February 2024 ~ Presentations, Exhibitions and Collections
February is Black History Month!
Shades of Oceanview / Merced / Ingleside, Shades of San Francisco.
Left to right: Unknown, Lulann McGriff (community activist and counselor at City College, head of NAACP), Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett (editor of the Sun-Reporter), Doris Ward, San Francisco Board of Supervisors (and later president of the board) and later Assessor-Recorder; photograph by Arthur Francis, circa 1988.
Activity: Valentine's Day Broadside Printing
Experience letterpress printing on the Library's 1909 Albion handpress and take home a keepsake for your sweetheart. The American Printing History Association's NorCal Chapter will be providing printing assistance.
Broadsides limited to the first 100 people. Don't be late!
A monthly social club based in San Francisco for mail artists, letter writers and people who love the USPS. If this sounds like you, then you've come to the right place! The Correspondence Co-op is a place for like-minded folks to meet other artists in a casual setting, make some mail art, and share ideas.
A monthly LGBTQIA zine-making meetup presented by SF Zine Fest in partnership with the Hormel LGBTQIA Center. Open to new and experienced zinesters. Tell your story, tell your truth! Every 3rd Tuesday of the month.
Founded in 2001, San Francisco Zine Fest seeks to advance the do-it-yourself ethos by fostering community throughout the Bay Area. In our annual festival and its accompanying panels and workshops, we celebrate and support independent writers, artists and creators, allowing them to share their work with an ever-growing audience in exhibitions and public events.
And don’t forget to check out the Little Maga/Zine Collection in Book Arts & Special Collections. Many zines have been cataloged so be sure to do a title search, and we’ll help you with the rest!
The Polly Taylor papers are open for research at the San Francisco History Center.
Polly Taylor (1929-2016) was born into an old Quaker family and embraced the Quaker values of peace, equality, and social justice. She devoted her life to political activism, fighting for civil rights and human dignity in various causes and movements. The collection contains materials that document her involvement in the civil rights, women's rights, disability rights movements, and the lesbian community. It also includes her professional papers as a psychological social worker and therapist in Buffalo, NY, and over 500 pages of writings from
a Lesbian Memoir group.
Highlights from the collection include records of Broomstick magazine, a radical feminist publication for women over 40, which Taylor co-founded and co-published over a 15-year period; over 500 pages of memoirs written as part of a Lesbian memoir group; and photographs documenting the LGBT and other civil rights movements in the 1970s.
Pop-Up Exhibition
Celebrating More Than a Month! African American Commemorative Stamps on Display. A pop-up exhibition from the collection of Cheryl Ward. On view in the Skylight Gallery (near the elevators), through February 29.
Kenneth P. Green Sr.'s Photographs of the 1960s and 70s
January 25, 2024 - April 21, 2024
Jewett Gallery - Lower Level
and African-American Center Exhibit Space - 3rd Floor
As a lifetime Bay Area resident and the first Black staff photographer for the Oakland Tribune (1968-1982), Kenneth P. Green Sr. captured some of the most important social changes of the era. His photographs -- some taken on the beat as a photojournalist and others snapped as an observant bystander on the streets -- not only chronicled integral periods of sociopolitical importance, but also the quotidian moments of everyday life. Toward a Black Aestheticfocuses on Green's images of Black women, whose strength, intellect and beauty he recognized and paid homage to through his photographs, which also highlight the fashion and politics of the 1960s and 70s. Visitors will also recognize in Green's photographs the artistry in which he captured the multifaceted and organic expression of the Black community in the Bay Area.
The exhibition continues on the 3rd Floor in the African American Center with Green's vibrant documentary photographs of San Francisco’s African Liberation Day demonstration in 1972 shown alongside historical objects and ephemera from the event.
On Exhibit at the San Francisco History Center Exhibit Space
San Francisco History Center Exhibit Space - 6th Floor
and James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center - 3rd Floor
This exhibition features portraits taken by Jeannie O‘Connor at four Centers for AIDS services in San Francisco, Oakland and Richmond from 1989-1995. As a guest artist for Sharon Siskin's Positive Art classes, once a year, Jeannie set up a make-shift studio and brought in a view camera with Polaroid film. A long shutter release proved to be the best approach, allowing each sitter to control the timing of the shutter. Polaroid prints were passed around and enjoyed, leading to a festive communal experience for the participants and families.