Arts & Culture
Graphic courtesy of the San Francisco Mime Troupe

Lessons From S.F. Mime Troupe’s Move From Live Events to Radio Plays

10.30.2020
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The San Francisco Mime Troupe has been performing socially conscious and often very funny productions in Bay Area parks since 1959 and was preparing for its summer series of live shows when the COVID-19 pandemic made that impossible.

The Troupe has been releasing half-hour radio plays for the last 10 weeks and now, with the first series, “Tales of the Resistance,” coming to an end, we wanted to find out how the move from live to radio play has worked out.

Arts & Culture
Word for Wordcast logo

Theater Artists Turn Dystopian Sci-Fi Story Into Podcast Performance Series

09.15.2020
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The Word for Word performing arts company at Z Space, which brings short stories to the stage while staying loyal to both the letter and the spirit of the written work, is turning to podcasting during the pandemic, when audiences aren’t allowed to gather. “WORD for WORDcast,” which turns short stories into podcasts with theatricality and rich sound design, will also be broadcast on the radio station operated by the San Francisco Public Press, KSFP 102.5 FM, on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.

Arts & Culture
Carolyn Keddy and Ellie Stokes are DJs at KXSF 102.5 FM in San Francisco.

KXSF Audience Grows During Pandemic

09.02.2020
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When you tune your radio to 102.5 FM in San Francisco, depending on the time of day, you might hear public radio style talk programming, or you might hear music from local artists. That’s because two radio stations share the frequency — KSFP, from the San Francisco Public Press, and KXSF, a project of San Francisco Community Radio. Carolyn Keddy and Ellie Stokes, two DJs at KXSF, joined us on “Civic” to talk about their experience working with scores of volunteers who bring a broad array of music and cultural programming to the airwaves and to the station’s live stream at kxsf.fm.

Arts & Culture
In Love and Warcraft

Theatrical Romantic Comedy Explores Love in Digital Spaces With Virtual Show

08.26.2020
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As events that would draw crowds under normal circumstances go virtual, an upcoming performance from American Conservatory Theater centers on building connections in digital spaces as a central theme. “In Love and Warcraft,” a play by Madhuri Shekar, is a romantic comedy about a young woman’s exploration of her identity in an online role-playing game and expressing it in the real world.

LGBTQ

San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus Goes Virtual

08.10.2020
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The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus has been an institution within the LGBTQ community since 1978. Now, like many organizations, it’s scrambling to shift its focus to virtual events. The group’s annual gala, too, will be going virtual.

Arts & Culture
Jelani Memory and Khalia Davis

Kids’ Play Calls Out Racism

07.31.2020
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When actor and director Khalia Davis was growing up in the 1990s, children’s entertainment rarely addressed racism. When it did — in books about Ruby Bridges or special episodes of television shows like “Family Matters” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” — it was never explicit.

Now in 2020, after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement across the country, Davis is producing and directing “A Kids Play About Racism,” which will be streaming, free of charge, on Broadway on Demand this weekend.

Social Justice
Cover of “Into the Streets: A Young Person's Visual History of Protests in the United States” by Marke Bieschke.

‘Into the Streets’ Shows How Recent Demonstrations Echo Historic Protests

07.24.2020
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The coronavirus pandemic has forced millions of people to stay home from work and school, but it has not suppressed a deep cultural impulse for expressing frustration, solidarity and demand for change through public protest. This year, that impulse has come from across the political spectrum, with early statehouse demonstrations decrying economic shutdown, followed by a national wave of protests against racism and police brutality. Marke Bieschke gives the conversation about these events and an even broader range of actions historical context with his new book, “Into the Streets: A Young Person’s Visual History of Protests in the United States.”