“We Are the One: San Francisco Punk, 1970s – 1980s” Opens in Late July

We Are the One poster

An art exhibit celebrating the punk rock scene in San Francisco during the late 1970s and early 1980s will open at the Haight Street Art Center on July 25, 2024 and run through September 22, 2024. An opening party will be held from 6pm until 9 pm on Friday August 2.

I’m the curator of this exhibit and I’ve been working on it for the past six months with help from Haight Street Art Center staff curator Ben Marks. The show includes approximately 150 photographs from an amazing group of artists/photographers: Ruby Ray, the late Bruce Conner, Jonathan Postal, Chester Simpson, Richard Alden Peterson, James Stark (Stark’s photo of the original Avengers can be seen below), Kamera Zie, Vincent Anton Stornaiuolo, the late Bobby Castro, Jeanne Hansen, and the late Jeff Good. I will also have photos in the show. There will also be over sixty flyers and posters, mostly provided by Kareem Kaddah, drawn from his extensive collection. Some of the flyers are on loan from former Crime drummer Henry Rosenthal. Jonathan Postal, once of the Avengers and the Readymades, designed the poster for the show (see above) which features his photographs. Video of half a dozen key bands will play as part of the exhibit and there will be audio recordings by many San Francisco punk bands and bands that influenced them playing in the main exhibit room.

Among the exhibition’s many highlights are 22 of artist Bruce Conner’s photographs that he took during 1978 at the famed Mabuhay Gardens, where the S.F. punk scene began in late 1976. In addition to Conner’s stunning black-and-white photographs, “We Are the One” will include eight rarely seen color photos that Conner took at the club. “In its own way, it [the Mabuhay scene] reminded me of the energy of the poets, artists, filmmakers, and dancers who had been characterized as the Beat generation in the 1950s,” Conner said during a 2005 interview with journalist/publisher Mike Plante for his Cinemad magazine.

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As a complement to the exhibition, the Art Center will present a punk film night and panel on Friday September 6. “San Francisco’s First and Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Movie: Crime 1978” directed by Jon Bastian will be screened, along with the rarely seen, unfinished, “In the Red,” a documentary shot in 1977 and 1978 by Liz Klein and Karen Merchant. There will also be live performance clips shot by Target Video’s Joe Rees. Following the screening there will be a panel discussion of the films and the punk scene featuring V. Vale, Henry Rosenthal, Jon Bastian, Liz Klein, Karen Merchant, Avengers singer/songwriter Penelope Houston. I’ll be facilitating it.

Running concurrently with “We Are the One” will be “Jukebox: The Music Photographs of Michael Goldberg,” a selection of almost 40 photographs drawn from my new book, “Jukebox: Photographs 1967 – 2023.” Included in the “Jukebox” show are photographs of Frank Zappa, Jerry Garcia, Jim Morrison, Debbie Harry, Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, George Clinton, Professor Longhair, Emmylou Harris, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, Peter Tosh, Muddy Waters, Bettye LaVette, Bob Dylan, and Van Morrison.

About Michael Goldberg

Michael Goldberg is a distinguished pioneer in the online music space; Newsweek magazine called him an ‘Internet visionary.’ In 1994 he founded Addicted To Noise (ATN), the highly influential music web site. He was a senior vice-president and editor in chief at SonicNet from March 1997 through May 2000. In 1997, Addicted To Noise won Webby awards for best music site in 1998 and 1999, and also won Yahoo Internet Life! awards for three years running as best music site in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Prior to starting Addicted To Noise, Goldberg was an editor and senior writer at Rolling Stone magazine for 10 years. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Esquire, Vibe, Details, Downbeat, NME and numerous other publications. Michael has had three novels published that comprise the "Freak Scene Dream trilogy": "True Love Scars," "The Flowers Lied" and "Untitled" which can be ordered here. His new book, "Wicked Game: The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey," can be pre-ordered from HoZac Books. In November Backbeat Books will publish "Addicted To Noise: The Music Writings of Michael Goldberg," which can be be pre-ordered here.

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