The Last Supper Party Performance Series
The Last Supper Party is a spoken word and performance series inspired by Fe Bongolan’s landmark painting of the same name; a 200 sq. ft. canvas that defines our Sutter Street office and live arts venue.

The Last Supper Party presents the voices of diverse artists and writers who call out the myriad injustices and impacts of corruption, unchecked power and greed.

We invite our audience to share ideas and bread and find inspiration in the thoughts and words of artists whose perspectives are drawn from a kaleidoscope of cultures. But who are united by compassion and a common desire to seek justice, equity and truth.

The Story of The Last Supper Party Painting
“1985. Ronald Reagan was still President. The global movement to end apartheid and free Nelson Mandela from Robben Island Prison was underway. In San Francisco homelessness was ramping up. The AIDS pandemic was taking down swaths of our city’s population: friends, family, and co-workers. Yet a whole other world of class and wealth did nothing while the rest of our world was in trouble. Sitting in my studio in an Inverness cabin, I stayed with my paints and let something happen. It was there that I found my artist’s voice to not attack directly, but to let the exposure of that apathy – bred by a society that embraced greed over humanity—do the work.

Thirty six years later, with all that has changed and not changed, it is painfully unsurprising that this painting still shouts.”

~ Fe Bongolan

About the Artists

Gamal Abdel Chasten
Gamal is a playwright, actor and songwriter. He is a co-founder of both the Universes theater ensemble, and The Breath Project. The latter is a national initiative that supports and advocates for BIPOC theater artists. Gamal’s theatrical writing credits include: The Black Mann Act Trial of Jack Johnson Vaudeville Show (2021 Colorado New Play Festival), Crawfish / We The Invisible (2020 Workshop Production, 6^th Street Playhouse), The Last Word (2005, PS 122), God Took Away His Poem (2000, Lab theaters Barn series), Let Bygones Be (2010, Humana Festival 10-minute play), The Wall (2011 New Orleans Fringe) , The Ride (1999, P.S. 122, Universes), Slanguage (2001, Universes, NYTW), Ameriville (Humana Festival, 2007, Universes), Party People (2014 Berkely Rep, Universes), Americus (2020, CPIP, Universes).

José (Manny) Martínez
José (Manny) Martínez aka J.M. Curét is the author of the short story Wife-Beater Tank Top, from the Akashic Books 2020 anthology Berkeley Noir. His short story Papi’s Stroke and poem, Fragmented/Fragmentado were published in the May 2020 issue of The Acentos Review, and his short story, Undone was published in Voices de la Luna Vol. 14 in February of 2022. His poems Tracy and What Had Happened Was were published in Quiet Lightning’s Sparkle + Blink Issue 109. Manny lives in San Francisco, teaches high school English and Ethnic Studies, and lends his voice to various salsa bands in the Bay Area. 

Kimi Sugioka (Curator)
Kimi Sugioka is a poet, songwriter, and educator. She is the current Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda, a post that includes creating platforms for the presentation of a diverse variety of poets and spoken-word artists. Kimi also performs her own work frequently throughout the Bay Area. Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and raised in Berkeley, California, Kimi has worked in public education for decades, and earned her BA from San Francisco State University and MFA from the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Fe Bongolan (Creator of The Last Supper Party Painting)
Fe Bongolan is a Bay Area visual and performing artist. She is an alumnae of San Francisco State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Crafts and Design. She found theater arts in her last year at SFSU, and to this day it consumes her life. After working as an actress with Asian American Theater Company and Teatro Campesino, in 1992 she began work with the Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, immediately involved as an artist from the community working alongside Rhodessa Jones in helping women inmates from San Francisco County Jail write their stories for performance. In 28 years with the Medea Project, Fe developed as actor, writer, dramaturge and assistant director to Rhodessa, helping inmates and ex-offenders find their voice and develop their writing for performance in jail, the community and main stage.