The City is Alive: The Future of Cultural Districts Storytelling Workshops

Story To Support Place-Based Initiatives

Written by Reanna Tong

The storytelling workshop consisted of instruction, small groups, and sharing out. After just a short session, each group walked away with nascent narratives to support their identified goal. Photo: Austin Blackwell

Some of San Francisco’s long and recently established cultural districts and centers gathered at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) on Saturday, March 13th, 2022 to create narratives centered around community preservation and thriving. Many of them represent communities on the brink of erasure in San Francisco and elsewhere: American Indian Cultural District, SoMa Pilipinas, Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, and Chinese Culture Center.

Keith Battle, a co-instructor for SFUFF’s storytelling workshops since their inception 8 years ago, first led participants through the four pillars of storytelling: Story, Audience, Message, Style (SAMS). These pillars are helpful for gaining media literacy and also can be applied when crafting your own stories — here’s how:

• Story: Identify the sequence of events, the central conflict, and the central character–what is the resolution and who will be a part of making it happen?
• Audience: Your audience could be based on a certain demographic, geography, shared interest, etc. — what does the audience need that you can provide in this story?
• Message: This is the big takeaway of the entire story and should be repeated multiple times throughout (top, middle, and end) — what is the call to action?
• Style: How you present the story could be through animation, comedy, public service announcement, music, etc. — how will you match the style of the story to your audience and message?

“People know when they’re being pandered to, so we need to match the style points in an authentic way”

“Think of storytelling as an iterative process. Focus on one or two things.”

Participants had an opportunity to apply the pillars to two videos about Toronto, Canada. Each video had very different stories, audiences, messages, and styles, nuances of which workshop participants were able to identify after only one hour of instruction on the SAMS method.

During small breakout groups, professional filmmakers led community leaders in generating and honing in on narratives. Photo: Austin Blackwell

After a short break, the workshop was brought to the next level by inviting participants to craft their own stories and narratives. Each cultural district broke into small groups and created a pitch for a video to spark engagement from their intended audiences around a community-based organizational goal. Participants walked through the pillars of SAMS with group leaders, each of whom are professional filmmakers: Pam Uzzell, Nix Guirre, Avni Shah, and Ken Fisher. Initially, each group found narrowing down the scope of their stories challenging. For some, the audience was not immediately clear because the goal of the story had not been defined. For others, the goals of the story tried to address everything at once, making the task unwieldy. After a very brief and intense 40 minutes of ideation, it was time to return as one big group and share story pitches.

In every group, a common theme emerged to galvanize people. Cultural districts and community organizations are in continuous need of support, whether through donations or participation in events. While audience, call to action, and style varied amongst each group, they all shared the need to increase donations and funding.

Photo: Austin Blackwell

SoMa Pilipinas — Bindlestiff Studio

Led by Avni Shah

Bindlestiff has been trying to grow their audience — although the SoMa-based theater company has been around for a long time, many San Franciscans are not familiar with them. Bindlestiff wants to grow locally and beyond to Pilipinx communities nationally and internationally.

• Problem Statement: Bindlestiff has been the epicenter of Filipino American theater arts and we need to develop a base of sustainers and donors to sustain us into the future.
• Goal: Garnering many smaller-scale donations rather than large donors.
• Story: A Pinay emigrates from the Philippines to SoMa. She takes workshops at Bindlestiff and presents her own one-woman show, which then attracts people to take on their own shows. This story ultimately tells the history of how Bindlestiff was formed.
• Visual: A plane lands in SoMa and a young girl finds her path to Bindlestiff. The video shows her one-woman show and people in the audience. The perspective shifts and people in the audience become people on stage, representing Bindlestiff’s programming for youth and seniors. Youth and seniors in the audience become youth and seniors on stage. The perspective switches again to someone watching the performance from a computer screen, and finally to someone, the person who started it all, watching with family.
• Hook: “See yourself at Bindlestiff.”
• Lessons learned from the exercise: “It was hard to crystalize until we had to represent it in a visual way. This was a really good exercise to offer clarity on the Bindlestiff organization.” — Oliver Saria, Managing Director, Bindlestiff

Photo: Austin Blackwell

American Indian Cultural District (AICD)

Led by Pam Uzzell and Shantré Pinkney

AICD wants to combat Native erasure and to educate people that American Indians are still here through inter-tribal community building and telling stories through their own voices and lenses.

• Problem Statement: Our Voice. Our history. Our truth. American Indians are the original storytellers. Our history is passed down through the generations in the form of oral tradition. Despite all attempts to exterminate and erase our people, culture, and traditions we are still using oral history today to tell our stories. The American Indian Cultural District, through the Indigenize Project will create an interactive experience that will confront systemic erasure, take back our own historical narrative, and add to the rich cultural heritage of San Francisco by expanding public awareness and elevating Native visibility through an Indigenous lens. American Indians (and Ramaytush Ohlone) are not a people of the past, but an integral and active community in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Audience: People, especially partners, who visit the AICD website regularly would click on a quick video to learn about the Indigenize Project.
• Visual scenes:

1. “We are still here.” The story opens with a grandmother telling a story to her grandchild, bringing an intergenerational connection. She shares why there is a Cultural District and why they should care. The grandchild helps the grandmother up as they get ready to walk out of the house.
2. “We are not who you think we are.” The next scene shows images of American Indian artists, office workers, and general community members in San Francisco, in contrast with how they are represented in popular media, conveying that society’s stereotypical perceptions about American Indians are wrong.
3. “The takeback: our narrative, our voice, our story.” The Indigenize Project is about educating and a call to action. People are invited to join AICD as they start their walking tour initiative. In this final scene, we see the same grandmother and her grandchild from the first scene walking through the district (which is located around Folsom and 14th Streets in San Francisco).

Photo: Austin Blackwell

Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District

Led by Nix Guirre

Amidst huge changes in the neighborhood, the Leather and LGBTW Cultural District hopes to build more stability by driving community engagement in District goals and programming.

• Problem Statement: The Cultural District plans to launch a capital campaign to purchase a building that serves as a community center and our headquarters, as the only way to ensure that further displacement of our community does not occur. We wish to create a narrative that is compelling and motivates people to support the effort.
• Audience: Primarily LGBTQ people from the Bay Area and beyond, and people who live in the area to build a bridge to make the area better for everyone.
• Style: The narrative would come from constituents of the district and a drag queen dressed in leather would be the central character to keep it humorous and entertaining.
• Visual: The story opens with a history of the district and a montage of the district’s many landmarks. It then transitions to presenting challenges and successes of the district and how people have been affected by both.
• Call to Action: For people to attend more events, volunteer, and provide input on what a new facility should look like. “We want the community center to be like home”
• Lessons learned from the exercise: “You have to start some place” — Bob Brown, President, Board of Directors, LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District

Photo: Austin Blackwell

Chinese Culture Center (CCC)

Led by Ken Fisher

Chinatown is in need of a permanent, community-controlled cultural space. The CCC gallery and event space currently sits on the third floor of a Hilton Hotel, a space negotiated between the Chinatown community and the hotel developer as part of a community benefit agreement where the lease expires in 10 years. The pedestrian bridge that connects the community to the center is being torn down this year. An understanding of the history of the existing space is important to its home, whether by creating access in its current space, lease negotiations, or other plans.

• Problem Statement: CCC will launch an outreach campaign to build support for an anchor art & cultural space in Chinatown and need compelling narratives to support the campaign. Building on a strong foundation of affordable housing, community services, and planning ordinances, a dedicated art space for Chinatown’s cultural growth will be key to nurturing and growing a thriving cultural region. Because of Chinatown’s importance in the City, the West Coast, we would like to target foundations, the City, and the State to invest in Chinatown’s cultural future.
• Hook: “Chinatown deserves an artspace.”
• Visual: The story shows CCC’s application for a space being denied at the former Hall of Justice. Then a pedestrian bridge is built to connect the community to the third floor. Immediately after, the pedestrian bridge is torn down, and the cultural space disappears along with a message that this is what will happen if nothing is done. The next part presents a new vision for what the new space looks like: immigrant artists, elders, young, accessible and welcoming, open and light. Finally, the story shares the voices of elders and young people on how new space will enable creativity and engagement, how their lives have been impacted, and how individual funders and donors can contribute to this new vision and space.

On this day, cultural district and center leaders created clear visions for campaigns to strengthen their place in San Francisco. Fay closed the storytelling workshop by reiterating the importance of storytelling: “As people feel more comfortable with these steps, they will be able to better share stories that represent their communities. They will be able to tell their own stories and ensure that culture, stories, and histories are not erased.” And participants walked away with the tools to craft stories of their own communities in the hopes of stabilization and growth.

This event took place on March 13, 2022. For more information about the SF Urban Film Fest, visit our website.