California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)

A Walking Tour of Art and Architecture South of Market in San Francisco

By Zack Rogow, Senior Editor in the CIIS Communications Department

Exploring South of Market, you discover a surprising number of fun works of art and architecture in this urban neighborhood. Here’s a walking tour that will let you experience many of the area’s most dynamic art works and tell you a little about local history.

Starting from California Institute of Integral Studies, (CIIS) 1453 Mission Street between 10th and 11th Streets: head west on Mission Street till you come to 11th Street. Make a left on 11th Street and follow that till you come to the corner of 11th Street and Folsom Street. At the southeast corner, you’ll see Basil Canteen Restaurant (a fantastic Thai place, by the way!). Just to the left of that restaurant is a little alley with brick buildings, formerly a brewery. Old brick is a rarity in this city where earthquakes often prevent building with that material. Walk down the alley and enjoy the masonry, signs, and iron fixtures. 

Head east on Folsom Street toward 10th Street. At 10th Street, go north, back towards Mission. Stay on the left (west) side of 10th Street till you get to Children’s Village Child Development Center at 250 10th Street. Outside there’s a gorgeous mosaic mural done by the kids at this daycare center under the guidance of Josef Norris. Norris is a skilled mosaicist who is best known for his mural on the Performing Arts Garage on Gough Street. The children’s mosaic uses a similar and striking technique of outlining figures in mirror fragments.

Right across 10th Street, at numbers 255 and 265, there’s a fine example of Art Deco architecture from the 1930s, a style that shows up frequently in this neighborhood.

At the corner of 10th Street and Howard is St. Joseph’s Church, a boarded-up structure that still has attractive fixtures and stonework, and gilded domes atop its towers.

Turn right on Howard Street and head east till you get to 8th Street. There, turn north (toward Mission Street) till you get to CIIS’s Minna Center at 695 Minna Street. Make a right on Minna and head east toward 7th Street. On your right you will see a store called General Bead at 637 Minna (closed Mondays). Go in and check out their amazing collection of beads and other items. The store has 30,000 different kinds of beads from all over the world, as well as four classic pinball machines in working order.

Continue east on Minna Street, crossing 7th Street, till you get to the corner of Minna and Russ Street. At 551 Minna you’ll see the South of Market Health Center, decorated with life-size tile figures with words pressed into the tiles, all on the theme of friendship. 

Right across Russ Street is Tutubi Children’s Park, a private playground belonging to the housing complex next door. Tutubi means “dragonfly” in Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines, reflecting South of Market’s strong Filipino heritage. The neighborhood was settled primarily by immigrants from Italy and Ireland, but in the 1950s and 60s more and more people arrived from the Philippines. The fence of Tutubi Children’s Park is lovingly decorated with metal figures depicting animals playing music and doing acrobatics. Next door, along the Russ Street side of the park, is a gorgeous rainbow mural of dragonflies made out of tiles by the artist Johanna Poething, who was raised in the Philippines. Each tile is different and a work of art in its own right.

Continue down Russ Street to Folsom Street, where you’ll come to Victoria Manalo Draves Park. This park is named for a local South of Market celebrity, the first Filipina to win a gold medal at the Olympics (1948, springboard and platform diving). The park is the site of an unusual series of metal sculptures by the late Irene Pijoan, a wonderful artist who died at the age of fifty-one shortly after she finished these works. The metal screens depict five nature scenes, beautifully rendered in ways that are surprisingly lush and fin-de-siècle for a monochrome in only two dimensions. The cut-outs cast lovely shadows on the nearby sidewalk when the sun shines through them. 

Continue west on Folsom Street. Take Langton Street, a sweet little alley, and head north back toward Howard Street. At the corner of Langton Street and Howard Street is a delicious community garden, where there are actually chickens living South of Market. You can ask anyone inside to open the gate for you. Across Howard Street is another fine example of Art Deco architecture at number 1130. 

If you continue on Howard Street to 7th Street and turn north on 7th (head back toward Mission Street, and stay on the east side of the street), you’ll see the Westbay Pilipino Multi-Service Center at 175 7th Street at the corner of Natoma Street. The center provides services to youth, veterans, and families. On the outside of the building is a colorful tile mural, a frieze decorated with words pressed into the artwork.

That’s it. Hope you enjoyed your tour. These are my favorites of the neighborhood’s artworks.

Beautiful Brevities: Image, Memory, and Writing as Art

By Cindy Shearer, Professor and Chair of the Department of Writing, Consciousness and Creative Inquiry

Thirty years ago, my friend and mentor Elliott Coleman created this poem sitting in bed in a senior home in Chilton, England:

 Remembrances of Princeton

To Sister Miriam

  Beautiful brevities:  the small letters of
New Testament Greek and Dr. Einstein
eating an ice cream cone on Mercer Street

Once a week, either alone or with two writers, I travelled from London to visit him. Elliott no longer wrote poems on paper (he couldn’t easily hold a pencil or pen) but dictated to one of us when we arrived, and then worked and re-worked his writing in his mind. This poem started out long—a list of memories, which were really images, of a short time (a summer or a semester? I can’t remember) Elliott spent in Princeton.

Then Elliott began to whittle down the list. He discovered that “writing” each image in his mind required him to really see it. When he looked closely, he realized that some images coincided with his felt sense (“image”?) of his experience and others didn’t. Really seeing his experience through the images became a way of glimpsing the meaning of it. Finally, when the poem contained just these two images, I remember Elliott was more than satisfied. He was certain. He had his remembrances of Princeton. I am sure he chose the word “remembrances” for the poem’s title because he wanted to evoke, as one definition says, “something that serves to bring to mind or keep in mind some place, person, event, etc.; memento.” Memento, as I look more deeply, was originally used as a word meant for giving “warning”. Elliott’s images, while evoking the simplicity of his time in Princeton were also a warning of the complexity just ahead—for him, years of “hiding” as gay man in a “straight” city and for Einstein, the atomic bomb. 

I recently used this poem in my class, Writing as Art, to ask students to do two things—(1) look for beautiful brevities around them (to become aware of images they see) and (2) notice what these brevities could reveal to them. They spent five days intentionally collecting images—then both writing and drawing so they could really see their images—using drawing and writing as a way to focus their attention. I asked them to make sketches—with pencils and with words. One student said this process freed him from describing or associating about the image. It kept him, he said, from having to do anything but follow the “obvious” (what his mind saw).

Elliott’s construction of “Remembrances of Princeton” was the beginning of my understanding that if we are willing to look closely, we’ll not only see, but see into our images, and this seeing can lead us to what our images mean. Further, our images invite us into conversation with them. I think he dedicated this poem to Sister Miriam as a way of talking to her. Soon after this poem was completed, Elliott left England, returned to Baltimore, and had a massive stroke. With just a few days left to live, his ability to speak gone, his images spoke for him—and to us—as Sister Miriam and I sat vigil at his bedside.

Saturday Night @ CIIS Welcomes Pamela Z, The Human Synthesizer

By Carolyn Cooke, Professor in the Department of Writing, Consciousness and Creative Inquiry and author of the short story collection, "The Bostons"

San Francisco-based composer Pamela Z gave a talk and performed pieces from her extraordinary sonic repertoire at CIIS last Saturday night, January 23, and I’ve been listening to her CD, “A Delay is Better,” ever since.  Watching this artist work is a disarmingly intimate experience.  Precise, demanding pieces such as “Bone Music” and “In Tymes of Old” come into being intensely in the moment, as PZ creates samples from her own voice and “found” objects (she squeezes bubble wrap, bangs on an empty water bottle) then digitally loops the sounds to create complex sonic experiences highly mediated by technology. The stage is crammed with wires and microphones, her two MacBook Pros, a freestanding Musical Instrument Digital Interface device that responds to her elegant gestures, and a mating snake ball of data cables.   This controlled electronic mess contrasts with PZ’s dazzling personal presence and vocalizations, which range from invented “alien” language (an urgent semblance of communication) to her lush bel canto vocal style raveling out phrases like “mi amor” or “you don’t know me I don’t know you/Why do you talk to me that way?” to a thrilling, ecstatic pitch.  The music manages to simultaneously create and subvert conventional meaning, creating a zone of such delicious sensual and intellectual discomfort that I keep going back just to revel in that atmosphere.

Saturday Night @ CIIS is a free working artist series, presented by the Department of Writing, Consciousness and Creative Inquiry.  Please visit our website for upcoming events.

Build Your Natural First Aid Kit

By Dr. Meg Jordan, Professor and Chair of the Integrative Health Studies Department

Build your natural first aid kit now so you'll be prepared in case this swine flu pandemic reaches your neighborhood. Follow these simple steps: 

PREVENTION
As recommended by U.S. public health officials, the most important methods of prevention are to wash and/or sanitize your hands, avoid contact with eyes, nose and mouth in public, and to avoid exposure to people who are coughing and sneezing. Call in sick and stay home if you're not feeling well.

This virus seems to be surviving for 48 hours on surfaces. I live in San Rafael where three new cases have been reported this week--using sanitizers on hands and phones and keyboard surfaces is a good idea. My family volunteers at Marin General's ER and we're in close contact with authorities here.

FLU SHOTS
I don't normally recommend them, but this year, surprisingly, the shot contained a portion of the strain of swine flu virus. Some people may have partial immunity.

IMMUNITY BOOSTING
Normally, it's a great idea to boost immunity whenever you can when contagion lurks, but this viral strain takes advantage of strong immune systems and initiates a cytokine storm; it commandeers some immune factors and turns an inflammatory response into an unchecked avalanche of fluids and congestion, usually in the lungs resulting in acute respiratory stress.

Instead, you need viral stopping agents.

For natural therapies. I recommend the following blends of antiviral herbs and botanicals. No prescription needed. In case this builds to a severe pandemic, you will want one of these in your home first aid kit.

Super ViraGon or Immunify. Available through baselinenutritionals.com.

Grapefruit seed extract. Available at Whole Foods.

Olive leaf extract. Available at health food stores or at evitamins.com.

AHCC. The label says immune booster, but it's an antiviral. Available at health food stores or at evitamins.com.

ImmunoPhase. You can find this product at puretango.com.

Acai Berry. Strong antioxidant support.

Red Rieshi. Take one of two capsules a day; most brands are standardized. Mushroom Science is a great brand in the U.S. Mikei is a good source in Canada.

Elderberry. One of my favorite immune boosters, especially for respiratory ailments. Can be taken as a tea or herbal extract in hot water.

Wellness Fizz. Produced by Source Naturals, contains multiple herbs and vitamins.

Yin Chiao. A favorite among TCM practitioners; works best in early stages of sniffles and aches; found in herbal/health stores.

RECOGNIZE SYMPTOMS
Swine flu is different from more common flu varieties because it presents with a greater degree of dizziness and high fever in the initial stages. Get medical care immediately if you're too sick to get up or showing signs of dehydration.

CONVENTIONAL DRUGS
Tamiflu has been stockpiled for the past 3 years by U.S. medical surveillance teams. Early reports are showing that this antiviral can be effective only if taken within 48 hours of the beginning of symptoms. Some types of flu viruses are already resistant to Tamiflu.

The word pandemic can sound scary and the media are certainly playing up the frightening scenarios here. It's important to do what you know works to downregulate a ramped up sympathetic nervous system: self-soothe through mediation, music, walks, bodywork, supportive friends, and moments of gratitude. Harambee is a Swahili term that means you're only as well as your community. We all pull together. That is how we'll beat swine flu and whatever other threats come our way.

Kuniko Muramoto speaks at CIIS

By Jody O'Connor, International Student Advisor

On March 9, as part of International Women’s Day at CIIS, Dr. Kuniko Muramoto of Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto spoke on Women’s Social Circumstances in Modern Japan and the recent growth of the field of psychology in Japan. This cross-cultural view of clinical psychology marked another development in the CIIS-Ritsumeikan University exchange program.

Muramoto is a pioneer in the field of clinical psychology and has worked over the past 20 years with women and children who have suffered domestic and sexual violence in Japan. In 1987 she started group therapy in her home with a small group of neighborhood women with young children, back when Japan had no real language for domestic violence.

She also works as an activist and educator: She established a nonprofit organization called Feminist Lifecycle Institute, which educates the general Japanese population on the topic of domestic and sexual violence in Japan, and provides resources for women who have suffered from this trauma. She has worked to bring this subject to the attention of the Japanese government, which until 1995 did not recognize domestic or sexual violence as existing within its borders.

Despite Muramoto’s accomplishments, and those of other clinicians in Japan, the topic of abuse in Japanese culture is still taboo. Muramoto’s approach has been to continue to raise awareness with the general public while working on small support networks in local communities.

Muramoto currently is researching how patterns of abuse can be traced to historical events of mass trauma, such as World War II. On her visit to San Francisco Dr. Muramoto participated with CIIS faculty member Armand Volkas in a workshop entitled “Repairing the Broken Bridge: Japanese and Chinese Cultures Facing the Legacy of World War II.”

Volkas directs Healing the Wounds of History project, which he calls “a therapeutic approach in which theatre techniques are used to work with groups of participants from two cultures with a common legacy of violent conflict and historical trauma.”

Dr. Isac Takino, a Ritsumeikan professor of psychology who is studying in the Drama Therapy program this year, was one of a dozen people who attended Muramoto’s International Women’s Day lecture. First-year clinical psychology student Yurio Miyazawa volunteered to translate the lecture.

The Pleasures of Tanka Poetry

By Zack Rogow, Senior Editor in the Communications Department. His most recent book of poems is The Number Before Infinity

Many know about haiku, that ultra-short form of poetry from Japan that captures a flash of consciousness in only three lines. But a thousand years before haiku came along, Japanese poets developed the tanka form. Tanka is slightly longer—five lines—but it’s significantly different from haiku in the type of moment that sparks it.

Here’s one of my favorite tanka poems, by the great Japanese woman poet Yosano Akiko, who lived from 1878 to 1942 and wrote over 40,000 poems:

if not for women

writhing like vengeful demons

screaming like wild boars

no child of man

would ever be born

(adapted from the translation of Makoto Ueda)

Like haiku, which crystallizes one specific moment in time or consciousness, tanka is about a particular observation of the poet. But unlike haiku, tanka can reach both backwards and forwards in time to include a broader observation, or even a story. How can just five short lines of poetry tell a story? It’s not easy, but with the conciseness of tanka, a poet finds the fulcrum of a story, the moment of truth in that encounter. Here’s another poem by Yosano Akiko from her groundbreaking series of tanka called Tangled Hair about a love affair:

Early evening moon

Over the flowering field,

I felt somehow

He was waiting for me

And I came.

(translated by Sanford Goldstein and Seishi Shinoda)

Here the poet describes the moment when she made her choice to embark on a difficult relationship. The image of the evening moon suggests the expectant lover, wishing for her. The flowering field makes me think of the fullness of her love.

I haven’t said anything yet about the rigorous form of the tanka. Each of the five lines must have a specific number of syllables. The order is: 5-7-5-7-7. I haven’t mentioned this because it works beautifully in Japanese, but when English-language translators or poets attempt to duplicate the form exactly, it often takes away from the freshness and the gentle punch of the tanka. Personally, I prefer poems that just follow the spirit of the tanka and don’t count syllables like coins.

Another fascinating side of the tanka is that the poet often sharply splits the five lines between two seemingly unrelated images. The writer does not directly link these two worlds, but leaves it entirely up to the reader to make the connection. Yosano Akiko does this in the poem just mentioned about the evening field and the lover’s impulse. Here’s another example, a thousand-year-old tanka by the 10th century poet Fujiwara no Toshiyuki:

in the Bay of Sumi

waves crowd the shore

even at night

by the corridors of dreams

I come to you secretly

(adapted from the translation of Kenneth Rexroth)

The poet never says that the waves are like him, the lover. He never directly mentions that the shore is a metaphor for his beloved. It’s all just understood. That’s what I love about it! And the fact that the waves are not simply approaching the shore, they are crowding it. It is a little invasive to tell your beloved that you can visit her at night, even when she’s dreaming. The poem acknowledges that, in the midst of a wonderfully romantic moment.

Here are some of my favorite collections of tanka poetry if you’d like to read more:

Kenneth Rexroth, One Hundred Poems from the Japanese

Makoto Ueda, Modern Japanese Tanka

Yosano Akiko, Tangled Hair: Selected Poems from Midaregami

My Mission: Ethnographic Study of Bhutan’s Health System

Part 4 in a series of live blogs from Bhutan by Meg Jordan, Professor and Chair of the Integrative Health Studies Department

Time to dive into my mission here: ethnographic study of Bhutan's health system, its translation of Gross National Happiness principles into health outcomes, and an exploration of how well medical pluralism thrives.

First stop: traditional Asian medicine physician, Dr. Mindu Gorji, where I had my pulses read and my tongue analyzed. I did, however, skip out on the blood letting and swallowing of some rather questionable looking precious gem herbs rolled in dirt from a high-arsenic soil territory.

I met with the Director of Public Health, Health Ministry—his dedication to equity, access, and quality was admirable. His responsibilities cover administration of a multilayered distribution of health programs from the National Hospital through grassroots Community Health Workers. Then I visited their national hospital and was amazed at the amount of work done with limited resources.  

I also spent time with native healers both inside the formal Institute of Traditional Medicine and outside the system. Medical pluralism is alive and well here, and a means of referral back and forth between native healing and allopathic medicine manages to succeed, surprisingly, in the rural areas better than in the larger cities. 

Tonight is my last night in Bhutan. I'll fondly hold the land of the thunder dragons in my heart forever. I'll miss the countryside most with the towering rhododendron and magnolia trees, yak herds, and terraced rice fields, and the easy smiles of these warm and gracious people.

I can't wait to take you back here with Alumni Director Richard Buggs. Save your Nu.

In Bhutan I Wander, As Do My Thoughts

Part 3 in a series of live blogs from Bhutan by Meg Jordan, Professor and Chair of the Integrative Health Studies Department

When we return to Bhutan next year, we must try to come during a festival or two. Otherwise, the endless stream of quiet, solemn, monasteries start to merge in your mind.

I've lost my sense of time, days, and I'm no longer introducing myself through my bio. I'm just wandering now, sitting with children and shopkeepers, trying to understand what I'm witnessing. I pray in clockwise circles around temples, following lay-monks and nuns, in the center of Thimphu, while hundreds of working class Indians build bamboo scaffolding around yet another concrete apartment building.

How does Christianity fare in this all-Buddhist kingdom? As an overlay on a cultural backdrop of belief in demons, hungry ghosts and well...you decide.

This week a 46-year-old mother of five was beaten to death and hanged as a witch by a gang of Christian converts in a village called Dumtoe Gewog, aided by two pastors and her husband. No one has a comment. She must have had some very bad karma, says my interpreter.

Other news: Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche will translate for the first time the entire Buddhist canon, including 108 volumes of Kangyur, Buddha's direct teachings. Widespread celebration greets that announcement, especially in the official newspaper, which reports everything with the words, "graciously applauded" or "generously granted” by the King or the government.

I'm off to breakfast: one brown egg and chilies. Wish you were here more than ever. I need a CIIS colleague to sort this all out.

Obama’s Leadership: Beyond Tough Guy Posturing

By Alfonso Montuori, Professor and Chair of the Transformative Inquiry Department 

In a recent Newsweek article, Howard Fineman points to the “establishment’s” emerging doubts about Barack Obama’s leadership style.

The argument is that Obama—who is, after all, a surfer—seems too mellow and judicious.

According to Fineman: “A genial, amenable guy, he likes to appeal to every constituency, or at least not write off any.” Obama, Fineman continues, doesn’t have what the establishment considers to be “a central trait of the president's character: he's not really an in-your-face guy.”

No wonder the establishment is having its doubts about Obama—clearly he’s not one of them. A moment’s thought tells us that the establishment is the source of our present predicament. It is bankrupt both morally and practically, and given its dismal record it is certainly not in a position to tell us what qualities a leader should have. Remember, George W. Bush was an in-your-face-guy.

In times of trouble, we know the establishment will call for what they believe worked in previous times. It’s to be expected, then, that pundits within the crumbling establishment think the president should follow a well-worn tough-guy style of leadership.

But the present situation calls for an entirely different kind of leadership. Obama was elected in large part because he pledged to change the political tone in Washington.  Any expectation of Obama using the brand of black-and-white, my-way-or-the-highway style of leadership that got us into this trouble in the first place is misplaced.

The reality is that what’s troubling the establishment is not so much what Obama is actually doing or not doing. It’s that he doesn’t look like the traditional savior-leader. He is too intellectual.

Fineman writes that Obama is “a busy, industrious overachiever,” and that, “he likes to check off boxes on a long to-do list. A beau ideal of Harvard Law, he can't wait to tackle extra-credit answers on the exam.”

What Fineman and the establishment want is this: “a blunt-spoken coach.” Rather than being so damn smart, perhaps Obama should just yell “bring ‘em on,” and make sure to have a “Mission Accomplished” banner waiting backstage.

Obama’s task is a complex and precarious one. It is not one that will benefit from macho posturing. The fact that he “likes to appeal to every constituency” is part of a larger effort to 1) bring all the voices that should be heard to the table and 2) ensure substantive contributions from all sectors of society.

Unlike his predecessor, Obama’s administration does not want to function as a closed system mired in groupthink and a go-it-alone attitude, a convict of the alleged courage of its own convictions. This means more reflection, dialogue, exploration, inquiry, and no snap judgments about “evil-doers.”

Obama’s form of leadership is counterintuitive for the establishment, who are looking for Coach John Wayne to knock this country into shape. It recognizes the difficulty of our predicament. It knows the days of cowboy swagger are over. We are now in an age of complexity and transformation—we need a president who, instead of relying on simplistic solutions, acknowledges this reality.

Even in Bhutan, There’s No Stopping Cultural Change

Part 2 in a series of live blogs from Bhutan by Meg Jordan, Professor and Chair of the Integrative Health Studies Department

Last night was my first attempt to sleep in the land of the thunder dragon, which could have easily been named land of the incessant barking dogs instead.  Earplugs did no good; but I'm still thrilled to be here.

Today I hiked up toward the famous Tiger's Nest monastery, which looks like it was thrown against a cliff at 10,000 feet or so. It was founded by Guru Rinpoche in 796 AD when, legend has it, he flew in on a tiger's back and meditated there, conquering the local demons and convincing them to protect the spread of Buddhism instead of troubling the local villagers. Quite the diplomat. The monastery was completed sometime in the 17th century.

My interpreter, Pema, complained of chest pain all the way to the Tea House (about half-way to the monastary). I played doctor-nurse, and made sure we weren't aggravating a medical condition that was either exertional angina or a hiatal hernia. Bhutan "belly" is growing more prominent with increasing prosperity. His pain resided when we stopped the hike. I'm taking him to the one hospital in Thimpu (built around 1960) for an EKG.

Now we're back in Paro at the only Internet cafe in western Bhutan, where I'm surrounded by a small crowd of curious onlookers, who want to know about online dating sites in the U.S. Talk about a dilemma. The anthropologist in me is delighted to be in a country with such a fierce commitment to preserving cultural integrity, and yet there's no stopping cultural change—it's a dynamic force.

So, I let them know about a free site, plentyoffish.com, and three young Bhutanese men are posting photos and bios within seconds. "Come here, Meggy! Look at this—I got a response already from Nadia in Tuck-Son!"

Happiness—how do we measure it?  That will be my question to the Health Minister on Monday.  Until then; photos to come.