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The Your Store project hasn’t even opened yet and it’s already getting a lot of buzz. Here’s what people are saying…

“The conversation about gentrification in the Mission can sound like a broken record when the same few points are beaten to death, even if you agree with the frustrations being expressed. There have to be other ways of understanding all the changes in that neighborhood. That’s why I’m interested in the different perspectives about the community and cultural shifts around Valencia Street that are coming out in Sarah Klein and Kathryn Kenworth’s new project, Your Store.” –Jennifer Maerz, The Bold Italic

“Here are a few of the shows we’re excited to check out in the coming days….Your Store”
– San Francisco Chronicle

“We can’t say enough great things about this project, and hope you’ll join us in October at 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco to see it for yourself.” -Dominique Kousdsi, Handful of Salt

“Come checkout this awesome collaboration between artists Sarah Klein, Kathryn Kenworth, Artists’ Television Access and 826 Valencia that pays homage to the creative spirit and diversity of the Mission!” – 826 Valencia

 

We’re installing today and tomorrow and we are just as excited as you are to see how it will all come together. Come check it out for yourself from October 6th-30th.

This week we will begin the installation in the window of ATA. Here’s a peek at some of the drawings and sculptures that will be in the installation as well as the stories that inspired these objects.

• “It is not that we board white wordless shuttles to the South Bay out of superiority. It’s that we are new arrivals to a world our upbringings never taught us (to) understand. No one taught (us) how to get involved in (our) communities, how to talk to neighbors…. My story of the Mission is being the face of gentrification…I want to be real here at least as much as my neighbors want me to be more than a commuter ghost. We just don’t know how. Once we learn this place will thrive anew.”

• “I keep tabs on the rising rent costs of living in the Mission. It makes me very sad there there is very little affordable housing left in this neighborhood (unless you snagged a place over ten years ago and have rent control).”

• “I tried to enjoy the S.F. street festival in the Mission but sadly my bike was stolen so I have to walk home in despair.”

• “Valencia Street is my fave because there are always people willing to have a good time and enjoy the sun.”

• • • • • • • • •

Come see how we put it all together at the opening on Sunday, October 6th at Artist Television Access 992 Valencia Street at 21st, San Francisco. The project will be on view in the window until October 30th.

 

 

 

 

Handful of Salt, a print and online publication,  just posted a nice article about Your Store.

“When you think about storefront windows, you probably think gleaming lights, tidy displays, browsing, maybe some mannequins. Retail. But what if a storefront made you think about your neighborhood instead? The sounds that carry you off to sleep every night, the smell of your neighbor’s coffee waking you up each day, or the park where you transformed into a pirate as a child.” You can read more of the article here.

A lot of people are telling us that Dolores Park is their favorite place in the Mission.  It’s not a surprise as it’s centered between Noe Valley, the Mission and the Castro and is in one of the sunniest parts of San Francisco.

Dolores Park Map

We’re doing our best to represent what’s happening there with animations and sculptures. Look at these sites and you’ll see there’s a lot going on like the giant Legos,  Robot Man, free movies and the Billion Jelly Bloom.

• “I love Dolores Park because it is sunny and has beautiful views of the city. People of every walk of life gather there.” – Michelle

• “As a child I would come to Dolores Park playground as often as possible. I loved the wooden boat. My friends and I would pretend to be a pirate or water monsters. When I turned thirteen they remodeled the playground and got rid of the boat and they made the park so hip. What had once been a child’s paradise became a hipster social club. It felt like it marked an ascent into adulthood.” – Iris

• “Early in the morning I walk through Dolores Park…I walk down Valencia from 20th to 22nd. It is quiet then for the first time. I hear the birds and I feel the weather. It makes me feel like the neighborhood is just for me.” – Mark

And two more things about the park that were told to us. It was once a Jewish Cemetery before all the cemeteries were moved to Colma and before the foliage was pruned, there were many trysts in the bushes.

While music played on stage at the 20th Street Block Party last weekend people at our booth were typing up their stories and, in some cases, writing about their own acoustic encounters.

• “When I wake up and open my window I hear chickens across the street. Bak, bak, baak. During the day I hear people laughing over lattes at Atlas and on Wednesday nights folks looking for bottles in our recycling bins, bluegrass humming from Atlas on Thursday evenings, (a) shopping cart pushed by the older man with patchy skin who listens to KBLX on his radio. Sometimes (he) yells at the sad woman with him. The soundtrack of 20th and Alabama.” – Roni

• “I used to live in a room with a window that looked out onto Treat Avenue. some nights I would hear passing couples arguing in Spanish. I didn’t speak Spanish, so it was just another sound in the background while I fell asleep. I have since learned Spanish, but I don’t live in the Mission anymore. If I heard those arguments now, they would probably keep me awake.” -Jeremiah

 • “I had only been in the city for a couple of weeks and sauntered into Amnesia on Valencia for a Family Folk Explosion show. Wild guitars and mystic men and women waxed witch wonders and succulent sounds. The night wound down and a tall, stately man in a black overcoat opened up the grate to lead the musicians and stragglers down to a wood-paneled speak easy, where we lay on low velvet couches and passed around a bottle of Tennessee whiskey while another set was played, on upright bass, wooden piano, slapbox drum. Once the troubadour rested and the smoke reached the ceiling, the stately man in the black overcoat shed his cloak and stepped to the chair onstage. He proceeded to speak the sultriest words I have ever heard. Mists of New Orleans alleys, dark wooden tones of violin bodies, (the) touch and smell of women’s potions, dark moon rays on Pacific ocean waves. It was then that I knew this was home.” -Montana

 

The musical group Two Gallants on stage.

Thanks to Noise Pop,  Ne Timeas Restaurant Group, Nomic and The Bon Vivants for inviting us and thanks to everyone who dropped by our booth and told us their story.

Your Store will be at the 20th Street Block Party this Saturday. Stop by our table to say hi and then stay awhile to enjoy the food, festivities and music at this fun neighborhood event.

When: Saturday, August 24th 2013 from 12pm to 6pm.

Location: Mission District of San Francisco at 20th Street between Bryant and Harrison as well as Florida Street between 19th and 20th.

Cost: Free and open to the public.

 

Banner by Jason Jagel.

It was a typical San Francisco summer’s day (foggy and overcast even in the Mission District) but that didn’t stop folks from coming out to Mission Sunday Streets. The lack of sun must have made people more sullen as this time the stories we heard reflected changes in the neighborhood and the complex feelings that come with these changes.

• “I was living on my income as a substitute teacher and a makeup artist, and it was already a little stretch to pay the rent. Now I keep tabs on the rising rent costs of living in the Mission. It makes me very sad that there is very little or no affordable housing left in this neighborhood (unless you snagged a place over ten years ago and have rent control)…It makes me sad that the original occupants of this neighborhood are outpriced and the workers can’t even afford to pay to live with their families in the neighborhood.” 

• “Our building is being sold for the 4th time in 3 years. Our latest owners are investors…they are evicting all of us to make way for Valencia’s new patrons. Our building has…a senior with disabilities, two public school teachers, a General Hospital nurse and a couple with a baby.”

• “It’s gotten a lot cleaner but I have mixed feelings. The pace of gentrification has been extreme. On the other hand I can still come here at 3am and get a burrito for $4.50. There is still an electric feeling in the neighborhood”

Photos by Anita Su

We had a great time the last time we participated in Mission Sunday Streets.
This Sunday,  July 28th from 11-2 pm we’re setting up our typewriters in front of 992 Valencia Street.  Stop by tell us what you know about the neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need directions?
SEE MAP.

Here’s a story about the window:

The owl window on Dolores at 18th has been there for a really long time. It’s just someones front window filled from top to bottom with different owl tchotchkes.  A few years ago a friend of mine moved into the building and was living upstairs.  When I visited my friend for the first time at her new apartment I asked her what this “owl person” was like. My friend just said he was nice.

 

Sneak peak look at Your Store owls.

 

Curious?

Here’s more info about Mr. Owl Man of Dolores Park!

Find out more http://uptownalmanac.com/2010/12/apartment-beyond-dolores-parks-owl-window.