September 28, 2026
For immediate release

Contact:
Andrew Wood: 415-399-9554 (o) 415-305-1102 (c) [email protected]
Alec Lazarev: 818-424-1329 [email protected]

Beloved Poetry and Music Series Begins 2026-27 Season

Part of Fall of Freedom
Mission Arts Performance Project
Mission Action Plan 2030

Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: Raymond Nat Turner, Tureeda Mikell and Tony Aldarondo with an Open Microphone to Follow
What: The Last Supper Party
Where: Muddy Waters Coffee & Lounge
              521 Valencia Street, SF CA 94110
Date:  Saturday October 3, 6:00pm
Tickets: FREE 
Box Office and Information: https://www.sfiaf.org/lsp_oct_3_2026 or 415-399-9554

Photos Available on Request

September 21, 2026 San Francisco: San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) is pleased to announce the start of the fifth season of The Last Supper Party, curated by Alameda Poet Laureate Kimi Sugioka. The season opens on Saturday, October 3, at 6 p.m. at Muddy Waters Coffee & Lounge (521 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110). The evening features poetry by Raymond Nat Turner and Tureeda Ture Ade Mikell, accompanied by music from singer-songwriter, Tony Aldarondo.

At The Last Supper Party, SFIAF invites audiences to share ideas and bread and find inspiration in the thoughts and words of artists and writers 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 October 3 program is presented as part of Fall of Freedom (a nationwide arts movement that calls on artists, institutions, and communities to resist authoritarianism through exhibitions, performances, and public events)  and the Mission Arts Performance Project (MAPP -- a free community-run arts and music night that has spent more than 20 years celebrating the Mission District's culture).

The Last Supper Party series takes place on the first Saturday of the month in collaboration with the San Francisco Planning Department and its Mission Action Plan 2030. The series will be presented at a different venue along the 16th Street Corridor every month from October through May. The goal of the collaboration with the Planning Department is to increase cultural and economic activity as a way to revitalize the corridor.

Last Supper Party curator, Kimi Sugioka said of the 2026-27 season and the collaboration with the San Francisco Planning Department, "We feel the Last Supper Party program has grown through our work with the Planning Department. Up to 2025 we had always presented the series at the same venue for a whole season. Presenting the program at a different venue every month has allowed us, working with the leadership and owners of the different businesses or organizations, to give each presentation a more unique cultural focus. For example: on January 2 we will be celebrating Kotohajime with Theatre of Yugen at their NOH Space. Kotohajime is the Japanese New Year observance as a day to 'start new things' or take the first steps back into daily work. In February we will focus on a younger generation of artists with the Youth Art Exchange, March will be an inquiry into the sweeter things in life with Dandelion Chocolate and in May we will feature Indigenous artists with the International Indian Treaty Council."

Rachel Tanner, director of community planning at the San Francisco Planning Department said, "Revitalizing the 16th Street corridor is a major component of the Mission Action Plan 2030. The Last Supper Party is one of numerous community development initiatives that the Planning Department is supporting with multiple city agencies and community-based partners in implementing the plan."

The full list of participating partners and venues in 2026-27 are: Muddy Waters Coffee & Lounge (10/3), The Sycamore (11/7), Cocina Mayah (12/5), Theatre of Yugen's NOH Space (1/2), Youth Art Exchange (2/6), Dandelion Chocolate (3/6), Abanico Coffee Roasters (4/3) and the International Indian Treaty Council (5/1).

Participating artists in the 2026-27 Last Supper Party season include: Redell, Colleen Shoshana McKee, Olga Zilberbourg, Timothy Goodspeed, Andreina Maldonado, Avotcja, Shizue Seigel, and many more.

Artist Biographies

Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, “The Town Crier,” is the Artistic Director of the JazzPoetry Ensemble UpSurge!NYC. Turner's appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival, KCSM's Jazz On The Hill, NYC's Vision Fest and Dissident Arts Festival. He's currently Poet-in-Residence at Black Agenda Report and KPFA's "Talkies."

Tureeda Ture Ade Mikell
Tureeda is an award-winning poet, storyteller, activist, and U.C. Berkeley Bay Area Writing Fellow whose work has been presented nationally and internationally, from Egypt to China, both in person and online. Known as Story Medicine Woman among peers, and a Black Panther Party alum, Mikell has served as storyteller and poet-in-residence at countless cultural institutions including the Museum of the African Diaspora, Oakland Museum, Randall Museum, San José Museum of Art Invitational, the de Young Museum, and the California Academy of Sciences. She is the author of Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine (Nomadic Press), nominated for the California Book Award, and The Body: Oracle of Memory (Black Lawrence Press) recently placed in, The Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mikell is co-curator of the Patrice Lumumba Anthology with East Side Arts Alliance now anthologized internationally, her works are presently archived and recorded in San Francisco's infamous City Lights Book & Publishers, and is the recipient of Berkeley Poetry Festival's 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tony Aldarondo
Tony has performed music and poetry in venues throughout the San Francisco Bay area…and once while standing up on a JetBlue airplane! He is also an actor and a voiceover artist. He is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Big Heart Poet, We Are Poets, and his latest Poet On The Run. Tony loves performing poetry in venues with live audiences and his favorite thing of all his being the best dad he can be to his two awesome teenage kids.

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.

Funding Credits: San Francisco International Arts Festival and The Last Supper Party made possible in part by (among others) the support of: Creative West (formerly WESTAF with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts), San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Sam Mazza Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission and generous individual donors.

Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: Sara Beil, Tureeda Mikell, Tony Aldarondo
What: The Last Supper Party
Where: Muddy Waters Coffee & Lounge
              521 Valencia Street, SF CA 94110
Date:  Saturday October 3, 6:00pm
Tickets: FREE 
Box Office and Information: https://www.sfiaf.org/lsp_oct_3_2026 or 415-399-9554

Photos Available on Request