Chuck Sperry

I’ll be signing books at this event at the de Young Museum on November 6, 2009. My mural inside the entrance of the Redstone Building at 16th and Capp is featured in Mission Muralismo, the beautiful hard cover art book that covers the Mission Mural scene.

Cultural Encounters: Friday Nights at the de Young presents Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo, in partnership with Precita Eyes Muralists

5:30 PM – 8:45 PM
November 6, 2009

The de Young Museum hosts a year-long series celebrating the just released Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo (Abrams, 2009), edited by Annice Jacoby, with a foreword by Carlos Santana, as part of the museum’s weekly program Cultural Encounters: Friday Nights at the de Young.

This series celebrates one of San Francisco’s greatest assets, the Mission District arts community, a rising star on the global art map. Both cutting-edge and traditional street artists will offer lectures and performances sharing their art, insights, musings, experiences, and perspectives.

These programs are offered FREE of charge in the free zone of the museum. For more information, visit www.missionmuralismo.com.

November 6
Tonight, join us for a kick-off book launch extravaganza!
Dress code: Mission festive! (optional)

The HEART of the Mission, a Celebration of Art and Community, including many of the artists, photographers, and writers featured in Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo; live music by Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeno Band; poetry and performances by Lorna Dee Cervantes, Stephen Cervantes, Francisco X, Lori B (Bloustein) and Andrew Voight; talks by the book’s editor, Annice Jacoby, artist and writer Jaime Cortez; projections of thousands of archival and current Mission murals, including a ten-year span of the deAppropriation wall; art activities for people of all ages and MORE! Free for All.

In my mural I depict a democratic workers’ meeting, Strike Planning at a 1934 Labor Council Meeting, held in the auditorium of the Redstone Building, which was then the Labor Temple of San Francisco. In 1934 Harry Bridges, the legendary head of the International Longshoreman’s Association, led a city-wide strike of all unions in the city of San Francisco. It was the only city-wide, pan-union strike of any city in the entire history of the United States. The circular inset depicts the morning of “Bloody Thursday,” July 5, 1934 when 1000 police attempted to clear picketers and 64 people were injured and two killed.

The governor sent national guard and two federal tanks while reactionary holligans raided labor newspaper offices in the ensuing days. My mural depicts the workers meeting at this time to democratically focus the aims of the strike.

I worked on this mural in co-operation with CAMP / Redstone Building Mural Project which was awarded a Haas Foundation Grant. Other muralists in this CAMP / Redstone Building Mural Project project were Rigo, TWIST (Barry McGee), Aaron Noble, Scott Williams, Susan Greene, John Fadeff, and Isis Rodriguez.