May 20, 2022
For immediate release

Contact:
Andrew Wood 415-399-9554 (o) 415-305-1102 (c) [email protected]
Emily Lee 415-399-9554 (o) 415-609-8870 (c) [email protected]

SFIAF Presents
Another FREE and Thrilling Installment of
THE LAST SUPPER PARTY

Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: Aileen Cassinetto, Kim Shuck, Maya Nell, Kimi Sugioka
What: The Last Supper Party
Where: 1222 Sutter Street San Francisco, 94109
Date & Time: Saturday, June 4, 6:00pm
Tickets: FREE; COVID Vaccination & RSVP Required
Box Office and Information: https://www.sfiaf.org/2022_lsp_june_4 or 415-399-9554.

Photos Available on Request

San Francisco, May 20, 2022: The San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) invited the public to the third and final evening of the first season of THE LAST SUPPER PARTY, a no-cost gathering featuring food, wine and great spoken word and music performances.

The June installment will feature presentations by Poets Laureate: Aileen Cassinett and  Kim Shuck, along with a guitar set from singer/songwriter,  Maya Nell. There will be an open mic to follow.

The evening is curated by the Poet Laureate for the city of Alameda, Kimi Sugioka. The Last Supper Party takes place on the first Saturday of the month from October - June. Season Two will kick off on Saturday

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.

Fe Bongolan reflects on the origins of The Last Supper Party

“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

The Last Supper Party canvas was originally commissioned by the Eyes and Ears Foundation and remains part of the E&E art collection.

Artist Biographies

Aileen Cassinetto
Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Aileen Cassinetto is an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow and the Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, California. The founder of Paloma Press and author of two poetry collections and three chapbooks, her work has appeared in Poetry magazine, Marías at Sampaguitas, and Fellowship Magazine, among others. Between 2019 and 2022, she helped launch youth programs and youth poetry competitions in the county. She also produced the short film, Breathe featuring eco-poetry by high school students, an official selection in the Nature & Culture Poetry Film Festival in Copenhagen. She received a Special Congressional Recognition and was appointed Commissioner on the San Mateo County Commission on the Status of Women in 2021. She is featured in National Poetry Month’s Dear Poet 2022.

Kim Shuck
Kim Shuck is a silly protein and is the seventh Poet Laureate of San Francisco Emerita. In 2019 Kim was awarded one of 13 inaugural National Laureate Fellowships by the Academy of American Poets. In 2020 Shuck received a Creatives In Place Fellowship. Kim is the solo author of eight books, is widely anthologized and appears in many journals. She is still proudest when handing the mic to someone else.

Maya Nell
"Maya Nell” is the current stage name and creative outlet for Mutooro and Southern artist, Abwoli Maya Nell Murungi Kairumba Burke. Through instrumentation, prose, lyricism, and vulnerable storytelling, their work contributes to expansive conversations about sexuality, grief & loss, queer & trans kinship, gender identity, racialized identities, interracial relationships, decolonizing praxis, ecological collapse, and tangible solidarity with Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation movements. Their introduction to music was through traditional Ugandan music, through listening to Billie Holiday on Sunday mornings cleaning with their mother, and humming to John Prine late at night with their father. Maya grew up with a mother who is proud of Tooro culture, and within a community in Kentucky that is passionate about Old Time Mountain music.

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.

The Last Supper Party

Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: Aileen Cassinetto, Kim Shuck, Maya Nell, Kimi Sugioka
What: The Last Supper Party
Where: 1222 Sutter Street San Francisco, 94109
Date & Time: Saturday, June 4, 6:00pm
Tickets: Entry Free; COVID Vaccination & RSVP Required
Box Office and Information: https://www.sfiaf.org/2022_lsp_june_4 or 415-399-9554.

Photos Available on Request