Storied: San Francisco

One of the least interesting things about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is their name, but it's a damn good name. In this podcast, Sister Mary Media tells the story of how a few young gay men decided to form a group based around performance, politics, charity, and spirituality. They came up with the memorable name, and the rest is history. Mary Media goes on to tell much of that history, a t...

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence , like any good spiritual group, have an origin story. There are some minor quibbles, but Sister Mary Media was there. In this podcast, Mary Media describes the political and social climate from which the Sisters came to life in 1979. She goes on to talk about how the work they did back then evolved over time to include educating the public on the dangers of STD...

On April 21 at Dolores Park, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will celebrate its 40th anniversary, bringing its Hunky Jesus contest back where it originated many years ago. There to emcee the event, as always, will be Sister Roma (Sister There's No Place Like Rome). In this podcast, Sister Roma talks about finding out that her good friend was a Sister, getting made up for the first time (and lo...

The thing about houseboats is ... they sometimes sink. In Part 1, Sarah told us how the houseboat she and her brother grew up on with their dad sunk in Mission Creek. In this podcast, Sarah tells the story of how the three of them built a new houseboat, the one Sarah lives in today with her daughter down near the ballpark. She goes to describe efforts to get more active spaces built in the surroun...

Sarah Davis grew up unlike most of us. After her parents split up when she was young, her dad eventually decided to live in a houseboat down on Mission Creek. He brought Sarah and her brother with him part-time. In this podcast, Sarah describes growing up on that houseboat (she still lives in a houseboat, albeit a different one, on the creek today). She talks about some of the colorful characters...

To help elevate the voices and stories of Black San Franciscans, we'll be rerunning those episodes over the next few weeks. We'll be back with new stories from your neighbors down the road a bit. Fernay McPherson grew up in the Fillmore of the '80s and '90s, learning to cook from and being inspired by her San Francisco family who had various Texas and Southern roots. In this podcast, Fernay, who o...

Heather J​acks's introduction to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was serendipitous and took place over a couple of decades. In Part 1, we learned of Heather's time with the Christian fundamentalist church in Sacramento. It turns out the Sisters protested Easter service in the capital city during Heather's time there. Fast-forward to this decade: Now back living in the city again, she learned o...

This April, Heather Jacks's art book about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who turn 40 this year, will hit the shelves. In this podcast, we get to know  Heather  before she got involved with the Sisters. You'll hear how she grew up on Indian land in Oregon, graduated high school at 16, moved to Australia, joined a fundamentalist Christian church, and eventually ended up in San Francisco about...

It's fair to say that Pete likes sports. In this podcast, he talks about the Warriors' move to San Francisco later this year. In Pete's mind, Oakland has been great for the team, and with their recent run of championships (three of the last four seasons), he fears that diehard fans are being priced out. In this podcast, Pete talks about the Warriors, the 49ers, and the Giants, including the Giants...

Pete's parents met in San Francisco. He was born in Upper Haight, but his family moved to SoCal soon after that. Around 21, Pete migrated north to the area and started to drink here before eventually moving back to the city. In this podcast, Pete, who bartends these days at Zeitgeist and Emperor Norton's Boozeland, talks about SF now vs. how things were in the 1990s—people are softer now, more pas...

​Sonia and David paid their San Francisco dues. The moved in with each other in the Dogpatch about a year into dating. Shortly after that, Sonia was diagnosed with cancer. Given their young relationship, she feared the worst. To her surprise, David proposed and rose to the task of helping with whatever his fiancée needed. In this second part of our Valentine's Day podcast, the couple shares storie...

Sonia Mansfield is the creator and co-host of  Dorking Out Podcast . She grew up in Concord, but worked so much in San Francisco after college that she eventually decided to move here. She met David through mutual friends in 2008. In this special Valentine's Day podcast, Sonia and David talk about growing up in the Bay Area. They describe their first date at  The Broken Record , a bar in the Excel...

Kevin Hunsanger was part-owner of Green Apple Books for more than 20 years. This January, he stepped away to pursue his latest dream—opening a San Francisco cultural history museum. In this podcast, Kevin shares his inspiration for starting a museum from the ground-up. He speaks to what it is about San Francisco he wants museum visitors to experience—namely education, nostalgia, and a sense of com...

Green Apple Books is a San Francisco institution. Richard Savoy opened the store on Clement Street in 1967. In the early 1990s, Kevin Hunsanger moved to the city and got a job selling rare books there. A few years later, he found himself part of the shop's ownership group, a gig that would last more than 20 years. In this podcast, Kevin talks about his move to San Francisco and his history of work...

Angela Tabora does a lot ... podcast host, fire dancer, film maker. She got her start making documentaries while still at SF State. Her first subject was the house she was living in at the time and its inhabitants. The house was the San Francisco Morehouse, a place for communal living, sensuality classes, and charity. In this episode, Ange talks about making that documentary. In the process, she e...

Angela Tabora grew up in LA and moved to San Francisco to go to SF State not knowing a whole lot about the city. After moving around her first couple of years in college, including a stint at a party house in the Sunset, she needed a new place where she could focus on graduating. That's how she ended up finding the San Francisco Morehouse. In this podcast, Ange talks about some of the people she l...

As a lifelong San Franciscan, Ariel Vitale has a unique perspective on the changes the city has undergone in recent years. In this podcast, the actor compares the city of today with how it was back in the 1980s, 1990s, and even the early 2000s. If you missed  Part 1 , please go back and hear Ariel talk about growing up in the Tenderloin and going to ballet school at age 9. We recorded this podcast...

Ariel Vitale was born at Mt. Zion hospital in the 1980s. He was raised in Tenderloin and started going to SF ballet school at age 9. In this podcast, Ariel talks about growing up in San Francisco. His family was evicted when he was young, and he shares what it was like moving from home to home in one of the city's toughest neighborhoods. Check back Thursday, when Ariel compares the San Francisco o...

Sloane Kanter loves the drag queen scene in San Francisco. In a city in the midst of rapid and drastic changes, she sees that community as holding out strongly. In this podcast, Sloane talks about her passion for photographing drag queens. She mentions some of favorite venues and queens, and she ends the episode on a high note. ​We recorded this podcast in the Tenderloin in October 2018. Film phot...

You might not know it, but somewhere in your house/apartment/flat/garage lives at least one or two posters from shows you certainly remember. They're there with other show posters, but what makes these distinctive is the artist who created them. In this podcast, Lil Tuffy shares how he got into the art of making show posters. He talks about the people he met and was influenced by, how his style ch...

Prolific AF poster artist  Lil Tuffy  moved to San Francisco in the late-1990s, as the city was about to experience its first tech bust. He came mostly for the music, although the company he was working for in Pittsburgh decided to relocate here around the same time. In this episode, Tuffy shares his story of moving to the city and immediately immersing himself in the music scene here. He goes on...

​Bhautik Joshi (S1E3) and David Brooks live in the same neighborhood. They're both artists, but their lives couldn't be more different. Go back and listen to Part 1 to discover the odd way that they met. In this episode, Bhautik and David talk about their neighborhood—Potrero Hill. For them, it's a microcosm of what's going on in the city as a whole lately. But they have one idea of how to make th...

To help elevate the voices and stories of Black San Franciscans, we'll be rerunning those episodes over the next few weeks. We'll be back with new stories from your neighbors down the road a bit. At our Two Storied Nights events in Nov. 2018, a funny thing happened. In this podcast, David Brooks and Bhautik Joshi  talk about that night, which brought them together in a really unusual way. We recor...

In this podcast, K.R. shares what being a high school creative writing teacher means to her. She talks about the changes she's seeing in San Francisco reflected in the students in her classes. Lastly, she describes how teaching kids to write gives them confidence that they can apply to any aspect of their lives. If you missed  Part 1 , when K.R. talked about moving to San Francisco and learning to...

K.R. Morrison moved to San Francisco in 1997. In this podcast, she talks about the differences between people like her who came here in the late-'90s and those who've come over the past several years. She also describes what it was that drew her here and what's kept her calling San Francisco home for more than 20 years. Check back Thursday for Part 2, when K.R. will talk about what being a public...