Saturday, May 15 • 7:00 -10:00pm

Galeria de la Raza • 2857 24th St. SF

$5.00 to $10.00

Join us at Galeria de La Raza for an evening of stories curated by Mission Born and Grown Norman Zelaya featuring Ariel Vargas, Veronica Majano, Norman Zelaya and special guests. DJ Danny V and DJ Aztec Parrot (Radio2050 KPFA) on the turntables.

Because it is in us to gather from time to time. Because we carry much of the recent history. Because we still carry much of its future. Because people should know we are still here. Because we are why people come. Because it wasn’t always cool. Because it was always full of heart, soul and love.

Because we have a good story to tell…

Featuring

Roberto Ariel Vargas, MPH, was influenced by poets from the womb, listening intently as a child to the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Nina Serrano, Janice Mirikitani, Ernesto Cardenal, Alejandro Murguia and Victor Hernandez Cruz, among others. Mostly, he listened to the words of his father, Roberto Vargas. Beyond literary influences, Ariel’s writing reflects his life in el barrio of La Mision in San Francisco, where he found love and death; the hip hoppin,’ Go-Go beats and streets of Washington, D.C.; and the tropical power of revolutionary Nicaragua. Ariel facilitated poetry and art workshops with young artists and poets in San Francisco’s Juvenile Hall and Log Cabin Ranch between 1994 and 1998, editing and publishing the poetry and art of these powerful artists in a Zine and the Cipactli journal of San Francisco State University’s La Raza Studies Department. Ariel published his own poems in several Cipactli editions in the mid-1990’s. He is now telling stories in the tradition of the Azteka Mexika tlamatinis/poets and danzantes of La Mexicanidad.

Vero Majano was born and raised in San Francisco. She works at a homeless drop in center and makes films about the Mission. She was a resident at the Djerassi Resident Artist program and has received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation Media Fellowship, the Puffin Foundation, and the Free History Project. She is also a co-founder of Mission Media Archives, a collective of filmmakers archiving audio and films shot during the 1970’s and 80’s of the Mission, a period when the neighborhood was mostly working class and Latino. Mission Media Archives believes that by showing these films to contemporary audiences, we all collectively preserve a past Mission.

Norman Antonio Zelaya is a writer born and raised in San Francisco. He has published several stories in journals including ZYZZYVA, 14 Hills and NY Tyrant. He is currently finishing a novel set in his old Mission neighborhood.

Darren J. de Leon is an award winning poet from San Bernardino, playwright, radio producer, street DJ, high school teacher, and community activist. Darren relocated to San Francisco in 1993. In 1995 he co-founded Los Delicados: Poetas del Sol, who established themselves as a leader in the Latino Spoken Word scene, touring throughout the country. Currently, he works at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as the Youth Arts manager and produces Radio 2050, a Latino Arts Radio Magazine at KPFA in Berkeley, CA. since 2002.