“The system is the way that we relate to each other, right? It's the way one group the working class gets exploited by another group the ruling class,” he says. “There's no getting out of it until we overturn this, until we have a movement that creates a whole different system.”
It is a dance tradition, but it's very much culturally rooted. It's also for many, if not all, the people involved, a spiritual practice. But even in different (dance) groups that hold to different ways of being, we still collaborate together - we still work together to uplift the culture.
On a daily ride between San Leandro and the Mission, a young poet found her page in motion. Sehinne's poem earned a rare sweep of nine-or-higher scores at the 2025 Brave New Voices festival, helping Team Youth Speaks Bay Area take first place. In the piece, the train becomes a steady, slightly offbeat presence part family member, part witness a place where writing happens in stolen minutes between stations.
Perhaps no cuisine is as frustratingly scarce in the Bay Area as the one I was born into - Armenian food. While San Francisco once boasted a world-famous Armenian restaurant, you can't find so much as a food truck now with an officially Armenian menu. As if taunting me, Los Angeles with its larger diaspora population has a thriving Armenian food scene, including one restaurant in the Michelin Guide.
You might know him as the founder of the HellaFunny comedy collective, the owner of San Francisco's first Black-owned comedy club, or from his stand-up sets at Cobb's and Punch Line. Maybe you caught him on NBC, ABC, or in his featured role on STARZ's Blindspotting (they even wrote a part just for him - called "Stroy"). He's performed everywhere from Hawaii to Europe to Asia, but on September 27, he's bringing something entirely new to San Francisco.
Outside artists have established significant galleries, notably Roy De Forest's Nut Art Movement and Clayton Bailey's First Psychoceramic Church, contributing to the region's vibrant culture.
