An Open Letter to Matt Gonzalez on Messages Pertaining to the Mural--and Trauma

I  agree with what you said at Revolution Books this past Thursday.  Could you be more specific about how you think "traumatized" students should be counseled and otherwise helped?

I just got a message from someone that I don't know well but who has very strong feelings against the mural.  When my letter to the editor appeared in the SF Chronicle on August 8, she sent me a message suggesting that I be forced to see the Rape of Nanking on a daily basis.    From today's message I get the impression that her daughter is a Native American--maybe the Dana whose letter is being read in the video of the SF Board meeting August 13.  Here is her message and my response followed by the link to the video.



Her message:

Tina I hope you recall my daughter. The reminders need to be in a museum, not the school in Sfusd where the majority of children have more trauma

My Response:

 Thank you, Shelley. I feel very sympathetic to people like Dana, I'm wondering what Washington High School and the SF Board of Education are doing for students who feel the way Dana does other than censoring this mural. I'll share the video with other people who have the same question I have.


Commissioner Sanchez reads former Indigenous wash student's letter

Open Letter to Justin Phillips on Supporting Black-Owned Restaurants

Here's a letter I got off  just now (8:05 am Friday, August 16, 2019) to Justin Phillips, whose new column in the SF Chronicle has held my interest.  Today's column was on the need for more diners in black-owned restaurants.

Dear Mr. Phillips,

I would really like to support black-owned restaurants, and I'd really like black-owned restaurants to support the plant-based revolution so important at this time of climate change.  

When I was in New York City, I ate at Seasoned Vegan in Harlem.  I've also read the book Sistah Vegan:  Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society.  I think it's notable that the chef-in-residence at MOAD, Bryant Terry, is vegan and has written a vegan cookbook.

Could you write articles on supporting both black-owned restaurants and the planet?

Your faithful (and vegan) reader,

Tina Martin

OPINION // LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters to the Editor: Raise awareness on murals

San Francisco Chronicle Aug. 8, 2019

Comments

Photo: Associated Press/Eric Risberg

The controversial 13-panel, 1,600-square foot mural, the "Life of Washington" by Victor Arnautoff, is seen at George Washington High School during an open house for the public Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, in San Francisco. More than a 100 people packed the public high school to view a controversial mural criticized as racist and degrading for its depiction of black and Native American people. School officials opened the school Thursday to allow the viewing of the "Life of Washington" mural. The 83-year-old fresco is slated to be destroyed after the San Francisco School Board voted last month to paint over it.

Regarding “Voters want to keep mural, poll says” (Aug. 7) and “Black leaders back Washington mural” (Aug. 7): At a time when many students and faculty weren’t even aware of Diego Rivera’s Mural of Pan-American Unity at City College, we used a grant for instructional improvement to create lessons on it across the curriculum — English, history, art, graphic design, women’s studies, transitional studies, Latin American history, etc.

According to Phil Matier’s report, a poll shows that voters of color oppose the school board’s decision to paint over Victor Arnautoff’s mural at Washington High School 72% to 12%, and as Michael Cabanatuan reported “Black leaders back Washington mural,” so why doesn’t the San Francisco Board of Education focus on promoting a program that would increase the awareness of all aspects of the mural instead of painting over it?

Students could be given agency to take a close look at it instead of away from it and create artwork and written work expressing their thoughts and feelings. I was shocked at the viewing that they had only provisional signage. They could use a QR code to keep commentary current and inclusive. The Board of Education needs to add to, not subtract from, student learning.

Tina Martin, San Francisco

A 2-hour Viewing of Arnautoff's Controversial Mural at Washington High School

After seeing the headline "Contentious mural on public display" in the SF Chronicle Friday morning, August 1, I shared the news with friends I'd already discussed Arnautoff's "Life of Washington with including a visitor I'd told about the controversy the previous evening, shortly after she'd arrived because it was of such great interest.

We were among the people who viewed the mural yesterday, Thursday, August 1, from 1-3 at Washington High School, where the turnout was greater than we'd anticipated with such short notice.

I added my name to a sign saying that the solution is to  "Educate  no Eradicate," as did Tom Miyoko, a former student at Washington High School.  But I was disturbed by reports that Washington High School has not been educating students on the mural.  Yesterday there was only temporary signage, and apparently it isn't part of the curriculum in classes on art and history.

Why isn't there permanent signage and an orientation for all new students?  Why isn't it a part of the curriculum? 

Schools and Communities First

Jodi Reid and Ben Grieff , who presented at the Schools and Communities First forum yesterday, are great speakers!  Here they are before they spoke.

 Roger Scott did the kindness of videotaping the forum, and Steve deserves special thanks for showing up after a dental appointment. He was so disappointed that he couldn't partake of the carrots--all that was left over of our refreshments! .But several books (if not refreshments) were ON HOLD for him, and there was no need to bite into them! In fact, I think that they prefer that we not do that.  (This is just a place holder.  I plan to come back to write something more!)

The Sunday SF Chronicle--Public Art Honoring Women, Maya Angelou in Particular

Heather Knight's column today, Sunday, July 21, headed "Concrete movement on Angelou statue," reports that there are still only two statues representing real women (as opposed to goddesses and mythical creatures) among SF's 87 public statues.  They are Dianne Feinstein in City Hall and Florence Nightingale outside Laguna Honda Hospital. 

But Supervisor Mark Farrell (briefly our mayor) introduced legislation in 2017 for the city to increase female representation in the pubic arena to 30%  (no date given).  That means women in elected position, on corporate boards, on street signs (like Frida Kahlo Way) and in statues. 

Mark Farrell's legislation also called for a statue of Maya Angelou to be installed outside the SF Main Library.  (Interesting Fact:  Maya Angelou attended Washington High School, the site of Arnautoff's controversial mural.) 

One hundred eleven artis have resonded since the Arts Commission sent out a call for artists in November.  She doesn't say who was on the selection panel, but they chose three finalists who've now submitted their proposals for the Angelou statue.  The Arts Commission will make the selection committee's August 9 choice the official selection on September 9 of this year, but it won't be installed until December 31, 2020.  She points out that this process from start to finish will have taken 3 1/2 years, almost as long as building the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Since SF hasn't progressed towards the 30% real women goal--only one new statue has gone up, and that was of Gavin Newsom--some are proposing Nancy Pelosi or Alice B. Toklas. 

I'd like to suggest a statue of Barbara Lee (even though I know she represents Berkeley, not SF) in front of the War Memorial, where the charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945 to "maintain" (?) peace and security.  Today's Chronicle also has an article on how Barbara Lee was the sole vote against the "blank check" Congress members gave to President Bush (and following presidents) to wage war. 

Verse Imitating E.B. White on The Washington High School Mural Controversy

Yesterday I wrote a verse about the controversy over Arnautoff's mural in Washington High School.  I wrote it in the style of E.B. White's verse about Rivera's mural at the Rockefeller Center in the 1930's.

Dear Mr. Demarais,

I just  read online your June 20 article on how destroying art destroys culture, so well stated.  

Are you familiar with the poem that E.B. White wrote about the destruction of Rivera's Mural at the Rockefeller Center?  

I've written a weak imitation, changing meter at will and committing other offenses to send it as a letter to the editor, but it was too long, so I'm sending it to you--and maybe to John Diaz, too, if he's not lucky.

Signage is the Solution 

 with apologies to E.B. White 

 "Why did he paint what we  see on this wall?"

Asked students at Washington High School

 "Why not a cherry tree in Fall

That we could see as we walked the hall

An image of Washington great and tall?"

              He painted what he knew,  comes the answer.

 "Why did he show the injustice done race?

A foot on an Indian, a Slave Market place?

When he could have shown  Washington in  state of grace?"

             He painted what he thought, comes the answer.

             He painted what he saw, he painted what he knew.

            He painted what he thought, Arnautoff did.

He left it on the wall until controversy grew

and minds were made up to obliterate or sue.

 You can't erase the Indians' loss

Or the Africa-American's  subjection to the boss

Or all of the injustice done to/by the tempest tossed

Just because it's paint-ful.

 It's not our wish for the Board to be

(Says the Board's president Stevon Cook)

A censor of art, but it seems to me

We owe it to the community

(The students are our community)

To protect them from  immunity

to  normalizing what they see.

 And what they see , to a large degree,

Are scholars  coming to its defense.

In a petition.

"A gross violation of logic and sense,"

The demolition is an offense

Obliterate?  Under no condition!

 But Alea iacta est

The die is cast.  They did their best

Their best just wasn't good enough.

 Unanimously  they've cast their vote

Are the chances of saving the mural remote?

 A modest proposal could come in Swift

And give the mural the needed lift:

Here's the  proposal  I'm banding about:

Keep the mural .  Move students out.

 Or the wisdom of Solomon let's graph:

Cut it in two and white-wash just half.

 A former student wrote in to say

He thought  the mural, though disturbing, should stay

With signage the suture.

Let  new light on the mural be cast,

saying that we remember the past

To ensure a better future. 

 With best wishes (like mural preservation),

Tina Martin

 

---