Still Here San Francisco lifts our voice alongside artists and cultural communities in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for justice, liberation, and sovereignty and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. We mourn and stand against the violence enacted by the Israeli state and occupying settlers responsible for murder, warfare and starvation and for the destruction of livelihood and infrastructure including homes, hospitals and cultural institutions.
Still Here was created to amplify the intergenerational voices and creativity of LGBTQ2S+ Black, Indigenous, and People of Color born and raised on the unceded, traditional land of the Ohlone people of Chichui village, which we call home and on which we are guests.
Among us are individuals living at the intersections of identity. We come from histories of struggle for self-determination and live the everyday impact of U.S. and Global imperialism.
Still Here SF would not exist without the powerful histories of solidarity, resistance, and collective and artistic space-making. We hold a parallel space; to create, learn, heal, connect and belong, to protect and preserve our rebellious stories, our beloved people, and our most intimate memories.
We believe in the power and responsibility of artists.We hold within that responsibility, the knowledge that safe spaces for queers and artists to find connection and refuge in Palestine are among the unfathomable losses happening right now. As we witness the targeting of writers, poets, journalists and other cultural record-keepers who bring light to the Israeli State’s actions and the suffering, humanity and resilience of Palestinian people, we commit to creating space, taking action, to making record, to honoring and to never forgetting.
We commit to bring each other close, to lift up Palestinian and South West Asian and North African (SWANA) voices, to be vocal against state-sanctioned violence and genocide, islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, homophobia and transphobia. We recognize these struggles are interconnected and in turn, how sacred collective space can be when oppressive forces seek to silence us. We know if suffering can spread from one person to another, so can freedom, and that none of us are free until all of us are free.
We invite you to listen to Still Here poets as they reflect and respond to these times and to add your voice in the call for action and for peace.
Still Here San Francisco, 2024