Recent Free Public Talks
Video Archive
2024 (March-December)
A place to meet and talk unmediated by corporations, official spokespeople, religion, political parties, or dogma.
All events are free.
Most of our events are outdoors in the form of "Urban Forum: Walk 'n' Talks" but we will occasionally host indoor discussions at 518 Valencia Street, near 16th, in San Francisco (close to 16th Street BART)
To subscribe to our Talks as a podcast, paste the link into your favorite podcast software (iTunes, Podcast Addict, etc.)
Friday, July 5, 7:30 pm
90th Anniversary of Big Strike
at 518 Valencia Street
at 518 Valencia Street
Ninety years ago, San Francisco's class relations were transformed by the General Strike. This commemorative event will take place on July 5th, the actual anniversary of “Bloody Thursday” (this year it's on Friday), when police shot more than five dozen and killed two strikers, catalyzing a spontaneous work stoppage that paralyzed most of the Bay Area for almost two weeks (the "official" General Strike only lasted 4 days). Learn how the ’34 strike echoes through history and how the arc of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union represents a quintessential example of 20th century labor history. Automation, multi-tiered workforces, government co-optation, and solidarity among waterfront workers continue to shape our world today, whether port workers, UPS and Amazon delivery people, or the rest of us in between and at either end of this complex system. Shaping San Francisco's Chris Carlsson; Joel Shor, former sailor and current ILWU Local 10 member; labor educator Gifford Hartman; IBU member Jack Calvin. Co-hosted by Left by the Bay.
Video here.
Wednesday, May 22, 7:30 pm
Rainbow Grocery Cooperative
at 518 Valencia Street
at 518 Valencia Street
RAINBOW GROCERY Cooperative, a long-time supporter of Shaping San Francisco’s Public programming, will be our featured guests. Rainbow has been a steady presence in San Francisco’s Mission District for almost a half century. Come meet current staffers, learn about the post-pandemic issues facing the store, hear about the advantages of cooperative self-management, and bring your questions about food politics, grocery price inflation, flood recovery, and whatever else you’ve been wondering about.
Video here.
Wednesday, May 8, 7:30 pm
Art & Politics: Hughen/Starkweather
at 518 Valencia
at 518 Valencia
"Conversations, interviews, and deep research are a significant piece of their process for every project they take on. Feeling a “responsibility to educate the viewer, to give them a window in,” they have, over the course of the last decade, developed a nuanced strategy for avoiding what many artists fail to acknowledge as a problem: leaving their audiences out in the cold. . .When the colors and shapes of a nonrepresentational work of art rearrange themselves into remembrance or recognition, magic happens. Hughen/Starkweather describe this as “closing the space between abstraction and language.” Excerpt from Selene Foster article on Hughen/Starkweather's Adjacent Shores, April 2016.
Video here.
Wednesday, April 24, 7:30 pm
History of Monopoly/Game Night!
at 518 Valencia
at 518 Valencia
David Giesen brings his extraordinary collection of original 1907 Monopoly game artifacts to anchor his presentation of the fascinating political history of the game, with roots in the anti-monopoly politics championed by Henry George in the 19th century. Following the presentation we will have a GAME NIGHT! San Francisco Trivia, Yahtzee, Monopoly, Cuban dominoes, bring your own! BYOB too!
Video here.
Wednesday, April 10, 7:30 pm
Life and Death in a Great American City
at 518 Valencia
at 518 Valencia
Cities grow, cities change. Some businesses and institutions thrive, while others die off and are replaced. In this joint presentation of words and images, Lorri Ungaretti (Vanished San Francisco), and Alec Scott (Oldest San Francisco) speak to the history of our great, sometimes troubled city, what's been lost over the years, what's stuck around. Expect the discussion to range widely, from science to religion, from food to drink, from sports to shopping, from sex to death.
Video here.
Tuesday, March 26, 6:30-8:30 pm
Cultivating Food Resilience and
Combating Global Challenges
at 518 Valencia, Talk and Conversation with Punk Gardener Eric Lenoir – co-presented by Villa Albertine
at 518 Valencia, Talk and Conversation with Punk Gardener Eric Lenoir – co-presented by Villa Albertine
Meet Punk Gardener Eric Lenoir and other figures in the urban agriculture and local rewilding community for a discussion on territorial food resilience, combating biodiversity collapse, and addressing global warming effects.
Video here.