The Women's Building will mark its 45th anniversary with a gala celebration next week that will bring out founding members, past leaders, community members, and local artists.
Co-founder Roma Guy and the first executive director, Carmen Vazquez, will be present at the party.
"This is the dream of all women around the world where you have an organization like this where you feel supported, you feel safe, [and] you feel that you can be yourself," said Teresa Mejia, the Women's Building's current executive director.
From the moment she stepped into the Women's Building Mejia wanted to work there. She applied for a job and she didn't get it, but was soon hired as the receptionist and the information and referral coordinator. That was 18 years ago.
"The Women's Building has been an amazing example of women coming together and getting things done," said Kelly Lockwood, a 50-year-old lesbian who is the finance and human resources director.
Vazquez, who now is the director of the LGBT health services unit of the AIDS Institute for the New York Department of Health, said she would deliver a short keynote address at the celebration.
"The Women's Building is a living, breathing expression of women's power," Vazquez said in an email. "The power to create, to nurture, to struggle and fight. She is a political symbol of our strength and a literal expression of how rooms of our own are portals to imagination, hope, and resilience. May she stand tall for generations of women to come."
If these walls could talk
The building, with its well-known exterior mural, relived its historic past recently as filming took place for When We Rise , Dustin Lance Black's ABC miniseries about San Francisco's LGBT rights movement, based on the memoir of longtime gay activist Cleve Jones. Women dressed in 1970s-style clothing took over the building as they recreated central moments of the LGBT and women's movements as a reporter entered the building last Friday.
The flames of the women's and lesbian-feminist movements were burning bright when a group of women came together in 1971. The founders' goal was to provide a place for emerging women's organizations and a safe space for women to advocate for each other at what was then known as San Francisco's Women's Centers on Brady Street.
The women outgrew the space in less than a decade and made an unprecedented move when they bought Dovre Hall, a former Sons of Norway meeting hall and neighborhood bar, in 1979, making it the first women-owned community center in the U.S.
Little did the founders know how important the decision to buy the building would be nearly half a century later as nonprofits, particularly women's organizations, struggle as the tech industry continues to change San Francisco's cityscape and drive rents sky high. The high cost of office space �" and the cost of living for community organizations' employees �" has driven many nonprofits out of San Francisco.
"It's a refuge in many ways for those marginalized communities that can come here," said Mejia, 59, who earns around $40,000 a year working part-time. She couldn't stress enough the importance of ownership and what it symbolizes to women to have a building and a center to call their own.
"They know that we will be here because we are not going to lose the building because it's our building," she said.
"People say they are so happy that we are here," added Lockwood. "Even if they don't walk through our doors, it's a symbol."
For four and a half decades the Women's Building has served and celebrated women. The recognizable MaestraPeace Mural that adorns the building's exterior and celebrates powerful women was created in 1994.
Since opening its doors, the Women's Building, which operates on a budget of nearly $1 million, has served more than 1 million women; incubated and sponsored 170 emerging organizations, including the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center; and provided a safe space for women and the LGBT community to come together, said Mejia, who's a straight ally.
Over the years, though, the organization has changed.
"In the beginning it was very queer, it was very lesbian," said Lockwood.
The lesbian majority has dwindled to two employees and one board member.
"The community that we are serving is different than when it started," Lockwood said.
The work isn't done
Upstairs on the fourth floor Mejia has been going about the business of addressing women's needs today.
There has been a dramatic increase in the use of services provided by the Women's Building during the past three years, said Mejia, who hasn't forgotten her roots.
A feminist from Puerto Rico, Mejia has been leading the building since 1998. She is focused on serving immigrant and low-income women, including transgender women, who have been part of the most recent wave of women to walk through the front doors of the building.
Over the years, the Women's Building's purpose has grown from its lesbian-feminist foundation to continuing to serve low-income women and their families. It assists 25,000 clients and visitors each year seeking a variety of services from the building and the nine women's organizations that call the building home.
Services include helping women job seekers, English as a second language tutoring; computer training; wellness classes; and a weekly food pantry. There's also legal and tax assistance, information and referral services, and room rentals for community events.
Many of the clients are women and children escaping violence, particularly those fleeing Latin America, said Mejia. The building's staff have also witnessed a growing number of women seeking second or third jobs in order to support their families.
Women �" no matter where they come from �" are equal in the eyes of the Women's Building's 18 staff members, seven of whom are full-time and the rest are part-time, said Mejia.
"It's safe and it's fair. They know what we stand for and that's really important," said Lockwood.
That's one of the reasons that Mejia has agreed to be on the advisory committee of a new women's building in New York, which is currently in progress and spearheaded by the Novo Foundation.
A vision for the future
Here at home, Mejia hopes to bring increased stability to the Women's Building as she and the board continue to put money into a rainy day reserve and maintain the financial structure for the building and the organization. She also plans to continue increasing staff salaries and benefits to maintain livable wages in the face of skyrocketing costs of living and operating in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
"We work from our heart, but if we are advocating for the well-being of women and all or most of our employees [who] are women, we have to pay good salaries," Mejia said. "Every year we've been able to increase the salaries and benefits of the employees."
She also wants to expand programs and bring the building full circle back to its activism days by advocating for undocumented children who are crossing the border and affordable housing and displacement, she said.
"The history of the Women's Building �" we did a lot of advocacy [for] women's issues and GLBT issues," Mejia said.
Others also talked about the building's importance.
"The Women's Building is a historical institution that has brought inspiration, community, hope, and resources to so many of us in San Francisco," said board member Jessica Beitch, 34, a lesbian who's a Bay Area native. "Everyone's story is different ... but there is always a way to come together and empower each other."
Mejia agreed, adding, "We still come from the same issues in one way or another. The struggle is not over."
The anniversary party will be emceed by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and include performances by Circulo Cultural, Rhythm and Motion, and Sweet Can Productions.
Guests will dine on food provided by local restaurants, such as Bar Tartine, Bi-Rite, Delphina, the Cheese School, Pica Pica, Southpaw BBQ, and Venga Empanadas.
The 45th anniversary gala takes place Wednesday, May 18 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Women's Building, 3543 18th Street. Tickets are $90 per person and can be purchased at http://45th-anniversary-celebration.eventbrite.com. For more information, contact [email protected].