San Francisco Family Friendly Art Festival Celebrates Diversity

Common Grounds, the free multi-week celebration of the arts celebrating our diverse city, held in the San Francisco Chronicle Parking Lot, and presented by Intersection for the Arts is proud to spotlight FAMILY DAY.

With over four stages of free entertainment, Common Grounds - Family Day will provide the community with the opportunity to gather and celebrate. Performances begin Saturday, May 20th from 11am - 4pm at the San Francisco Chronicle Parking Lot, Corner 5th & Natoma St, SOMA.

 

The main stage will come alive with various performances, while the smaller stages will host a vast array of arts activities and workshops for children and parents alike. There will be field trip tours of the local area as well as a small artisan/craft market. Food will be available for purchase from Off the Grid. Families are encouraged to bring a picnic and join the fun-filled day.

Performers and Presenters include:

Alphabet Rockers // Children’s Hip Hop Troupe

Alphabet Rockers' hip hop concert is guaranteed to get all children ages 3-9 speaking up and singing out! Lyrics like "gonna be the change in the world, we all gotta see!" empower tiny change-makers to move us all. Kids will learn hip hop choreography, beat-boxing, and create handshakes that celebrate who they are. “Hip Hop Spells Success: Alphabet Rockers tackle issues of race, diversity, and kindness- all while inspiring a love of hip hop.”

-San Francisco Chronicle. Not to be missed! 

BYOQ Drag Me Up // Children’s Drag Performance + Face Painting

Queer arts organization, Bring Your Own Queer (BYOQ) presents a cabaret of drag performance specifically created for children, families and seniors! Featuring Tamale Ringwald and LOL MCfiercen singing fractured nursery rhymes and Rock M. Sakura with special guests from the Mint Mall, Drag Me Up! will delight audiences of all ages with drag performers rarely seen in the light of day.

Crochet Jam // Social Practice and Participatory Event
Artist Ramekon O’Arwisters will organize one of his famous Crochet Jams. Crochet Jams are conceived as a wonderful opportunity for creativity, social interaction, and liberation within the format of a community-centric event. Anyone can participate, just show up.

Boom Shake Music // Children’s Drumming Workshop

For young people and their adults who want to make loud in the streets, build community, play drum rhythms, chant, move and have fun! Participants have the chance to try out a variety of drums and percussion instruments - bass drums, snares, toms, bells and shakers. Learn to play a group rhythm, improvise solos and build your own original chants in collaboration with new friends. 

Embodiment Project  // Street Dance
They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds (excerpt) uses virtuosic street dance, documentary theater, and choreo-poetry to center on a timely conversation about the school-to-prison pipeline, restorative justice, race, privilege, power and healing.

Notoriety Variety // Circus Performers

Notoriety Variety is a San Francisco Bay Area-based performance group that produces immersive, delightful, and playful variety shows  for audiences of all ages.

Rabbit Hole Theater // Marionette Puppet Performance and Play

The Rabbit Hole Children's Theatre will be bringing out costumes and puppet stands for all the kids at the festival to join in workshops and performances. Witness the power of theatre to inspire all-around imagination and play!

Little Artistas // Children’s Art Installation

PARALLEL PARK brings local artists to find the park within the parking lot. Large-scale sculptures, performance, and drawings contend with change, disorientation, and community. Incorporating materials like insulation foam, PVC, concrete, paint, and clay, the work echoes the industrial scaffolding that support green spaces. Artists include Barbara Obata, Eli Thorne, Joey Enos, Rachel Higgins, Laruen Marie Taylor, and more.

Mi Cultura Art Project // Children’s Visual Art Workshops

Children's interactive visual art project where participants are invited to join in painting mandalas on tortillas.

The Greatest Monkey Show on Earth // Ross Travis becomes Charlie the Monkey

Prepare to be overwhelmed as you see incredible feats of dexterity, sophistication unlike anything you’ve seen from our primate ancestors before. This isn’t your run of the mill animal show here, folks — no sir, you are in for something special! Behold the brilliance of Maitresse Magnificent and Charles the Chimp as they enslave your sympathy with a frivolous display of crowd pleasing entertainments and skills including flips, shenanigans, hoop diving and audience interaction. Then let them captivate you with taboo acts of subjugation!

Stairwells // Interactive field trips

Stairwell’s will present a series of newly-crafted Field Trip walking tours, each led by Stairwell’s Co-Director Carey Lin in collaboration with guest Field Trip leaders Raheleh Minoosh Zomorodinia and Gabriel Gilder. These artist-lead tours shed new light on ordinary places. 

About Intersection for the Arts

Now in its fifty-second year, Intersection for the Arts provides artists and arts organizations of the Bay Area resources, community and cultural space in order to develop sustainable practices. Our organization’s model is built on four key areas: the transactional – fiscal sponsorship, financial management, accounting, bookkeeping, etc.; the interactional – personal assistance through training, coaching, mentoring and intentional peer-to-peer encounters; the educational – professional development and extended learning; and the physical – subsidized space, equipment, etc. By providing these as well as exhibition and performance opportunities, we take a more comprehensive approach to our support of artists and arts organizations that has greater impact.

Dates: May 20-June 6
Location: Located on the future cultural gathering space of the 5M development
Address: Between Mission and Natoma Streets; between 5th and Mary Streets
Visitor details: theintersection.org/commongrounds

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