canopy of branches, carved pumpkins, connected in cuddle puddles and hiked in the fog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We dance with our human and non-human kin for a couple of days, and that is the joy that fuels many of us,” Alexandre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matt Wood made the two-and-a-half-hour trek from San Francisco. The 30-year-old said every time he visits, he feels a little bit more restored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s also healed my relationship with nature a lot,” Wood said. “I had to relearn what it means to hike or camp because I associated those with white, higher socioeconomic activities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wood has also learned the healing nature of prescribed fire, and sees his experience at Shelterwood as parallel to burning off the hardness of city life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984074\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984074\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">DJ 80085 performs during Shelterwood’s summer campout in July 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brandon Simmoneau)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A good burn was something I never knew about, but this maintains the health of the forest,” Wood said. “I think that’s something that we can all kind of apply as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Brandon Jones, Shelterwood’s executive director, restoring the forest and holding space for queer people is about developing a sense of sanctuary. The sprawling property gives “queerness space to breathe,” Jones said. “There’s something radical about removing queerness from confinement and throwing it into the open space to frolic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To keep the magic intact, Jones is figuring out how to shift Shelterwood from relying on grants to a retreat model for events and weddings, with potential for a farm and restaurant. Jones said he’s exploring more reliable funding options, as grants and private funding become harder to acquire in the current political climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you get through our gates, there is spaciousness,” Jones said. “That’s part of the magic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Schwanz trains a cucumber plant to grow upward at Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Planting the seeds of sustainability\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Shelterwood Collective isn’t alone in its mission of centering queerness and climate resilience. About 20 miles away from Shelterwood, Nick Schwanz and Spencer Scott run Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville. It’s a working farm, a communal home they share with at least two others and a redwood forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fed up with their jobs in health and tech in San Francisco, the couple wanted to live in a way that could make a tangible difference to the environment. At first, they dabbled in climate-related jobs. But they wanted to get their hands dirty, so they began looking for a piece of land. In 2020, they bought a 10-acre parcel in Guerneville with their savings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The queer history there was one of the big things that really drew us to the space,” Schwanz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The couple wants to help make the entire Russian River area resilient enough to weather future floods and fires. They see the Russian River’s queer history and the local climate movement as important factors in protecting the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Queer people know that we have to protect each other,” Scott said. “No one’s coming to save us, we’ve got to do it ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984065\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984065\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spencer Scott picks the last apples of the harvest at Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They grow squash, tomatoes and other produce, and host environmental salons, natural wine events and climate-themed drag shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our mission is to make the sustainability movement feel irresistible, not just essential or something that we \u003cem>should\u003c/em> do, but something that you really want to do because it’s fun, sexy and interesting,” Schwanz said. [aside postid='arts_13979195']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The duo’s move to Guerneville isn’t just about harvesting vegetables and raising chickens. They want to “shift culture” by influencing local policy to better support the environment. Schwanz is the president of the Russian River Chamber of Commerce, and Scott is on the county’s Lower Russian River Municipal Advisory Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their influence is starting to have an impact. Schwanz pushed the chamber to adopt a goal of making the area a regeneration hotspot, and next year it aims to co-host a countywide festival focused on river health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to take Guerneville’s super power of getting a ton of people here and having a great time and diverting that energy towards a climate goal,” Schwanz said. “The sense is that every year is worse than the last. Our near-term goal is to feel like every year’s better than the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984062\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984062\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chickens roam around Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Schwanz and Scott are also friends with Alexandre from Shelterwood Collective and hope to learn from the group’s forest restoration efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re hoping to get some guidance on how to best do forest thinning, burn piles and controlled burns,” Scott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexandre believes the restoration work by Solar Punk Farms, albeit on a very different scale, is essential, and it’s even more vital that queer communities focused on climate remain undivided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s my hope that these kinds of communities, collectives and sub-regional groupings of folks who are in close relationship with this place will become more and more frequent,” Alexandre said. [aside postid='science_1997477']\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A long queer history\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Gay San Franciscans began flocking to the Russian River in the 1920s and never stopped. The area served as a vacation destination, with people taking ferries, trains and cars to its redwood-lined riverbanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They wanted to get away from the stultifying rules about how you’re supposed to live your life, and your sexuality is part of that,” said Tina Dungan, who teaches a course on Sonoma County’s LGBTQ+ history at Santa Rosa Junior College. “It’s the beauty of being in the trees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shad Reinstein, an independent researcher in LGBTQ+ history, described the Russian River of the 1960s–’80s as the West Coast’s Fire Island. Bars, restaurants and hotels catered to the queer community. Journalists at the time called the area “the New Gay Mecca” and “a resort town that welcomes gays.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984176\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984176\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester.jpg\" alt=\"A vintage photo of a disco star performing in front of a crowd of young, gay fans.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1317\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester-768x506.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester-1536x1011.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sylvester performs at the The Woods Hexagon House in 1984. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Loren Henry)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said so many gay men visited the area that she believes artists like the Weather Girls, who performed at a resort there, found an audience for their song “It’s Raining Men” among the throngs of shirtless men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I personally believe that was performed about the river,” Reinstein speculated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though gays and lesbians came to the river for fun, Reinstein said the gay men she’s interviewed said there weren’t any historical queer communes in the Sonoma area. But she recently learned of one gay men’s retreat center, Wildwood Ranch in the Cazadero area, that was run collectively from the late 1970s. She noted many gay men also joined straight collectives. [aside postid='arts_13854644']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Russian River has gone through economic highs and lows, and weathered the height of the AIDS epidemic. These days, the LGBTQ+ scene on the river isn’t as prolific as it was when it was considered the Fire Island of the West Coast. Reinstein attributes that, in part, to positive developments including gay marriage, antiretroviral therapy and greater queer acceptance in mainstream society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the 1970s and ’80s, both lesbians and gays were working to create a culture and a community,” Reinstein said. “That was different. I don’t think that’s happening the same way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984178\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984178\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Schwanz, center, hands Freddie, 6, a bouquet of dahlias, at Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yet with LGBTQ+ rights under attack, the Russian River remains an important safe haven, and Solar Punk Farms and Shelterwood Collective are bringing the vibrancy back. “I’m really excited that it’s there,” Reinstein added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many queer people of past generations sought the woods as a place of escape, but Shelterwood’s Alexandre takes a different view. He said he and his friends are “not escaping anything,” but nurturing the queer cultural ecosystem while tending to the land. The goal is for both to thrive for generations to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to create safety for those communities who traditionally don’t get safe spaces,” Alexandre said, “and also acknowledge that all our futures are intertwined.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There’s a certain kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997477/fishnets-and-fossil-fuels-meet-3-bay-area-climate-conscious-drag-artists\">queer magic\u003c/a> that thrives along the Russian River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more than a century, queer people have sought refuge in rural Sonoma County, leaving the stress of city life for the peace — and parties — of the sprawling river valley and redwood forests. Artists, hippies, nude sun bathers, cruisers and even disco legends like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13854644/how-the-world-caught-up-to-sylvester\">Sylvester\u003c/a> have all flocked there over the decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, two groups, \u003ca href=\"https://www.shelterwoodcollective.org/\">Shelterwood Collective\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.solarpunkfarms.com/\">Solar Punk Farms\u003c/a>, are actively calling queer people back to the land, and not only to party. They’re creating a different type of magic: Shelterwood is restoring acres of forest through Indigenous practices like controlled burns, and Solar Punk advocates for environmental policy and farms the land — all while making space for queer community-building, joy and self-expression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not selling this as a panacea, but as one small piece of a larger puzzle of correcting the arc of history,” said Shelterwood co-founder Nikola Alexandre. “It matters that the last gas station before coming to Shelterwood and leaving is in Guerneville, which is maybe the gayest rural town in the U.S.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984071\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984071\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED-768x589.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-37-KQED-1536x1177.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nikola Alexandre, of Shelterwood Collective, poses for a portrait at the property in Cazadero on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Caring for our elders’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>About half an hour northwest of Guerneville, Shelterwood is an oasis that centers queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and disabled people. The property was once a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2020/04/18/looking-back-on-the-cazadero-cult-camp-hundred-years-later/\">religious cult \u003c/a>and later a Christian camp. Since 2021, Shelterwood Collective has cared for its 900 acres of forest through stream restoration, forest thinning and prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The forested valley, surrounded by a ridge, is home to wild boars, foxes, deer, mountain lions and the occasional bear. The Kashia Band of Pomo Indians stewarded these lands for thousands of years. White settlers and the federal government forced them from their ancestral lands in the 1800s, which also eliminated their practice of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13983729/good-fire-tending-native-lands-review-oakland-museum-california\">cultural burning\u003c/a>. In the mid-19th century, loggers turned the nearby town of Cazadero into a major timber hub. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexandre said that when Shelterwood purchased the land, it was overgrown due to poor management and needed room to breathe. With a five-year grant from Cal Fire, the group is physically thinning the forest and using prescribed fire to allow native species such as blue oak, sword fern and hummingbird sage to thrive once again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not trying to micromanage a forest, we’re caring for our elders,” Alexandre said of large trees unscathed by fire during a prescribed burn in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing on a cascading hillside meadow, with billowing smoke around him, Alexandre said actively burning the crowded forest has a two-fold purpose: tending the land \u003ci>and\u003c/i> queer hearts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mythology that we are not part of these ecosystems, or that the only thing that happens to Black folk in the woods is negative or harmful, is one that I sought to truly push back against,” Alexandre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984073\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-01-KQED-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Free Freddie performs during Shelterwood’s summer campout in July 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brandon Simmoneau)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Giving ‘queerness space to breathe’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Shelterwood’s work isn’t just physical, it’s communal. The five people who live on the property, along with visiting friends and organizers, host weekend gatherings centered on queer folk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around Halloween, at a party called 900 Acres and a Ghoul, dozens of queer people dressed as sexy witches, a giant slice of pizza in a jock strap and horror movie characters like Casey Becker from \u003ci>Scream\u003c/i>. The group of mostly 20- and 30-somethings danced to techno under a canopy of branches, carved pumpkins, connected in cuddle puddles and hiked in the fog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We dance with our human and non-human kin for a couple of days, and that is the joy that fuels many of us,” Alexandre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matt Wood made the two-and-a-half-hour trek from San Francisco. The 30-year-old said every time he visits, he feels a little bit more restored.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s also healed my relationship with nature a lot,” Wood said. “I had to relearn what it means to hike or camp because I associated those with white, higher socioeconomic activities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wood has also learned the healing nature of prescribed fire, and sees his experience at Shelterwood as parallel to burning off the hardness of city life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984074\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984074\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251125_QUEERWOODS-02-KQED-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">DJ 80085 performs during Shelterwood’s summer campout in July 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Brandon Simmoneau)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A good burn was something I never knew about, but this maintains the health of the forest,” Wood said. “I think that’s something that we can all kind of apply as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Brandon Jones, Shelterwood’s executive director, restoring the forest and holding space for queer people is about developing a sense of sanctuary. The sprawling property gives “queerness space to breathe,” Jones said. “There’s something radical about removing queerness from confinement and throwing it into the open space to frolic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To keep the magic intact, Jones is figuring out how to shift Shelterwood from relying on grants to a retreat model for events and weddings, with potential for a farm and restaurant. Jones said he’s exploring more reliable funding options, as grants and private funding become harder to acquire in the current political climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you get through our gates, there is spaciousness,” Jones said. “That’s part of the magic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-8-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Schwanz trains a cucumber plant to grow upward at Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Planting the seeds of sustainability\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Shelterwood Collective isn’t alone in its mission of centering queerness and climate resilience. About 20 miles away from Shelterwood, Nick Schwanz and Spencer Scott run Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville. It’s a working farm, a communal home they share with at least two others and a redwood forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fed up with their jobs in health and tech in San Francisco, the couple wanted to live in a way that could make a tangible difference to the environment. At first, they dabbled in climate-related jobs. But they wanted to get their hands dirty, so they began looking for a piece of land. In 2020, they bought a 10-acre parcel in Guerneville with their savings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The queer history there was one of the big things that really drew us to the space,” Schwanz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The couple wants to help make the entire Russian River area resilient enough to weather future floods and fires. They see the Russian River’s queer history and the local climate movement as important factors in protecting the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Queer people know that we have to protect each other,” Scott said. “No one’s coming to save us, we’ve got to do it ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984065\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984065\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-9-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spencer Scott picks the last apples of the harvest at Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They grow squash, tomatoes and other produce, and host environmental salons, natural wine events and climate-themed drag shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our mission is to make the sustainability movement feel irresistible, not just essential or something that we \u003cem>should\u003c/em> do, but something that you really want to do because it’s fun, sexy and interesting,” Schwanz said. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The duo’s move to Guerneville isn’t just about harvesting vegetables and raising chickens. They want to “shift culture” by influencing local policy to better support the environment. Schwanz is the president of the Russian River Chamber of Commerce, and Scott is on the county’s Lower Russian River Municipal Advisory Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their influence is starting to have an impact. Schwanz pushed the chamber to adopt a goal of making the area a regeneration hotspot, and next year it aims to co-host a countywide festival focused on river health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to take Guerneville’s super power of getting a ton of people here and having a great time and diverting that energy towards a climate goal,” Schwanz said. “The sense is that every year is worse than the last. Our near-term goal is to feel like every year’s better than the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984062\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984062\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QUEERWOODS-GC-4-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chickens roam around Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Schwanz and Scott are also friends with Alexandre from Shelterwood Collective and hope to learn from the group’s forest restoration efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re hoping to get some guidance on how to best do forest thinning, burn piles and controlled burns,” Scott said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alexandre believes the restoration work by Solar Punk Farms, albeit on a very different scale, is essential, and it’s even more vital that queer communities focused on climate remain undivided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s my hope that these kinds of communities, collectives and sub-regional groupings of folks who are in close relationship with this place will become more and more frequent,” Alexandre said. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A long queer history\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Gay San Franciscans began flocking to the Russian River in the 1920s and never stopped. The area served as a vacation destination, with people taking ferries, trains and cars to its redwood-lined riverbanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They wanted to get away from the stultifying rules about how you’re supposed to live your life, and your sexuality is part of that,” said Tina Dungan, who teaches a course on Sonoma County’s LGBTQ+ history at Santa Rosa Junior College. “It’s the beauty of being in the trees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shad Reinstein, an independent researcher in LGBTQ+ history, described the Russian River of the 1960s–’80s as the West Coast’s Fire Island. Bars, restaurants and hotels catered to the queer community. Journalists at the time called the area “the New Gay Mecca” and “a resort town that welcomes gays.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984176\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984176\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester.jpg\" alt=\"A vintage photo of a disco star performing in front of a crowd of young, gay fans.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1317\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester-768x506.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Sylvester-1536x1011.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sylvester performs at the The Woods Hexagon House in 1984. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Loren Henry)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said so many gay men visited the area that she believes artists like the Weather Girls, who performed at a resort there, found an audience for their song “It’s Raining Men” among the throngs of shirtless men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I personally believe that was performed about the river,” Reinstein speculated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though gays and lesbians came to the river for fun, Reinstein said the gay men she’s interviewed said there weren’t any historical queer communes in the Sonoma area. But she recently learned of one gay men’s retreat center, Wildwood Ranch in the Cazadero area, that was run collectively from the late 1970s. She noted many gay men also joined straight collectives. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Russian River has gone through economic highs and lows, and weathered the height of the AIDS epidemic. These days, the LGBTQ+ scene on the river isn’t as prolific as it was when it was considered the Fire Island of the West Coast. Reinstein attributes that, in part, to positive developments including gay marriage, antiretroviral therapy and greater queer acceptance in mainstream society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the 1970s and ’80s, both lesbians and gays were working to create a culture and a community,” Reinstein said. “That was different. I don’t think that’s happening the same way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984178\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984178\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/20251101_QueerWoods-GC-11_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Schwanz, center, hands Freddie, 6, a bouquet of dahlias, at Solar Punk Farms in Guerneville on Nov. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yet with LGBTQ+ rights under attack, the Russian River remains an important safe haven, and Solar Punk Farms and Shelterwood Collective are bringing the vibrancy back. “I’m really excited that it’s there,” Reinstein added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many queer people of past generations sought the woods as a place of escape, but Shelterwood’s Alexandre takes a different view. He said he and his friends are “not escaping anything,” but nurturing the queer cultural ecosystem while tending to the land. The goal is for both to thrive for generations to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to create safety for those communities who traditionally don’t get safe spaces,” Alexandre said, “and also acknowledge that all our futures are intertwined.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "valkyries-wnba-2025-in-review",
"title": "In 2025, the Valkyries’ Inaugural Season Reminded Me of Women’s Raw Power",
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"headTitle": "In 2025, the Valkyries’ Inaugural Season Reminded Me of Women’s Raw Power | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This week, as we near the end of 2025, the writers and editors of KQED Arts & Culture are reflecting on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/one-beautiful-thing\">One Beautiful Thing\u003c/a> from the year.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t was a particularly glorious \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/sf-pride\">San Francisco Pride\u003c/a> weekend. My jeans had grass stains from a sunny afternoon at Dolores Park, and my heart was on fire from the passion and solidarity I witnessed at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13858877/how-the-trans-community-reclaimed-its-rightful-place-at-pride\">Trans March\u003c/a>. After we joined a pink, white and blue procession of gender-nonconforming people demanding dignity down Market Street, one of my best friends and I took Muni to the Chase Center and stepped into a sea of violet, lavender and lilac. I had been to professional basketball games before, but there was another level of excitement vibrating through the stadium during the first-ever Pride game of the Bay Area WNBA team’s inaugural season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984641\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984641\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED Arts & Culture’s Nastia Voynovskaya courtside at Chase Center during the Valkyries’ warm-up on Aug. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Valkyries won against the Chicago Sky, yes, but what stood out the most to me were the moments of connection and community, large and small. Throughout the Valkyries’ inaugural season, Ballhalla — as their home court is known — became a super queer, massive celebration of women’s raw power and strength. In a year when conservative ideas about gender made a major comeback, this was the antidote I didn’t know I needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]F[/dropcap]rom the players, to the creative luminaries on the jumbotron, to the fans in the stands, my first Valkyries game felt completely different from any other professional sports experience. Seated next to me was a friend of a friend, and we hit it off in a conversation that began with basketball and ended with spirituality and the deeper \u003ci>why\u003c/i> of our creative practices. All around me in the extended friend group were artists, healers and teachers — queer women and nonbinary people defining their lives on their own terms, and using their talents to invite others to seek the same freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I looked up at the jumbotron, which featured technicolor, nature-inspired designs by \u003ca href=\"https://favianna.com/\">Favianna Rodriguez\u003c/a>, an Oakland visual artist and activist whose radiant butterflies have decorated protest signs calling for climate justice and reproductive freedom all over the world. It was Rodriguez who first opened my eyes to the power of art to move hearts and shape social movements when I went to a talk of hers over a decade ago, when I was first embarking upon my journalism career. It’s a pillar that underpins most of my writing all these years later. And there she was courtside, an accomplished queer woman dedicated to liberation, being honored in a stadium of 18,064 screaming fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Ballhalla gets it\u003c/i>, I thought. \u003cem>This is bigger than basketball.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13980788\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13980788\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed.jpg\" alt=\"two fans whip lavender shirts over heads in crowd\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fans cheer as the Golden State Valkyries scored during their WNBA season opener against the Los Angeles Sparks at Chase Center on May 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then, of course, there was the actual game, which had me and my friends gasping and screaming as the Valkyries eked out a narrow lead. In the fourth quarter, forward Kayla Thornton sunk her fourth three-pointer, long braids whipping behind her as she ran down the court, and the arena erupted with ecstatic cheers. It hit me that these 18,064 people of all genders, ethnicities and ages were here to celebrate not just the home team, but an entire culture that has grown around these fierce women. [aside postid='arts_13980855']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hat realization felt significant on a bone-deep level, especially when I considered the ways the U.S. has backslid on women’s and trans rights in recent years. \u003ca href=\"https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-tradwives-use-sexism-racism-and-transphobia-to-police-other-women\">Tradwife discourse\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/where-did-all-big-girls-go-lizzo-sounds-alarm-ozempic-culture-1757458\">Ozempic campaigns\u003c/a>. The loss of abortion access after the Supreme Court toppled Roe v. Wade. The ongoing, ever-more-hostile attacks on trans people’s access to medical care. Vice President J.D. Vance’s statements that people without children \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/jd-vance-allotting-votes-people-children-thought-experiment-rcna166140\">should have fewer voting rights\u003c/a>. His infamous 2024 comments deriding “childless cat ladies,” echoing a tired insult that’s been leveled at women who don’t hinge their happiness on male approval \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13891913/how-the-crazy-cat-lady-became-one-of-pop-cultures-most-enduring-sexist-tropes\">since the witch trials of the 1300s\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether from celebrities, social media or the highest halls of power, women and LGBTQ+ people are once again inundated with messaging about how we should shrink and contort ourselves into boxes — boxes that many of us don’t fit into as we strive to live full, empowered lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984643\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984643\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Valkyries player Cecilia Zandalasini shoots the basketball as fans watch in anticipation.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Game 2 of the Valkyries vs. Minnesota Lynx WNBA playoff game at the SAP Center in San Jose on Sept. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, on the court, in the media and in their fight for fair pay, players like the Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson and Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, and coaches like Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase, are unafraid to take up space. They don’t apologize for their ambition — they let it roar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n 2025, the Valkyries made history: They broke attendance records by selling out the Chase Center for every game, and became the first expansion team to make it to the playoffs. The WNBA has enjoyed its largest attendance numbers since its inception, with plans to expand the league to 18 teams by 2030. It’s worth celebrating that the WNBA achieved that mainstream popularity without players sacrificing their authenticity. [ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the league’s most visible personalities, the Lynx’s Court Williams and Natisha Hiedeman — aka StudBudz — are proudly masculine-of-center lesbians with a passionate following that transcends race and gender lines. Indeed, 57% of WNBA fans are men, and young boys are a growing part of that demographic. They want to see women win, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that in 2026, women and trans people have to be prepared to defend a growing list of freedoms that we might’ve taken for granted in the past. But there’s power in the collective. The joy, solidarity and awe I’ve experienced at WNBA games reminds me that another world is possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This week, as we near the end of 2025, the writers and editors of KQED Arts & Culture are reflecting on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/one-beautiful-thing\">One Beautiful Thing\u003c/a> from the year.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>t was a particularly glorious \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/sf-pride\">San Francisco Pride\u003c/a> weekend. My jeans had grass stains from a sunny afternoon at Dolores Park, and my heart was on fire from the passion and solidarity I witnessed at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13858877/how-the-trans-community-reclaimed-its-rightful-place-at-pride\">Trans March\u003c/a>. After we joined a pink, white and blue procession of gender-nonconforming people demanding dignity down Market Street, one of my best friends and I took Muni to the Chase Center and stepped into a sea of violet, lavender and lilac. I had been to professional basketball games before, but there was another level of excitement vibrating through the stadium during the first-ever Pride game of the Bay Area WNBA team’s inaugural season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984641\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984641\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/IMG_9576-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">KQED Arts & Culture’s Nastia Voynovskaya courtside at Chase Center during the Valkyries’ warm-up on Aug. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Valkyries won against the Chicago Sky, yes, but what stood out the most to me were the moments of connection and community, large and small. Throughout the Valkyries’ inaugural season, Ballhalla — as their home court is known — became a super queer, massive celebration of women’s raw power and strength. In a year when conservative ideas about gender made a major comeback, this was the antidote I didn’t know I needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">F\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>rom the players, to the creative luminaries on the jumbotron, to the fans in the stands, my first Valkyries game felt completely different from any other professional sports experience. Seated next to me was a friend of a friend, and we hit it off in a conversation that began with basketball and ended with spirituality and the deeper \u003ci>why\u003c/i> of our creative practices. All around me in the extended friend group were artists, healers and teachers — queer women and nonbinary people defining their lives on their own terms, and using their talents to invite others to seek the same freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I looked up at the jumbotron, which featured technicolor, nature-inspired designs by \u003ca href=\"https://favianna.com/\">Favianna Rodriguez\u003c/a>, an Oakland visual artist and activist whose radiant butterflies have decorated protest signs calling for climate justice and reproductive freedom all over the world. It was Rodriguez who first opened my eyes to the power of art to move hearts and shape social movements when I went to a talk of hers over a decade ago, when I was first embarking upon my journalism career. It’s a pillar that underpins most of my writing all these years later. And there she was courtside, an accomplished queer woman dedicated to liberation, being honored in a stadium of 18,064 screaming fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Ballhalla gets it\u003c/i>, I thought. \u003cem>This is bigger than basketball.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13980788\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13980788\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed.jpg\" alt=\"two fans whip lavender shirts over heads in crowd\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/08/20250516_ValkyriesHomeOpener_GC-43_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fans cheer as the Golden State Valkyries scored during their WNBA season opener against the Los Angeles Sparks at Chase Center on May 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then, of course, there was the actual game, which had me and my friends gasping and screaming as the Valkyries eked out a narrow lead. In the fourth quarter, forward Kayla Thornton sunk her fourth three-pointer, long braids whipping behind her as she ran down the court, and the arena erupted with ecstatic cheers. It hit me that these 18,064 people of all genders, ethnicities and ages were here to celebrate not just the home team, but an entire culture that has grown around these fierce women. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hat realization felt significant on a bone-deep level, especially when I considered the ways the U.S. has backslid on women’s and trans rights in recent years. \u003ca href=\"https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-tradwives-use-sexism-racism-and-transphobia-to-police-other-women\">Tradwife discourse\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/where-did-all-big-girls-go-lizzo-sounds-alarm-ozempic-culture-1757458\">Ozempic campaigns\u003c/a>. The loss of abortion access after the Supreme Court toppled Roe v. Wade. The ongoing, ever-more-hostile attacks on trans people’s access to medical care. Vice President J.D. Vance’s statements that people without children \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/jd-vance-allotting-votes-people-children-thought-experiment-rcna166140\">should have fewer voting rights\u003c/a>. His infamous 2024 comments deriding “childless cat ladies,” echoing a tired insult that’s been leveled at women who don’t hinge their happiness on male approval \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13891913/how-the-crazy-cat-lady-became-one-of-pop-cultures-most-enduring-sexist-tropes\">since the witch trials of the 1300s\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether from celebrities, social media or the highest halls of power, women and LGBTQ+ people are once again inundated with messaging about how we should shrink and contort ourselves into boxes — boxes that many of us don’t fit into as we strive to live full, empowered lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984643\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984643\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Valkyries player Cecilia Zandalasini shoots the basketball as fans watch in anticipation.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/250917-VALKYRIESPLAYOFFS-14-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Game 2 of the Valkyries vs. Minnesota Lynx WNBA playoff game at the SAP Center in San Jose on Sept. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, on the court, in the media and in their fight for fair pay, players like the Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson and Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, and coaches like Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase, are unafraid to take up space. They don’t apologize for their ambition — they let it roar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n 2025, the Valkyries made history: They broke attendance records by selling out the Chase Center for every game, and became the first expansion team to make it to the playoffs. The WNBA has enjoyed its largest attendance numbers since its inception, with plans to expand the league to 18 teams by 2030. It’s worth celebrating that the WNBA achieved that mainstream popularity without players sacrificing their authenticity. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the league’s most visible personalities, the Lynx’s Court Williams and Natisha Hiedeman — aka StudBudz — are proudly masculine-of-center lesbians with a passionate following that transcends race and gender lines. Indeed, 57% of WNBA fans are men, and young boys are a growing part of that demographic. They want to see women win, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that in 2026, women and trans people have to be prepared to defend a growing list of freedoms that we might’ve taken for granted in the past. But there’s power in the collective. The joy, solidarity and awe I’ve experienced at WNBA games reminds me that another world is possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘Be Not Afraid’ Is a Cathartic Cathedral of Queerness",
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"content": "\u003cp>“I don’t know if you’ve ever been inside an Orthodox Church,” artist KT Seibert tells KQED, “but I just have a hard time believing that straight men designed all that …”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13984190']Seibert is explaining the origins of \u003cem>Be Not Afraid\u003c/em>, their new exhibition at Moth Belly Gallery that combines traditional religious iconography and a modern, distinctly queer sensibility. Seibert’s bold work has transformed the Tenderloin gallery into a compact, colorful cathedral, offering catharsis for anyone who has ever yearned for a religious sanctuary but couldn’t find one that welcomed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beaming down from the walls are holy hands, crosses, sacred hearts and roses, blood-drenched chalices and hallowed saints. Most are made with watercolor, but more closely resemble stained glass. There’s three pieces of Seibert’s real stained glass too, abstract and dreamy at the rear of the room. Each work is imbued with true spiritual reverence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984566\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13984566 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final.png\" alt=\"A painting resembling stained glass of a religious hand holding a cylindrical item that is a holy cross on top and a syringe at the bottom.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final-160x159.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final-768x762.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final-1536x1524.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Thank God for HRT’ by KT Siebert. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Moth Belly Gallery)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I started this thought experiment,” Seibert explains. “If I’d been born in a different time, how would I reconcile being queer and trans? And what if I couldn’t be what I wanted to be and didn’t have access to gender affirming care? And I realized I would absolutely join a monastery or a convent and I would just make religious art with a bunch of neurodivergent queer people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seibert continues, “I bet so much of the visual language we have from the church was actually made by queer people. I can actually see it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seibert, born and raised in Baltimore but based in San Francisco for the last 15 years, returned to their Christian (specifically Russian Orthodox) roots at the start of 2025, while processing the loss of their relationship and home. Seibert thought about the best way to process their grief. They thought about their upbringing in the church and the hundreds of religious icons hanging around their Russian grandfather’s home. They started repeating a mantra to turn so much pain into productivity: “Don’t waste sadness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seibert didn’t. One of the clearest examples of this in \u003cem>Be Not Afraid\u003c/em> is \u003cem>Tower\u003c/em>, a depiction of a simple white home with a black garage door that transfigures, via a series of ever-taller floors, into a towering temple topped by an Orthodox cross and wrapped in serpents. \u003cem>Tower\u003c/em> is the result of Seibert processing the loss of their beloved home and a nod to the fact that they pulled the Tower card in a tarot reading just two weeks before their relationship ended. (In tarot, the tower is always a harbinger of doom.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984564\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1008px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower.png\" alt=\"A painting that resembles stained glass featuring a house that transforms into a towering religious building. \" width=\"1008\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower.png 1008w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower-160x317.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower-768x1524.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower-774x1536.png 774w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1008px) 100vw, 1008px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Tower’ by KT Seibert. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Moth Belly Gallery)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During Seibert’s creative healing journey, they found themselves forced to open up spiritually in order to finish \u003cem>Be Not Afraid\u003c/em>. The paintings became a way to honor the original creators of the religious icons Seibert incorporated into their work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13983871']“[In] the process of making an icon,” Seibert says, “you’re supposed to go into a trance. The process of making it is, in and of itself, a spiritual thing. It’s supposed to be a window into heaven and the realm, so when I was making these pieces, I was going purely on vibes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been definitely the most difficult year of my life,” Seibert adds. “Having something like this to put that energy into and connect with the realms was really necessary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Be Not Afraid’ is on view at Moth Belly gallery (912 Larkin St., San Francisco) through Jan. 31, 2026.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“I don’t know if you’ve ever been inside an Orthodox Church,” artist KT Seibert tells KQED, “but I just have a hard time believing that straight men designed all that …”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Seibert is explaining the origins of \u003cem>Be Not Afraid\u003c/em>, their new exhibition at Moth Belly Gallery that combines traditional religious iconography and a modern, distinctly queer sensibility. Seibert’s bold work has transformed the Tenderloin gallery into a compact, colorful cathedral, offering catharsis for anyone who has ever yearned for a religious sanctuary but couldn’t find one that welcomed them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beaming down from the walls are holy hands, crosses, sacred hearts and roses, blood-drenched chalices and hallowed saints. Most are made with watercolor, but more closely resemble stained glass. There’s three pieces of Seibert’s real stained glass too, abstract and dreamy at the rear of the room. Each work is imbued with true spiritual reverence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984566\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13984566 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final.png\" alt=\"A painting resembling stained glass of a religious hand holding a cylindrical item that is a holy cross on top and a syringe at the bottom.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final-160x159.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final-768x762.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Hand-Cross-HRT-Final-1536x1524.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Thank God for HRT’ by KT Siebert. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Moth Belly Gallery)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I started this thought experiment,” Seibert explains. “If I’d been born in a different time, how would I reconcile being queer and trans? And what if I couldn’t be what I wanted to be and didn’t have access to gender affirming care? And I realized I would absolutely join a monastery or a convent and I would just make religious art with a bunch of neurodivergent queer people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seibert continues, “I bet so much of the visual language we have from the church was actually made by queer people. I can actually see it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seibert, born and raised in Baltimore but based in San Francisco for the last 15 years, returned to their Christian (specifically Russian Orthodox) roots at the start of 2025, while processing the loss of their relationship and home. Seibert thought about the best way to process their grief. They thought about their upbringing in the church and the hundreds of religious icons hanging around their Russian grandfather’s home. They started repeating a mantra to turn so much pain into productivity: “Don’t waste sadness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seibert didn’t. One of the clearest examples of this in \u003cem>Be Not Afraid\u003c/em> is \u003cem>Tower\u003c/em>, a depiction of a simple white home with a black garage door that transfigures, via a series of ever-taller floors, into a towering temple topped by an Orthodox cross and wrapped in serpents. \u003cem>Tower\u003c/em> is the result of Seibert processing the loss of their beloved home and a nod to the fact that they pulled the Tower card in a tarot reading just two weeks before their relationship ended. (In tarot, the tower is always a harbinger of doom.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984564\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1008px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower.png\" alt=\"A painting that resembles stained glass featuring a house that transforms into a towering religious building. \" width=\"1008\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower.png 1008w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower-160x317.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower-768x1524.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/Tower-774x1536.png 774w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1008px) 100vw, 1008px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Tower’ by KT Seibert. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Moth Belly Gallery)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During Seibert’s creative healing journey, they found themselves forced to open up spiritually in order to finish \u003cem>Be Not Afraid\u003c/em>. The paintings became a way to honor the original creators of the religious icons Seibert incorporated into their work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“[In] the process of making an icon,” Seibert says, “you’re supposed to go into a trance. The process of making it is, in and of itself, a spiritual thing. It’s supposed to be a window into heaven and the realm, so when I was making these pieces, I was going purely on vibes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been definitely the most difficult year of my life,” Seibert adds. “Having something like this to put that energy into and connect with the realms was really necessary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Be Not Afraid’ is on view at Moth Belly gallery (912 Larkin St., San Francisco) through Jan. 31, 2026.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Imagine a high-fashion circus inside a galactic wormhole and you have a sense of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/0b.w0rld/?hl=en\">Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/a>’s drag style. The artist is otherworldly, meticulous and unafraid to go \u003cem>all\u003c/em> the way, even when it comes to exposing their most tender vulnerabilities or risking making a fool of themself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Dec. 5, Obsidienne will bring their most ambitious work yet to the 110-year-old Calvin Simmons Theatre inside Oakland’s Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gofevo.com/event/Oaklash2\">The Last 7 Days of Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. Produced by Oaklash, it’s a one-night-only production that combines lip syncing, theater and chamber music, including a newly commissioned piece by Paul Wiancko of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/kronos-quartet\">Kronos Quartet\u003c/a>, which Obsidienne will perform on viola alongside their classical musician parents, Debra Fong and Christopher Constanza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elaborate costuming and surrealist stagecraft come together to tell Obsidienne’s story of accepting their trans identity, their struggles with mental illness and family secrets that have been kept in silence for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a story of meandering, being lost, being found,” Obsidienne tells KQED during a recent interview. “Part of finding the self is reckoning with the ugly parts and turning that into something beautiful. Because you can’t take it away, you just have to accept it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984107\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-scaled.jpg\" alt='A drag artist plays a viola inside a bar with neon text behind them that says \"Hella Fine.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Obsidienne Obsurd performs at Oaklash 2025. \u003ccite>(Ian Castro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raised in the South Bay by a Chinese American violinist mother and Italian American cellist father, Obsidienne is a classically trained violist who performs with orchestras and ensembles across California. They first tried drag during the pandemic, when the art form went digital. Collectives like Media Meltdown were producing livestreamed shows that challenged performers to become video editors and special effects experts. Obsidienne was hooked after Media Meltdown invited them to perform in a Keanu Reeves-themed show, and soon they were driving to obscure locations with their COVID pod to film elaborate numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone who was watching me was like, ‘Oh you’re weird. You’re a weirdo. We like it,’” Obsidienne says. “And that was really cool.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before long, Obsidienne honed their signature style of warped, black-and-white makeup; hand-sewn costumes that turned their body into horned and tentacled shapes; performance art-y choreo that sometimes includes hyperventilation and intense eye contact; and song selections that go far outside of the pop-diva canon. [aside postid='arts_13983871']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It flies in the face of long-held stereotypes about what drag can be. A lot of audiences “think that if you are not a cis boy, you should not be doing drag,” Obsidienne says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Obsidienne gives themself permission to embrace being different, and invites audiences to do the same. Recently in West Hollywood’s Abbey, the gay bar that inspired Chappell Roan’s smash hit “Pink Pony Club,” instead of picking something by, say, Sabrina Carpenter or Lady Gaga, Obsidienne lip synced a song by 78-year-old avant-garde musician Laurie Anderson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to make you see me, so there’s this sort of delusion that turns into sincerity,” Obsidienne says. “The suspension of disbelief. I try to project a very confident persona that is a projection of all the things in me that scare me about myself, basically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984109\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984109\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Mama-Celeste-and-OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-by-Dominic-Saveedra.png\" alt=\"A drag artist in an orange and red feathery outfit poses with another drag artist wearing black-and-white abstract designs. \" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Mama-Celeste-and-OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-by-Dominic-Saveedra.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Mama-Celeste-and-OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-by-Dominic-Saveedra-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Mama-Celeste-and-OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-by-Dominic-Saveedra-768x511.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oaklash co-founder Mama Celeste with Obsidienne Obsurd. \u003ccite>(Dominic Saavedra)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Obsidienne has found a supportive home at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/oaklash\">Oaklash\u003c/a>, a drag platform that loudly and proudly champions gender diversity, accessibility and racial justice. Each May, Oaklash produces a festival with multiple stages and over 60 local and touring performers. And even after all that, co-founder Mama Celeste says \u003cem>The Last 7 Days of Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/em> is their most challenging project yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be silly and macabre and loud and colorful and bigger than you can even imagine,” she wrote in a recent email blast, inviting Oaklash fans to dress to the nines for the red carpet outside the show. [aside postid='arts_13983135']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Last 7 Days of Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/em> features local drag luminaries like Lisa Frankenstein, co-host of the popular party Princess at Oasis; Sassi Fran, a dancer, choreographer and member of the all-Filipino drag group FiliPINX; and Obsidienne’s drag children Lola Ren and Cult Baby. Music in the show pulls from a huge variety of references, including David Bowie, contemporary composers Chen Yi and Kaija Saariaho and even the 12th-century composer, mystic and proto-feminist \u003ca href=\"https://www.bpl.org/blogs/post/hildegard-von-bingen/\">Hildegard Von Bingen\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can make noise during this performance. You can clap between movements, you don’t have to sit still like a statue,” says Obsidienne. “I think it’s really cool to be able to highlight through this project that classical music is not one thing, it is actually this whole kaleidoscope of things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklash.com/7days\">The Last 7 Days of Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/a>’ takes place at Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts (10 10th Street, Oakland) on Dec. 5 at 7 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Imagine a high-fashion circus inside a galactic wormhole and you have a sense of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/0b.w0rld/?hl=en\">Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/a>’s drag style. The artist is otherworldly, meticulous and unafraid to go \u003cem>all\u003c/em> the way, even when it comes to exposing their most tender vulnerabilities or risking making a fool of themself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Dec. 5, Obsidienne will bring their most ambitious work yet to the 110-year-old Calvin Simmons Theatre inside Oakland’s Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.gofevo.com/event/Oaklash2\">The Last 7 Days of Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. Produced by Oaklash, it’s a one-night-only production that combines lip syncing, theater and chamber music, including a newly commissioned piece by Paul Wiancko of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/kronos-quartet\">Kronos Quartet\u003c/a>, which Obsidienne will perform on viola alongside their classical musician parents, Debra Fong and Christopher Constanza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elaborate costuming and surrealist stagecraft come together to tell Obsidienne’s story of accepting their trans identity, their struggles with mental illness and family secrets that have been kept in silence for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a story of meandering, being lost, being found,” Obsidienne tells KQED during a recent interview. “Part of finding the self is reckoning with the ugly parts and turning that into something beautiful. Because you can’t take it away, you just have to accept it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984107\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-scaled.jpg\" alt='A drag artist plays a viola inside a bar with neon text behind them that says \"Hella Fine.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-at-The-2025-Oaklash-Festival-by-Ian-Castro-Viola-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Obsidienne Obsurd performs at Oaklash 2025. \u003ccite>(Ian Castro)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raised in the South Bay by a Chinese American violinist mother and Italian American cellist father, Obsidienne is a classically trained violist who performs with orchestras and ensembles across California. They first tried drag during the pandemic, when the art form went digital. Collectives like Media Meltdown were producing livestreamed shows that challenged performers to become video editors and special effects experts. Obsidienne was hooked after Media Meltdown invited them to perform in a Keanu Reeves-themed show, and soon they were driving to obscure locations with their COVID pod to film elaborate numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone who was watching me was like, ‘Oh you’re weird. You’re a weirdo. We like it,’” Obsidienne says. “And that was really cool.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before long, Obsidienne honed their signature style of warped, black-and-white makeup; hand-sewn costumes that turned their body into horned and tentacled shapes; performance art-y choreo that sometimes includes hyperventilation and intense eye contact; and song selections that go far outside of the pop-diva canon. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It flies in the face of long-held stereotypes about what drag can be. A lot of audiences “think that if you are not a cis boy, you should not be doing drag,” Obsidienne says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Obsidienne gives themself permission to embrace being different, and invites audiences to do the same. Recently in West Hollywood’s Abbey, the gay bar that inspired Chappell Roan’s smash hit “Pink Pony Club,” instead of picking something by, say, Sabrina Carpenter or Lady Gaga, Obsidienne lip synced a song by 78-year-old avant-garde musician Laurie Anderson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to make you see me, so there’s this sort of delusion that turns into sincerity,” Obsidienne says. “The suspension of disbelief. I try to project a very confident persona that is a projection of all the things in me that scare me about myself, basically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13984109\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13984109\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Mama-Celeste-and-OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-by-Dominic-Saveedra.png\" alt=\"A drag artist in an orange and red feathery outfit poses with another drag artist wearing black-and-white abstract designs. \" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Mama-Celeste-and-OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-by-Dominic-Saveedra.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Mama-Celeste-and-OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-by-Dominic-Saveedra-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Mama-Celeste-and-OBSIDIENNE-OBSURD-by-Dominic-Saveedra-768x511.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oaklash co-founder Mama Celeste with Obsidienne Obsurd. \u003ccite>(Dominic Saavedra)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Obsidienne has found a supportive home at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/oaklash\">Oaklash\u003c/a>, a drag platform that loudly and proudly champions gender diversity, accessibility and racial justice. Each May, Oaklash produces a festival with multiple stages and over 60 local and touring performers. And even after all that, co-founder Mama Celeste says \u003cem>The Last 7 Days of Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/em> is their most challenging project yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be silly and macabre and loud and colorful and bigger than you can even imagine,” she wrote in a recent email blast, inviting Oaklash fans to dress to the nines for the red carpet outside the show. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Last 7 Days of Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/em> features local drag luminaries like Lisa Frankenstein, co-host of the popular party Princess at Oasis; Sassi Fran, a dancer, choreographer and member of the all-Filipino drag group FiliPINX; and Obsidienne’s drag children Lola Ren and Cult Baby. Music in the show pulls from a huge variety of references, including David Bowie, contemporary composers Chen Yi and Kaija Saariaho and even the 12th-century composer, mystic and proto-feminist \u003ca href=\"https://www.bpl.org/blogs/post/hildegard-von-bingen/\">Hildegard Von Bingen\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can make noise during this performance. You can clap between movements, you don’t have to sit still like a statue,” says Obsidienne. “I think it’s really cool to be able to highlight through this project that classical music is not one thing, it is actually this whole kaleidoscope of things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklash.com/7days\">The Last 7 Days of Obsidienne Obsurd\u003c/a>’ takes place at Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts (10 10th Street, Oakland) on Dec. 5 at 7 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A New San Francisco Exhibit Celebrates Gender Rebels Across History",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13983958\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1601px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13983958\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar.png\" alt=\"A coiffed and made-up gender nonconforming person sitting elegantly in a doorway, dressed in silky blouse, pants and high heels.\" width=\"1601\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar.png 1601w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar-160x200.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar-768x959.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar-1230x1536.png 1230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1601px) 100vw, 1601px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph of LiKar in doorway. Photographer unknown. Li-Kar was a renowned performer and artist at Finocchio’s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oddly, one of the most revealing things in the GLBT Historical Society’s new exhibit is an overwrought denunciation of Black drag queens dating from all the way back in 1893. One Dr. Charles H. Hughes of St. Louis (clearly incensed) had his note published by a medical journal of the era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It states, in part:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>I am credibly informed that there is, in the city of Washington, D.C., an annual convocation of negro men called the drag dance, which is an orgy of lascivious debauchery beyond pen power of description.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>(Imagine hearing the phrase “orgy of lascivious debauchery” and thinking that was a bad thing!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Hughes’ quote is part of the introduction to \u003cem>I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live: A Celebration of Trans People of Color, \u003c/em>a collection of photos and ephemera honoring gender nonconforming people of color from recent history. Curated by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13906221/louise-lawrence-transgender-archive-vallejo-history\">Ms. Bob Davis\u003c/a> of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13870056/the-transgender-community-builder-who-educated-doctors-including-kinsey\">Louise Lawrence\u003c/a> Transgender Archive, the exhibit includes Bay Area queer and trans folks (including legendary nightclub dancers, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13959726/vicki-starr-transgender-topless-dancer-san-francisco-lgbtq-prison-reform\">Vicki Starr\u003c/a> and Li-Kar), alongside their spiritual siblings from around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While fairly hodgepodge by nature — there is no linear throughline or singular geographical focus — \u003cem>I Live the Life I Love\u003c/em> does successfully provide a number of fascinating starting points for future research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13983960\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1286px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13983960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king.png\" alt=\"A woman dressed in a man's suit, hair slicked back in a masculine style.\" width=\"1286\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king.png 1286w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king-160x249.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king-768x1194.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king-988x1536.png 988w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1286px) 100vw, 1286px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph of a gender nonconforming person, as seen in ‘I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live: A Celebration of Trans People of Color.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The exhibition introduces the likes of the Takarazuka Girls, an all-female revue from Japan who performed as all genders at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11790693/magic-city-and-the-making-of-treasure-island\">1939 Golden Gate International Exposition\u003c/a>. There’s also Felicia Elizondo, a trans woman who attempted to suppress her gender identity by enlisting in the Vietnam War, only to transition in 1972 and become a vocal LGBTQ+ campaigner. The show also gives a brief overview of the charitable efforts of Brenda Lee, who turned her São Paulo house into a group home for trans women and people living with HIV and AIDS in the ’80s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taking us back further in time are Victorian dancers from a show called \u003cem>Les Joyeux Nègres\u003c/em> (\u003cem>The Merry Negroes\u003c/em>). Duos included Charles Gregory and Jack Brown, who danced the “cakewalk” wearing Civil War-era attire — Brown in a multi-tiered dress, Gregory in a colorful suit. In the same troupe, two women utilized drag as “Mr. and Mrs. Elks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rounding things out at the GLBT Historical Society is a corner of celebratory show posters that highlight local relevant events from the ’70s and ’80s — the crowning glory of which is a sequined dress that belonged to Sylvester.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A comprehensive overview of the history of trans and gender nonconforming people of color, this is not. Neither is it particularly focused on any one subculture related to the community. But if you treat \u003cem>I Live the Life I Love\u003c/em> as a mini buffet of fascinating moments from LGBTQ+ history, you’ll find a smattering of very tasty morsels.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.glbthistory.org/exhibitions\">I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live: A Celebration of Trans People of Color\u003c/a>’ is on view through mid-February 2026, at the GLBT Historical Society Museum (4127 18th St., San Francisco).\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13983958\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1601px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13983958\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar.png\" alt=\"A coiffed and made-up gender nonconforming person sitting elegantly in a doorway, dressed in silky blouse, pants and high heels.\" width=\"1601\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar.png 1601w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar-160x200.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar-768x959.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Li-Kar-1230x1536.png 1230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1601px) 100vw, 1601px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph of LiKar in doorway. Photographer unknown. Li-Kar was a renowned performer and artist at Finocchio’s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oddly, one of the most revealing things in the GLBT Historical Society’s new exhibit is an overwrought denunciation of Black drag queens dating from all the way back in 1893. One Dr. Charles H. Hughes of St. Louis (clearly incensed) had his note published by a medical journal of the era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It states, in part:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>I am credibly informed that there is, in the city of Washington, D.C., an annual convocation of negro men called the drag dance, which is an orgy of lascivious debauchery beyond pen power of description.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>(Imagine hearing the phrase “orgy of lascivious debauchery” and thinking that was a bad thing!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Hughes’ quote is part of the introduction to \u003cem>I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live: A Celebration of Trans People of Color, \u003c/em>a collection of photos and ephemera honoring gender nonconforming people of color from recent history. Curated by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13906221/louise-lawrence-transgender-archive-vallejo-history\">Ms. Bob Davis\u003c/a> of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13870056/the-transgender-community-builder-who-educated-doctors-including-kinsey\">Louise Lawrence\u003c/a> Transgender Archive, the exhibit includes Bay Area queer and trans folks (including legendary nightclub dancers, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13959726/vicki-starr-transgender-topless-dancer-san-francisco-lgbtq-prison-reform\">Vicki Starr\u003c/a> and Li-Kar), alongside their spiritual siblings from around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While fairly hodgepodge by nature — there is no linear throughline or singular geographical focus — \u003cem>I Live the Life I Love\u003c/em> does successfully provide a number of fascinating starting points for future research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13983960\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1286px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13983960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king.png\" alt=\"A woman dressed in a man's suit, hair slicked back in a masculine style.\" width=\"1286\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king.png 1286w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king-160x249.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king-768x1194.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/king-988x1536.png 988w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1286px) 100vw, 1286px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph of a gender nonconforming person, as seen in ‘I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live: A Celebration of Trans People of Color.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The exhibition introduces the likes of the Takarazuka Girls, an all-female revue from Japan who performed as all genders at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11790693/magic-city-and-the-making-of-treasure-island\">1939 Golden Gate International Exposition\u003c/a>. There’s also Felicia Elizondo, a trans woman who attempted to suppress her gender identity by enlisting in the Vietnam War, only to transition in 1972 and become a vocal LGBTQ+ campaigner. The show also gives a brief overview of the charitable efforts of Brenda Lee, who turned her São Paulo house into a group home for trans women and people living with HIV and AIDS in the ’80s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taking us back further in time are Victorian dancers from a show called \u003cem>Les Joyeux Nègres\u003c/em> (\u003cem>The Merry Negroes\u003c/em>). Duos included Charles Gregory and Jack Brown, who danced the “cakewalk” wearing Civil War-era attire — Brown in a multi-tiered dress, Gregory in a colorful suit. In the same troupe, two women utilized drag as “Mr. and Mrs. Elks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rounding things out at the GLBT Historical Society is a corner of celebratory show posters that highlight local relevant events from the ’70s and ’80s — the crowning glory of which is a sequined dress that belonged to Sylvester.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A comprehensive overview of the history of trans and gender nonconforming people of color, this is not. Neither is it particularly focused on any one subculture related to the community. But if you treat \u003cem>I Live the Life I Love\u003c/em> as a mini buffet of fascinating moments from LGBTQ+ history, you’ll find a smattering of very tasty morsels.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.glbthistory.org/exhibitions\">I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live: A Celebration of Trans People of Color\u003c/a>’ is on view through mid-February 2026, at the GLBT Historical Society Museum (4127 18th St., San Francisco).\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "lesbian-pie-eating-contest-rikkis-san-francisco",
"title": "Rikki’s Is Hosting a Lesbian Pie-Eating Contest",
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"content": "\u003cp>In the months since it opened, Rikki’s, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13977457/rikkis-first-womens-sports-bar-bay-area-open-castro-sf-valkyries\">Bay Area’s first sports bar dedicated to women’s athletics\u003c/a>, has hosted all kinds of queer-friendly, women-centric community events. Joyous \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13978009/2025-san-francisco-pride-party-guide-lgbtq-queer-events\">Pride Week\u003c/a> celebrations. Moving reunions of friends honoring a loved one who recently passed. And, of course, rollicking Golden State Valkyries watch parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, just ahead of Thanksgiving, another first: On Sunday, Nov. 23, the Castro District bar will host what might be San Francisco’s first ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/sf-lesbian-pie-eating-contest\">lesbian pie-eating contest\u003c/a> (yes, you read that correctly) — an epically sloppy, no-hands, no-forks battle for bragging rights and a $100 cash prize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event is the brainchild of \u003ci>Curve \u003c/i>magazine founder Franco Stevens, whose nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://thecurvefoundation.org/\">Curve Foundation\u003c/a> now manages the legendary San Francisco–based lesbian magazine’s 30-plus-year archives. Reached by phone, Stevens explains that she’s always hosted a “Friday Pie Day” on the day after Thanksgiving as a way for friends and family to share all of the leftover pie they accumulate during the holiday. Often, someone would bring up the idea of having a pie-eating contest. “God, it kind of is a funny lesbian joke,” Stevens remembers thinking, “so I think I’m going to just do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To put it plainly: “Oftentimes a woman’s private areas are called ‘pies,’” Stevens explains. “So the lesbian pie eating contest is a pun on that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stevens, who lives in Oakland, says lesbian pie eating contests aren’t necessarily a long-held tradition in the LGBTQ+ community, at least that she’s aware of. But in the past couple of years, she has started seeing them pop up as tongue-in-cheek one-off events at queer bars in places like Portland and Brooklyn. One recent edition even inspired an \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ8LAZeDC09/\">extended riff by the comedian Jenny Hagel\u003c/a> on \u003ci>Late Night With Seth Meyers\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lesbian pie-eating contest was held in Brooklyn last month … and it’s still happening because every contestant is taking their time and doing it right,” Hagel says in the set. “It’s like a straight pie-eating contest except the pie enjoys it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The jokes, of course, write themselves. But Stevens stresses that while the contest itself will be lighthearted and fun, it will also benefit a good cause. Her main goal is to promote next year’s Lesbian Visibility Week (April 21–26, 2026), whose festivities in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lesbianvisibilityweekusa.com/\">U.S\u003c/a>. and Canada are all organized by the Curve Foundation. Launched in 2020, the annual event’s stated mission is to “shine a light on the experiences, perspectives and needs of LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people.” In San Francisco, that has included a flag-raising ceremony, film screenings and events focused on celebrating local lesbian history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funds raised from the pie-eating contest, specifically, will help pay for permitting fees to install Lesbian Visibility Week banners in the Castro District for the entire month of April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13983945\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13983945\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer.jpg\" alt=\"A soccer match being shown on the TVs in a crowded sports bar.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Open since June 2025, Rikki’s regularly hosts queer-friendly, women-centric events. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rikki's)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The contest itself won’t be a free-for-all either. While Rikki’s co-owner Danielle Thoe won’t be competing herself, she says she’s been asked to be one of the judges: “I said, ‘I don’t know what that means, but sure.’” Mainly, it seems, she’ll be tasked with making sure that no one cheats — that every last inch of those pies get eaten. The “pie athletes” who pay the $5 entry fee (plus an additional $10 for the pie, though they can also opt to bring their own) will be judged on speed and thoroughness. Whoever finishes first will be declared the winner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13977457,arts_13980855']\u003c/span>\u003c/span>As Stevens puts it, “No forks. No hands. No shame. Just get your face in there, and whoever can finish the pie fastest is going to get the $100.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The competition will, in other words, require real speed-eating skills — though Stevens expects to have participants of all stripes. “We could have a couple of pie lickers out there that are just in it for the performance art,” she adds. “We’re totally fine with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help make the pie-munching bonanza an even bigger success, Stevens says she’s hoping a couple of local businesses might step up at the eleventh hour — either to donate (or pay for) the 20 9-inch pumpkin pies that the contestants will be eating, or to put up the money for the cash prize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if all goes well, Stevens would like the lesbian pie eating contest to be more than a one-night stand. Instead, she hopes it will be a new San Francisco tradition that continues for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/sf-lesbian-pie-eating-contest\">\u003ci>Lesbian Pie-Eating Contest\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 23, at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rikkisbarsf.com/\">\u003ci>Rikki’s\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (2223 Market St., San Francisco). The entry fee is $5, plus $10 for a pie (for contestants who don’t bring their own). Spectator tickets are free.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the months since it opened, Rikki’s, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13977457/rikkis-first-womens-sports-bar-bay-area-open-castro-sf-valkyries\">Bay Area’s first sports bar dedicated to women’s athletics\u003c/a>, has hosted all kinds of queer-friendly, women-centric community events. Joyous \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13978009/2025-san-francisco-pride-party-guide-lgbtq-queer-events\">Pride Week\u003c/a> celebrations. Moving reunions of friends honoring a loved one who recently passed. And, of course, rollicking Golden State Valkyries watch parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, just ahead of Thanksgiving, another first: On Sunday, Nov. 23, the Castro District bar will host what might be San Francisco’s first ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/sf-lesbian-pie-eating-contest\">lesbian pie-eating contest\u003c/a> (yes, you read that correctly) — an epically sloppy, no-hands, no-forks battle for bragging rights and a $100 cash prize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event is the brainchild of \u003ci>Curve \u003c/i>magazine founder Franco Stevens, whose nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://thecurvefoundation.org/\">Curve Foundation\u003c/a> now manages the legendary San Francisco–based lesbian magazine’s 30-plus-year archives. Reached by phone, Stevens explains that she’s always hosted a “Friday Pie Day” on the day after Thanksgiving as a way for friends and family to share all of the leftover pie they accumulate during the holiday. Often, someone would bring up the idea of having a pie-eating contest. “God, it kind of is a funny lesbian joke,” Stevens remembers thinking, “so I think I’m going to just do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To put it plainly: “Oftentimes a woman’s private areas are called ‘pies,’” Stevens explains. “So the lesbian pie eating contest is a pun on that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stevens, who lives in Oakland, says lesbian pie eating contests aren’t necessarily a long-held tradition in the LGBTQ+ community, at least that she’s aware of. But in the past couple of years, she has started seeing them pop up as tongue-in-cheek one-off events at queer bars in places like Portland and Brooklyn. One recent edition even inspired an \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ8LAZeDC09/\">extended riff by the comedian Jenny Hagel\u003c/a> on \u003ci>Late Night With Seth Meyers\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lesbian pie-eating contest was held in Brooklyn last month … and it’s still happening because every contestant is taking their time and doing it right,” Hagel says in the set. “It’s like a straight pie-eating contest except the pie enjoys it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The jokes, of course, write themselves. But Stevens stresses that while the contest itself will be lighthearted and fun, it will also benefit a good cause. Her main goal is to promote next year’s Lesbian Visibility Week (April 21–26, 2026), whose festivities in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lesbianvisibilityweekusa.com/\">U.S\u003c/a>. and Canada are all organized by the Curve Foundation. Launched in 2020, the annual event’s stated mission is to “shine a light on the experiences, perspectives and needs of LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people.” In San Francisco, that has included a flag-raising ceremony, film screenings and events focused on celebrating local lesbian history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funds raised from the pie-eating contest, specifically, will help pay for permitting fees to install Lesbian Visibility Week banners in the Castro District for the entire month of April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13983945\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13983945\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer.jpg\" alt=\"A soccer match being shown on the TVs in a crowded sports bar.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/rikkis-soccer-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Open since June 2025, Rikki’s regularly hosts queer-friendly, women-centric events. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rikki's)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The contest itself won’t be a free-for-all either. While Rikki’s co-owner Danielle Thoe won’t be competing herself, she says she’s been asked to be one of the judges: “I said, ‘I don’t know what that means, but sure.’” Mainly, it seems, she’ll be tasked with making sure that no one cheats — that every last inch of those pies get eaten. The “pie athletes” who pay the $5 entry fee (plus an additional $10 for the pie, though they can also opt to bring their own) will be judged on speed and thoroughness. Whoever finishes first will be declared the winner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/span>As Stevens puts it, “No forks. No hands. No shame. Just get your face in there, and whoever can finish the pie fastest is going to get the $100.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The competition will, in other words, require real speed-eating skills — though Stevens expects to have participants of all stripes. “We could have a couple of pie lickers out there that are just in it for the performance art,” she adds. “We’re totally fine with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help make the pie-munching bonanza an even bigger success, Stevens says she’s hoping a couple of local businesses might step up at the eleventh hour — either to donate (or pay for) the 20 9-inch pumpkin pies that the contestants will be eating, or to put up the money for the cash prize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if all goes well, Stevens would like the lesbian pie eating contest to be more than a one-night stand. Instead, she hopes it will be a new San Francisco tradition that continues for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/sf-lesbian-pie-eating-contest\">\u003ci>Lesbian Pie-Eating Contest\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 23, at \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rikkisbarsf.com/\">\u003ci>Rikki’s\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> (2223 Market St., San Francisco). The entry fee is $5, plus $10 for a pie (for contestants who don’t bring their own). Spectator tickets are free.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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},
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
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},
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"
}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"id": "here-and-now",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Here-And-Now-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
}
},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-breakdown/id1327641087",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5Nzk2MzI2MTEx",
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