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Book Arts & Special Collections and San Francisco History Center |
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Journalist and commentator Emil Guillermo will discuss Filipino immigration and other issues of Filipino American history with Professor Daniel Phil Gonzales of the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University.
An audience Q&A will follow the discussion. Come and discuss in this interactive exchange with Emil and Dan.
Saturday, May 2nd, 2026: 6:00pm
James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center - 3rd Floor Main Library 100 Larkin Street filam@sfpl.org |
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Speaker: Time on Our Hands
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Jody Meese explores how the deliberate practice of lettering reshapes attention and fosters community. In learning to slow down, she considers how working with a pen becomes a quiet act of resistance, and how time on our hands may be exactly what we need. In a culture obsessed with speed, calligraphy insists on time. A reflection on why deliberate work still matters. Meese is a professional lettering artist of the left-handed persuasion and has a Master of Fine Arts degree from California Institute of the Arts. Her work has come to include commercial chalkboards, illuminated manuscripts, calligraphic engraving and more. Presented by Book Arts & Special Collections and The Friends of Calligraphy.
Image: Jody Meese
Sunday, May 3rd, 2026: 1:00pm
Latino Hispanic Meeting Room A/B - Lower Level Main Library 100 Larkin Street bookarts@sfpl.org
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In Partnership with CAAMFest
Experience a rare screening of The Only Language She Knows, an intimate portrait of poet and playwright Genny Lim and San Francisco’s Chinatown in the early 1980s. Recently restored and remastered, this film will be shown for the first time in more than 40 years. Stay for a post-screening conversation with Genny Lim and filmmaker Steven Okazaki, moderated by CAAM Executive Director Donald Young, followed by an audience Q&A.
This special screening honors one of the city’s treasured gems, Genny Lim—who has been a vital and irresistible force in the cultural, social, and political life of the Bay Area for fifty years; who, in 1980, premiered her groundbreaking play Paper Angels, about Chinese immigrants on Angel Island; and who, in 2026, is San Francisco’s first Chinese American Poet Laureate.
Registation encouraged! Register here!
Saturday, May 9th, 2026: 1:00pm Koret Auditorium - Lower Level Main Library
100 Larkin Street publicaffairs@sfpl.org |
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A monthly social club based in San Francisco for mail artists, letter writers and people who love the USPS. If this sounds like you, then you've come to the right place! The Correspondence Co-op is a place for like-minded folks to meet other artists and beginners in a casual setting, make some mail art and share ideas.
The SFCC meets the third Sunday of every month; no meeting in December.
Sponsored by Book Arts & Special Collections.
Sunday, May 17th, 2026: 1:00pm Learning Studio - 5th Floor Main Library
100 Larkin Street bookarts@sfpl.org |
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One Book One Coast: George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy |
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The 2026 One Book One Coast selection, They Called Us Enemy, is George Takei’s graphic memoir about his childhood incarceration during World War II. Blending personal history with vivid illustrations, it offers an accessible, powerful look at injustice, identity and resilience. Read the book and join the conversation this spring.
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Current and Upcoming Exhibits |
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This Must Be the Place:
Photography in Print Media May 15, 2026 - August 27, 2026
Book Arts & Special Collections exhibit space – 6th Floor & San Francisco History Center Exhibit Space - 6th Floor
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Photograph by Ingeborg Gerdes, San Francisco Camera: Photographs from The San Francisco Art Institute, No. 2 (1969).
In the 1960s and 1970s, changes in printing technology reduced production costs and made photographic reproduction more accessible to small publishers. As a result, photographs circulated with increasing frequency through little magazines, underground newspapers and independently produced journals.
Across the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, locally produced publications incorporated photography into emerging print networks. The underground press placed photographs alongside unfolding political and cultural events, while other titles positioned photography within broader literary and intellectual contexts. Tabloid-format pages, newsprint production and independent distribution shaped how photographs were seen and handled.
Explore an array of photographs ranging from artistic to journalistic in this exhibition sourced from our Book Arts and Special Collections and the San Francisco History Center.
This exhibit is a satellite display that connects to the exhibition The Continuing Story of Life on Earth: 25 Years of Hamburger Eyes, on view in the Jewett Gallery on the Lower Level from April 23–Sept. 24, 2026. |
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Sidewalk Stories:
San Francisco, 1970s - 1980s
May 22, 2026 - July 16, 2026
San Francisco History Center Exhibit Space - 6th Floor
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Sidewalk Stories invites you into San Francisco’s streets of the 1970s–1980s, where four photographers turn everyday moments into enduring images. Their photographs balance chance and intention, revealing humor, irony and the subtle distance between strangers as public and private entwine. Neighborhoods, architecture and passersby shape layered stories of place and community. Featuring Phiz Mezey, Karen Marshall, John Harding and Andrew Ritchie, the photography exhibit captures a specific time while reflecting a shared commitment to the city’s rhythms and contradictions.
Vintage photographs on view from the San Francisco History Center’s photography collection.
This exhibit is a satellite display that connects to the exhibition The Continuing Story of Life on Earth: 25 Years of Hamburger Eyes, on view in the Jewett Gallery on the Lower Level from April 23 - Sept. 24, 2026. |
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Under the Bed: Monstrous Selections from the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor
April 1, 2026 - June 30, 2026 Saroyan Gallery - 6th Floor |
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Shrek! by William Steig. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1990
Nightmares, things that go bump in the night, and “what’s under the bed?” are enduring features of childhood’s dream time. One element continues to terrify us into adulthood, namely the monstrous population occupying the space under our beds. The library’s annual wit & humor exhibition reduces our night frights to the silly, absurd, and ridiculously funny in Under the Bed: Monstrous Selections from the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor. Presented by Book Arts & Special Collections. |
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Patricia Owen Design Bookbinding
A Retrospective February 6, 2026 - June 4, 2026
Skylight Gallery - 6th Floor |
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Join a tour of the exhibition with bookbinder Eleanore Ramsey! Sunday, May 17th, 2026: 2:00pm Skylight Gallery - 6th Floor
Patricia Owen (Patty) was an architect who found in bookbinding a medium more directly and immediately open to personal expression. Form and shape were central to Patty’s designs, primarily irregularly shaped, often organic. She explored a myriad of textures and materials. Color was also important. Her bindings are mainly monochromatic and often accented with greens and reds. The bindings in this exhibition reveal Patty’s continual exploration and a mastery of craftsmanship. The exhibition was initiated by fellow members of the bookbinding community who knew Patty and her work and felt that a retrospective would provide an opportunity to view nearly all the bindings she created over 35 years. |
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Vanishing; poems by Jane Hirshfield; mezzotints by Holly Downing (San Francisco: Gazelle and Goat Press, 2021). Robert Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing & the Development of the Book, Book Arts & Special Collections.
Our latest acquisition Vanishing celebrates the insect world with poems by Jane Hirshfeld, accompanied by Holly Downing’s colorful mezzotints. Letterpress printed in a custom binding by Rhiannon Alpers.
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New Arrivals Popping Up in Book Arts & Special Collections |
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One Red Dot: A Pop-up Book for Children of All Ages
David A. Carter One Red Dot is a stunning tour de force from David A. Carter. Each of the ten magnificent pop-up sculptures challenges readers to find the one red dot. From the flip-flop flaps to the whimsical wiggle-wobble widgets, each page is an original piece of artwork to cherish and admire. |
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Blue 2
David A. Carter Blue 2 is a beautiful cacophony delighting everyone! From a to z each letter gives a clue to where the Blue 2 is hidden in each of these spectacular pop-up sculptures. There's a glistening Blue 2, a slippery Blue 2, and even a suspended Blue 2. With gleeful helixes, jubilant kookiness, and mobile nonsense, each page will stun with its paper pop-up phenomenon. This sequel to One Red Dot is surely one to treasure. |
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600 Black Spots
David A. Carter Following the amazing success of One Red Dot and Blue 2, David Carter has done it again! He's back with 600 Black Spots, his most clever scavenger hunt pop-up yet. Readers can spend countless hours of fun searching for the black spots throughout the pages--but be careful! Tricks and surprises abound in this endlessly entertaining, keep-you-on-the-spot book! |
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Yellow Square
David A. Carter
First came One Red Dot, next Blue 2, 600 Black Spots, now Yellow Square, the fourth installment of David A. Carter's acclaimed color series! Modern and elegant paper engineering and text are certain to awe children of all ages! Readers will search beautiful, modern pop-ups to discover the hidden yellow square on each spread in this follow up to David A. Carter's New York Times award winning, 600 Black Spots. |
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San Francisco History Center, Book Arts & Special Collections
Main Library, 6th Floor 100 Larkin San Francisco, CA 94102 |
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