A MAPP meeting

Went to a MAPP meeting last night: Mission Arts & Performance Project. It was held at the Red Poppy Art House - a fabulous studio, gallery, arts center on the corner of Folsom and 23rd right in the heart of the Mission District of San Francisco. MAPP describes its program as the following:

The Mission Arts & Performance Project is a bi-monthly, multidisciplinary, intercultural community arts event that takes place in the South-East neighborhood of the Mission District of San Francisco. The MAPP connects visual artists, musicians, poets, dancers/choreographers, filmmakers, playwrights, and other artists, in an on-going collaboration with community organizers and local residents, placing art and performance on the street level through the use alternative spaces such as private garages, gardens, living rooms, studios, street corners, and small businesses, to manifest a non-centralized intercultural arts happening.

Well okay. I've had the pleasure of attending one MAPP event. True to my belief that I am living in the best city in the U.S., this MAPP event brought out all types of San Franciscans: families,individuals, students, seniors and every ethnicity living in this town. People were excited to view art in garages, in galleries, on a sidewalk, in a garden in someones backyard.This was a reflection of the San Francisco I love. It is a city that has the ability to organize without organizing, to praise without segregating, to educate without preaching, the joys, the talent and the acceptance of all who live here side by side. This is the ideal side of being a San Franciscan. This was the ideal that brought me here many years ago and is the anchor that keeps me here - this and of course, my family!