Public Talks

October 9, 7:30 pm

The First Post-Pandemic Political Era: After WWI

American Midnight author Adam Hochschild and Building the Population Bomb author Dr. Emily Merchant (UC Davis) A critical reappraisal of the first post-pandemic political era after WWI, with its brutal authoritarian assault on civil liberties, and overt racism bolstered by the pseudo-scientific Eugenics movement (that continues to lurk in today's AI, Hi-Tech "TESCREAL" madness), and the white supremacist hysteria about a “foreign population bomb.” This history rhymes a month before the 2024 election with the racist anti-immigrant bombast of the Republican campaign.

All our Talks are free but we welcome donations. Donate now!

Sunday, October 13, 3-6:30 pm

Potrero Hill, Then and Now:
Photo Hunt!

A SPECIAL OFFSITE EVENT!

Shaping San Francisco, San Francisco Center for the Book (SFCB), and the Potrero Hill Archives Project host a “know your neighborhood history” treasure hunt and photo taking exercise. Participants are encouraged to explore the neighborhoods of “Then” Potrero Nuevo—today’s lower Potrero Hill and Dogpatch. 10–12 historic images will be posted where the photos were originally taken; participants are encouraged to find these and capture the “Now” view in today’s City. Participants are invited to share their photos with each other, the best of which will be added to Shaping San Francisco’s digital archive, FoundSF.org. Wrapping up at San Francisco Center for the Book, attendees will participate in letterpress printing a keepsake map specially designed for the event.

Light refreshments will be served onsite at SFCB.

RSVP is required: to shaping@foundsf.org to reserve your spot and get the meeting location!

Please note: SFCB workshops will run until 5 pm; reception starts at 5:30 PM, live printing for this event will start at 6 pm. One must be a registered participant to attend the reception. .

Event is free but we welcome donations. Donate now!

October 16, 7:30 pm

Rebel Airwaves: Looking back at 75 years of KPFA

In 1949, a group of pacifists launched America’s first listener-supported radio station. Despite government repression, infighting, and countless financial crises, KPFA has managed to survive 75 years. Join Liam O’Donoghue, host of the East Bay Yesterday podcast, as he explores stories of the people who helped the station achieve this remarkable milestone.

All our Talks are free but we welcome donations. Donate now!

October 23, 7:30 pm

Anti-Apartheid Organizing Then and Now

With the explosion of campus-based organizing and occupations against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, we juxtapose historic anti-Apartheid organizing with the current events. With deep knowledge about the historic efforts to overthrow South African Apartheid in the 1980s, Dr. Peter Cole, author of Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area, teams up with local scholar and activist Eddie Yuen (a student at UC Berkeley during the original movement, and who knows the decades-long history of alter-globalization and radical movements better than most), and the Arab Resource Organizing Committee’s own Lara Kiswani, a key organizer in the Bay Area’s robust efforts to block the Gaza genocide and to fight for Palestinian liberation, to present an historically informed look at the dynamics of current protest and politics. Co-sponsored by Left in the Bay.

All our Talks are free but we welcome donations. Donate now!

December 4, 7:30 pm

Refusing Silicon Valley

Wendy Liu’s Abolish Silicon Valley pulled back the façade on the Horatio Alger myths surrounding tech work and start-up culture and left no doubt about the emptiness of life in that world. Erin McElroy, a co-founder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, has turned her prodigious analytical skills to the expansion of the tech industry to the periphery of the former Iron Curtain in Romania in their new Silicon Valley Imperialism. As San Francisco gropes its way through yet another faltering tech bubble pushed by AI hucksters and grifters, join us for a blisteringly honest look at what the titans of silicon are really promoting.

All our Talks are free but we welcome donations. Donate now!