Clarion Alley


An exploration of the expansionist ideology of Manifest Destiny, its continuing impact on multicultural communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, as well as its legacies of inherited and perpetuated violence, trauma, addiction, and the outgrowths of resistance and resilience to Manifest Differently


 

Entrance of Clarion Alley at Valencia Street looking east towards Mission Street and Oakland

Manifest Differently is a multifaceted project featuring 38 multigenerational artists and poets. Using literary, visual, and media arts storytelling in conjunction with public programming, the collaboration will interrogate the expansionist ideology of Manifest Destiny, its continuing impact on multicultural communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, its legacies of inherited and perpetuated violence, trauma, and addiction, and the outgrowth of resistance and resilience – giving fire to movements for social change. As recognized in Argentina’s National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons in 1983, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1996, and others that have followed, we must acknowledge and witness the impacts of our history before we can move forward, otherwise the same injustices will be repeated, as we have seen most recently in the case of Israel’s genocidal treatment of Palestinians.

Storytelling is a powerful tool to help provide deep witness, compassion, and inspiration.

Manifest Differently was conceived and developed by poet/artist Kim Shuck and CAMP co-director/ artist / writer Megan Wilson and is co-curated by Shuck, Wilson, Trisha Lagaso Goldberg, Amy Berk, and Katayoun Bahrami with support from California historian Barbara Berglund Sokolov, CAMP communications director Veronica Torres, and humanities advisors Mary Jean Robertson, Kyoko Sato, Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, Anita Chang, and David A.M Goldberg. Audiences were introduced to the history of Manifest Destiny and the forward vision to Manifest Differently through the lens of a diverse multigenerational team of artists and poets, whose histories and experiences include those of American Indian/Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Southwest Asian, and North African (SWANA), and white/European American descent.

The project was exhibited in 2023/24 in collaboration with the following presenting partners – Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP,) Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), Artists’ Television Access (ATA), Minnesota Street Project (MSP), San Francisco Public Library, Book Castle, the Beat Museum, Book Castle, San Francisco State University, and Stanford University.

Participating poets, artists, and humanities scholars include:

Poets: Aileen Cassinetto, Avotcja, Clara Hsu, Dena Rod, E.K. Keith, Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, Genny Lim, Josiah Luis Alderete, Kim Shuck, Lauren Ito, Linda Noel, Lourdes Figueroa, Mahnaz Badihian, Maw Shein Win, MK Chavez, Stephen Meadows, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Tureeda Mikell, Voulette Hattar

Visual and Media Artists: Adrian Arias, Afatasi, Amy Berk, Anita Chang, Barbara Mumby-Huerta, Biko Eisen-Martin, Carolyn Castaño, Chris Gazaleh, Katayoun Bahrami, Kim Shuck, l. frank manriquez, Marcel Pardo Ariza, Megan Wilson, Rene Yung, Shaghayegh Cyrous, Shonna Alexander, Vaimoana Niumeitolu, Victoria Canby

Humanities Scholars: Dr. Anita Chang, Dr. David A.M. Goldberg, Dr. Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, Dr. Kyoko Sato, Mary Jean Robertson


Barbara Mumby-Huerta

Barbara Mumby-Huerta, “Our Matriarchs” mural in progress, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023

Our Matriarchs pays homage to 13 living Indigenous women who have made an indelible mark on the San Francisco Bay area and beyond.

The significance of the number thirteen is based upon my own personal (Powhatan) tribal teachings and our responsibility to the number of generations in the past as well as those in the future we should honor and nurture. These women personify the leadership traits that we, as a community, need. They are the healers of hearts, the keepers of dreams, the weavers of words, the sowers of seeds, the defenders of justice, and the embodiment of warriors.

The largest challenge of this work was selecting only 13 women to honor, as there are so many amazing women that could have been included. To make this decision more manageable, I narrowed my criteria to living women older than myself. My intent was to lift those women in our community that consistently do the hard work to support our people without the need for accolades. Their love of community and humility are their driving force.  I also feel a deep responsibility to honor the land where the mural sits by including an Ohlone leader, as well as including tribal representation from both sides of the colonial US/Mexican border and the Kingdom of Hawaii. At the top I placed our oldest matriarch whose ancestors came from the area now known as Mexico, flanked by two California Indian women. This serves to pay respect to the Indigenous nations from our region, to honor our history of connectedness to our Southern relatives and refers to the prophecy of the Eagle and Condor.

My work is grounded in the desire to uplift women who are often ignored or disregarded by western society.  Predominately, this equates to mature women of color who push boundaries and challenge the status quo. By confronting the historically male defined idea of what beauty is, my portraits embrace the beauty that comes with wisdom and experience and honors the power our matriarchs possess.

The imagery includes:

  • Hummingbirds and butterflies, representative of the spirits of our ancestors.
  • Stylized Datura Flowers which are an important medicinal and ceremonial plant for California Indians
  • Manzanita branches that frame each portrait and intertwines with one another which honors the land and the family that nurtured my upbringing and signifies our connection to one another.
  • Flowing water which is traditionally kept and protected by Indigenous women.
  • Salmon, which represents renewal, sustenance, and the continuation of all life.

-Barbara Mumby





Chris Gazaleh

Chris Gazaleh, “Heart Shaped Rocks”, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023

‘Heart Shaped Rocks’ is dedicated to Palestine spirit of love and resistance. While the land is occupied by tanks, cameras, AI controlled machine guns and an occupying army..The people continue to exist and stand steadfast. Through the power of our music, story telling (Journalism, film, writing) and also the youths rocks thrown to protect their families homes, Palestine is fighting with love, for humanity, for freedom, and for a homeland. We will resist until freedom.

-Chris Gazaleh




Katayoun Bahrami

Katayoun Bahrami, “Resilience Of Poppies”, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023

‘The Resilience of Poppies’ explores the inspiring story of those who have overcome tragedy and adversity. This mural tells the story of courageous survivors – men and women targeted by security forces during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran and shot directly in their eyes, resulting in many of them being blinded.

 Dena Rod wrote a poem inspired by this event, which poem was translated into Farsi by Mahnaz Badihian.

-Katayoun Bahrami



 

Clarion Alley looking westward towards Mission Street

Marcel Pardo Ariza

Marcel Pardo Ariza, “Hire Trans Folks”, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023

This mural is a call to action for people, specially hiring managers, to hire more trans employees. Unemployment is one of the biggest barriers trans people face today, both nationally and internationally. The mural details more context on how to make the workplace more inclusive, while also providing financial stability, job security, gender affirming healthcare, access to all gender restrooms, and a sustainable future for trans people.

-Marcel Pardo Arizza


Mural by Megan Wilson with Poetry, Amphibian & Reptile Contributions by Kim Shuck

Megan Wilson and Kim Shuck, Arise, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023, Mural In Progress

 

Poem by Kim Shuck

The Condor rises from the ashes of colonization amidst the stalks of corn, lupine, and poppies, while bullfrog, treefrog, and rattlesnake rest in their dens between worlds. In the sky the California nightsnake slithers through the blanket flowers.

-Megan Wilson



 

Clarion Alley looking east towards Mission Street, 2024

Biko Eisen-Martin

Biko Eisen-Martin, “For QR Hand Jr.”, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023.

Quentin Roosevelt Hand, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1937. His father, Dr. Quentin Roosevelt Hand, a native of Savannah, Georgia who was educated at Columbia, operated Hand’s Ethical Pharmacy in Harlem, and his mother, Catherine Elizabeth Chestnut, was a writer. His parents married in 1935, and the family lived in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood. Q.R. Hand, Jr. had two younger siblings, a brother named John and a sister named Margaret. He was educated at Northfield Mount Hermon in Massachusetts and briefly attended in 1954. He moved to San Francisco’s Mission District, performing in the local poetry scene and working as a mental health counselor for the Progress Foundation. His poetry was influenced by his work in the Black liberation movement and his love of jazz, and is considered part of the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat poetry movements. He played saxophone, and performed spoken word with musical accompaniment as a member of the Word Wind Chorus with Brian Auerbach, Lewis Jordan, and Reginald Lockett. Hand co-authored an anti-war play with Nayo-Barbara Malcolm Watkins and John O’Neal entitled Ain’t No Use in Goin’ Home, Jodie’s Got Your Gal and Gone about the Black military experience. Stage productions included the Black Box Theatre at Cornell in 1988, Wake Forest University in 1989 in Winston-Salem, the Oakland Ensemble Theatre in 1989 and 7 Stages Theatre in Atlanta in 1990. Aaron Noble painted Hand’s poem “Hemisphere” on 40 Clarion Alley in 1995 as part of the Clarion Alley Mural Project. Hand received the PEN Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Across his career he was a featured act at many venues including the Sonoma County Book Festival, the Bay Area Poets and Music Festival at GLIDE, the Petaluma Poetry Walk, Cafe Babar, the Sacramento Poetry Center, the Beat Museum, San Francisco Metropolitan Arts Center, Oakland Arts Festival, the Roque Dalton Cultural Brigade, and Golden Gate Park. Hand moved to Vallejo, California, in 2003 where he performed his poetry at local venues like Listen and Be Heard and KZCT. Hand died in Vallejo on December 31, 2020, at age 83 from cancer. He was honored posthumously at the 2022 Vallejo Beat Poetry Festival.




Adrian Arias

Adrian Arias, “Querido Ángel, no trates de colonizarme / Dear angel don’t try to colonize me”, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023

 


Victoria Canby

Victoria Canby, “We grow our Own Medicine for Interdimensional and Intertribal healing”, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023

It is common among Indigenous Peoples to grow up on the ancestral lands of another tribe. I grew up on the Coast Miwok and the Pomo lands in the North Bay but my ancestors on my mother’s side were from New Mexico. Throughout my life, my mom did her best to provide some Indigenous Community to connect with while living in the North Bay, this often meant attending local Indigenous celebrations and listening to the wisdom of California Indigenous elders. My mother often felt saddened by her inability to share Diné traditional wisdom with me, she attended boarding school and in order to succeed she had to assimilate. As I got older I found a deeper connection to my Indigeneity through the wisdom, magic, and medicinal power of plants. I spent time learning about the relationship Indigenous Peoples from all over the Americas have with their local plant relatives and how they use them for healing, in prayer, for journeying, to nourish their communities, and in art. This mural is meant to honor the California Indigenous Peoples that have been so supportive and gracious to me, my Diné heritage and to those that helped me to connect with the traditional ways lost to much of my family during my grandmother’s generation, and the plants that so generously give us healing and magic. This mural is also meant to recognize how plants continually offer Indigenous Peoples throughout the Americas pathways to our ancestors and tools to heal our communities and planet. This mural is also meant to encourage Indigenous Peoples to learn about their own tribe’s plant knowledge and grow your own medicine. I am forever grateful for and could not have painted this mural without the help of Theo Knox, Redbird Willie, Andrew Samuels, Alexis Fineman, Dana Hawke, and my son Avi.

Incorporated throughout the image is symbolism: the strawberries represent the work I have been fortunate to do with Theresa Harlan for the Alliance for Felix Cove working to reIndigenizing Pt Reyes National Seashore, the earring on the rabbit honors my friend Edward Rebird Willie and all of the knowledge he has shared with over the years, the rabbit is dedicated to my friend Kim Shuck and the times I spent at her kitchen table talking about tricksters, the stripes on the coyote woman’s dress are the four sacred colors of the four sacred Diné mountains, the corn honors the many tribes that all share corn in their creation stories, the background represents the everyday chaos of the world around us, the popcorn popping off the wall is from the memories of watching popcorn popping off ceremonial Mayan fires, the small cross shapes scattered throughout the middle of the mural are stars representing balance, the four directions, the four elements and magic and the figure in the middle is a spirit being based off of many different figures I have seen in my studies, they represent a holy being and portal between realms.

– Victoria Canby





Carolyn Castaño

Carolyn Castaño, “Tropical Geometries”, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023

In ‘Tropical Geometries,’ landscape and geometric abstraction are used to re-imagine ideas of modernity, progress, and identity in the Americas. Landscape, mapping, cartography, and botanical illustration co-exist simultaneously with pattern and free-flowing shapes inspired by textile patterns from the Americas, such as the ruana, a poncho-like garment worn in the Andes, Neo-Concrete painting, and modernist design, carving out a space beyond ideas of the sublime and Manifest Destiny in the Americas to interrupt, fracture, or bifurcate traditional conventions of “landscape”. The patterns in the drawings exist on a parallel plane as the landscape and propose a simultaneity of cultures, concepts of modernity, and imaging of the future.

-Carolyn Castaño



Artivate youth under the direction of Amy Berk and Chris Treggiari

Amy Berk and ARTIVATE, “Reorder The Future”, Manifest Differently, Clarion Alley, 2023