Jamestown Work Receives Community Honors For Continued Excellence

It’s been a busy beginning to the school year for all of us at Jamestown. Between continuing in-person learning at our Beacon Center School sites and launching some exciting initiatives, we’ve been working hard to ensure we are meeting the needs of our Mission District youth and community. With so much going on, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate our programs staff being recognized by pivotal city leaders and institutions. 

Recently, on top of clinching the National League West Division (take that Dodgers!), the San Francisco Giants organization honored our Chavez Elementary Program Manager Diana Diaz, for the latest installment of their City Connect series, spotlighting young people making a difference in their communities. Diaz has been a key member of our Chavez team, who began as an art instructor and is now serving in a key leadership role. Her professional and personal growth is a shining example of how Jamestown invests in developing leadership from within.

Be sure to learn more about Diana’s journey on the Giants City Connect blog. You can also support her work directly by purchasing art from her website!

While Diaz and her family were lighting up the jumbotron at Oracle Park, our Loco Bloco artivists were being honored at the opening of the San Francisco Symphony’s 2021-2022 performance season. Loco Bloco was selected as this year’s recipient of the Ellen Magnin Newman Award, which celebrates outstanding community-based arts organizations who strengthen the Bay Area’s cultural fabric, serves vulnerable families and individuals, and creates a more just and equitable society for everyone who lives here.

Since our merger back in 2018, Jamestown has been proud to help carry on the legacy of Loco Bloco and support their work creating a space for Afro-Latino artistic traditions to continue thriving within our community. Be sure to join the Jamestown Loco Bloco familia as well as other local artivists for our annual ReclaMisión Dia de Muertos community celebration, November 2nd at our Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Beacon Center or November 7th at Hummingbird Farms in the Excelsior District. Come see why Loco Bloco has become such an honored cultural fixture within the San Francisco arts community!

Jamestown: Reclaiming Space and Culture in The Mission

After months of planning and working behind the scenes, The Jamestown Community Center is excited to announce that along with a consortium of other community organizations, we have purchased part of the equity in the building that houses our administrative offices on the corner of Alabama and 19th Street. Thanks to a generous contribution from Mayor London Breed’s Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative, Jamestown is officially a homeowner in The Mission! 

To honor this triumphant reclamation of space, we want to invite all community members to celebrate and take a tour at our open house, Planting Roots: Reclaiming Community (Sembrando Raices: Reclamando Communidad) on November 20th (event details to come!).

While this relocation to a bigger and better space is certainly a win for the organization, we also see it as a victory for the community as a whole. The struggle to keep the spirit of the Mission District alive has been an uphill one. Between the rapid gentrification and displacement of community members, as well as the closing of many longtime businesses, often times we can feel like strangers in our own neighborhood. Despite the obstacles, Jamestown remains steadfast and committed to holding space and celebrating longtime community traditions with our gente.

Photo by Carla Hernandez Ramirez

One of these traditions, the Loco Bloco Blocura gala, will be making a triumphant return this year! After taking a brief hiatus, we are proud to bring back Blocura on October 18th at Patio Español. The event will include live performances from the Loco Bloco Ensemble and an art auction featuring work from some of the Mission District’s premier visual artists.

All of the funds raised will go directly to support Loco Bloco arts programming, which includes teaching artists’ salaries, music and art supplies and development for young adults involved in the Teaching Artists in Training program. You can support the work of our amazing artivists, by purchasing a ticket or becoming a sponsor today. 

“It was really important for us to make sure we made Blocura happen this year,” said Annie Jupiter-Jones, Deputy Director of Arts and Community. “This event is all about celebrating with our community; we’re looking forward to dancing the night away with our supporters both old and new.”

On the heels of Blocura, Jamestown along with other community partners will host the third edition of ReclaMisión in honor of Dia de Los Muertos. As in years past, this event will feature local artists, musicians and community organizations collaborating on a creative exposition of this timeless cultural tradition. The celebration of ReclaMisión allows us the opportunity to celebrate our culture alongside our people in a grand display for all to see, hear and feel. 

We work with artists of all disciplines and bring them together for a one-of-a-kind experience of cultural expression that keeps us connected with our heritage, while instilling in our young people a sense of pride and tradition that at times can feel far off given the current political landscape. ReclaMisión holds sacred space for us to remember our history and be active participants in creating it.

Events like Blocura and ReclaMision are critical to continue fostering community and creating a safe space to celebrate our cultural traditions together as a Mission familia. We will not lose touch, we will not lose hope, and we will continue working on behalf of our people for a better tomorrow.