Gatore Mukarhinda hosts a monthly open mic for poets, musicians, storytellers, and anybody with something to say.
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at every event you attend at 220 Montgomery.
KALW's Open Mic happens the final Friday of every month from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Philosophy Talk: Live Episode Recording
Wednesday, July 24, 7:00 - 8:00 PM
We all engage in mental actions of various kinds, whether it’s planning the coming week, trying to remember the lyrics of a song, or imagining what we’d look like with a different haircut. These thought processes have significance for us and help us direct our other actions. But are we really in control of our trains of thought or do they just pop into consciousness? Does it make sense to criticize others for what goes on inside their heads? And is there anything we can do to improve the quality of our thinking?
Join our live audience at the KALW's downtown San Francisco event space as the Philosophers record a brand-new episode with their Stanford colleague Antonia Peacocke, author of Mental Means (forthcoming).
In addition to thought-provoking conversation and audience questions, the show will feature multimedia reporting from Roving Philosophical Reporter Sarah Lai Stirland and satirical commentary from Ian Shoales the Sixty-Second Philosopher.
Philosophy Talk airs Sundays on 91.7 FM, or on demand at KALW.org.
This event is donation supported, with no one turned away for lack of funds. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 6:00 🗣️ Program begins at 7:00 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Bay Writers: Sex, Intimacy, and the Body
Tuesday, July 23 · 7 - 8:30pm
Experience poetry by Brittany Newell, Malcolm Squire, Sloka Krishnan, Theadora Walsh, and Wren Farrell exploring embodiment, desire, intimacy, and the edges that lead to transformation.
Come early to enjoy KALW's downtown gallery exhibit of sculptures and paintings from Burning Man by Brendan Darby, Matt Elson, David Normal, and Jesse Pemberton.
Join KALW's celebration of local literary culture anytime by tuning into Bay Poets, a weekly poetry segment that airs on KALW featuring Bay Area poets reading their own poems in their own voices. Listen here, and on 91.7 FM.
This event is donation supported, with a $10 suggested contribution. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at every 220 Montgomery event you attend.
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 6:00 🗣️ Poetry begins at 7:00 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
BRITTANY NEWELL
Brittany Newell is a writer and performer living in San Francisco. Her debut novel Oola was published in 2017 at the age of 21 by Henry Holt and HarperCollins. It was translated into German by btb, a division of Random House, in January 2020 and published as Ein Sommer in Big Sur. Her second novel SOFT CORE will be published by FSG (US) and HarperCollins (UK) in February 2025. From 2017-18 she wrote a regular column on gender and sexuality for Dazed Digital. You can find her written work in Granta, N+1, Joyland, The New York Times and Playgirl. In 2021 she was a recipient of the San Francisco Arts Commission's Individual Artist grant for artists serving under-represented communities. In addition to writing, she has worked as a professional dominatrix since 2018. She and her wife Silk Worm run a monthly drag and dance party called Angels at Aunt Charlie's Lounge, one of San Francisco's oldest queer bars. You can find her on Instagram at @frottage_industry.
MALCOLM SQUIRE
Malcolm Squire is a multimedia artist specializing in film photography and creative writing. Born and raised in Ames, Iowa, Malcolm has lived and worked in the Bay Area for the past nine years. Across his time spent in the Midwest and in California, Malcolm has been creating through film photography and poetry for over 13 years. Malcolm's photography explores themes of nudity, materiality, nature, identity, intimate friendship and self-portraiture, as a means of engaging with his vulnerabilities. Malcolm’s poetry depicts visceral observations of which he takes note, as a method of searching for deeper meaning through the avenue of his beautiful yet often mundane lived experience.
SLOKA KRISHNAN
Sloka Krishnan is a playwright-lyricist interested in magic, extravagance, ritual, camp, and the disavowal of moral purity and coherent identity. His writing has been described as subversive, multilayered, and eviscerating (by a boy he once slept with) and as darkly surreal comedy (by a legitimate online publication). Now based in San Francisco, he is a 2024-2025 Resident Playwright with Playwrights Foundation. He was previously a 2020 recipient of an Artist Project Grant from the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, a 2017-2018 Horizon Theatre Playwright Apprentice, and a 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Playwriting. His work has been developed and performed by Cutting Ball Theatre (San Francisco); Happy Accident Theatre, Horizon Theatre Company, Out Front Theatre, and Working Title Playwrights (Atlanta); Forum Theatre and the Rainbow Theatre Project (DC).
THEADORA WALSH
Theadora Walsh is a writer who makes essays, journalism, poetry, and moving texts with an interest in considering the tension between the physicality of language and its documentation. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Gulf Coast, SFMOMA’s Open Space, Apogee, Vol 1 Brooklyn, and Unbag. Criticism has appeared in Artforum, KQED arts, Art Papers, BOMB, Electronic Book Review, Afterimage, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Brown University where her thesis won the 2019 Francis-Mason Harris '26 Prize for book length manuscript. Recently, she ran a curatorial project in San Francisco called In Concert.
WREN FARRELL
Wren Farrell is a poet, journalist, and audio producer living in San Francisco. Originally from San Diego, he moved to the Bay Area in 2018, where he got his start in radio at KPFA. He graduated from KALW’s Audio Academy in 2021 and then went on to work for a number of podcasts as an associate producer. In 2023 he joined the inaugural class of UC Berkeley’s California Local News Fellowship, which brought him back to KALW as a full-time emergency and disaster preparedness reporter.
Celebrate KALW's new downtown art exhibit featuring the works of Brenden Darby, Matt Elson, David Normal, and Jesse Pemberton at this artist talk moderated by KALW Executive Producer Ben Trefny.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🗣️ Discussion begins at 6 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street — We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north — Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue — If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Come celebrate the humptiest hump day each month with food, drink, song, and fun at KALW's event space. Choose from more than 50,000 songs and hit us with your best shot. Maybe you want to dance with somebody. Or just come by and listen if you want it that way.
KALW's Hump Day Karaoke Night happens in the middle of every month — every third Wednesday from 6 pm to 9 pm.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW Member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 6 🍕 Free food from our sponsor: Joyride Pizza 🍷 Refreshments for donation 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP
Please note:
- The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street - We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north - Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue - If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Gatore Mukarhinda hosts a monthly open mic for poets, musicians, storytellers, and anybody with something to say.
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🍕 Free food from our sponsor: SOMA Eats 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
KALW's Open Mic happens the second Thursday of every month from 5 pm to 7 pm.
🆓 The event is free with an RSVP
Please note:
- The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street - We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north - Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue - If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Gatore Mukarhinda hosts a monthly open mic for poets, musicians, storytellers, and anybody with something to say.
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
KALW's Open Mic happens the final Friday of every month from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Join us for an evening of education, empowerment, storytelling, and community building with local music industry professionals, producers, and creators.
KALW is partnering with YR Music, the music brand of YR Media, to host a panel discussion about current and future trends in the music industry. YR Media is a youth-driven production company and training center for journalism and multimedia creation, celebrating 30 years of impact in the Bay Area and nationally.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🗣️ Discussion begins at 6 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
Please note:
- The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street - We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north - Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue - If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
KALW's Sights & Sounds celebrates Pride with an all-star comedy lineup hosted by Jeneé Darden and produced by Porfirio Rangel! This show is for adults only.
Rea Kapur
Rea Kapur is a Bay Area based comedian, almost professional filmmaker, and devout lesbian. She’s performed at shows like Mental Health Comedy Hour, Crazy Funny Asians, and Comedy Oakland, as well as being one of the winners at the San Jose Improv open mic. Rea’s brutal honesty and quick wit make her a dazzling, dynamic, and sometimes depressingly relatable comedian. Follow her on Instagram @reakapur
Marcus Williams
Marcus Williams is a stand-up comedian posing as a structural engineer during business hours. He was a semi-finalist in the 2016 Sacramento Comedy Festival and has performed at the San Francisco Punchline, Cobb's Comedy Club, all over New York, Denver, and several other locations with a stage and a microphone. He's funny as hell.
Frida Sierra
For over a decade, Frida Sierra has traveled through the United States, eating from vending machines and telling jokes to strangers. Coming out of the Bay Area, sweating profusely and speaking loudly, with electric fast-paced storytelling, Frida’s credits include the Santa Cruz Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, the Savage Henry Comedy Festival, the Great American Music Hall, working with people such as Eric Wareheim from Tim & Eric, Tom Rhodes, Dean Delray and a bunch of famous comics that wouldn’t remember her. Frida has been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle as well as Fox KTVU News and KQED.
Cindy Emch (solo)
Cindy Emch, sometimes known as the 'First Lady of Queer Country' is known for her distinct voice and ability to blend Americana, California Country, Hellbilly, Goth, and Honky Tonk, spinning radically distinctive tales from her singular perspective in her band Secret Emchy Society. She's also been called "gothic queer country royalty" by Pandora, and called out numerous times as a "Must See" act at SXSW and AmericanaFest, and has been featured at the National Queer Arts Festival, Fresh Meat: Festival of Transgender & Queer Performance, the SF International Arts Festival, and the SF International Lesbian & Gay Festival. Her band Secret Emchy Society has been named by TheBoot.com as one of the Ten Queer Country Bands for Real Country Music Fans to Listen To, a triple nominee for Best Live Band by the Bay Area Reporter, and landed in End of Year 'Best Of' lists from No Depression, Concert Hopper, and the Atlanta Auditory Association.
Porfirio Rangel
Porfirio Rangel produces Sights & Sounds. He's a graduate of San Francisco State University and KALW's Audio Academy. He's a cosplay star - just check his socials.
Jeneé Darden
Jeneé Darden is an award-winning journalist, author, public speaker and mental health advocate. She grew up in a diverse, working-class neighborhood in Oakland, Calif. and learned so much about life, people and culture from her community. The greatest gift she ever received was a journal her mother gave her at seven years old. She hasn't stopped writing since.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5:30 🗣️ Show begins at 6:30 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street — We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north — Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue — If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
The remarkable story of a hidden New Deal program that tried to change America and end the Great Depression using folk music, laying the groundwork for the folk revival and having a lasting impact on American culture.
Photo: Shira Bezalel
A CHANCE TO HARMONIZE_Author Sheryl Kaskowitz
In 1934, the Great Depression had destroyed the US economy, leaving residents poverty-stricken. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt urged President Roosevelt to take radical action to help those hit hardest — Appalachian miners and mill workers stranded after factories closed, city dwellers with no hope of getting work, farmers whose land had failed. They set up government homesteads in rural areas across the country, an experiment in cooperative living where people could start over. To boost morale and encourage the homesteaders to find community in their own traditions, the administration brought in artists to lead group activities—including folk music.
As part of a music unit led by Charles Seeger (father of Pete), staffer Sidney Robertson traveled the country to record hundreds of folk songs. Music leaders, most notably Margaret Valiant, were sent to homesteads to use the collected songs to foster community and cooperation. Working almost entirely (and purposely) under the radar, the music unit would collect more than 800 songs and operate for nearly two years, until they were shut down under fire from a conservative coalition in Congress that deemed the entire homestead enterprise dangerously “socialistic."
Despite its early demise, the music unit proved that music can provide hope and a sense of belonging even in the darkest times. It also laid the groundwork for the folk revival that followed, seeing the rise of artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Odetta, and Bob Dylan.
Award-winning author and Harvard-trained American music scholar Sheryl Kaskowitz has had the unique opportunity to listen to the music unit’s entire collection of recordings and examine a trove of archival materials, some of which have never been made available to the public.
A Chance To Harmonize reveals this untold story and will delight readers with the revelation of a new and previously undiscovered chapter in American cultural history.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🗣️ Discussion begins at 6 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Winner of the 2024 DocLands Audience Award, MAKE A CIRCLE follows a group of child care providers who are determined to change how our society values the education of its youngest citizens. With a mix of humor, outrage, and passion, MAKE A CIRCLE captures the unfolding stories of Patricia, a leader of the California child care workers union, as she fights on behalf of a largely immigrant workforce; Charlotte, another union member who tirelessly lifts up the low-income families in her care; and Anne, the director of a large preschool, who finds novel ways to value and support her teachers when jobs at Starbucks are offering higher pay. Within their stories are interludes that offer a cinematic window into the unique, imaginative world of the young children in their care. The film culminates as thousands of child care union members march on their state capitol demanding better working conditions, just as their contract is set to expire. Weaving together the magic they create in the classroom, the struggles they endure at home, and their tireless activism for their profession, MAKE A CIRCLE is a moving portrait of life as an early childhood educator and a promising blueprint for fixing our broken child care system.
Please join the filmmakers and early educator film participants for an engaging Q&A around supporting our youngest Californians at the beginning of their educational journey.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 6:00 🗣️ Show begins at 7:00 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want 🧸 Free child care available. If attending with your child, please contact the filmmakers at info@makeacirclefilm.com in addition to securing your free Eventbrite ticket.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
JEN BRADWELL -- CO-DIRECTOR, EDITOR
Jen has edited more than 15 feature documentaries, including the Emmy Award-winning TIME FOR ILHAN, THE BIG PICTURE: RETHINKING DYSLEXIA (Sundance/HBO), Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s FAIR PLAY (Hulu), and Erika Cohn’s WHAT YOU’LL REMEMBER (NYT Op-Docs). Two seminal projects she wrote and edited (RESILIENCE and PAPER TIGERS) have had more than 50,000 community screenings to date, helping ignite a national conversation about childhood trauma. Jen has taught editing master classes at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and UC Santa Cruz’s Social Documentation program. Years of editing and story consulting have inspired her to direct her first feature doc.
TODD BOEKELHEIDE -- CO-DIRECTOR, CINEMATOGRAPHER
Todd’s long and varied career began with editing picture and sound on STAR WARS and THE BLACK STALLION. He subsequently mixed sound on numerous Oscar-winning films, and won an Academy Award for AMADEUS. He then built a career composing music for documentaries, including HEARTS OF DARKNESS, BALLETS RUSSES, SEÑORITA EXTRAVIADA, and 31⁄2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS. He has worked with a stellar list of filmmakers: David Fincher, Carroll Ballard, David Lynch, Jon Else, Milos Forman, Philip Kaufman, David Peoples, Bill Couturié, Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, Lourdes Portillo and many others. Todd brings his decades of experience to his directorial debut.
Join us at the upcoming Beat Haus show, featuring Exile (of Blu & Exile) as the headliner.
Exile is a lauded hip-hop producer and DJ who you might know from his seminal work with rapper Blu as part of the duo Blu & Exile. They've put out some game-changing albums like "Below the Heavens," packed with soulful beats and meaningful lyrics.
Exile's unique production style has made him a beloved figure in indie hip-hop, and a seminal innovator of chopping samples amongst the Hip-hop production elite.
Supporting act Sirplus will be on tour promoting his album "Squares" on Dirty Science Records. The event will also showcase performances by producers and beat makers Mon$Rock from Sacramento, representing FlipABeatClub, Umamifunk from Oakland, and Teru Da Funk Jester from Santa Rosa.
DO NOT MISS THIS. Tickets are available on sale NOW!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Celebrate KALW's new downtown art exhibit featuring the works of Brenden Darby, Matt Elson, David Normal, and Jesse Pemberton at this artist talk moderated by KALW Executive Producer Ben Trefny.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🗣️ Discussion begins at 6 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street — We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north — Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue — If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Come celebrate the humptiest hump day each month with food, drink, song, and fun at KALW's event space. Choose from more than 50,000 songs and hit us with your best shot. Maybe you want to dance with somebody. Or just come by and listen if you want it that way.
KALW's Hump Day Karaoke Night happens in the middle of every month — every third Wednesday from 6 pm to 9 pm.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW Member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 6 🍕 Free food from our sponsor: Joyride Pizza 🍷 Refreshments for donation 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP
Please note:
- The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street - We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north - Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue - If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Gatore Mukarhinda hosts a monthly open mic for poets, musicians, storytellers, and anybody with something to say.
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🍕 Free food from our sponsor: SOMA Eats 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
KALW's Open Mic happens the second Thursday of every month from 5 pm to 7 pm.
🆓 The event is free with an RSVP
Please note:
- The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street - We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north - Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue - If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Gatore Mukarhinda hosts a monthly open mic for poets, musicians, storytellers, and anybody with something to say.
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
KALW's Open Mic happens the final Friday of every month from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Join us for an evening of education, empowerment, storytelling, and community building with local music industry professionals, producers, and creators.
KALW is partnering with YR Music, the music brand of YR Media, to host a panel discussion about current and future trends in the music industry. YR Media is a youth-driven production company and training center for journalism and multimedia creation, celebrating 30 years of impact in the Bay Area and nationally.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🗣️ Discussion begins at 6 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
Please note:
- The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street - We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north - Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue - If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
KALW's Sights & Sounds celebrates Pride with an all-star comedy lineup hosted by Jeneé Darden and produced by Porfirio Rangel! This show is for adults only.
Rea Kapur
Rea Kapur is a Bay Area based comedian, almost professional filmmaker, and devout lesbian. She’s performed at shows like Mental Health Comedy Hour, Crazy Funny Asians, and Comedy Oakland, as well as being one of the winners at the San Jose Improv open mic. Rea’s brutal honesty and quick wit make her a dazzling, dynamic, and sometimes depressingly relatable comedian. Follow her on Instagram @reakapur
Marcus Williams
Marcus Williams is a stand-up comedian posing as a structural engineer during business hours. He was a semi-finalist in the 2016 Sacramento Comedy Festival and has performed at the San Francisco Punchline, Cobb's Comedy Club, all over New York, Denver, and several other locations with a stage and a microphone. He's funny as hell.
Frida Sierra
For over a decade, Frida Sierra has traveled through the United States, eating from vending machines and telling jokes to strangers. Coming out of the Bay Area, sweating profusely and speaking loudly, with electric fast-paced storytelling, Frida’s credits include the Santa Cruz Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, the Savage Henry Comedy Festival, the Great American Music Hall, working with people such as Eric Wareheim from Tim & Eric, Tom Rhodes, Dean Delray and a bunch of famous comics that wouldn’t remember her. Frida has been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle as well as Fox KTVU News and KQED.
Cindy Emch (solo)
Cindy Emch, sometimes known as the 'First Lady of Queer Country' is known for her distinct voice and ability to blend Americana, California Country, Hellbilly, Goth, and Honky Tonk, spinning radically distinctive tales from her singular perspective in her band Secret Emchy Society. She's also been called "gothic queer country royalty" by Pandora, and called out numerous times as a "Must See" act at SXSW and AmericanaFest, and has been featured at the National Queer Arts Festival, Fresh Meat: Festival of Transgender & Queer Performance, the SF International Arts Festival, and the SF International Lesbian & Gay Festival. Her band Secret Emchy Society has been named by TheBoot.com as one of the Ten Queer Country Bands for Real Country Music Fans to Listen To, a triple nominee for Best Live Band by the Bay Area Reporter, and landed in End of Year 'Best Of' lists from No Depression, Concert Hopper, and the Atlanta Auditory Association.
Porfirio Rangel
Porfirio Rangel produces Sights & Sounds. He's a graduate of San Francisco State University and KALW's Audio Academy. He's a cosplay star - just check his socials.
Jeneé Darden
Jeneé Darden is an award-winning journalist, author, public speaker and mental health advocate. She grew up in a diverse, working-class neighborhood in Oakland, Calif. and learned so much about life, people and culture from her community. The greatest gift she ever received was a journal her mother gave her at seven years old. She hasn't stopped writing since.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5:30 🗣️ Show begins at 6:30 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street — We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north — Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue — If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
The remarkable story of a hidden New Deal program that tried to change America and end the Great Depression using folk music, laying the groundwork for the folk revival and having a lasting impact on American culture.
Photo: Shira Bezalel
A CHANCE TO HARMONIZE_Author Sheryl Kaskowitz
In 1934, the Great Depression had destroyed the US economy, leaving residents poverty-stricken. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt urged President Roosevelt to take radical action to help those hit hardest — Appalachian miners and mill workers stranded after factories closed, city dwellers with no hope of getting work, farmers whose land had failed. They set up government homesteads in rural areas across the country, an experiment in cooperative living where people could start over. To boost morale and encourage the homesteaders to find community in their own traditions, the administration brought in artists to lead group activities—including folk music.
As part of a music unit led by Charles Seeger (father of Pete), staffer Sidney Robertson traveled the country to record hundreds of folk songs. Music leaders, most notably Margaret Valiant, were sent to homesteads to use the collected songs to foster community and cooperation. Working almost entirely (and purposely) under the radar, the music unit would collect more than 800 songs and operate for nearly two years, until they were shut down under fire from a conservative coalition in Congress that deemed the entire homestead enterprise dangerously “socialistic."
Despite its early demise, the music unit proved that music can provide hope and a sense of belonging even in the darkest times. It also laid the groundwork for the folk revival that followed, seeing the rise of artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Odetta, and Bob Dylan.
Award-winning author and Harvard-trained American music scholar Sheryl Kaskowitz has had the unique opportunity to listen to the music unit’s entire collection of recordings and examine a trove of archival materials, some of which have never been made available to the public.
A Chance To Harmonize reveals this untold story and will delight readers with the revelation of a new and previously undiscovered chapter in American cultural history.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 5 🗣️ Discussion begins at 6 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
Winner of the 2024 DocLands Audience Award, MAKE A CIRCLE follows a group of child care providers who are determined to change how our society values the education of its youngest citizens. With a mix of humor, outrage, and passion, MAKE A CIRCLE captures the unfolding stories of Patricia, a leader of the California child care workers union, as she fights on behalf of a largely immigrant workforce; Charlotte, another union member who tirelessly lifts up the low-income families in her care; and Anne, the director of a large preschool, who finds novel ways to value and support her teachers when jobs at Starbucks are offering higher pay. Within their stories are interludes that offer a cinematic window into the unique, imaginative world of the young children in their care. The film culminates as thousands of child care union members march on their state capitol demanding better working conditions, just as their contract is set to expire. Weaving together the magic they create in the classroom, the struggles they endure at home, and their tireless activism for their profession, MAKE A CIRCLE is a moving portrait of life as an early childhood educator and a promising blueprint for fixing our broken child care system.
Please join the filmmakers and early educator film participants for an engaging Q&A around supporting our youngest Californians at the beginning of their educational journey.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
See you there!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI 🚪 Doors open at 6:00 🗣️ Show begins at 7:00 🍕 Free snacks 🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house) 🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want 🧸 Free child care available. If attending with your child, please contact the filmmakers at info@makeacirclefilm.com in addition to securing your free Eventbrite ticket.
This event is free thanks to member support. Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
JEN BRADWELL -- CO-DIRECTOR, EDITOR
Jen has edited more than 15 feature documentaries, including the Emmy Award-winning TIME FOR ILHAN, THE BIG PICTURE: RETHINKING DYSLEXIA (Sundance/HBO), Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s FAIR PLAY (Hulu), and Erika Cohn’s WHAT YOU’LL REMEMBER (NYT Op-Docs). Two seminal projects she wrote and edited (RESILIENCE and PAPER TIGERS) have had more than 50,000 community screenings to date, helping ignite a national conversation about childhood trauma. Jen has taught editing master classes at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and UC Santa Cruz’s Social Documentation program. Years of editing and story consulting have inspired her to direct her first feature doc.
TODD BOEKELHEIDE -- CO-DIRECTOR, CINEMATOGRAPHER
Todd’s long and varied career began with editing picture and sound on STAR WARS and THE BLACK STALLION. He subsequently mixed sound on numerous Oscar-winning films, and won an Academy Award for AMADEUS. He then built a career composing music for documentaries, including HEARTS OF DARKNESS, BALLETS RUSSES, SEÑORITA EXTRAVIADA, and 31⁄2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS. He has worked with a stellar list of filmmakers: David Fincher, Carroll Ballard, David Lynch, Jon Else, Milos Forman, Philip Kaufman, David Peoples, Bill Couturié, Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, Lourdes Portillo and many others. Todd brings his decades of experience to his directorial debut.
Join us at the upcoming Beat Haus show, featuring Exile (of Blu & Exile) as the headliner.
Exile is a lauded hip-hop producer and DJ who you might know from his seminal work with rapper Blu as part of the duo Blu & Exile. They've put out some game-changing albums like "Below the Heavens," packed with soulful beats and meaningful lyrics.
Exile's unique production style has made him a beloved figure in indie hip-hop, and a seminal innovator of chopping samples amongst the Hip-hop production elite.
Supporting act Sirplus will be on tour promoting his album "Squares" on Dirty Science Records. The event will also showcase performances by producers and beat makers Mon$Rock from Sacramento, representing FlipABeatClub, Umamifunk from Oakland, and Teru Da Funk Jester from Santa Rosa.
DO NOT MISS THIS. Tickets are available on sale NOW!
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI
Please note:
— The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
— We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
— Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
— If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location
