Jerome Reyes and the South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN) are collaborating on a project to develop a multi-platform political campaign that generates and circulates artwork throughout the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco. Materials created through the project will focus on local issues of importance to SOMCAN’s Filipino and Latin American immigrant membership. These include pedestrian and bicycle safety, food rights, the South of Market Filipino Cultural Heritage District, housing awareness, and immigrant concerns. Public and indoor artworks, many of them text-based, will be presented around the neighborhood and in SOMCAN’s 2,000-square-foot storefront. Materials created through the project will become part of the archive Contact Points: Field Notes Toward Freedom.
SOMCAN is a multiracial, community-based organization that, since 2000, has served low-income immigrant youth and families living South of Market. Lead artist Jerome Reyes works at Stanford’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts. His multidisciplinary work engages with ideas of architecture, urban studies, and cultural difference. He’s made installations and drawings, programmed events, staged theatrical readings, and co-designed educational initiatives. This project will culminate in the early spring of 2018.
Photo by Jeremy Keith Villaluz