For 39 years, Brava has worked to amplify the voices of the subaltern; the overlooked and silenced. We commit to carrying this work forward and to support our community throughout this dangerous time.
SUPPORT BRAVA'S DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING!
We have so much GRATITUDE for all of the incredible artists (performers, teachers, technicians, designers, and creators) who have graced our stages and filled Brava Theater Center with energy and excitement!
With more resources going to pay bills, Brava needs to raise $50,000 over the summer to continue providing the highest quality of inspirational performances, support for the Artists, free and low-cost Youth Programs, and subsidies for the Community to host events at Brava.
Peacemaking on 24th Street
Resident Artist, Marga Gomez Takes Over the Cabaret With a Year of Who's Your Mami Comedy
“Choosing Joy, Choosing Love is a Revolutionary Act”: Not my First, Second, or Third Pandemic
Brava is Hiring!
Xilonen: Becoming a Young Woman in Danza Azteca
Brava is Hiring!
Brava’s youth program Mission Academy of Performing Arts is seeking a teaching artist to work with the San Francisco Running Crew during the 2021/22 school year. Potential Candidates must have the following qualifications:
Teaching Artist: Set Design
QUALIFICATIONS:
Experience teaching Set Design to Middle and High School students
Ability to create a curriculum for in person and virtual sessions
Must have building and set construction skills
Knowledge of power tools and safety protocols
Knowledge in Theater etiquette
Experience working and collaborating with an artistic team and students
Degree in Set Design preferable
Updated artistic portfolio
Must pass a background check
Own vehicle highly preferred but not required
Applicants must have a valid proof of Covid19 Vaccination and must be willing to complete a weekly Covid19 test
HOURS OF EMPLOYMENT
Availability on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 3pm-7pm; and some Saturdays, including spring performance tech week
PLEASE NOTE: All Fall Semester classes will take place virtually on Zoom.
COMPENSATION
The rate of pay is $30 per hour
HOW TO APPLY
Interested candidates should email their resume, online portfolio, and two professional references to Brava’s Education Director Melvign Badiola at mapa@brava.org.
Brava! for Women in the Arts is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ applicants are strongly encouraged to apply.
Tuning in: MAPA students master the audio drama
Like youth programs across the world, Mission Academy of Performing Arts @ Brava (MAPA) migrated online back in March 2020. The once hands-on, in-person learning experience became one in which students navigated theatre performance and production screen-to-screen.
Looking for new ways to engage, grow creatively, and express themselves, the students of MAPA’s Young Thespians Theatre Lab and San Francisco Running Crew came together virtually to present three student written, performed, and produced audio dramas.
In the creation of the audio dramas, the students asked themselves: “In the midst of a global health crisis and social unrest, what makes a story? Is it a beginning, middle, and end? Does it need to have some grand message or is it just something someone tells you?” These questions led the students on a journey in which along the way they questioned their own ideas about the world, themselves, and their relationships.
We’re thrilled to be able to share the completed projects with you! Listen below!
Brava's "Funniest Mami" Search is on!
The Women who came before us
Arts and the Economy
Brava shops local with artist Agana
Host a Movie Night
Mural Artist Agana joins Brava Artists in Residence
Known to the world as Agana, internationally acclaimed artist Vanessa Solari Espinoza is a multi-dimensional contemporary mural artist.
Of Venezuelan descent and hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, Agana gives public walls vibrant life with her iconic pictorial imagery, bold aesthetics, bursting colors, textual calligraphic gestures and form. At the intersection of graffiti and fine art practices she communicates common social threads via monumental vision.
Rooted in her Latinx identity as part of the larger American experience, AGANA also translates the artistic mural process into fruitful community-building strategies. She cultivates new leaders in the field via workshop and mentoring with the tools to transform lives through intentional, relevant art.
Her layered storytelling style bridges thought provoking visibility to otherwise marginalized experiences while stimulating transformative conceptualism for diverse viewers through visual linguistics via spray patterns, gradients, drips, and blended mixed medium.
With a background in graphic design and jewelry metal arts, AGANA received a BAS in Visual Effects from Ex’pression College for Digital Art in 2008 working in the film, animation and video game production industries. Prolific in her production, AGANA creates platforms for successful global art projects found on city buildings across the Americas and worldwide from Switzerland to Senegal.
“All the walls built around us are made to separate us, but when we tell our stories – speak our truths – they bring us together and make us sacred and connected. ”
Agana, “Madre Tierra de mi Corazon,” 2018
Agana’s art first appeared at Brava back in 2018, when Brava commissioned her to create the mural “Madre Tierra de mi Corazon” on the east-side gate of our newly opened storefront. The work appeared in our 2018 Baile en la Calle: The Mural Dances, and has become beloved by Brava and the neighborhood alike. This past July Brava had the opportunity to engage Agana again, in the creation of “Brava Breaths Palabra.” Commissioned by Brava! for Women in the Arts with support from our neighborhood partner, Acción Latina, for the July 16, 2020 Paseo Artístico: Art is Collective Action, “Brava Breaths Palabra” honors our nation’s ancestral heritage and the generations of Black and Indigenous women who have given heart, breath, and life to this land.
At the mural’s unveiling on September 7, Agana read an artistic statement she had prepared for the event. The whole of which can be read here.
Several special guest artists contributed to the creation of “Brava Breaths Palabra,” including Shishi Madriz, Toons One, Sonia G, and Josue Rojas Art. They and their work are included in the slideshow below (Photos by Agana).
Link Up with Brava
Brava has revamped our LinkedIn page! We will be using this platform to bring you special content not usually found on our other social media pages. Give us a follow to find artist and community resources, interesting and thoughtful articles, and special event announcements.
Smash the Patriarchy: Art as Collective Action
Building New Commissions During Covid
This month, SF Arts Monthly’s, Heather Desaulniers, interviewed several of the recent Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions awardees, including Brava Artist in Residence, Vanessa Sanchez. Sanchez received the commissioning award for Ghostly Labor, a new project in development at Brava. Desaulniers spoke to the artists about the challenges in building new commissions during Covid, and found that, “[i]f there’s one thing that dancers know how to do well, it’s pivot.”
Read Desaulners full article in the most recent issue of SF Arts Monthly here.
Vanessa Sanchez and La Mezcla perform in front of House of Brakes.
Brava Welcomes Rosine Garcia
Brava is excited to welcome Rosine Garcia to our small but mighty staff! Rosine came to Brava through her connection with Carnaval San Francisco, where she is currently (and will continue to be) the Festival’s Vendor Coordinator and Social Media Coordinator. Rosine’s immense talent as an event coordinator and social media guru will be put to great use here at Brava. Rosine will be putting out fresh new content across all of our platforms, so stay tuned. Welcome to Brava Rosine!
Rosine is a current student at the University of San Francisco where she majors in Hospitality Management (with an emphasis on events) and minors in Chicanx-Latinx Studies. In her free time, you can find Rosine reading books, decorating her planner, and eating cinnamon rolls.
