At 16th and Albion, a defunct laundromat turns to art
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For the past 20 years, the American Indian Cultural Center, a nonprofit that fosters Indigenous community and culture in San Francisco, has collaborated with City Hall to plan the annual Native American Heritage Night event held in November.
But on Sept. 22, Mayor Daniel Lurieโs office told the cultural center that last year was it. The cultural center will no longer lead the celebrations, a mayoral staffer told the group. Instead, the event will be planned by a dedicated committee and โco-facilitated by representatives from the Mayorโs Office and City staff.โ
โThe City envisions a long-term framework in which community-based organizations take the lead in organizing these events,โ Moisรฉs Garcia, the mayorโs community liaison, wrote in an email to April McGill, the executive director of the American Indian Cultural Center.
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โWeโve identified a new partner,โ Garcia wrote, adding that the cultural center โis welcome to join the planning meeting. The first meeting will be scheduled for next week.โ The mayorโs office declined to identify the new partner.
McGill was furious. โThis has always been an event led _for us by us_ , with the full support and recognition of every previous mayorโs office,โ she wrote back to Garcia on Sept. 25.
โThe top-down restructuring of this celebration, without input from the American Indian community, undermines our autonomy and feels like an erasure of Native leadership in our own cultural affairs,โ McGill continued. โThis is not reflective of a โshared leadership modelโ; rather, it suggests a unilateral decision-making process that excludes the very community the event is meant to honor.โ
She made the same point to city supervisors at a Sept. 30 meeting, questioning why they bothered to open their meetings with recognition of Native American tribes: โMaybe you all should just stop doing the land acknowledgments, because itโs useless.โ
### **โThe runaroundโ**
Lurieโs office did not respond to multiple questions about why it will no longer partner with the American Indian Cultural Center.
In the email to the cultural center, the mayoral staffer said the city needs a nonprofit to act as the โfiscal leadโ for the event. The center did not qualify because it is โfiscally sponsoredโ โ a common status for smaller groups that use another nonprofitโs 501(c)(3) status to receive tax-exempt donations and benefits.
But that appears to be incorrect. The cultural center said it is its own 501(c)(3), and the Internal Revenue Service wrote the same in a February letter.
The heritage night is, like others hosted by City Hall, meant to celebrate a community. Last November, powwow dangers moved to the drums and โlocal heroesโ from the cityโs indigenous community won awards. Afterwards, attendees gathered in a City Hall antechamber to socialize over frybread and Indian tacos.
In past years, the planning for the Native American Heritage Night event usually began in spring, McGill said, whenever the cultural centerโs members ran into the mayorโs team at an event.
โHey, letโs get a date for Heritage Month,โ they would say, McGill explained. โOh, yeah, we need to start planning.โ
But this year, no chance run-in occurred. McGill only met with Lurie once, in her capacity as the arts and culture chair of the American Indian Cultural District, a separate Indigenous organization. That meeting was to discuss the police presence at 16th and Mission.
So, on Aug. 19, McGill reached out to Garcia at the mayorโs office to set a date; she got an email with a $597.80 bill the cultural center owed from last yearโs event instead, which she then paid. McGill followed up about setting a date on Sept. 12, but got no response.
โIt was then I started to feel like, โOkay, now weโre just getting the runaround,โโ McGill said.
Then, after McGill emailed again on Sept. 22, Garcia informed the cultural center that they would no longer lead the event, but that they could come to the first planning meeting next week.
โHow disrespectful is that?โ McGill told Mission Local. โTo say, โOh, weโre having a planning meeting about your community but you were never invited. But oh, yeah, by the way, you can come if you want.โโ
Ultimately, McGill said, many in the Native community feel that the mayor simply does not care about engaging with them.
โOur voices keep getting pushed to the side. But when a YouTuber like IShowSpeed shows up to City Hall, suddenly the mayorโs got all the energy in the world to say what up, be front row, hype it up, cameras all on, make sure heโs in the spotlight,โ T.K. Halsey, a Native youth, said during public comment at a recent board meeting, referencing the Sept. 25 social media video filmed by Lurie and the popular YouTuber.
โWhereโs that same energy for the Indigenous people who built the very grounds the city stands on?โ Halsey asked.
Even without City Hallโs support, the cultural center still plans to host a Native Heritage event โ itโs already sent out the nomination form for โlocal heroesโ to honor and is searching for a new location.
โWeโre still going to do it with or without the mayor, because itโs not his celebration,โ McGill said. โItโs not about him. Itโs about our people and celebrating our existence, our resiliency.โ
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