this is what the building looked like during that time. it was under plywood and carpeting for about 30 years. this was amazingly preserved underneath all of that when it pulled up. >> how to the ventilate this? are these operable? h[ph>> they are not. we have a cool air intake from the bay. because of the atrium, it would be nearly impossible for any air conditioning, so we have cool air intake on the bayside. that cools the building down. when i first artwork in here, i was fascinated with all the arches, the repetitive arches. the original architect used it as a symbol of the talks in rome, a symbol of how important the water and the waterways are to us city.

-- to the city. it looks like an aqueduct structure. >> what are the uses of this floor and above? >> we have about 10 it office spaces, private businesses, law firm, financial management, lobbying firms. there are all local businesses. -- they are all local businesses, very supportive of the marketplace. >> i know that some part of this building, the water goes underneath, the bay water is under there? >> yes. >> is it under the whole building? >> there is a sea wall, probably right under where you are standing. a lot of it is on the pilings. >> i have seen a guy on a little boat that goes under there and make repairs. >> and also, the coast guard

comes, anytime there are logs floating in the water, we have to call the coast guard. acting get hung up underneath the pipes. >> i want to thank you all for coming. thank you so much for your great information. i hope to see you all again next month for our next program. thank you very much.

>> the mayor, the office of workforce development, kick off a new program which is to engage some of the artists in reinvigorating the streetscapes. organized in partnership with neighborhood based economic development organizations, the art in storefronts taps into the incredible creativity of the artist community to help improve the quality of life and the business climate in poor neighborhoods. the tenderloin, central market, they view, and the mission's 24 st.. at the launch party, the mayor released the first of 13 projects located on taylor and market street.

we were there to capture the celebration and to get a closer look at the newly transformed storefront. >> we have an analyst at saying, you know what, we get it. if we close out and we put some plywood, we know it will have graffiti on it. we know that people will not respect this space. they are opening up their businesses, their buildings and they are saying, let's invite young artists in and let's have these artists go at it in great very visually stunning storefronts. >> this is a pilot project that was started by the mayor as part of his local stimulus plan in partnership with the mayor's office of economic and work- force development. we carried this space in the mission. we were hired to curate this

project. we have been the ones that have been handling all of the day to day working with the artists helping to secure their locations. >> we are doing projects in central market, the tenderloin, the bayview, and the 24th street corridor. >> we are looking at the history of the neighborhood and their ability to translate a the kind of things that go on on a day- to-day basis. >> we have over 200 applicants. it was wonderful to see how many people participated. these people clearly understand the neighborhood. >> this is a very unique neighborhood. it has always been involved in the arts from early on. of they have seen a lot of the art and what it has done to the neighborhoods.

i think that they will still connected to it. they will actually embrace it. i think it will be a good thing for all of us. >> if you are walking in the tenderloin, you'll be able to see this piece that is in front of the original [inaudible] which is a restaurant that has a lot of history. there are exciting projects on market streets. there are two gorgeous minerals as well as six different installations. they are making huge figures that they will be able to see. >> there is a definite level of appropriateness of stuff i am using. a lot of businesses died in 2009. >> i think i'm trying to deal

with the maximum out of space possible. that is surging right now. everyone is doing what they can with what they have. sometimes that introduces a lot of interesting things. there is nothing that inspires quite like this. >> the project benefits both the property owner, the neighborhood, and the artists, all of whom have been effected by the economic downturn. >> this is brand new work. >> we chose artists that had a diverse array of media from home video to coulter, paintings. >> when people walk around these neighborhoods, they will be able to see works that deal with the history of the neighborhood. they will see works that deal with movement and the works that celebrate some locations.

they will be able to see works of that deal with new projects like the san francisco film museum which is a small organization that is starting. this is their first presentation to the public. >> this has introduced us to different organizations. they are building our portfolio. our project centers on a film that was found in 1906. shortly afterwards, the earthquake destroyed the majority of the market street area. that is what we want to focus on. this is dedicated to film and san francisco history. >> we are having a support network now, this enhances our

mission and what we are trying to do it and it will protect us forward. >> i hope that we continue. there are storefronts all over the city. we have been approached by many of them. it is about getting the resources together. >> this calley is working with the san francisco arts commission and building a tool kit. >> this will be an open source body of information. people can download the different things that we had to do with the artists. negotiations with the property owners. there is also the artist selection. people can take it in their own hands to put art in the storefront.

>> what if you could make a memorial that is more about information and you are never fixed and it can go wherever it wants to go? everyone who has donated to it could use it, host it, share it. >> for quite a great deal of team she was hired in 2005, she struggled with finding the correct and appropriate visual expression. >> it was a bench at one point. it was a darkened room at another point. but the theme always was a theme of how do we call people's attention to the issue of speci species extinction. >> many exhibits do make long detailed explanations about species decline and biology of birds and that is very useful for lots of purposes. but i think it is also important to try to pull at the strings inside people.

>> missing is not just about specific extinct or endangered species. it is about absence and a more fundamental level of not knowing what we are losing and we need to link species loss to habitat loss and really focuses much on the habitat. >> of course the overall mission of the academy has to do with two really fundamental and important questions. one of which is the nature of life. how did we get here? the second is the challenge of sustainability. if we are here how are we going to find a way to stay? these questions resonated very strongly with maya. >> on average a species disappears every 20 minutes. this is the only media work that i have done. i might never do another one because i'm not a media artist

per se but i have used the medium because it seemed to be the one that could allow me to convey the sounds and images here. memorials to me are different from artworks. they are artistic, but memorials have a function. >> it is a beautiful scupltural objective made with bronze and lined with red wood from water tanks in clear lake. that is the scupltural form that gives expression to maya's project. if you think about a cone or a bull horn, they are used to get the attention of the crowd, often to communicate an important message. this project has a very important message and it is about our earth and what we are losing and what we are missing and what we don't even know is gone. >> so, what is missing is

starting with an idea of loss, but in a funny way the shape of this cone is, whether you want to call it like the r.c.a. victor dog, it is listen to the earth and what if we could create a portal that could look at the past, the present and the future? >> you can change what is then missing by changing the software, by changing what is projected and missing. so, missing isn't a static installation. it is an installation that is going to grow and change over time. and she has worked to bring all of this information together from laboratory after laboratory including, fortunately, our great fwroup of researche e-- g researchers at the california academy. >> this couldn't have been more site specific to this place and we think just visually in terms of its scupltural form it really holds its own against the architectural largest and grandeur of the building.

it is an unusual compelling object. we think it will draw people out on the terrace, they will see the big cone and say what is that. then as they approach the cone tell hear these very unusual sounds that were obtained from the cornell orinthology lab. >> we have the largest recording of birds, mammals, frogs and insects and a huge library of videos. so this is an absolutely perfect opportunity for us to team up with a world renown, very creative inspirational artist and put the sounds and sights of the animals that we study into a brand-new context, a context that really allows people to appreciate an esthetic way of the idea that we might live in the world without these sounds or sites. >> in the scientific realm it is shifting baselines.

we get used to less and less, diminished expectations of what it was. >> when i came along lobsters six feet long and oysters 12 inches within they days all the oyster beds in new york, manhattan, the harbor would clean the water. so, just getting people to wake up to what was just literally there 200 years ago, 150 years ago. you see the object and say what is that. you come out and hear these intriguing sounds, sounds like i have never heard in my life. and then you step closer and you almost have a very intimate experience. >> we could link to different institutions around the globe, maybe one per continent, maybe two or three in this country, then once they are all networked, they begin to communicate with one another and share information. in 2010 the website will launch, but it will be what you would call an informational website

and then we are going to try to, by 2011, invite people to add a memory. so in a funny way the member rely grows and there is something organic about how this memorial begins to have legs so to speak. so we don't know quite where it will go but i promise to keep on it 10 years. my goal is to raise awareness and then either protect forests from being cut down or reforest in ways that promote biodiversity. >> biodiverse city often argued to be important for the world's human populations because all of the medicinal plants and uses that we can put to it and fiber that it gives us and food that it gives us. while these are vital and important and worth literally hundreds of billions of dollars, the part that we also have to be able to communicate is the more spiritual sense of how important it is that we get to live side

by side with all of these forms that have three billion years of history behind them and how tragic it would be not commercially and not in a utilitarian way but an emotio l emotional, psychological, spiritual way if we watch them one by one disappear. >> this is sort of a merger between art and science and advocacy in a funny way getting people to wake unand realize what is going on -- wake up and realize what is going on. so it is a memborial trying to get us to interpret history and look to the past. they have always been about lacking at the past so we proceed forward and maybe don't commit the same mistakes.

>> what i think about the arts in san francisco, i think of an ecosystem that has many different constituents and components. you have many large organizations, mid-sized groups, and smaller organizations looking to prevent their ideas to the public. part of the ecosystem includes a parade of committing. individuals have to partner with the organizations. today, we are speaking with one of the important components of that ecosystem which is the role of the art incubator. we are fitting with [inaudible] joining me to talk about this is jessica robinson love, the executive director. welcome to culture wire. >> thank you for having me. >> can you tell me about your

organization? >> we serve as an incubator for artists who are experimenting, departing from, and developing their performance work. we support this through an artist in residence program, through festivals, and also through a variety of commission programs and shorter showings. >> what prompted us to come and visit with you is that in the month of november, you have brought to life as you have nurtured for a couple of years. >> performing diaspora came to me for an idea several years ago when i was looking at a the ecosystem and the cultural community of the bay area. artists who are rooted in traditional performance of forms

have a certain amount of opportunity to show their work. often, when they want to transform that work, there's not a support system. contemporary presenters are more and more open to additional work but without a lot of context. what i want to do is to create an opportunity for artists, give them a chance to develop new work not just to the festival but through a residency program and decommissioning process so we can fully support the work and it's development. >> what i want is for the dancers to feel like dancers, not like folklorico dancers. the choreographer, i want to be

able to do a much more personal work that speaks about the reality that we live then. not the reality of our parents. even more importantly, not every dance is about happy people and happy places. we need to use the vocabulary i have always known within this context. i've tried to do that again and again. never with the support of an organization behind me. that is the big difference. >> how would you describe the performance that you demonstrated. >> we have an after-school program. there, we service children from the third grade to the 12th grade. then we have the company that

has been dancing from 3 to however many years. what we have been doing is having some institute people tend to we wanted a family feel to it. it is about family and the values of family. >> what will you take from the experience? >> this is a wonderful thing to be able to perform the same program for four years in a row. this is a way to grow the product that i have seldom experienced. i feel like it is a broadway musical. i am taking this on the road. >> thank you so much for bringing your company to san francisco. >> i got a grant in 2008

and there is a disconnect between african-americans and africans that live on the continent. >> participating in this festival, does this serve as a kind of incentives and processed experience? >> this is the first opportunity that i have had to express my true feelings about my trip. in african culture, you don't go and talk about your family. even though we had a rough time understanding each other, we

understood each other. a understood that i was american. i never had a relationship to my citizenship until that. >> it sounds like these are pretty profound issues and issues. what was the creative process like to bring those issues to the fore? >> when they want us to speak, it might be inconvenient for us. it has been very emotional for me. dealing with the work in progress, listening to what people had to say about it. >> many people have given you this opportunity to present this to work. has that been useful for you? >> i am so grateful for this

experience. like i said, in the bay area, it is very traditional. any opportunity to step in and show that we understand what we have been taught and how we are putting our own voice into this is very pleasing. i get to stand in front of my elders and be me and also be them. improvisation in rhythmic is closely intertwined in the classical music. >> the musician is the dancer as well. we are dancing and music and the rhythm. we improvise with the musicians. >> your whole body is an instrument.

>> our body is the instrument. this house that we produce with our mouth, we produce with our feet and also the instrument produces the same sounds. we can communicate by reciting, dancing, by movement. the body is an instrument. >> how has this helped to move >> we are not only have these residence where we get to go deeply into it all work with other artists, but we get to talk about it. we get to write about it. we have to think about it. belaruour gurus weesee this and

there is feedback. we are revising this. this is relevant to contemporary kind. it has been a real blessing and a wonderful opportunity for me as a solo artist. >> thank you for being in such a great culture. >> thank you. my pleasure. >> it has been extraordinary to have this opportunity to talk with some of the performers who are performing in the diaspora. it really piqued my interest. where can get more information? >> the festival in november has been really well documented and this is available in our website. performing diaspora is more than just a performance, it is a committee and an ongoing dialogue of interaction. anyone who likes to, they can go on our website to watch interviews with the audience, to watch rehearsals footage, to read journals. each of the artists that you

spoke with have written extensively and articulate about what it was like to develop their performance in the program. all of that, the writing, the video, discussion. fitch on the symposium, all of that is available on our website. >> it has been an interesting experience. i am sure that people take advantage of the web site. >> performing diaspora will continue next year with performances by several of the artists. >> thank you for being part of "culture wire." >> thank you so much.

what this is all about is your right to freedom of speech what made america great is an independent, vigorous presence. if a jerk burns a flag, america is not threatened. political speech is the heart of the first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. welcome to speaking freely, a weekly conversation about free expression, the arts, and america. i'm ken paulson, joining you today from nashville. our guest today is a man whose name and sound are known and respected worldwide. he's a 1987 inductee into the rock and roll hall of fame, and he was the winner of the lifetime achievement award from the rhythm and blues foundation.