>> we are ready to start! happy juneteenth! happy juneteenth! for those who are standing, can you come and please sit down, so that we can get started? can we have everyone come and take a seat, so that we can get started? everyone who is standing in the back, there are plenty seats. please come forward and take a seat. thank you.

[drums and singing]

[applause] [drums and singing]

[applause] >> put those hands together for the west african dancers and drummers! what a way to kickoff the celebration. now time for our libation.

[drums playing] >> the libation is our connection to the past and our roadmap to a better future. the purpose of libation is to remember and honor those who walked and worked before us and thus paved the path we now walk. we pour in the direction of the four winds, north, south, east and west. for africa and mother land and those known and unknown who defended our land in history. >> for ancestors who struggled for our freedom and those who defied to [indiscernible] develop our interest as a people. we pour. >> for our elders who helped to give us wisdom, strength for fathers

and mothers who-- >> please call out the name of your loved ones who have now rest in the valley of the departed. >> we pour. >> for the youth who represent the future of tomorrow, we pour. >> for men and women in the human rights struggle, we pour. >> for a new world we struggle to build, we pour. >> for the principals as our guide and in and out in every day life, we pour. >> our all mighty creator who makes all things possible, we pour.

[drums playing] [applause] >> here now to present the national anthem please welcome mikayla, [indiscernible] and joshua carter. [applause] please let us all rise.

[singing] [single lift every voice and sing]

[applause] >> thank you. one more time for mikayla, [indiscernible] and joshua carter. [applause] now, please give me one moment as i catch my breath. i will be your mc today and i'm here to welcome our very own, ms.

felicia, you all know her. felicia jones at this time. [applause] >> thank you. thank you thank you. it is so good to see all of you here, celebrating juneteenth. juneteenth. and so- [applause] you all lood gook. the people in the back, the caterers i welcome you to juneteenth, 2024. lynn i love you and so this is what i would like to say before we bring up the mayor. i'm humbled at this particular time. times are difficult for us . things are going every which way, but it going to go the right way, and if you believe in that, stand on your feet with your flags? stand on your feet with your flags,

because it is juneteenth. it is juneteenth. juneteenth. just like we said last year, we will wave our flags up in the air and rock them to the right and to the left like we just dont care. juneteenth! juneteenth! and so i will bring up the honorable mayor breed. keep standing. do not sit down. do not sit down on my mayor. do not sit down on my mayor. and so, what i want you guys to do, i want everyone in here to show our mayor breed some love. clap it up! clap it up for my mayor! [applause] looking good in that purple. come on up, mayor breed. yes. i want you to go up there. before you go up there, there is something that i would like to present to you on behalf of wealth

dispareties in the black community and on behalf of the black community in general, because we love you. we love you and we want you to know we love you. everyone say, we love you mayor breed! say it one more time because it sounds so good. we love you mayor breed! alright. i have something for you. i would like toprint present to this identify as a memory of juneteenth from last year, and it is all of us stapding. standingism i think it is wonderful keepsake and i just want to say, love i you girl. you my girl. [applause]

alright. say amen! first of all, if you need a seat, there are seats in the front. if anybody is looking for a place to sit. welcome to san francisco city hall to kickoff juneteenth! [applause] you are going to be hearic from a number of our leaders today, but i want to take this opportunity to recognize a few leaders. you'll hear from our state attorney general rabanta. [applause] and our california state senator, scott wiener. [applause] thank you to our local elected leaders, including jose sisneros, our district attorney, brooke jenkins, our city attorney david chui, our chair paul miyamoto, our assessor, joaquin torres. our fire chief, jeanine

nicholson. our police chief, bill scott. our city administrator, carmen chui and a bunch of other department heads including dr. grant colfax, reverend brown and you name it. i appreciate the leadership of this city being here to kickoff juneteenth. it is important that we recognize this as a celebration, but also it is important that we take a step back to understand the significance of juneteenth. and, we know that this dates back to starting in 1863 with the emancipation proclamation and people in the deep south in rural texas not finding out about the freedom that we are

enjoying today until two years later, some time in june of 1865. and then in san francisco, we can look back at when we started celebratory events, all the way back to 1945 or so, and really kicking it off with a number of local night clubs originally in 1950, but walter johnson of the texas playhouse really set it up in 1964 with the first juneteenth festival and parade down fillmore street. and here's the thing, what i have always appreciated about opportunities to celebrate juneteenth is, yes, it is celebrating freedom, but it also overcoming a lot of adversity. when we think about how far this country's history is, in terms of the

oppression of black people, that's not even disant histly. that is really recent history. my grand mother worked one generation out of slavery and she actually migrated from texas to san francisco and still felt very uncomfortable interacting sometimes with people who were not african american. but she was tough and she would give you a good whooping on occasion. when i think about what people like my grand mother and others have to overcome in places like the south, and what we are experiencing here today in san francisco, we haven't come as far as we would like to believe. now, i know that i am the first black woman to serve as mayor of san

francisco. [applause] but i definitely don't want to be the last. just a couple weeks ago, some of you may have recalled or heard in the press of some very racist and sexist words were spray pointed on the front of city hall. and it made me realize in 2024, we haven't come as far as we believe we have. so, i will not apologize for making hard decisions that include significant investments in black people in san francisco. [applause]

while, a lot of people talked a good game after the death of george floyd, we actually did something about it. [applause] we with wealth and despair tease in the black community and felicia jones implemented the 272 recommendations from the obama administration department of justice to reform our police department and our chief bill scott helped to lead those efforts. [applause] and with a dream keeper initiative, people who have opened their first business in san francisco, people who are born and raised in this city opening their first businesses providing opportunities for their program over 32 black people received half a million dollars for down payments assistance to buy

their first home. [applause] and we know the work continues. and especially for all of you who have been the beneficiary of resources from the dream keeper 96ative. initiative. the dream keeper initiative is about insuring your success, knut but it also about the insuring the success of the entire community. you are a part of helping to up lift the next generation of black kids growing up in this city. [applause] because, they need us now more then ever. and we may talk about the fact that we have a less then 5 percent african american population in this city, but that 5 percent is mighty and can move mountains. [applause]

the forces have always worked against me in my life. you know what? the ancestors have always worked for me in my life. [applause] we have to remember that and take the ancestors of strength of what they have gone through and use that to lift us up and lift up our community. that is how we recognize their legacy and what they have done to get us to this point thusfar in life. [applause] and again, like harriet tubman did, put her life on the line to go back and free other people. she was not just content with her success, she wanted to insure that others were free too. as we commemorate juneteenth, yes, we will celebrate, yes, there will

be music, yes there will be fun and we will see people that we haven't seen in a long time. yes, we will uplift african americans in this city and this country, but we will also remain and remember work needs to be done to address the racial disparities and discrimination and a lot of the problems we still experience, even at a place like san francisco. [applause] so, i want to thank all of you for being here today and one of the other things i want to say before i--introduce the next speaker, we this summer under the direction of dr. cheryl davis- [applause] and dream keeper initiative, we

have brought to san francisco an opportunity to bring students from historically black colleges and universities- [applause] -who are taking classes downtown, who are staying in our communities, and who will connect with the young people in our communities. i want our children to see up close and personal what black excellence look like from these students who are joining us here this year. [applause] so, let's continue to do all we can to make sure that we are celebrating juneteenth, but we are recognizing celebrating uplifting our community all year-round. [applause] and with that, i want to take this opportunity to introduce the

next speaker. our attorney general, rob banta has been a real partner in a lot of the work that we do to address the challenges that exist in our law enforcement community. i want to especially appreciate how consistently when there are problems in this city, he is always doing everything he can to use the law as a tool for good and in fact, we have been working together to address a number of the challenges related to hate crimes in this state. he formed a committee to really insure that people are held accountable and brought to justice and earlier today, we were at self-help for the elderly, talking about elder abuse, and how elder abuse of our seniors is on the rise and we have services and support to protect our most vulnerable, our senior community. i appreciate the work he's done.

ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, attorney general, rob bonta! [applause] >> give it up one more time to mayor breed! >> thank you for the very kind generous introduction mayor breed. i'm honored and grateful for the opportunity to be here to celebrate the kickoff of juneteenth with all of you. i want to say first, greetings from both me and assembly member mia bonta, sometimes known as the better bonta. we send our best as you kickoff the celebration in san francisco and of course we are commemorating the emancipation of enslaved black americans in the united states of america.

a time we take the time to honor the legacy of those who fought for freedom and celebrate the significant sacrifices and achievements and contributions of black americans to our great country. we also recommit to forging a new unified future, a future that doesn't ignore the past, because we must acknowledge the sins of the past, the wrongs and ingests of the past but isn't-voting disenfranchisement. america fulfills its promise to all and juneteenth and about acknowledging that and acknowledging while we made great strides, we can't afford to be complacent and for granted the

hard fought gains and as the mayor just stated, we have more road to travel on that road to progress. there is more to do. it is important in my humble opinion to be impatient for the change we need. we need to demand it. we need to be intolerant for ingests of injustice and make sure we pursue in place jz spaces and also must remind ourselves, we all have a role to play. we have agency, we have power, we have potency, the ability to create the change, the society the state the nation we deserve. that we want. and, we must be cognisant of the challenges and threats that we see all around us when we see rampant efforts to erase black history from

school curriculum whether through book bans. hate crimes against the black community at very high level as they continue to be remain a ongoing threat. and doj, we are committed to this important work of protecting and advancing civil rights and freedom and democracy. we launch-thank you [applause] we in my first weeks in office we launched the racial justice bureau to call out systemic racial injusts in california. to work with and for the community throughout california. active with civil rights making sure our california constitutional

and civil rights are honored and make sure the rights are vindicated. we are supporting the work of the california reparations task force. [applause] that has acknowledged the original sin that remains a stain on our country history of slavery and taking steps to create more justice and more opportunity and more healing. we will continue to fight against racial bias in housing and healthcare in policing. make sure our schools teach inclusive curriculum that reflects the states beautiful diversity. combat attacks on diversity programs that provide equitable access to education and economic growth and disrupt the school to drop out track by protecting students from discriminatory discipline practice and excessive school removal and that a small sampling of had work we are

doing and the work that needs to get done ask the work we can only do if we do it together. i am very proud that i have the opportunity to serve as california attorney general and i have a role to provide more to californian and americans and also proud my father, marched and organized in the civil rights movement and as a call to action when his friend sent cassette tapes across the country with the voice of martin luther king, jr.-he went to selma alabama and [indiscernible] when martin luther king, jr. appeared for a unannounced sermon. we all have a role to play, and we can look forward with anxiety and worry and

fear about our future, or we can look forward with optimism and hope. and i have optimism and hope that we with accomplish anything if we do to together, if we fight for each other and love each other and have each other's back. happy juneteenth. i'm honored to stand by you and fight by your side. [applause] it is my great pleasure to introduce the person who is going to introduce the next speaker. [laughter] >> thank you attorney general bonta. welcome director cheryl davis to the podium. [applause] >> i love having the chief in the audience, because will always make me feel really special.

thank you all for being here this afternoon. give a round another for ms. felicia jonesism [applause] i have the great honor to be able to introduce the next speaker. i want to first also give a shout out to dr. [indiscernible] who is supporting this work. [applause] the mayor mentioned we will be launching the hbcu satellight pilot next week and think we have some of the student here today. could you stand up for us please? [applause] so, i have as many may know, i said this before, i'm a woman of faith and grateful because god allowed me

to do work that gives me such joy and pleasure and he's allowed me to work with the amazing london nicole breed, and supervisor shamann walton. [applause] i know both of them from before they were elected. i had the great pleasure to work for years with mayor breed and community and did a lot of work with supervisor walton and the one thing i always say to folks what i know and believe with my whole heart, politics aside, they both went into this work to be what they needed in the city growing up here. and so, when you get to these places and folks challenge and want to talk about what somebody is doing or not doing, let's be very clear, they are doing for black people and for everybody in the city is and county of san francisco what should have been done when they were children. [applause]

so, i am just grateful because, they have both entrusted me to do such great work, and when we think about it and when we look back i want everybody to understand and trust and believe that you will never have stronger leaders in the name of city and county of san francisco because they know investment in the black community is investment in san francisco. [applause] and so, it brings me tremendous pleasure to be able to do this work every day and to also be able to recognize and acknowledge them boket and with that, i like to invite up supervisor shamann walton to the stage. [applause] >> good afternoon! happy juneteenth everybody! i want to say this at attorney

general banta's face, but he since left, but i didn't know he was supposed to be giving a keynote today. but i do want to thank attorney general bonta for his work. when i was fighting and working with a lot of you to form the carinates in san francisco he also-yes. he also put legislation together when he was in the state assembly to make sure these arbitrary 911 calls that were happening to black people for doing every day activities did not happen at the state level so he put that in into law at the state to protect black folks as well. [applause] i apologize for being late, but i am actually right now as we speak in two places at one time, because we are in the middle of budget, but i do want to say a couple things this afternoon. i will be brief. the first thing is, we have a lot of amazing events happening this weekend here in san francisco.

i want to make sure that everyone in this room takes the time to support all of those events. a lot of people fought hard to make sure that these events were able to happen so we could commemorate what happened in 1865 in texas when folks finally found out that they were actually free and so i want to make sure everyone takes advant age of the events and opportunities we have here in san francisco. second, if you are black and in leadership, please stand. any black person in leadership, please stand. [applause] some people took their time to stand up and i know we have a few more leaders

in here, but i want to make sure that our black leaders are acknowledged and given the props they deserve for the hard work they do every single day. san francisco is not kind to black people right now, and so the work all you do, the fight that you have for our community, i just want to say thank you and acknowledge you for that right here in front of everybody publicly. [applause] i want to thank felicia of course for her leadership and making sure this event continues to happen. thank you so much. [applause] and i don't know if this is done yet, but i want to send a special shouts out to dr. cheryl davis for all her work she does on a daily basis. [applause] i know we say this all the time, but we really do entrust director davis with a

lot of work. everything we do in the city that is around improving the lives and opportunities for black people, most certainly we push through the human rights commission and she has been a staunch leader making sure what we put in play leads to success on the ground for communities, so gone, thank you so much, dr. davis. [applause] >> the last thing i will say and mayor touched on is historically black college university internship program we have this summer. i had the privilege and honor attending morris brown college in atlanta georgia, and that experience truly changed my life and gave me everything i needed to be able to stand before you today. my hope and my goal is to make sure that our young people in san francisco has the same opportunity that i and so many others had, but do not

have to go thousands of miles away to receive that opportunity. thank you and happy juneteenth. >> thank you, one more time for supervisor shamann walton. now let's welcome, please chief, william scott. [applause] >> good afternoon everybody. and happy juneteenth. i will do two things. i want to say a few words. three things and thank a few people in the room and say a little about juneteenth and then i have an award for ms. felicia jones. give her a round of applause. [applause] i will call you up in a second. so, juneteenth, it has been

said by our mayor and attorney general, 1865, june 19, 1865, people in texas african american people in texas finally found out that they were free. problem was they had been free for two years. how does that happen? it happens when you don't have a voice and at the mercy of others to have a voice. we are in a different place now, because we all have a voice and let me tell you, we have to use that voice. now, there are many people in this room who don't have any problem speaking truth to power. reverend brown, you know what i'm talking about. felicia jones, you know what i'm talking about. [indiscernible] you know what i'm talking about and i can go on and on and on. here's the point, i will tie this back to felicia, my introduction to

felicia was on january 23, 2017. my first day as the police chief here in the city. as i get sworn in, right there in that city hall rotunda, i heard this voice in the balcony screaming about, freedom and screaming about equality and justice and i'm like who is this lady? that lady was felicia jones. [applause] now, i think it was about a week later, ms. jones and were in my office talking about those issues and she is not shy speaking up for freedom and equality and justice, speaking up against police brutality and speaking up to make sure this department fulfill the promise we promise the city we complete 272 reform recommendations. she has not been shy and there

are many others in the room that have spoken up. i want to thank you all, because thalths that's what we need. it isn't just about a good time agreeing, it is about people standing up and speaking up when it is time to stand up and speak up. so, that is what leadership is about, and let me tell you, there are many people in this room, including our mayor, who have done that since the day i met them, and felicia, ms. jones as i call her, you deserve a round of applause for always speaking up. [applause] so, for particularly the young people in the room and students, hbcu student, i hope your time here in san francisco is life-changing, because you will have the opportunity to meet some

amazing people in leadership positions and amazing people many of us didn't have access to when we were your age. take advantage of it. use your voice, because we expect that will be in these position s in the very near future. we are here for you, we have people that will role model for you and we want to make sure we never ever again in this country go 2 years or any amount of period without people understanding they are free and they have equality and justice. [applause] so, ms. jones, if you come come up and i'll come down to you to give you your certificate. come up front and center. [applause] so, this is a certificate of honor presented to ms. felicia jones, april 12, which is when we had the

celebration but late getting your certificate. 2024. it reads, whereas, on behalf of city and county of san francisco, i'm pleased to recognize and honor felicia jones for your work on the collaborative reform initiatives. your steadfast dedication and working with the san francisco police department to help build trust by implementing the collaborative reform initiative and setting new burnmarks reducing use of force and officer involved shooting accountability for police is inspiring. furthermore, your unwavering commitment and creating a fair safer and more just society for san francisco has left a positive lasting impact for years to come. under your leadership, your dedication to addressing racial and social inequity and promost justice truly represents our city's values at its best. therefore, i set my hand on the city and county of san francisco to

be affixed, signed, mayor london breed. thank you. [applause] [applause] >> i just want to say a few words and the work that we have done with san francisco police department took seven years to complete. that seven years of being upheld and having mayor breed know that this work

was important after mayor lee passed away, and made a promise that we would do this work. i want to say thank you to wealth and disparities in the black community, because i couldn't have done it all by myself without you. tom brown, i know you are in. stand up, tom. i don't know who else from wealth and disparities is here. lynn, who helped me all throughout-thank you. i will leave you with this, don't come for me unless i send for you. [applause] don't come for me, unless i send for you. and then i am going to say, i'm not new to this! i am true to this! fighting for my people. [applause] thank you so much. thank you again mayor breed.

thank you chief scott. thank you everyone. thank you black people! >> beautiful. come on, one more time for chief scott and ms. felicia jones. [applause] here now, let us welcome, senator scott wiener. [applause] >> good afternoon! amazing to go after felicia jones. congratulations and thank you for everything you do. let's hear it for felicia again. [applause] i'm honored to be here today with this community and also want to thank mayor breed from the bottom of my heart. i have known the mayor many years and we work hand and glove every day for this community. that is state, city partnership is so critical and are the mayor

pours her life into this city and into the loving the city, so madam mayor, thank you for everything that you do. [applause] so, as some of you may know, this year i was appointed to be the chair of the senate budget committee and i have great timing. i was named budget change in time for a massive budget deficit. a lot of fun to enter under those circumstances. at first i was like wow, this isn't going to be fun. it is always great when you have money to invest in things and to do new things, and to come in during a deficit isn't the most uplifting thing, but then i realized that it was actually quite uplifting because when you are in tough times that is when your values really come out.

what are the priorities-who are the communities that you are going to go to the mat to protect? and i just want to tell you, we worked so hard in the legislature and passed our budget yesterday and we were able to protect and restore services for some of our most vulnerable communities for our seniors who are home-bound, for our foster kids and at risk youth, for folks who need healthcare, and i am so proud of the work that we were able to do in the capital to say that even during hard times we are never going to protect-never going to forget what this community is about and the need to lift everyone up. i will also say that we helped save some of those critical services by taking some money from our prison system to help do that, and in

the state of california, in the state of california over the last 10, 15 years our prison population went down by 40 percent because we finally moved away from the year of mass incarceration. but during that time period it was going down, the budget went up by 60 percent, so we are working hard and we need to all work hard as a community to manifest our values and we are doing that and i'm so grateful for so many people in the room who are working so hard and particularly during a period of the attorney general talked about, when we have forces in this country that want us to forget about the past. that want to white wash everything. pretend everything was okay. everything was not always okay for a lot of people in this country and many things are still not okay for many in this country, so we want to

make sure that our kids know about actual history. the history of our african american community. the history of our lgbtq community of our immigrant communities, everything. the good and beautiful, and the not so beautiful and we will fight so hard to make sure that those forces don't win and we will do it and have a better future. thank you everyone. [applause] happy juneteenth! >> please welcome this dynamic father daughter duo, michael and mikayla cheato. [applause]

>> thank you so much for having us. [music playing]

[singing mercy mercy me]

[applause] >> i will step aside and let me daughter mikayla--give another round of applause. [applause] [singing]

[singing song, golden]

>> one more time for michael and mikayla! one more time. [singing]

>> wow. come on, show your love for this band. top of the mark. alright. now, at this time, please let us welcome a dance from eric. [applause] [music and singing]

[applause] [singing] [applause] [singing and music]

>> one more time for mr. eric lee with that wonderful dance. now, we are getting ready to go a little higher. look at your neighbor and say, a little bit higher. at this time, i like to welcome ms. ramona massey to present the juneteenth court.

>> alright. good afternoon. happy juneteenth and i just want to say right now, after that performance, everybody here needs to be shouting. that was amazing! amazing, amazing. i will hurry up. i have the privilege and honor of introducing to you, san francisco, mr. and mrs. juneteenth in court, 2024. before you meet them, let's give them a round of applause. [applause] alright. so, this is an age group from 3 to 17, and they are being groomed for excellence. as mayor breed said, she does not want to be the last so this is our futureism as i introduce them, keep in mind there were others but they are representing the finalists. for third place, i have ziri.

give them a round of applause! [applause] second place, i have dylan knight. and third place-or mr. juneteenth is davan knight. let's give them a round of applause. zire is 7, dylan is 8 and davan is 9. we have third place amia whitley, 9 years old. second place, kaley williams, age 7. ms. juneteenth is [indiscernible] age 11. let's give them all a round of applause. that is dry. this is our future. give them a round of applause!

[applause] this is our future. alright. amen. >> hi, everybody. thank you for coming here and watching me be mr. juneteenth. [applause] and watch out for me in the future. [laughter] >> thank you. >> alright. give it up for this year's juneteenth court. give it up! [applause] wow, look at our future right here. how amazing. congratulations. alright.

now, let us take a moment and get ready for our special guest, so some of you may know this man from a group named black streets. you might also know him on his own, chicago 85. please join me and put your hands together for mr. dave hollister. [applause] >> we are going to sing a few ditties to you all. if you are all ready, come on say, yeah, i'm ready! [singing and music]

>> i got a question, can i take y'all back to 1994? i can't hear y'all. can i take you all back to 1994? if you know this i want you to help sing the song. [singing and music]

>> thank you all. [applause] photography >> one more time for mr. dave hollister. [applause] listen, i want to thank you for having me out. these guys over here have been all over the world with me, and i thank god for them. they get to chill today. you all get to chill today. he's one of the greatest vocalists i know. you all give it up one more time for my little brother, josh. [applause] mikayla is over here on the side, so they just chillin today. this is a great occasion and

thank you all for doing this. i want to leave y'all with this one last song, is that alright? this one last one, is that alright? let's go. [single and music]

[singing and dancing] i love you all, god bless you. have a good evening. take the lord everywhere you go. i bless you. how about one more time for mr. dave hollister! [music] we not done yet.

we not done yet. alright. are you guys enjoying the program, thus far? let's give a round of applause for the performers thus far. next up we do have a youth dance performance from heat dance line. heat dance line in the building! alright. immediately following heat dance line, will be sf [indiscernible] show your love for heat dance line.

[singing song, i'm every woman]

[singing song, sweet dreams by

beyonce]

>> one more time for heat dance line! [applause] fantastic. now, let us welcome, sf-to the stage. thank you. [applause] >> happy juneteenth, happy juneteenth! we are the san francisco bay area theater company. we got one song for you today in honor of juneteenth we are performing our show at the historical grace cathedral space, so please come check us out this weekend only. without further ado--

[singing song, in daddy's arms i am tall]

[applause] >> thank you all so much. check us out. happy juneteenth? ! >> happy juneteenth indeed. one more time for sf--well, i really hope you all have enjoyed the day's events. to close us out, please welcome back to the stage, back to the podium, the one that put this all together, please give around of a uz applause to ms. felicia jones. >> alright, we are getting ready to get ready-i know you guys are hungry. i know you guys are looking over there at all the good food. right. ? we are getting ready to close out. tonia williams, stand up, girl.

tonia williams. yes. this is my sister tonia, and i want to just say again, thank you all for coming. you guys put me to the test last year and you guys told me i had to beat last year and was all under pressure trying-what am i going to do, what am i going to do, what am i going to do, but we did it and we are closing out like this! come on! come on! [singing and music]

[upbeat singing and music]

when i shoot chinatown, i

shoot the architecture that people not just events, i shoot what's going on in daily life and everything changes. murals, graffiti, store opening. store closing. the bakery. i shoot anything and everything in chinatown. i shoot daily life. i'm a crazy animal. i'm shooting for fun. that's what i love. >> i'm frank jane. i'm a community photographer for the last i think about 20

years. i joined the chinese historical society. it was a way i could practice my society and i can give the community memories. i've been practicing and get to know everybody and everybody knew me pretty much documenting the history i don't just shoot events. i'm telling a story in whatever photos that i post on facebook, it's just like being there from front to end, i do a good job and i take hundreds and hundreds of photos. and i was specializing in chinese american history. i want to cover what's happening in chinatown. what's happening in my community. i shoot a lot of government officials. i probably have thousands of photos of mayor lee and all the

dignitaries. but they treat me like one of the family members because they see me all the time. they appreciate me. even the local cops, the firemen, you know, i feel at home. i was born in chinese hospital 1954. we grew up dirt poor. our family was lucky to grew up. when i was in junior high, i had a degree in hotel management restaurant. i was working in the restaurant business for probably about 15 years. i started when i was 12 years old. when i got married, my wife had an import business. i figured, the restaurant business, i got tired of it. i said come work for the family business. i said, okay. it's going to be interesting and so interesting i lasted for 30 years.

i'm married i have one daughter. she's a registered nurse. she lives in los angeles now. and two grandsons. we have fun. i got into photography when i was in junior high and high school. shooting cameras. the black and white days, i was able to process my own film. i wasn't really that good because you know color film and processing was expensive and i kind of left it alone for about 30 years. i was doing product photography for advertising. and kind of got back into it. everybody said, oh, digital photography, the year 2000. it was a ghost town in chinatown. i figured it's time to shoot

chinatown store front nobody. everybody on grand avenue. there was not a soul out walking around chinatown. a new asia restaurant, it used to be the biggest restaurant in chinatown. it can hold about a 1,000 people and i had been shooting events there for many years. it turned into a supermarket. and i got in. i shot the supermarket. you know, and its transformation. even the owner of the restaurant the restaurant, it's 50 years old. i said, yeah. it looks awful. history. because i'm shooting history. and it's impressive because it's history because you can't

repeat. it's gone it's gone. >> you stick with her, she'll teach you everything. >> cellphone photography, that's going to be the generation. i think cellphones in the next two, three years, the big cameras are obsolete already. mirrorless camera is going to take over market and the cellphone is going to be better. but nobody's going to archive it. nobody's going to keep good history. everybody's going to take snapshots, but nobody's going to catalog. they don't care. >> i want to see you. >> it's not a keepsake. there's no memories behind it. everybody's sticking in the cloud. they lose it, who cares. but, you know, i care.

>> last september of 2020, i had a minor stroke, and my daughter caught it on zoom. i was having a zoom call for my grand kids. and my daughter and my these little kids said, hey, you sound strange. yeah. i said i'm not able to speak properly. they said what happened. my wife was taking a nap and my daughter, she called home and said he's having a stroke. get him to the hospital. five minutes later, you know, the ambulance came and took me away and i was at i.c.u. for four days. i have hundreds of messages

wishing me get well soon. everybody wished that i'm okay and back to normal. you know, i was up and kicking two weeks after my hospital stay. it was a wake-up call. i needed to get my life in order and try to organize things especially organize my photos. >> probably took two million photos in the last 20 years. i want to donate to an organization that's going to use it. i'm just doing it from the heart. i enjoy doing it to give back to the community. that's the most important. give back to the community. >> it's a lot for the community. >> i was a born hustler. i'm too busy to slow down.

i love what i'm doing. i love to be busy. i go nuts when i'm not doing anything. i'm 67 this year. i figured 70 i'm ready to retire. i'm wishing to train a couple for photographers to take over my place. the younger generation, they have a passion, to document the history because it's going to be forgotten in ten years, 20 years, maybe i will be forgotten when i'm gone in a couple years but i want to be remembered for my work and, you know, photographs will be a

remembrance. i'm frank jane. i'm a community photographer. this is my story. >> when you're not looking, frank's there. he'll snap that and then he'll send me an e-mail or two and they're always the best. >> these are all my p >> why does it been a process and celebration standing up

together a difference luther against deliberation and i think justice and. freedom and love over the decades more and more people are standing up against bigotry and hate a media to celebrate love and resilient of our community. now over 5 hundred on people to anti legislation introduced across the country many targeting trainers youth to me not just a month but drawing how ethnicity say fighting for justice everyone person to celebrated for who they are this is a reunion time to lift up our voices and shower our community with love and appreciation.

pride month so showing up confidently in myself i love to have ethnicity and solid a dart anyone's our community and to jose for the indulgence and more. >> our city has a rich legacy of queer and transand occupy myself we are the history and the strulgsz the triumphant and the resilience of our community. in san francisco throughout the country and all over the world especially where we face persuasion this fried let's stand together in solidarity and justice and celebrate love. >> happy pride month san

>> are you when you are. >> recording in progress. >> thank you. hello and welcome to the tuesday june 18, 2024 hybrid in-person and virtual meeting of the san francisco entertainment commission. i'm the commission president and we will start with announcements. >> we like to start the meeting with a land acknowledge. we the sf is sf entertainment commission, acknowledge that we're on the unceded homeland of the ramaus