The neighborhood association
Friends of Noe Valley will host a music-filled, hip-shakin’
barbeque for neighbors, their children, and their dogs
Saturday, Sept. 10, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Noe Courts at
Douglass and 24th streets.
Music in the Park will open with
a band playing for kids, but the rest of the music will be by
and for the parents. Noe Valley’s Dan Luscher will drum out an
uptempo beat for the Indie rock band District 8; and local
singer, songwriter, and piano teacher Hilary Craddock joins
Sharon Gillenwater and Rich Burns (both formerly of Playdate)
to make Trio, a slower-paced folk-based rock band.
There will be more than music in
the park, too, says Linda Lockyer, who chairs the group’s
events committee. Cherry Hoops has promised to get the
audience moving with a hula hoop demonstration, and the
Scottish Country Dancers will show off their fancy footwork.
There will also be a bouncy castle, and the usual selection of
hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie dogs, and drinks sold at nominal
prices.
Noe Valley’s own Michael
Capozzola will emcee the event. A comedian and cartoonist,
Capozzola has hosted shows at the Harvest Festival in the
past.
This is the first event put on
by the newly invigorated Friends, which held a general
membership meeting in July.
“We wanted to kick off our first
event with something that was family oriented,” Lockyer says.
(“Family” defined in Noe Valley includes dogs, of course.) An
estimated 100 people showed up for the last Music in the Park
three years ago, and the group is hoping for a good turnout
again this year.
You can contact Friends by
email: info@friendsofnoevalley.com.
—Heather World
25 Schools Introduce Themselves
For even the most astute parent,
picking a good school in San Francisco can be a daunting task.
With this in mind, a group of Noe Valley residents and
educators is holding an elementary school fair to help parents
learn the ropes.
The Friends of Noe Valley
Recreation Center will sponsor the free event on Sunday, Sept.
25, from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the rec center, located on Day
Street between Sanchez and Church streets.
“As far as I know, it’s the
first elementary school fair of its kind,” says Kate Haug, a
FNVRC co-chair and the fair’s organizer. “The purpose of the
fair is to help parents navigate the search for
kindergartens.”
Parents and administrators from
schools in Noe Valley, Glen Park, Bernal Heights, the Mission,
the Castro, and elsewhere in the city will be on hand to
answer questions. More than 25 public, private, and parochial
schools will participate, including Alvarado, St. Paul’s, and
St. Philip’s in Noe Valley; Fairmount and St. John’s in Glen
Park; Harvey Milk in the Castro District; and Sunnyside in the
Mission District.
In addition, Parents for Public
Schools will conduct a workshop from 9 to 10 a.m. on the
enrollment process at city schools. A representative will
explain the complicated system, which uses a new “choice”
method this year.
To entertain the kids, the San
Francisco Library’s bookmobile will be parked nearby. Also,
children and parents will have an opportunity to register for
family accounts with the Recreation and Park Department.
(Bring a driver’s license or other California identification.)
Recreation staffers will be
available to discuss park programs for tots, teens, and
adults. For more information, contact Kate Haug at kate@noevalleyreccenter.com or http://noeschools.com.
—Corrie M. Anders
Odd Mondays Back in Black
With summer vacation over, Odd
Mondays returns to work Labor Day weekend with a panel
honoring labor unions. Then later in the month, it will host
two evenings with Noe Valley authors: mystery maven Cara Black
and journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett.
The panel Sept. 5, “Honoring
Labor Unions,” will feature journalist Dick Meister and labor
activists Gerry Meister, Ken Tray, and Kathy Lipscomb. They
will discuss labor issues in the context of the current trend
of anti-union sentiment, says Judith Levy-Sender, who produces
Odd Mondays with her husband Ramon Sender.
“There’s a movement in this
country that is unsympathetic to labor,” Levy-Sender says. “In
that spirit, I wanted to recognize unions on Labor Day.”
On Sept. 19, bestselling author
Cara Black will read from the latest book in her popular
Paris-based murder mystery series, Murder in the Passy.
Black, a Francophile who has written 11 mysteries solved by
sleuth Aimée Leduc, will sign copies of her book as well.
The following odd Monday, Oct.
3, journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett will read from her book
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, subtitled “the true
story of a thief, a detective, and a world of literary
obsession.” The book follows the lives of a book thief who
managed to enlarge his personal library by stealing a fortune
in rare books and the detective who tracked him down. She will
also sign copies.
All Odd Mondays events are free
and start at 7 p.m. at Phoenix Books, 3957 24th St. The
evenings are preceded by a no-host supper at 5:30 p.m. at
Haystack Pizza, 3881 24th St.
Very often Noe Valley resident
and musician Julie Dillon offers a musical prelude to the
program, Levy-Sender says.
“She’s a folksinger with a
tremendous flair for singing both socio-political and personal
lyrics,” she says.
For information about the
series, email jlsender@webtv.net.
—Heather World
Ruth Asawa Name on High
San Francisco School of the Arts
High School celebrates its 30th birthday this year by changing
its name to honor acclaimed artist Ruth Asawa, who was
instrumental in starting the school, as well as art programs
for students around the city.
The new marquee for the Ruth
Asawa School of the Arts is set to rise Wednesday, Sept. 14.
District, political, and art dignitaries such as State Senator
Mark Leno and actor Peter Coyote will honor the artist at an
11 a.m. reception hosted by the school, 555 Portola Drive at
O’Shaughnessy.
“Our family is so proud to have
this wonderful school named after our mother,” says Paul
Lanier, Asawa’s son and the parent of two students at the
school. “It is her lifelong dream to have children work with,
and be taught by, professional artists and to have students
pursue their dreams.”
Asawa, who spent her teenage
years in a Japanese internment camp, sought to help children
develop creative-thinking skills through art and gardening,
says her daughter, Aiko Cuneo. “My mother always thought that
the arts taught children to learn their fullest capabilities
as well as limitations,” says Cuneo.
Asawa, now 85, was already a
successful artist when in 1968 she and another Alvarado
Elementary School parent created the Alvarado Arts Workshop.
The program brought in artists to help students create art
from cast-off milk cartons, fabric, and clay. In 1973, she
organized the arts festival that has become Young at Art, an
annual exhibit of student art at the de Young Museum. The same
year, she had her first solo retrospective at the San
Francisco Museum of Art, the first of many such exhibits in
museums around the world. Her delicate wire sculptures hang in
a hall at the de Young.
A San Francisco resident for
more than 60 years (50 in Noe Valley), Asawa is known for her
many public fountains, including the mermaid fountain at
Ghirardelli Square.
In 1982, she and husband Albert
Lanier set their sights on creating the School of the Arts
High School. The public school is the Glee of the
city, specializing in creative writing, dance, music, theater,
film, and visual arts. Its population of 600 students is
selected by audition.
To find out more about the
event, call the school at 415-695-5700 or email info@sfsota.org.
—Heather World
Block Party on Ames Street
Scruffy little Ames Street in
Baja Noe Valley will meet its makeover at a block party
sponsored by the Fair Oaks Community Coalition (FOCC) on
Friday, Sept. 9, from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
Plans for a green renovation of
Ames will be unveiled at the festivities, which will feature
food carts, live music, an art display, and a raffle with
prizes from local restaurants and other businesses. The event
will take place in the block of Ames that runs parallel
between Dolores and Guerrero and 22nd and 23rd streets.
Considered run-down and
underutilized, the alleyway has been targeted by the FOCC,
urban designers, and the city for an upgrade that will include
water-permeable paving and fresh landscaping.
“We’re honored that our
neighborhood’s environmental vision has won support and
approval from San Francisco’s Department of Public Works,”
says Fair Oaks Street resident Kim Stryker, who contributed to
the design.
The San Francisco Parks Trust is
also on board, serving as fiscal agent for the project, which
is eligible for tax-deductible donations. Photos of Ames and
designs for its renovation can be viewed at http://alleyproject.ning.com/.
The Fair Oaks Community
Coalition is a neighborhood association established in 2005 to
focus on improving residents’ relationships with local
businesses, schools, city agencies, and social service
providers.
—Blair Moser
Music for (All) the Ages
Community Music Center is
registering students young and old for its fall quarter
classes, which range from private lessons on more than 30
instruments to group classes like piano for children and
chamber music for adults.
From Sept. 8 to Dec. 9, the
nonprofit’s Mission branch at 544 Capp St. will offer 25 group
classes for adults, six group classes for young people, and
three scholarship programs for middle and high school kids.
Options like “Music for
Children” for 4- to 7-year-olds focus on rhythm games, songs,
creative movement, and the use of easy-to-play instruments.
The fall lineup also includes an introduction to music for
babies and toddlers, piano for children ages 61/2 to 8, and chorus for children
ages 8 to 12.
Adults can look forward to a
jazz improvisation workshop, the Anything Goes Chorus, and an
opera and musical scenes workshop.
Most classes are small—up to 10
students—and generally meet once a week. Some classes are
free, though most cost about $330 per term. Scholarships and
financial aid are available. The organization seeks to make
music accessible to all people regardless of financial status.
There is a second location in
the Richmond District, but the Capp Street address has been
the home of Community Music Center for an incredible 90 years.
To register, visit www.sfcmc.org or call
415-647-6015.
