A New Kind of Revolution: The Politics of Listening

Posted on by Paige Webster
politics of listening

This may not be a popular opinion. I’m writing it anyway because my own integrity requires it. First, I do not like what I see and hear on the news about what is happening in our country. In fact, I became so disempowered by the news that I opted out about 18 months ago. I just stopped paying attention and figured if there was something I needed to know, I’d hear about it eventually. This chafes my mother to no end. I’m not saying this was a good approach nor am I advocating you follow it. I’m just saying it’s […]

October 2019: Approaching Politics

Posted on by Ciara Pressler
Ciara PreGame Portland Oregon

Even though we’re over a year out from the next U.S. presidential election, we’re already inundated with reports of candidates, campaigns, and controversy. We’ve barely had a breather, and here we are avoiding the 24-hour news cycle again like it’s November 2016. Even if we can find a way to opt out of the minute-by-minute ticker tape of speculation and developments, to live in a society is to deal with politics. We each decide on a level of participation on the political spectrum, from habits of avoidance to a lifetime of public service. Eventually, politics demand interaction, if not on voting […]

Burn, Baby, Burn: Notes From the Ashes of the #MeToo Movement

Posted on by Uma Kleppinger
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Forests recover from wildfires through the germination of seeds that are stored in the earth, some of which need the heat of fire to germinate successfully. Singed trees can sprout new branches that become new trees. In short, many forests benefit from an occasional fire. But what of the business landscape after the wildfire that is the #MeToo movement? It has been nearly two years since the movement spread across the country and then the world, like a climate-change fueled wildfire. The tinder? The untold stories of millions of women who had experienced sexual or physical harassment, assault, or abuse […]

Featured Artists: Ninth Street Collective

Posted on by Pregame Magazine
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Being an artist is a serious profession, but too often, many of the skills needed to succeed are not taught in art school. For most artists, balancing studio time with career opportunities can be overwhelming, especially when they are self-directed. Fortunately, this is where entrepreneurial groups like Ninth Street Collective (NSC) can help artists by providing them with tools to learn the business of art. With a focus on professional development, the Collective, founded by five female members, fortifies emerging and mid-career artists by generating long and short term goals, creating action plans and strategizing career paths. From identifying exhibition […]

Featured Artist: Brian Singer

Posted on by Pregame Magazine
Brian Singer someguy

Someguy, also known as Brian Singer, is a San Francisco based fine artist whose projects have received international attention. His art ranges from intimate works with paper to large scale participatory projects. The 1000 Journals Project, launched in 2000, was turned into a book, a feature length documentary, and has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The project was covered in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Better Homes and Gardens and many others. More recently, he launched the provocative project TWIT Spotting, where […]

Red Dirt Girls

Posted on by Lori Eberly
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For ten days, we are bound by clay, water, sand and straw – in various ratios and textures. Bamboo, tapioca, and cement show up from time to time, but basically, we are women with red hands and feet. Kahlo (as in Frida) is 18 months old. Susan is 77. We are every decade in between. We are Thai, French, Hungarian; Canadian, American, Mongolian. We are Pakistani, raised in Canada, living in Malaysia. We are Punjabi, raised by immigrants in the UK, teaching in Chang Mai. We hail from Japan, Scotland, China, and Hong Kong. We are – the 35 of […]

Dear CEO: Your Feel-Good Diversity Initiative is Undermined By Every Other Way You’re Doing Business

Posted on by Ciara Pressler
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Last week, I sat in huge ballroom full of entrepreneurs and cringed as a white male CEO gave a TED-style talk on how he solved diversity. Yeah, that happened. You see, he has realized his business – oh! also his industry – oh oh! also his city – were too white and too male, and so he co-launched an initiative to place a one person of color as a paid intern at each of several dozen local startups. He had written an editorial on it too (not the kind of searching op-ed that’s designed to explore potential solutions difficult problems; the […]

February 2019: Diversity & Culture

Posted on by Ciara Pressler
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Welcome to the most provocative issue of Pregame Magazine to date. In discussing this month’s topic of diversity and culture, our contributors opted to keep it real. No maxim-riddled fluff. We went straight for the cultural jugular, favoring much-needed call-outs over the typical overoptimistic (and oversimplistic) opinions which do little more than to serve to keep us all exactly where we are as an individual or as a culture. I couldn’t be more proud. You see, it’s easier to stay in the feel-good zone; to wrap complicated concepts with a neat little bow. But if diversity were easy, wouldn’t we […]

Art in the Interactive: What is the Nature of “Our” Space?

Posted on by Ciara Pressler
Marc Bamuthi Joseph speaks at TEDGlobal 2017 - Builders, Truth Tellers, Catalysts - August 27-30, 2017, Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: Ryan Lash / TED

Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Chief of Program and Pedagogy at YBCA—and newly-appointed Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.—will use his wisdom and words as Moderator of the ‘re:home’ For Freedoms Town Hall, Saturday, December 15 from 6-8pm, to explore the question “How do creatives show up as humanitarians within the context of democracy?”   Sergio De La Torre and Chris Treggiari, Sanctuary City Project’s mobile tricycle silk screen cart.     Sergio De La Torre and Chris Treggiari, Sanctuary City Project’s billboards and banners, San Francisco. […]

re:home: Exploring Place and Identity

Posted on by Pregame Magazine
Julio César Morales, Boy In Suitcase

Julio César Morales, Boy in Suitcase, 2013, HD animation video with sound, 3:33 minutes, Edition of 3 + 2AP, Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco. Brian Singer/ someguy, Untitled (Driftwood), 75” w x 60” h x 5” d, Driftwood, acrylic, cotton flags, 2018. Singer uses the flags from the five countries the United States has granted asylum to the largest number of refugees from the past several years (Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Myanmar) are each unraveled, disassembled and reconstructed – exploring the themes of nationalism and assimilation. For Coalition on Homelessness.   […]