Arts & Culture

'A Quilt for David' - Steven Reigns' true crime poetry

'A Quilt for David' - Steven Reigns' true crime poetry

  • BOOKS
  • by Jim Gladstone
  • Jul 19, 2022

Steven Reigns, a Los Angeles-based writer who was the first official Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, blends literary genres to stunning effect in his spare and powerful new work, "A Quilt for David."

Berkeley Rep's 'Sanctuary City' sends up flares

Berkeley Rep's 'Sanctuary City' sends up flares

  • THEATER
  • by Jim Gladstone
  • Jul 19, 2022

Contemporary social and political issues are tightly woven into "Sanctuary City," playwright Martyna Majok's gut-wrenching, personal-is-political drama, set between 2001 and 2005, and now playing at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

To hell and back: Sean Hewitt's 'All Down Darkness Wide' makes literature of the memoir

To hell and back: Sean Hewitt's 'All Down Darkness Wide' makes literature of the memoir

  • BOOKS
  • by Tim Pfaff
  • Jul 19, 2022

Getting lost in a relationship; people do it all the time, and it's the matter of some of our greatest literature. Rarer is the chronicle of making it back out, which is both the engine and the heart of Sean Hewitt's luminous new memoir.

Daring deception: Jono McLeod's 'My Old School'

Daring deception: Jono McLeod's 'My Old School'

  • MOVIES
  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Jul 19, 2022

McLeod's "My Old School" is a documentary that utilizes animation and dramatization to depict this bizarre true story of deception and discovery at a British school.

D. L. Forbes and 'the unique individual'

D. L. Forbes and 'the unique individual'

  • BOOKS
  • by Charles Steiner
  • Jul 19, 2022

"Wittgenstein's Son and U. G. Krishnamurti: Ducks or Rabbits" is a deserved subject for discussion as it sums up the Forbes' life, fully and un-ordinarily, in San Francisco while focusing on two major influences.

Jewish Film Festival faves

Jewish Film Festival faves

  • MOVIES
  • by Brian Bromberger
  • Jul 19, 2022

The Jewish Film Institute has announced its program for the 42nd San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the world's largest and longest one, running July 21-August 7. A few of the films have a specific queer aspect.

SF Gay Men's Chorus' 44 years: touching timeline traces nearly half a century

SF Gay Men's Chorus' 44 years: touching timeline traces nearly half a century

  • MUSIC
  • by Jim Provenzano
  • Jul 18, 2022

The history of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus gets a new update from historian Tom Burtch with a 48-minute collection of video and audio clips, news clipping and poster montages, and commentary.

Cultural exchange: S.W. Leicher's 'Acts of Atonement'

Cultural exchange: S.W. Leicher's 'Acts of Atonement'

  • BOOKS
  • by Jim Piechota
  • Jul 12, 2022

S.W. Leicher's second novel, "Acts of Atonement," picks up where her debut, 2018's "Acts of Assumption," left off, featuring Serach and Paloma, two women from disparate cultural backgrounds who embark upon a loving lesbian relationship against all odds.

'Marcel the Shell with Shoes On' - Jenny Slate's animated hit

'Marcel the Shell with Shoes On' - Jenny Slate's animated hit

  • MOVIES
  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Jul 12, 2022

With her newest project, "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On," Jenny Slate has the potential for Oscar glory. A film project that is so utterly original and unusual, it deserves to be seen by everyone.

Zain Khalid's novel "Brother Alive" is bracing magical realism

Zain Khalid's novel "Brother Alive" is bracing magical realism

  • BOOKS
  • by Timothy Pfaff
  • Jul 12, 2022

"Uncategorizable" is the flavor of the month in gay literary fiction. Even in as genre-free a landscape as that, Zain Khalid's much-anticipated first novel, "Brother Alive," stakes out new territory.

Kiss off: The Lavender Tube on summer shows

Kiss off: The Lavender Tube on summer shows

'Only Murders in the Building,' 'The Lake,' 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' and 'Uncoupled' include gay and lesbian main characters; plus, two singers get called out for quotes about trans people; and a Brittney Griner update.

'References to Salvador Dali' ... maybe not

'References to Salvador Dali' ... maybe not

  • THEATER
  • by Jim Gladstone
  • Jul 12, 2022

Magical realist frosting is slathered thick on the humble crumbs at the heart of "References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot," now playing in a Custom Made Theatre production.

'Thor: Love and Thunder's near-queer marvel

'Thor: Love and Thunder's near-queer marvel

  • MOVIES
  • by Joshua Polanski
  • Jul 12, 2022

With a few daring visuals and innovative artistic references, writer-director Taika Waititi's "Thor: Love and Thunder" merits more superlatives than any of its peer Marvel Studios blockbusters, with a few queer twists.

Q-Music: Taking cover

Q-Music: Taking cover

  • MUSIC
  • by Gregg Shapiro
  • Jul 12, 2022

One of the great delights of listening to music is hearing the way a singer interprets a song written by someone else, as done in new albums by Colin Hay, Jennifer Nettles, Rebecca Angel and Los Lobos.