Latest news with #BIPOC
Eater
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
San Francisco's Legendary Drag Club Oasis Set to Close This Year
Oasis, known for its drag shows and cabaret acts for over a decade, will close its doors for good on January 1, 2026. Owner D'arcy Drollinger shared the news via social media and the club's blog, writing that they made 'the impossibly difficult decision to close our physical space and transform again.' 'Speaking frankly,' Drollinger writes, 'the rising cost of operations, paired with declining attendance and sales, have put us in a financial loss for quite some time and made sustaining Oasis, in its current form, untenable.' Drollinger elaborated on the press release in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, telling the paper that their margins are razor thin and that they've been struggling, just like other venues. 'I've had to subsidize the club every month to be able to make it through,' Drollinger says. 'Those resources are gone, I've cashed in the majority of my retirement account to keep this going.' There is a chance the popular club won't even make it to the January closure date, Drollinger says; the Chronicle writes that 'realistically, that would require a surge of ticket buyers and clubgoers.' As such, Drollinger is encouraging everyone to visit in the last months, but in one small bit of good news, Oasis Arts — Oasis's nonprofit for LGBTQ and BIPOC artists — will continue on after the closure. Peninsula favorite Sushi Sam's lives on San Mateo-based Sushi Sam's closed in December 2024, shuttering after over 20 years in business. But Palo Alto Online reports that the restaurant lives on, in a way, thanks to chef Sam Sugiyama's family. Sugiyama's nephew, Koichi Ito, is the new chef at the rebranded business — now named Sushi Edomata — while Sugiyama's niece, Toko Ito, heads the dessert business, and her husband, Ching, handles the business side. The business has relocated to its new home at 38 East 25th Avenue in San Mateo and is now open. Osito chef takes over former Wesburger spot Chef Seth Stowaway closed down his Michelin-starred restaurant Osito in May 2025, but it looks like he's ready for his next act. The San Francisco Standard reports that Stowaway will take over the WesBurger 'N' More space in the Mission, following the burger spot's closure earlier this month. The Standard writes that Stowaway plans to open a 'casual, family-friendly restaurant' that pays tribute to the chef's roots in Texas, and is tentatively called Chicken Fried Palace. The Monterey Abalone Festival debuts Abalone diehards now have a space to gather, thanks to the first-ever Monterey Abalone Festival, the Mercury News reports. Running from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 26 and 27 at the Japanese American Citizens League Hall at 424 Adams Street in Monterey, the event features talks from commercial abalone farmers and fishermen, film screenings, abalone races, an 'abalone-centric' walking tour, and an abalone dance by the Monterey Rumsen Ohlone Community on Del Monte Beach. Unfortunately, there won't be any abalone dishes for sale at the event, but more information about the event programming can be found on the website. Eater SF All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Associated Press
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Logitech Celebrates #Creators4BIPOC With New Community Initiatives, Creator Stories, and Tournaments
Logitech Blog This July, Logitech G is kicking off its annual #Creators4BIPOC movement with an inspiring program designed to uplift Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) gamers and creators. We believe every creator deserves a shot at a breakthrough, and #Creators4BIPOC, now entering its sixth year, works to do just that. Through this program, Logitech G is amplifying the voices of BIPOC creators with curated livestream spotlights, tournaments, and more. This year is packed with new and returning initiatives, embodying four key pillars GIVING, SOCIAL, LIVESTREAM, and LEARNING. Under these pillars, the gaming community will: Sugar Gamers These conversations will be available to view on Logitech G's official YouTube channel, and will feature leaders from: BCGA Foundation (BCGAF)Latinx in GamingBe StrongAsian Mental Health Collective (AMHC) We will also be rewarding four individuals, who have made gaming more inclusive, with a full Logitech G gear upgrade. This year's nonprofit organizations will nominate standout voices and visionaries to receive a fully leveled-up gaming setup, with select members of the community able to to win a gear upgrade as well. Tune in to the Logitech G Twitch channel as we host an exciting esports tournament led by content creator and gamer KarimCheese, where players will showcase skill, spirit, and the power of community. Fans can expect thrilling matches and exclusive giveaways, celebrating diversity and gaming excellence. Support your favorite creators, elevate voices that deserve to be heard, and help us break new ground together! This July, let's make space for every story, celebrate every breakthrough, and continue building a more inclusive world of play. Follow along throughout the month of July using #Creators4BIPOC and @LogitechG for livestream schedules, updates, and weekly masterclasses, tournaments, and more on the Logitech G Twitch channel. Visit 3BL Media to see more multimedia and stories from Logitech
San Francisco Chronicle
17-07-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Letters: White liberals with Trump anxiety, welcome to the world outside your bubble
Regarding 'Suffering from Trump anxiety? I'm a psychotherapist, and here's the advice I give my patients' (Open Forum, July 15): When I finished reading the op-ed and looked at the accompanying photo of a white family holding cute 'Dump Trump' signs, I thought it needed a different headline: 'Now that it affects me: a beginner's guide to activism.' The author's message is potent. Community, action and care will be essential in the years ahead. But these ideas aren't new — they're just new to many white, middle-class liberals. That framing erases how BIPOC communities have long practiced these principles for survival. The fear President Donald Trump evokes isn't new. State violence, government neglect and rights violations didn't begin in 2016 — they've long persisted across presidential administrations. When immigration agents terrorized neighborhoods, Latino communities organized watches and mutual aid — because no one else would. Grassroots organizations already had legal support, childcare and language access ready to deploy. In the 1960s, Black communities built church-based mutual aid and neighborhood safety networks. During the AIDS crisis, queer communities created underground caregiving and health networks when the government turned its back. So welcome, fellow liberals. Let's honor those who've done this work — not as inspiration to extract, but as leaders to learn from, with humility and grace Russell Cowan, Oakland The only thing that has changed is access: AI has democratized the ability to craft a near-perfect essay. The obvious way to level the playing field is to introduce a blue-book-style admissions essay to the SAT (or other standardized admissions tests). These handwritten essays would be submitted to colleges along with their other scores. Yes, students would still be able to prepare in advance by studying common themes and practicing general responses — but this format would still showcase their writing skills and personal achievements, without the help of AI tools. Ethan Gallogly, Davis Clarify rules at new park With the focus on the impact of the Great Highway's closure on traffic, the real safety concerns for pedestrians who try to enjoy the new park have been lost. There was news coverage of one injury caused by a bicyclist to a walker at Sunset Dunes, and my friend was slammed to the ground from behind by a child on a bike. The rules for bikers and pedestrians at the park that do exist are unclear, do not have supporting signage or pavement indicators and have no enforcement. Will it take a death for something to change? A bunch of bicyclists mixing with pedestrians with unclear rules is a disaster waiting to happen. Sara Saldana, San Francisco My heart's in the Sunset Regarding 'Look beyond S.F.'s great landmarks to find the real city' (Native Son, July 12): As I read Carl Nolte's column about his trip on the N-Judah, I felt like he had written it exactly for me: an expat San Franciscan who grew up in the Sunset and can still feel the fog in my bones, even though I now live 3,000 miles away. I spent my childhood going to Java Beach Cafe before school with my father. For much of my teenage years, I wished the N train were faster as I rode it out of the Sunset to the parts of the city that I found more exciting. Now, when I return, I appreciate all the ways the Sunset still feels like home in a city that has changed so much in the past 30 years. I don't feel the pull to get away from the neighborhood that my teenage self did. Thank you to Nolte for writing such a lovely ode to the not-so-small neighborhood and Muni line that can sometimes go underappreciated. Ben Lowell, Brookline, Mass.
New York Post
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Are Pilates the preserve of fascists? Or are Gen Z spending waaay too much time analyzing instead of enjoying themselves
If you've signed up for Pilates recently, your fascism is showing through your cute matching leggings and sports bra set. And that jogging habit you picked up during the last election cycle? You need to look yourself in the mirror, you authoritarian scum. That's the only takeaway from MaryBeth Monaco-Vavrik, a barre instructor and fitness influencer living in Washington DC. Advertisement In April, she dropped a video asking her 17k Instagram followers, 'Does anyone want me to explain the connection between the popularization of Pilates & running instead of strength training… and the rise of extreme American authoritarianism?' 5 Influencer adn content creator MaryBeth Monaco-Vavrick posted a video inserting politics into exercise preferences, specifically pilates. @ No, but please go on. Advertisement With all the robust life experience of an extremely online 24-year-old whose mind was clearly programmed during the great awokening, she dropped some serious gobbledygook that showed her real expertise isn't fitness but audacious confidence. Which is why her video was met with backlash and prompted a piece in the New York Times this week asking, 'Is Pilates Political?' 'There is a DIRECT correlation between a rise in conservatism (think 1950s housewife) and smaller bodies and liberal swings during the feminist waves in the 70s with more muscular frames,' she wrote in her half-baked caption; trying to, I guess, link conservatism to 'extreme authoritarianism.' Yet showing no correlation. No substance. Advertisement 5 The popularity of Pilates can not be disputed but one influencer caused a debate by tying it to 'the rise of extreme American authoritarianism. Jacob Lund – In was an encouraging sign, that her theory raised eyebrows, a nice departure from 2019 and 2020 when the trend in media was to indulge in performative atonement by racializing every nook of our society. Publications pumped out story after story saying hobbies and individual physical pursuits were rife with bigotry. One of the many examples is the 2020 Runner's World piece, 'For BIPOC, Running—and Its Online Forums—Is Not a Refuge From Racial Discrimination.' There were think pieces about such ugly systemic racism in hiking, birding and skiing. Google knitting and racism and you'll be hit with pages of think pieces from 2019 about what Vox described as: 'The Knitting community is reckoning with racism.' Advertisement In 2025 we're more sober minded, and the push to racialize and politicize everything is met with laughter, not more examples. That's a good thing. Not every roll up in the Pilates studio is a pledge to uphold a dark ideology. In the Times piece Monaco-Vavrick explained that her beef was with marketing of Pilates and how it was pushed online with — gasp — lean white women. She didn't like its 'coded' methods telling women they needed to take up less space. Don't get buff, ladies. She describes it using progressive buzzwords like 'whiteness,' 'exclusionary' and 'thinness.' 5 Running along with pilates were singled out by Monaco-Vavrick as signs of extreme American authoritarianism. Kzenon – Instead of getting swole, women were being 'pushed toward just taking a Pilates class and getting a smoothie afterward,' she said. 'What does it say about our culture that these are the things being pushed,' asked the influencer. Advertisement Oh, the tyranny of Pilates and smoothies… It says that life here is pretty damn good — and we likely have too much time on our hands. Or maybe, just maybe, after years of 'fatness as fitness' being pushed in the media and in academia, culture is swinging back to a common sense approach to health. People don't want to look like obese slobs. And many women, regardless of race, class and religion, want the strength and sinewy arms that come with a Pilates practice. Advertisement But these faux scholarly online proclamations plays into something I've noticed with a lot of Gen Zers on social media — and many interactions I've had in real life. 5 MaryBeth Monaco-Vavrick is very fit and very Gen Z in her approach to social media and the act of overanalyzing everything. @ This generation was raised as digital natives in a very indulgent world that not only normalized unsolicited online opinions but monetizes them. It's produced a ridiculous obsession with overanalyzing everything from exercise, dating, sex and, yes, smoothies. Useless hashtags are slapped on these overwrought explanations and dubious hot takes are sent out into the world in the hopes of achieving virality. Advertisement Most of the time, it's imbuing deeper meaning where there isn't one. And let's be honest: our online world has been customized for our demographic and our interests. Many slurp up whatever slop the algorithm feeds us without looking outside of the echo chamber. And frankly, it delivers a myopic view. For instance, as a middle-aged woman who should be worried about bone density, my Instagram feed features Pilates but it is dominated by chicks weight training, the activity Monaco-Vavrick ostensibly says the authoritarians don't want women to see. 5 MaryBeth Monaco-Vavrick argues that pilates is being pushed onto women because in a conservative America, women are told to not take up space. photology1971 – Advertisement In fact, if another video about weighted vests across my feed, I'm gonna toss mine out my back door, not find some tenuous link between their popularity and the military industrial complex. Before social media removed useful gatekeepers, one was expected to have some bit of life experience to weave together a great think piece and thank god for that. Cultural discourse benefited. But with social media, everyone is a scholar, an 'influencer', but mostly shoveling whatever derivative drivel they heard on another TikTok video. And there's loads of younger folks — and yes people my age as well — too busy online analyzing life, instead of simply just getting out and living it. So, my advice: If you can afford a Pilates reformer class, take it. Run or lift weights. Just don't serve us up with a doctoral dissertation about it all.
Los Angeles Times
09-07-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
When there were no books, Hayle Perez created stories through journalism
The teasing Hayle Perez faced in middle school over her Guatemalan culture still lingers. 'Most of the students were Mexican, and they'd tease me about how my family looked 'different.' That hurt,' said Perez, 17, a rising senior at Alliance Collins Family College Ready High School.'But instead of hiding it, it made me more proud of who I am. I started embracing my culture more and wanted to show it through my work.' The work Perez was referring to was journalism, where she channels her cultural pride to promote literacy and celebrate her identities. But at a school where all students were minorities, Perez noticed something was missing. 'I had never met someone who actually wrote stories about people from our backgrounds – whether Black or Hispanic. That lack of representation made me realize how important it is to have someone who understands and tells those stories,' she said. As a sophomore, Perez set out to address the lack of books and literary resources at her school. She started a journalism club where students could pitch and discuss story ideas. They also set out to host more field trips and attend journalism events and conferences like J-Day. 'There were so many events happening, and nobody knew about them, not just in the school but in the neighborhood and the community,' she said. 'Writing about a college trip or getting students informed through the newspaper, you could do that.' Perez faced challenges leading the journalism club, especially in introducing students to reporting and storytelling, since many had never written a news article before. But the setbacks didn't stop Perez from launching literature-focused programs at Collins. She launched a book vending machine stocked with BIPOC authors to promote reading at a school without a library. 'She'd run the whole initiative; she's a huge advocate for reading, promoting literacy in a community that doesn't have many books,' said Melisa Alcala, who taught Perez ninth-grade English and ran ASB her junior year. Daphnie Gutierrez, 17, who has been Perez's friend since sixth grade, specifically admires Perez's passion and dedication to writing and journalism. She said she sees Perez as someone who is able to 'get stuff out there.' 'People wouldn't assume she would voice her opinion because she's more shy and timid. She's really not,' said Gutierrez. Perez's Guatemalan identity is her main source of pride and the foundation of her voice. She has participated in cultural pride days at school, where she wears traditional Guatemalan attire. Every year, she takes a trip to Guatemala, which helps her stay connected to her roots and deepens her sense of purpose. According to Perez, her parents' journey to America is something she will 'never forget.' Her father immigrated from Guatemala, and her mother came from El Salvador. 'My dad always reminds me of where we come from. He tells me about how hard he worked, and how far we've come,' she said. Perez attributed her main motivation in journalism to her own family's story. 'I want to showcase every part of a person's truth, no matter where they come from or who they are; I want to shed light during dark times and uplift voices that have been ignored. That's always been my vision,' said Perez. 'And I carry my mom's Salvadoran roots and my Guatemalan identity with pride in every story I tell.' Related
