SF Bay Area artists and performers to check out

December 24, 2017 5:34 PM

Now that I'm middle aged, I do not have my finger on the pulse of the Bay Area art scene. What is is? Have all the artists been driven out cuz the rent is too darned high, or is there stuff I should check out? I'm especially interested in artists of color, queers, & political stuff, but I'm pretty wide open in terms of genre from electronic music to circus performance to visual art to cabaret to... I don't know, puppetry? Graffiti? Turn offs include open mics, cliche, or extremely heavy handed political messaging (I know confusing because I do like political art but it's nice if it's fresh or a bit subtle).
posted by latkes to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Response by poster: Local stuff I already like: Project Bandaloop, Switchboard Music Festival, Fresh Meat, QWOCMAP... I'll keep thinking about more examples but I'm curious to hear more about what The Youth are doing....
posted by latkes at 5:37 PM on December 24, 2017

I’m on the wrong coast to give much advice, but: if you are musically open-minded, or already appreciate the avant-garde of jazz, check out anything Rova:Arts is involved in. They have been an institution in the free jazz world and in SF in particular for about 40 years now.
posted by musicinmybrain at 7:10 PM on December 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Do you know about Counterpulse? Peacock Rebellion? Somarts? Still Here (which is basically about/by people who grew up in SF scraping by even though the rent is too damn high)?
And I'm not sure if any of these folks are "youth" but I have appreciated stuff by Annie Danger, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, Kevin Seaman, Seth Eisen, Elena Rose, (I think I learned about most of these folks via Counterpulse or the National Queer Arts Festival though.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:47 PM on December 24, 2017

I'll try and revisit this thread after I'm able to put more thought into it, but Ah-Mer-Ah-Su is one Oakland based artist I've been really into lately.
posted by kylej at 8:54 PM on December 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

How do you feel about drag shows? Peaches Christ's crew does amazing movie parodies. I went to the ones based on Legally Blonde and The Wizard of Oz and they were both so much fun! Get on the mailing list so you know when tickets go on sale.
posted by radioamy at 11:09 PM on December 24, 2017

Check out the performers from the National Queer Arts Festival. And make sure you catch the festival next June.

As well as everything else the Queer Cultural Center organizes.
posted by gingerbeer at 4:18 PM on December 25, 2017

Ragged Wing Ensemble is a performing arts group; their next event doesn't start until April, but they have a mailing list. I'm most familiar with their spiritual/pagan presentations, but that's only about a third of their content:

Ragged Wing creates interdisciplinary performances, plays and art events exploring ancient questions in a contemporary world. We are committed to the development of new work and the cross-fertilization of artistic disciplines. Our stories emerge from folktales, myths and everyday occurrences to become theater, visual art, music, dance and film.

posted by ErisLordFreedom at 3:00 PM on December 26, 2017

Do you already know about Other Minds and the Garden of Memory?

Also, The Marsh often runs one-person shows by people of color.
posted by kristi at 11:01 AM on December 29, 2017