Mission Stoop Fest

A neighborhood festival initiative to transform resident stoops into sites of oral history and performance

 

 
Yes, we changed the name! Formally called PORCH, we discovered there was another Porchfest happening in the Mission, so as to avoid confusion, we are now Mission Stoop Fest (or STOOP for short).

STOOP is a civil society arts experiment that transpires on the front stoops of local residences, where traditional and contemporary artists perform and where local residents share stories and histories. The front stoop represents a literal threshold between the public and private spheres and is a historic site of spontaneous community interaction and exchange. Before arriving to urban centers, it was traditionally the porches of smaller communities where neighbor interaction took place. Moving from the rural to the urban, the porch was transformed into the stoop. This unique public-private space has become increasingly significant and symbolic in our neighborhoods that are undergoing the rapid processes of gentrification, such that results in a breakdown of social fabric and the loss of communal/neighborhood memory. STOOP represents our heart-set invitation into a space of encounter – where past meets present, where the public meets the private, and where different communities intersect to discover the threads that link us together.

To initiate this project, the Red Poppy Art House, with support from the California Arts Council, is playing the role of catalyst, to help organize five sites to launch STOOP this June. Our goal is for STOOP to occur during the day on the same bi-monthly dates as a sister-project, the Mission Arts & Performance Project (MAPP). Similar to the MAPP festival, STOOP will provide a program and a map of multiple neighborhood stoops where performance and storytelling will unfold simultaneously. We hope that this initiative will inspire more residents to take part and choose to make their stoop a site for cultural and community exchange in months to come.

Past “test runs” of this project have included:
Amalia Alvarez, Astu, Byb Chanel Bibene, Adriana Camarena, La Tania with Ryan Garcia and Maria Sanchez, Miriam Wolodarski, Diana Lara, Kinetech, Darren Johnston, Faisel Zedan, Zena Carlota, Adrian Arias, Susana Aragon, Roberto Hernandez, Amelia Uzategui, LoCura Trio, Erika Oba, Marcus Shelby, Stephanie Sherman, Norman Zelaya, Lake Stovall, Ronja Ver, Daniel Riera, Camille Mai, and Marguerite Muñoz.
 

 
Saturday, June 3, 2017 – “Nosotros, los de a pie”

“Nosotros, los de a pie”
Homenajeando a los ciudadanos de a pie, a los ambulantes, los invisibles a la sociedad. Al inmigrante europeo, latino, africano, a ellos y ellas, los ciudadanos del mundo, sosten del planeta. ¡A quiene nadie les canta, ni dedica poemas, a quienes ningún pintor inspira!

“We, The Ordinary Ones”
We honor the ordinary citizens, the street people, those invisible to society. We honor the citizens of the world—from Europeans to Latinos to Africans—and the immigrants who sustain the planet. We honor those who do not inspire painters, and to whom no one dedicates a song or a poem.
 
PARTICIPANTS
Alejandro Meza – collaborative drawing and poetry
Claudio Talavera-Ballon – live street painting of Mission residents
Naomi Quiñoez – bilingual poetry
(Plus Lotería family game!)