Posted on 01/22/2022 6:51:21 PM PST by KingofZion
Kevin Dublin, a San Francisco-based poet and writer, is doing everything he can to keep the city’s literary culture alive. He leads a number of writing programs, including the Elder Writing Project, which brings creative writing classes to retirement communities across the Bay Area. He also hosts a community-building reading series, mentors under-resourced kids, spends his summers teaching writing at various youth camps and dreams of founding his own writing youth camp in San Francisco. He is exactly the kind of guy you would want as your neighbor. He’s also exactly the kind of guy the city of San Francisco is least hospitable to.
“There’s so much opportunity here, but a lot of people are holding on by a shoestring,” says Dublin.
The community of artists and writers to which Dublin belongs is fighting to hold on to their place in the most expensive city in America. In 2015, the same year Dublin moved to the Bay Area, the San Francisco Arts Commission surveyed nearly 600 local artists and found that more than 70% of them had either already left San Francisco or were about to be displaced from their work, home or both. The pandemic has only intensified these problems. A report by Americans for the Arts found that 53% of artists have no savings whatsoever as a result of the pandemic.
In an effort to mitigate what appears to be an existential threat to the arts, in March 2021, the city of San Francisco partnered with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to launch a guaranteed income pilot, called the SF Guaranteed Income Pilot for Artists, or SF-GIPA, that gives 130 local low-income artists who have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic $1,000 a month, no strings attached, for 18 months. Dublin is among them...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Where in Iowa did you live? Out in the country? I live across the river from Omaha in Council Bluffs, IA in a 5 bedroom house. Last month’s bill was around $50.
For my air conditioning I have a split ductless system, otherwise known as Mr. Slim. I run my A/C constantly all summer long. I might have cracked a $50 electric bill once or twice during the Summer, but only when it’s really hot for a long time.
Democrats are always looking for new works to con the local yokels..
That’s not even meth money.
Maybe red state could chip in some money to pay liberals in California NOT to move to our states...
My folks lived in Council Bluffs for many years. Dad worked for Iowa Power for many years. Now Midlands, right? Heck of a coal power plant.
Both rooftop AC units were stretched far beyond their expected life spans when I replaced them last year. I REALLY wanted to replace one of them with mini splits. I’m certain they would have saved a lot on electricity. Un(?)fortunately, after obtaining nearly a dozen different bids, I got a deal so sweet on a pair of heat pumps that I couldn’t justify going any other way. I will say the electric bill did drop with the new units.
Perhaps if these so called “ARTISTS” produced something people wanted they wouldn’t have to live off the public wellfare!
Poetry, painting, and dance are fine, but my advise is; GET A REAL JOB YOU BUM!
One other thing; CUT YOUR UGLY ASS HAIR!
He is exactly the kind of person I don’t want as my neighbor. But as long as it is not my tax dollars (yeah I know it is tax dollars laundered through a democrat party front group) I don’t care what they do with it.
“fighting to hold on to their place in the most expensive city in America.”
There is a solution to that issue.
Heh, when I was in the USN back in the Seventies, there was a guy in my squadron from Mississippi. He was humorously depraved, thin as a rail, lip filled with snuff, and impossible to not like. Always had a big grin.
He was only maybe 20 years old, but let it be known he was a Minister! That alone made me like him. Yeah, he was a cheerful rogue with what I saw and heard he did on liberty with a good deal of alcohol in him and his status as a Minister, well, the man was a walking contradiction!
But, as I said, he got along with nearly everybody (even me, a Yankee). It was his cheerful countenance!
One day, up on the flight deck he had a mouth full of chew. His cheek protruded, and from the side, had the appearance of a pregnant woman’s belly. We were in all our flight deck gear, goggles down, standing on the edge of the lowered elevator just forward of the island.
Below, another plane was bing backed onto the elevator, yellow shirts standing all around to make sure there were plenty of eyes on the operation.
The Minister tapped me on the shoulder, and pointed down at a yellow shirt below us. He spit a brown stream, and timing it perfectly with the wind, laid a brown vertical stripe on the back of the guy’s yellow vest. He turned to me with his goggled eyes and let out what must have been a Mississippi “Har Har Har!” though I couldn’t hear him!
He was a character. We all liked him. But he was no Minister. And if he was, he was a fallen one!
I lived in SF decades ago, and I’m an author published by major publishers. Every publishable author needs time to write. I had a husband, which was a big advantage. We lived in SF about a million years ago.
I’m not totally turned off by projects that subsidize writers. But those writers should have contracts with publishers before aid is given. I got really large advances from big publishing houses, but not everyone does. You don’t write the entire book to get an advance. Just the first chapter and a comprehensive outline.
Really complex situation to sort through. I would most assuredly NOT subsidize ca-ca writers or works that trash the USA.
Midamerican in CB. They’re converting them to natural gas I believe.
Love your story! Thanks for sharing.
No, Kevin sounds like exactly the kind of person I don’t want for my neighbor. He’s a grifter and a bum and, and, and, watch him around your kids. Just saying.
Were you running a flux capacity or something? Right now is the time my electric bill goes up and this month it was about $120.
This another of the 130 "artists" that were selected to get $1,000 monthly for 18 months. Seriously, she is married and owns a dance studio - not at all (seemingly) like Dublin.
Reading a little further on Ms. Brussel:
Brussel specializes in contemporary ballet, and her performances are heavily informed by social justice as well as her personal experiences. ... Her work makes an art of empathy building.
The additional income from SF-GIPA has allowed her to pay for studio space, compensate her dancers, and produce a film of her latest ballet called "House of Names," which explores the Me Too movement through the lens of mythology.
Well, never mind. The mindset of the SF "artists" shows that they are too invested in the mythology of SJW too ever be free from the money tree of government.
I don’t think taxpayers should subsidize literature. That is not what taxes are for.
“He was a character. We all liked him. But he was no Minister. And if he was, he was a fallen one!”
That is what makes a character so special,the contradictions are part of their persona. If they didn’t stand out, you wouldn’t remember them 40+ years later.
Great story BTW.
Make it $10,000 a month and I will consider it.
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