The Mission
The Living Room SF produces engaging community experiences, publications, and fosters partnerships to develop economic opportunities for Bay Area writers with unstable incomes and a primary focus on BIPOC writers in order to cultivate literary community, productive dialogue on topics that affect Bay Area Residents, and increase social cohesion in San Francisco.
The Living Room SF is a community, an incubator for writers and their ideas, a business, and an opportunity to connect.
The Programs
- The Living Room Reading Series & Salon
- The Kitchen Table Reading Series
- Pop-up events with community sponsors
- Partnerships with Bay Area festivals
- Scholarship-funded in-person workshops
The Vision
- Documentary poetry films
- Histories of Black poets in San Francisco
- Support for Black poets living in San Francisco
- Literary anthologies & community micro press workshops
- More interdisciplinary art experiences, including prescriptive arts: Poetry Therapy & Mindfulness events
- Mutual Aid funds
- Guaranteed Income pilot for Black poets in San Francisco
- Online community for convenings, workshops, and collaboration
- Visual archive of San Francisco writers & events
- Writing retreat
The Living Room connects writers with established literary organizations and collectives through partnerships. In 2022, we were able to feature and pay 77 Writers over 21 events, partner with 4 arts organizations, gain exposure for 4 small pop-up food vendors, support 3 community partners, feature in 2 festivals, and celebrate historic and contemporary Black poets at a boutique hotel. In 2023, we've done even more. Stay tuned for a community report.
Press
- 7/2023: Paolo Bicchieri writes about the current Golden Age of Bay Area Writing for Broke Ass Stuart
- 6/2023: Jonah Raskin writes follow up on Pop-up Community Event for Counter Punch
- 6/2023: Founder Interview on Live! in the Bay on KRON4
- 6/2023: Anne Schrager includes Juneteenth Poetry event in Arts & Entertainment piece for SF Chronicle
- 4/2023: JL Odom writes wonderful piece highlighting National Poetry Month Partnership for Bay City News Foundation
- 4/2023: Founder on CA Arts & Culture Summit Panel
- 10/2022: Chuqin Jiang writes about Living Room SF feature in Phase 2 of Lit Crawl 2022
- 11/2019: Grace Z. Li features founder in an early interview about being a writer in San Francisco and a Living Room precursor for SF Weekly