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Next Three Events:

Bicycle and Walking tours, Public Talks, plus Bay Cruises!

Download the Spring 2025 calendar as a pdf here.

Saturday, August 17, 2-3:30 pm

Rainbow Grocery's Path Through Mission History

Walking Tour

Chris Carlsson and LisaRuth Elliott host an excursion through the various locations occupied by Rainbow Grocery and the People's Food System in the North Mission from the mid-1970s to the present. Hear about Rainbow's history, as well as the saga of the People's Food System, an unusual and complicated tale of left-wing politics, collectives, the earliest availability of organic and "international" food, the fight over white (sugar, flour, rice) vs. brown, and so much more!

RSVP to shaping@foundsf.org

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Wednesday, October 1, 7:30pm

Art & Politics: Eric Drooker Does William Burroughs—Naked City

Public Talk at 518 Valencia

The inimitable Eric Drooker presents his latest graphic novel rendition of William Burroughs' Naked City in sound and compelling imagery as only he can do it.

Explore Shaping San Francisco:

Ecology Emerges poster art by Mona Caron

Ecology Emerges

Discussions and reflections on the history of Bay Area ecological activism, based on oral histories documenting the past 50 years.

Ecology Emerges is an oral history gathering project to explore the past 50 years of ecological activism in the Bay Area and the role that individual and institutional memories play in the development, policy proposals, and interrelationships that together make up the existing networks of ecological politics.  We document the living ecological activist movement, in their own words, but also in a larger context of urban growth and globalization.

Read more…

Oral Histories

Oral Histories

Shaping San Francisco, as part of our ongoing work, sits down with people who have stories to tell and conducts oral history interviews.

Check them out here.

"Editor's Pick Tour" from FoundSF.org

Comprised of over 1,400 pages, and 2,500 historical photos, the wiki-based archive FoundSF.org is the product of hundreds of contributors, regular people who were compelled by the chance to investigate some piece of this City's past.

See the latest highlights…