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February 23, 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 Announces an Open Invitation to
THE LAST SUPPER PARTY!

Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: Fe Bongolan, Rhodessa Jones, Jason Bayani, Kimi Sugioka
What: The Last Supper Party
Where: 1222 Sutter Street San Francisco, 94109
Date & Time: Saturday, April 2, Reception: 6:00pm, Performances: 7:00pm
Tickets: Entry Free; COVID Vaccination & RSVP Required
Box Office and Information: https://www.sfiaf.org/last_supper_opening or 415-399-9554.

Photos Available on Request

San Francisco, February 23, 2022: The San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) invites the public to celebrate the opening of The Last Supper Party. The name has a double meaning. It is the title of the major large-scale 1985 painting (measuring 20' x 10') by artist, Felerine Bongolan that SFIAF has installed in its new Sutter Street office. It is also the opening night of a monthly Spoken Word performance series that honors Ms. Bongolan's statement canvas.

The evening will begin at 6:00pm with a reception to celebrate the installation of The Last Supper Party canvas. Then, at 7:00pm, the event will segue to performance artists artists and poets, Rhodessa Jones, Jason Bayani and Kimi Sugioka reading from their work to mark the inaugural Last Supper Party performance event.
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The Last Supper Party performance series will take place on the First Saturday of the Month. The series is curated by Alameda Poet Laureate and SFIAF Board Member, Kimi Sugioka. May 7 will feature Matt Sedillo and James Cagney. On June 4 Kim Shuck, Aileen Cassinetto and Maya Nell will grace SFIAF's Sutter Street office stage.

Kimi Sugioka said of the series, "Our new office was once a gallery, so we thought it was a good idea to furnish it with artwork that carries a strong message. At the same time, poetry and spoken word performances became a feature of SFIAF's programming during the pandemic and we wanted to continue to present that as well--especially during this transitional period when we are turning the ship around to relaunch the Festival at San Francisco State University. The Last Supper Party seemed like an appropriate and serendipitous way of combining our ideas to address the moment."

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

Felerine Bongolan
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.

In her words, “Even in my visual art works, I was searching for the path to explore making art that had vital meaning and impact on the world. For me as a performer it was with the Medea Project that I found that road.”

Rhodessa Jones
Rhodessa Jones is Co-Artistic Director of the acclaimed San Francisco performance compnay Cultural Odyssey. She is an actress, teacher, director, and writer. Rhodessa is also the Director of the award winning Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women and HIV Circle, which is a performance workshop designed to achieve personal and social transformation with incarcerated women and women living with HIC. Rhodessa was the Festival's artistic director in 2007.

Jason Bayani
Jason Bayani is the author of the Northern California Book Award nominated Locus (Omnidawn Publishing 2019)and Amulet (Write Bloody Publishing 2013), and creator of the solo theater show Locus of Control. Healso works as the artistic director of the Kearny Street Workshop in San Francisco, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific American arts organization in the country.

Kimi Sugioka
Kimi Sugioka is a poet, songwriter, and educator. She is the current Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda and often performs her work throughout the Bay Area. Her position as Poet Laureate also means that she is tasked with creating platforms for the presentation of a diverse variety of poets and spoken-word artists. Kimi was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and was raised in Berkeley, California. She earned her BA from San Francisco State University and MFA from the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Much of her life has been spent working in education. 

The Last Supper Party

Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: Fe Bongolan, Rhodessa Jones, Jason Bayani, Kimi Sugioka
What: The Last Supper Party
Where: 1222 Sutter Street San Francisco, 94109
Date & Time: Saturday, April 2, Reception: 6:00pm, Performances: 7:00pm
Tickets: Entry Free; COVID Vaccination & RSVP Required
Box Office and Information: https://www.sfiaf.org/last_supper_opening or 415-399-9554.

Photos Available on Request