Your friendly neighborhood print magazine. Celebrating the stories of San Francisco and the Bay. Fie
09/05/2024
It's bittersweet to announce the release of our final edition (for now!) of The San Franciscan. Our labor of love has produced 9 issues and been bolstered by an incredible community of readers, writers, and artists. We couldn't have done it without you! Visit our website to pre-order Issue 9 and any previous issues while supplies last.
We'll be sending out the new issue to subscribers over the weekend, so stay tuned! Email us with any questions: [email protected]
Gorgeous Issue 9 cover art by the very talented
01/05/2024
Issue 9 Coming Soon! Update Your Address (+ Some Bittersweet News about the Magazine) -
18/02/2023
🚃 Cover reveal!! 🚃
We're thrilled to announce our latest issue of is here. Our new edition features cover artwork by cofounder and creative director .legge and work from more than thirty local artists, writers, poets, photographers, and more.
📖 Inside: a tribute to San Francisco cable cars, a literary-themed local crossword, stunning artwork, and a sprinkle of plant-based humor.
📫 Issue 7 on its way to readers and contributors now. Subscribe at the link in our bio to get your copy!
04/09/2022
Come one, come all and meet your favorite neighborhood print magazine team at 📕📗📘📙 We’ve got prints, magazines, and totes galore!
📍Stop by at City View at The Metreon
03/08/2022
“It’s about pride. Be proud. This is a Latino cultural art, an asset. I tell [the next generation] to enjoy it. When we go cruisin’, just smile. It’s about joy."
Lowriding has been a cultural mainstay within San Francisco's Latino Community. We spoke with Roberto Hernandez, founder of the San Francisco Lowrider Council, about the storied history
of lowriding in San Francisco and the significance this mode of expression holds for his community.
Click the link in our bio to watch 's short film, and find our photo essay in Issue 6 of The San Franciscan.
📸: (Photographed on Mission Street with a Pentax K1000 with Tri-X 400 film)
17/02/2022
“It was as if the trees were coming alive—stretching their limbs, cracking their knuckles—while their fellow San Franciscans looked on in wonder.”
Writer Nikki Collister adventures into the Presidio to uncover a sound only to be heard during exceptional San Francisco heat waves.
✍️:
🎨:
Click the link in the bio to discover the mystery.
03/02/2022
“We want to live outside, build our own shelters and lives, and stay engaged with and on the earth,” said Wood Street Commons resident Theo Cedar Jones [pictured]. “Now that I’ve lived this way, I don’t want to go back to standard housing. I want to live in communal encampments and support others and create solidarity.”
In "Common Ground," reporter Carrie Sisto details the efforts of unhoused residents in Oakland as they fight for self-governance, stability, and services for their communities.
✍️:
📸:
Click the link in our bio to read the full article.
20/01/2022
In September 2021, photojournalist Adam Pardee spoke to photographers Carlo Velasquez, Onome Uyovbievbo, and JP Calma about the draw of film photography and their efforts to document life in San Francisco. Exploring quintessential city life and the people that embody the beautiful city we call home, these three photographers capture what it truly means to be a San Franciscan.
📸 : / .onome / .wtf
✍🏽:
07/01/2022
🎨 Cover reveal!! 🎨 Our new issue has arrived, with incredible cover artwork by , a San Francisco-based illustrator and contemporary artist.
📍Inspired by views from Chinatown's Cameron House basketball court.
📫 Arriving with subscribers now! Order at the link in our bio.
11/11/2021
When life imitates art.
📸 :.film
🎨 :
20/10/2021
"Art should be for everyone" -Luinova
You can see more of Luinova's vibrant and eye-catching murals around the streets of SF!
Read more about Luinova in Issue 4 of
🔗 in bio
🎨 :
📸 :
11/10/2021
“I would like to think of these homies as—they’re just these wildly curious little dudes. I would hope people would see them and, even just for a minute as they’re walking down the street, see one on a wall or a sidewalk, just kind of step back and break up their daily routine or daily perspective on their walk.” -Yonmeister
You can spot Yonmeister's homies across San Francisco.
Read more about SF's talented mural artists in Issue 4 of Click the link in our bio to access the article.
🎨 :
📸 :
29/09/2021
In Ethel Rohan's eerie, lingering short fiction, "The Other Side of The World," a boy and his mother navigate isolation and loneliness during a pandemic that stretches on.
With their family in Ireland, and their lives in a quarantined San Francisco, the two must discover for themselves what it means to be a family and what it means to be home. Read the article by following this link: https://thesanfranciscanmagazine.com/the-other-side-of-the-world/
✍️ :
🎨 :
20/09/2021
“There’s something really special about street art where it’s made by the people for the people. . . . Once I make it, it stays there and it belongs to the streets and it evokes emotion from people. I really value that.” -Amillionair
You can see Amillionair’s vibrant floral work around the city
Read more about SF’s talented mural artists in Issue 4 of and at the 🔗 in our bio
🎨
📸
18/09/2021
“Art looks fine online; it looks glorious in person,” said Monique Deschaines, owner and director of Euqinom Gallery in the Mission. After over a year of adapting to closures and hosting online exhibitions, San Francisco’s art galleries like Euqinom and those at the Minnesota Street Project have begun to reopen for public viewing.
Story by Max Blue. Photographs by Torehan Sharman.
Hey San Franciscans! Recognize this classic San Francisco little library? We've hidden a few copies of our new issue inside for our first mini scavenger hunt. If you snag one, be sure to tag us!
02/09/2021
Enter to win!
The San Franciscan is an independent arts and culture print magazine with the mission of celebrating the diverse subcultures of San Francisco and the Bay Area through essays, journalism, poetry, fiction, and art from local creatives. We’re so excited to partner with
01/09/2021
“I can’t even count how many artists made their first outdoor mural ever [during the pandemic]—including me. I think it’s so amazing that people started seeing the important role that artists serve in uplifting communities, giving hope, and promoting thoughtful reflection.” -Kate Tova
You can see Kate’s bright hearts and other murals around the street of SF!
Read more about Kate in Issue 4 of https://thesanfranciscanmagazine.com/painting-the-town/
🎨
📸
01/09/2021
Life on the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
20/08/2021
"The Job Hunt" tells the fictional story of a young art school graduate's foray into private investigation. In need of a job, and with a flair for the dramatic, our narrator tails a San Francisco executive engaged in a steamy affair.
“The key to being a good P.I. is to be unnoticeable,” she says. “I’ve been doing this for years, and that’s because even when people know they’re being followed, they never think they’ll be followed by a woman.”
When the odd job is dirty work. by Tom Fritsche The story you are about to read, while drawing inspiration from the author’s experiences, is, for legal reasons, entirely fictional. It was the summer of 2012—a few San Franciscos ago—when, a year after my graduation from art school, to no surpri...
06/08/2021
02/08/2021
A little bird told me... Issue 4 of The San Franciscan is now available in bookshops all over San Francisco 🤫
21/07/2021
Listen to co-creators Erica Messner and Amanda Legge talk about the little known early history of The San Franciscan on this week's episode of Muni Diaries.
How two locals made their dream into reality, despite a little legal hiccup from the big dogs.
14/07/2021
The Farallones, incorporated into the City of San Francisco, are accessible only to a handful of scientists and volunteers stationed on the southeast island. We spoke with the researchers who serve as stewards of this delicate ecosystem about their work and took a boat twenty-seven miles off-shore to get as close as we could to this pristine seabird sanctuary.
.
✍️
📸 courtesy of Maps for Good and Point Blue Conservation Science
12/07/2021
“Becoming full-time and going straight freelance is always up and down. It’s a struggle most of the time, but I love getting up every day. I’m either painting or working on something. I’m doing something that’s mine.” -Matley Hurd
You can see this mural of Virgen de Guadalupe at in the Castro
Read more about Matley in Issue 4 of
🔗 in bio
🎨
📸
30/06/2021
Amidst a challenging year of shutdowns and isolation, San Francisco has experienced a renaissance of public art: on closed businesses, parklets, and street corners throughout the city. Boarded-up storefronts became canvases for aspiring street artists, creating small pockets of beauty, hope, and resistance.
Read more in Issue 4's Painting The Town by photo
Link in our bio for the full article
art
23/06/2021
While you may not know his name, photographer Kem Lee’s body of work comprises a vast and historically vital visual record of the Chinese American community in the Bay Area. “Kem Lee’s photography represents the perspective of someone with deep roots and connections in the Chinatown community,” says UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Librarian Sine Hwang Jensen.
Read the full article 🔗 in bio!
*Images courtesy of the Kem Lee estate/UC Berkeley*
Public art proliferates during the Bay Area’s lockdown.
17/06/2021
While you may not know his name, photographer Kem Lee’s body of work comprises a vast and historically vital visual record of the Chinese American community in the Bay Area. “Kem Lee took treasured portraits of community members and documented the vibrant life of the community for the community,” said UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Librarian Sine Hwang Jensen. Kem Lee is not merely one noteworthy photographer who somehow slipped through the cracks of popular memory but a case study that raises deeper questions about representation, the historical record, and who gets to participate in it.
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The San Franciscan posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Contact The Business
Send a message to The San Franciscan:
Videos
“It was as if the trees were coming alive—stretching their limbs, cracking their knuckles—while their fellow San Franciscans looked on in wonder.”
Writer Nikki Collister adventures into the Presidio to uncover a sound only to be heard during exceptional San Francisco heat waves.
✍️: @ncollister
🎨: @robin_galante_art
Click the link in the bio to discover the mystery.
#SanFrancisco #Localwriter #LocalArt #SF #TheSanFranciscan #Mystery #Presidio
Hey San Franciscans! Recognize this classic San Francisco little library? We've hidden a few copies of our new issue inside for our first mini scavenger hunt. If you snag one, be sure to tag us!
Take a stroll with Issue 4 around the city by the bay 🌉✨
.
Subscribe today to get your copy of Issue 4, link in bio 🔗
.
🎥 @sf.beforesunset
.
#TheSanFranciscan #SanFrancisco #Magazine #SF #BayArea #independantpublishing #sfartist #sfart #sfwriters #bestofsfmag #dearsf #sflove
Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company?
Share
Editor’s Letter: Issue 2
Amanda and I started The San Franciscan in November 2018 to give physical form to our deeply felt connection with the Bay Area. We reached out to potential collaborators―dreamers all over the Bay who hungered to create, to experiment, and to connect with their community.
Many of us learn to hide our dreams, to shelter them from the elements: the eroding wind and harsh rain of reality. I’m guilty of keeping writing private, of obsessively sanding sentences to a smooth sheen, of rolling around grains of ideas, discarding all but the perfect pearls, not wanting to expose unpolished, gritty thoughts. I’m the only one who can see the pile of dust at my feet.
Those I admire most dream out in the open. The toughest San Franciscans embrace exposure and failure. They publicly pursue visions of what could be in the face of a stoic status quo. Our Winter 2020 issue is a tribute to the dreamers who shape our world, who, even as they fail, persist, unafraid. Read on for the story of a political newcomer bold enough to take on Washington, a feature on a group of international artists who refuse to remain silent, and a hot take on a cold (murder) case. Take a peek at our photography spotlight and grab some headphones to listen to our curated playlist (p. 20). Reflect on our featured poems, dig into our short fiction, and see if you can’t solve our locally-themed crossword.
Developing this second edition of The San Franciscan confirmed our early suspicions: the Bay Area is brimming with makers and artists of all stripes. There are transplants who want to contribute and to belong. There are natives and long-time residents who want to be heard and to give back to the city that raised them. And of course, there are people like you: readers with an appetite for print, who want to engage with thoughtful, compelling writing.
A year later, our formerly amorphous, distant vision is now sharply in focus. I look around and can see the worlds of our artists and writers superimposed onto the city in front of me. Join me and look through their eyes, with new perspective, at what our city is and could be.
![“It’s about pride. Be proud. This is a Latino cultural art, an asset. I tell [the next generation] to enjoy it. When we ...](https://img4.medioq.com/965/839/884128579658391.jpg)
![“I can’t even count how many artists made their first outdoor mural ever [during the pandemic]—including me. I think it’...](https://img4.medioq.com/318/454/648867033184548.jpg)
