Protest Fundraisers And Women’s March, Post-inauguration Rallies

The invitation beckoned guests to “join us for an evening of dinner, dancing and defiance,” but as a member of the press — certified dancer and diner but forbidden to defy — I was there to report. Many organizers and participants in the Take Back the Ball event, there to provide financial support to rapid response nonprofits protecting climate and reproductive justice and “communities of color on the front lines,” were the same ball-gowned folks I’d seen at the ballet opening and SFJazz gala earlier in the week. [...] Gino Cerchiai, owner of Bimbo’s, was recalling proudly that he’d met Barack Obama — and sneaked him around the corner to a back door of the club — when Kamala Harris tossed a fundraiser for the senator, early in his first campaign. The birth mother of Take Back the Ball was Kaitlyn Krieger of the Future Justice foundation; her husband/co-parent is Mike Krieger, CTO and co-founder of Instagram. Willie Brown (“I’m the only person Trump didn’t trash”) was there, with Sonya Molodetskaya, wearing Givenchy, a nod perhaps to Oui the People. In the lounge at Bimbo’s, Artspan artists were painting messages having to do with the aims of the event, Helice Wen, for example, wreathing her image of an immigrant with flowers because “all cultures together make a big bouquet,” and Brian Barneclo riffing in paint on “We the People.” Guests were offered a variety of buttons, specific (Black Lives Matter) and general: “Science, Art, Facts, Truth.” On stage, DJ Katdelic, Onemohit (Make It Funky) and Biz Markie performed, as well as feminist Muslim comedian Zahra Noorbakhsh (There is no word in Farsi for ‘atheist,’ just seven slurs).Prints of Shepard At BART’s Civic Center Station on Saturday, reports Tamara Giusti of San Bruno, the train operator exhorted passengers: “Now go out there and make history!” And aboard a crowded No.