Family spot in the online workshop "Trans/queer Hirstory 4 Rainbow Families"
1 family spot for the workshop below!
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Trans/queer Hirstory 4 Rainbow Families ✨An online course with Ariel Goldberg
The ongoing attack on trans/queer life is an old playbook that we can learn about. 📚
This current wave of fear and confusion surrounding trans/queer life is not new 🛟 Come together with other kin of trans /queer people with the same questions you may have. This course will provide an antidote to the confusion, fear and despair by creating a community that grows and learns together!
Sample Weekly Lecture & Discussion Topics include:
Learning the Lingo!
Support Structures for LGBTQAI youth: 1970s to the Present
Community Based News
Allyish! What Can you DO?
Hypervisibility of Trans/queer Life
The Culture Wars
Decoding Laws Today
Wild Card! Participants Request a Topic!
Why Political Education? Trans and queer hirstory of the last fifty years has blueprints for day-to-day actions and support for those we love. The current repression of trans and queer life through the schools, public space, state legislatures, and the healthcare system relies on old strategies trans and queer people have fought against before–and won!
Course Format: This course will use short history presentations followed by a space to ask hard questions, brainstorm and share resources. Together we will learn about the joys of trans/queer life so we can support trans and queer youth and adults most impacted in this current moment.
Goals: Participants will gain a robust understanding of our current political moment by learning about real-life trans and queer organizing, media projects, and mutual-aid projects for healthcare, education, and housing. This course is designed to arm us with hirstory–by learning from actual survival and how to fight fascist authoritarianism.
Accessibility: When registering for the course, we ask for you to tell us any access needs and questions you may have about the course. Taylor Cook, the Course Manager, and I are here to support and build this course as a place for your learning and growth.
Participation: Asynchronous participation is welcome! What does that mean? Participants can miss classes and keep up with recorded lectures and transcripts or simply attend when they can. Each week, participants will receive suggested readings, resources, and discussion prompts that they can engage before or after class time. Participants are welcome to show up to class without doing any homework.
Digital Security: Participants can join class anonymously to protect their privacy.
Who might take this course: Parents of trans/queer kids who want to deepen their allyship! You are welcome to take the course with members of your family or solo. Teenage kids, romantic partners, best friends, grandparents, siblings, aunties, uncles, cousins, whoever is in your chosen family is welcome! The materials will discuss mature topics such as police violence, HIV/AIDS, and sex & gender based discrimination.
Size: 12 families
WHEN: June 11-July 30, 2025
8 weeks, Wednesday Nights
7-9pm ET / 4-7pm PT
WHERE: ONLINE! Join from anywhere!
Asynchronous participants are welcome; while all lectures are audio-recorded & circulated, discussions will not be recorded.
COST: $1,000 per family (up to four seats!)
$500 for solo enrollment
Venmo, Zelle, or bank transfer
Payment plans available / If this course is not financially accessible to you please stay tuned for Ariel's next sliding scale workshop!
If you cannot join at this time slot, and are interested in learning with us, please reach out to seekingcaptionscourse@gmail.com about your availability–if there is sufficient interest, we will open a 2nd section of the course.
Sign up here, and you will receive an email with next steps.
About the instructor: Ariel Goldberg is a writer, curator, and educator devoted to trans and queer lineages. Goldberg’s books include The Estrangement Principle (Nightboat Books, 2016) and The Photographer (Roof Books, 2015). Their exhibition on photography’s relationship to spaces for learning, Images on which to build, 1970s-1990s, was on view at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati as part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in NYC, and the Chicago Cultural Center from 2022-2024. Goldberg was a recipient of the 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Book Grant and a 2024 Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellow at the New York Public Library. Goldberg has taught photography, writing, and contemporary art practices independently and at Bard College, The New School, New York University, Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, and Rutgers University. Goldberg also works independently as a Conflict Mediator, trained through the New York Peace Institute.
IG: @r.e.l.goldberg
Item #113: Chris Duncan - unique, site-specific work
This item is a collaboration with Chris Duncan on a painting — for a few years Duncan has been setting out fabric on various rooftops and allowing the fabric to fade and change in the sun.
He will set up fabric on your home (needs to be somewhere relatively close by) and after a period of months he will collect the fabric and finish the work into a 20 x 16 inch work. The images above are for reference; the work will be unframed.
Think of it as a unique portrait of a place special to you, think of it as a collaboration between Chris, you, and the sun/elements.
Item #112: Chapbook consultation with Gillian Conoley
Chapbook consultation with Gillian Conoley
A one-hour consultation over Zoom for a chapbook mss. of no more than 30 pages.
Item #100: Poetry Consultation with Solmaz Sharif
One-hour poetry consultation over Zoom with Solmaz Sharif.
Share 20 pages of poetry or less. Consult will be scheduled for Fall 2025.
Born in Istanbul to Iranian parents, Solmaz Sharif is the author of Customs (Graywolf Press, 2022) and Look (Graywolf Press, 2016), a finalist for the National Book Award. She holds degrees from U.C. Berkeley, where she studied and taught with June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, and New York University. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, The Paris Review, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, the New York Times, and others. Her work has been recognized with a “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize, Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and Holmes National Poetry Prize from Princeton University. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lannan Foundation, and Stanford University. She is currently an Associate Professor of English and Shirley Shenker Chair of Arts and Humanities at U.C. Berkeley.
Starting Bid: $50
Estimated Value: $300
Current Bid: $150
Item #99: A guided tour of the SFMOMA library with David Senior
Join David Senior for a tour of the SFMOMA library for you and up to five additional folks.
David Senior is the Director of Library and Archives at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Senior lectures often on the history of artists’ publications and contemporary art and design publishing. Formerly he was the Senior Bibliographer at MoMA Library. At MoMA, he curated many exhibitions of artists’ books, magazines, and ephemera. For the last eleven years, he has organized a program of events, the Classroom, for Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair and more recently, at the Los Angeles Art Book Fair.
Starting Bid: $120
Estimated Value: $300
Current Bid: $150
Item #92: Tarot Reading with Camille Roy in the SPT Reading Room
Camille will pull cards for you in the STP Reading Room at the Fundraiser on May 31st. Super special experience surrounded by the magic of the SPT Archives!
TWO slots available: 3:35pm and 4:05pm. Readings will last ~20mins.
Please indicate which slot you want when you bid!
Starting Bid: $30
Current Bid 3:35: $35
Current Bid 4:05: $40
Item #62b: 24 - 48 hours at winslow house project
winslow house project is an artist residency program and performance space in vallejo california. a gothic victorian farm house built in 1860 & situated on one acre. the space is ideal for a team of collaborators to spend time together away from their normal routine and tap into the magic of the project. plenty of space inside and outside to spread out separately - or gather together as a group. the kitchen has everything you need to tackle any cooking/baking project. this offering is for a date in 2026 dependent on whp calendar availability - must be scheduled before september 2025. (5 bedrooms)
Courtesy of kim frazar blantz
Starting bid: $700 (24 hours) or $1400 (48 hours)
Estimated Value: $1000 (24 hours) or $2000 (48 hours)
Current bid:
Item #56: Melissa Mack - Commissioned occasional poem
I will write a poem to honor the occasion of your choosing -- a birthday, anniversary, accomplishment, etc.
Starting Bid: $65
Estimated Value: ?
Current Bid:
Item #48: Commissioned Portrait Painting by Connie Zheng
Connie Zheng
General portrait in color (two people max)
Size and complexity dependent on final winning bid amount (up to maximum size of 40 x 36 inches); gouache on double-sided drafting film for semi-translucent look and feel, 8 x 11 inch
Starting bid: $500
Estimated value: $800+
Current bid: $600
Item #45: Maxe Crandall - Write a Poets Play with Maxe Crandall, Or Play Consultation
Maxe Crandall
Write a Poets Play with Maxe Crandall, Or Play Consultation
Whether you love or are disinterested in theater, this experience is for you!
Should You Choose to Write a Play:
First, we'll talk on zoom or in person & cook up a scenario. Then we'll write back and forth in a document, or (more likely) devise a process of our own. I'll hold your hand through the highs and lows of writing for the stage, and soon enough we'll have a 10-minute play ready to present in the finest halls and alleyways your city has to offer.
Should you choose to have a consult:
I can give feedback like nobody's business. Send me <30 pages, and we'll talk for at least an hour about what's working and what might take you in new directions. Zoom or in person.
Starting bid: $55
Estimated value: $300
Current bid: $55
Item #44: Syd Staiti - Watercolor Pet Portrait
Syd Staiti
Watercolor Pet Portrait
One of the best kept secrets of the Bay Area BY FAR, Syd Staiti's amateur pet portraits are for sale for the first time ever. Lean back and relax as Staiti's meticulous brush paints a perfect likeness of your beloved pet in soothing autumnal tones (or other tones, depending on the color of your pet). BONUS: Bid high enough, and you'll upgrade yourself from a postcard size to a pet portrait of luxury. Billboards are surely the limit!
Starting bid: $50
Estimated value: $
Current bid: $125
Item #41: David Buuck - Literary journal/small press consultation with Tripwire publisher David Buuck
David Buuck
Literary journal/small press consultation with Tripwire publisher David Buuck
90-minute video or in person meeting to discuss your project! Great for new(er) editors and publishers just starting out, especially those interested in pursuing non-mainstream, non-“professional” publishing endeavors.
David Buuck lives in Oakland, CA. He is the co-founder and editor of Tripwire, a journal of poetics (tripwirejournal.com).
Starting bid: $100
Estimated value:
Current bid:
Item #36: Sun Park - Adobe Illustrator lesson
Sun Park
Adobe Illustrator lesson
Learn the basics of Illustrator, Adobe’s vector based program! This will be an introductory experience but prior experience with Photoshop, or other Adobe products is highly recommended.
You must bring your own laptop and download a trial version of Illustrator beforehand.
I am happy to gear the lesson towards your interests and goals (i.e. creating files for laser cutter, logo design, etc.) if you like.
Who is your instructor?! My name is Sun, I am a visual artist and I have taught digital art classes at SFSU and Union College. I ❤️ Illustrator and I hope you’ll love it too.
1.5 hour private session (or bring a friend if you like!) meet me in the Mission.
Starting bid: $50
Estimated value $150
Current bid:
Item #33: Sophia Dahlin - Spot in a Generative Poetry Workshop
Sophia Dahlin
Spot in a Generative Poetry Workshop
Good for one spot in a 2025-2026 Generative Poetry workshop, online or in South Berkeley
Starting bid: $100
Estimated value: $195-250
Current bid: $100
Item #32: Marcus Ewert - 90-minute tarot reading with Marcus Ewert
Marcus Ewert
Get your cards read by one of the Bay's beloved, Marcus Ewert!
BIO: An actor, writer, and director, MARCUS EWERT is the author of the award-winning 10,000 Dresses, the first picture book to feature a transgender protagonist, and the creator of the hit animated children’s series Piki & Poko, which appeared on MTV’s Logo channel.
Starting bid: $100
Estimated value: $250
Current bid: $105
Item #29: Caitlyn Galloway - custom painted portrait of your doorbell
Caitlyn Galloway
Custom Painted Portrait of Your Doorbell
Acrylic on found material
Courtesy of the Artist
Starting bid: $100
Estimated value:
Current bid: $100
Item #28: Kate Rhoades - TWO Pet Portraits!
Kate Rhoades
I’ll paint a picture of your pet or any animal you want!
Oil on panel
9 x 12 inches
Courtesy of the Artist
Starting bid: $100
Estimated value: $500
Current bid 1: $500
Current bid 2: $475
Item #25: Kay Gabriel - A Very Intimate Letter And Masterpiece Of The Genre, Darling
Kay Gabriel
A Very Intimate Letter And Masterpiece Of The Genre, Darling
I will address myself to you, miss girl. I'll disclose great secrets. I'll engage you in fabulous, juicy correspondence about New York and non-New York nonsense. Maybe I'll even crack your egg.
Starting bid: $300
Estimated value: $500
Current bid: $500
Item #18: Kimberly Alidio - Manuscript consultation
Kimberly Alidio
Manuscript consultation
Up to three hours, option to use up to two hours of that time on video or phone call. Manuscripts can be hybrid, intermedia text under 100 pages or equivalent audiovisual material. Consultation may include structural feedback, limited line edits, generative prompts, writing and reading together, general discussion. Not included are copyediting, intensive line edits, or letters of recommendation. Feedback on subsequent drafts is available for a fee.
Starting bid: $100
Estimated value: $250
Current bid: $100
Item #17: Brian Teare - Chapbook Manuscript Consultation
Brain Teare
Chapbook Manuscript Consultation
A one-hour manuscript consultation over zoom. The consult will center on a chapbook-length manuscript of no more than 32 manuscript pages.
Starting bid: $100
Estimated value: $150
Current bid: $150