Queer Comic Art Featured on San Francisco Bus Kiosks
By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Every year since 1992, the San Francisco Arts Commission displays the work of artists in the Art on Market Street Kiosk Poster Series installed in bus kiosks on Market Street between 8th Street and the Embarcadero. On display through February is the work of award-winning gay comic artist Justin Hall (pictured), the first Fullbright Scholar in Comics and editor of the queer comics history anthology,
No Straight Lines.
“Marching Toward Pride” is made up of 12 posters, representing six pivotal moments in San Francisco’s LGBTQ history. The poster-sized comic pages feature images of critical people and draw dialogue from the GLBT Historical Society and San Francisco Public Library archives. Hall used single-color images to reference the original Pride rainbow flag s colors.
Jim Gallagher at Ocean Beach. - Photograph by Dennis O Rorke
Jim Gallagher grew up as the oldest in a family of twelve children in San Francisco s Richmond District. Born during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and being part of such a large family, Jim was motivated to start working at a young age. He changed high schools twice to have better hours for jobs. As a teenager, around work and school hours, Jim began swimming, body surfing, and eventually board surfing at Baker Beach, China Beach, and Kelly’s Cove at Ocean Beach.
Mr. Gallagher has always been athletic, and the attractions of Kelly s Cove revolved around running, swimming, surfing, and the occasional game of wall ball. He joined the San Francisco Fire Department in 1962, but kept surfing at Kelly s and other locations into the 1970s. He witnessed the social scene at Kelly s Cove grow and change, and in recent years Jim has acted as a Kelly s Cove historian, interviewing older surfers, gathering photographs, and
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Unraveling the Mystery of Two 1890s Richmond District Houses
Sleuthing in the Digital Age
Unraveling the Mystery of Two 1890s Richmond District Houses The Low family at Sutro Baths with an unusual floatation system for their child, 1890s. -
I always perk up when someone says they have old photos from San Francisco that need location identification. Sometimes I’m lucky and know the site; other times there is too little to go on. A grouping of contemporary photos, like in an album, adds more clues to find locations. I recently was presented with a series of photos in two albums that became one of the more challenging and fun projects I have attempted. This is a detective story of sleuthing collaboration, combining old research skills and new digital technology mixed with a good dose of luck.