Intersection Legacy
A half-century of Bay Area art through ephemeraThis page collects various ephemera to honor the artists and audiences that have graced our microphones, galleries, and stages over the years. For a timeline charting Intersection’s path since its inception in 1965, visit the
history page.
At the Mic
Tuesday Night Poetry Series
756 Union Street, 1966-1985
Our Tuesday Night Poetry Series was California’s longest continual reading series and was the second-longest in the country. The longevity of the series attracted some high-profile writers, but we continued to regularly showcase the work of emerging, local writers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“In the late ’70s, a lot of talent emerged at Intersection that later became part of the establishment. Intersection was on the cutting edge. They were open to people from different backgrounds. Merging multicultural alliances were forming. Things were really jumping.”
All posters were printed by the San Francisco Art Commission’s Neighborhood Arts Program.
“There was an attitude of inquiry, an open policy of what was considered art. It takes a lot of courage to run a place like that, and [Intersection was] one of the pioneers.”
At the Mic
Select Readings
756 Union Street, 1966-1985
At the Mic
RECORDINGS
Archived recordings from Intersection at 765 Union Street, San Francisco, courtesy of PennSound.
"Howl" (excerpt) (10:06)
Complete Reading (37:21)
Complete Reading (18:14)
At the Mic
Women’s Night
756 Union Street, 1966-1985
“I read there a lot in the late ’70s. We had something called the Bay Area Poets Coalition and we had a symbiotic relationship with Intersection. One weekend, we had 24 hours of poetry all over the city — in Laundromats, grocery stores, on cable cars and street corners. It culminated with a reading at Intersection Sunday night. The weekend was wonderful, an enormous amount of fun and it reflected what we believed in — that poetry should be an active part of people’s lives… The audiences at the Intersection were very responsive. They would do things like stomp their feet at a reading, or clap or stand up — like fans at a football game. It was more like church or call-and-response. It was exciting.”
Image courtesy of Third Mind Books.
Photograph of Diane di Prima reading from her poetry collection “This Kind of Bird Flies Backward” at the Gaslight Cafe in New York in 1959. Photo courtesy of the © FRED W. MCDARRAH/MUUS Collection.
Feminist Beat poet Diane di Prima (1934-2020) moved in 1968 from New York to San Francisco, where she got involved with Intersection, reading and performing her spiritual, stream-of-consciousness, and politically charged poetry.
At the Mic
literary series
In the early-2000s, Intersection for the Arts hosted a literary series that featured a diverse array of emerging and established writers in every genre and style.
Images from Intersection for the Arts’ Literary Series Posters.
Featuring: June Jordan, bell hooks, Amiri Baraka, Juan Felipe Herrera, Daisy Zamora, George Evans, Jose Montoya, Toussaint Haki, Jime Salcedo-Malo, Jim Carroll, Eileen Myles, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Rosemary Catacolos, Rae Armantrout, Fanny Howe, Leslie Scalapino, August Kleinzahler, Uchechi Kalu, Beto Palomar, Maria Poblet, Ariana Waynes, Sriram Shamasunder, Soraya Sablo Sutton, and Sheila Menezes, among others.
On stage
PERFORMANCE SERIES
756 Union Street, 1966-1985
For 20 years, at our first location on Union Street in North Beach, we hosted plays featuring emerging playwrights, directors, and actors.
“When she was 11, my daughter Dominique — whose father is Amiri Baraka — did her early plays at Intersection. The only thing the grown-ups were allowed to do was drive them around and carry the sets. The plays were satirical — one was called ‘Bicentennial Depression’ and one, ‘Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts,’ was inspired by the Bob Dylan song. When Dylan’s lawyer contacted us, Dominique responded. She wrote a letter saying, ‘We made $200 on the play. Does Mr. Dylan want 10 percent of our earnings?’ She offered him $20. We never heard back.”
on stage
PERFORMANCE SERIES
766 Valencia Street, 1985-1989
In 1985, we moved to the Mission and continued our theatre programming in the old mortuary at 766 Valencia Street. Four years later, we moved to the old Mancuso Furniture store at 446 Valencia Street, where we settled for the following decades and grew our programming with the help of resident theatre company Campo Santo, resident dance company Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project, and resident jazz musician Marcus Shelby.
on stage
campo santo
466 Valencia Street, 1989-2011
From 1997 – 2011, Campo Santo joined Intersection as our resident theatre company. Today, they continue to produce groundbreaking work as an award-winning multicultural ensemble committed to developing and premiering new American Theatre and to nurturing diverse new audiences for the performing arts.
“We started Campo Santo so we could put some works together for a small audience… So, we merged Campo Santo with Intersection and never looked back. You hear audience members say all the time, ‘That play was really wild!’ But what they don’t know is that this comes from the top down. It’s within our structure to be wild. This is not just the free jazz place or the free poetry place. It’s a place where philosophy is actualized, and that’s pretty amazing. The total open-door policy, it’s a real mainline rush.”
on stage
Jazz at intersection
446 VALENCIA STREET, 1999-2011
In 1998, Marcus Shelby, renowned jazz bassist, composer, and orchestra leader, became our musician-in-residence. A year later, we launched “Jazz at Intersection,” a series that exposed audiences to more than 60 concerts with almost 200 musicians worldwide.
in the gallery
756 union gallery
1966-1985
in the gallery
intersection coffee gallery
756 Union Street, 1966-1985
Our first gallery space doubled as a coffee shop and vice versa. We opened our doors from 6 pm to midnight and served everything from mocha to rum cioccolata to barley water.
in the gallery
WORK IN PROGRESS: A SHOW OF
ARTISTS SKILLS EXHIBITION SERIES
756 Union Street, 1966-1985
The series included several group exhibitions, such as a mail-in art show commemorating May Day.
in the gallery
466 valencia gallery
1989-2011
446 was an old Mancuso furniture store. In the gallery, Intersection featured work from artists such as Jeffry Stephen Bauer, Hallie Ogram, Rex Ray, Wayne Smith, Bob Anderson, Wes Christensen, David Forrester, Lyn Ian, Sandra Jackman, Janet Jenkins, Deborah F. Lawrence, Lorraine Zeyha, Jonathan Parker, and Maria Porges.
in the gallery
766 valencia gallery
1985-1989
766 was formerly an old mortuary in the Mission. The gallery featured shows by artists such as Ann Chamberlain, Barbara Edelstein, Mark Bulwinkle, and Mark Paron. Campo Santo Theatre Company, Joe Goode and Erika Chong Shuch, Marcus Shelby, Denis Johnson, and Dave Eggers performed here. “Hero Sandwiches” was a notable exhibition by Lynne Hershman.
in the gallery
our Annual Halloween Party
766 Valencia, 1985-1989
Intersection’s Halloween Party was a riotous fundraiser and beloved sensation that included art installations, dancing, and a costume contest.
“Intersection is very much an artist-driven organization, which is a rare and special thing. It feels like a home, and true homes are rare.”
A Home For Artists Throughout The Years;
Across Various Locations And Iterations.
Intersection for the Arts continues to breathe life into its mission by providing support, space, and professional opportunities to artists and cultural workers in the Bay Area.
Unless otherwise noted, all content included in this virtual exhibit is sourced from Intersection for the Arts’ archive.
Virtual Exhibition Curated By Izzy Parlamis and Edited by Claire Astrow
