Since 2012, Still Here has built creative space for LGBTQI2S+ artists born and raised in San Francisco to tell our stories of survival.
Our STORY
Still Here San Francisco was born from the vision of 2 high school best friends who grew up in San Francisco. At the 2007 Trans March, with the backdrop of the Great Recession and accompanying waves of displacement and rapid gentrification in the city, Cristina Mitra and Natalia Vigil reflected on their experiences growing up and coming out in the city, and envisioned the creation and sharing of more stories that reflected their experiences.
A few years later, Still Here San Francisco was created as a love letter to working class queer and trans San Franciscans who grew up during the HIV and AIDS epidemic. SHSF began to bring together writers, dancers, and multimedia artists through dynamic live performances at locations like the LGBTQ Community Center and Brava Theater. SHSF has since flowered into a multigenerational performance and cultural preservation project that reveals the experiences of Queer/LGBTQI2S individuals raised in San Francisco and still living in San Francisco/Bay Area. Each year, it is one of the most popular parts of the National Queer Arts Festival in June.
“Still Here is urgent: We all live in an area where people are still being discriminated against, still being displaced, with such disregard.”