BY DENA ROD Welcome to The Transgender Sabbatical Blues, an ongoing series exploring Dena Rod’s experience as a transgender, non-binary, Iranian American Bay Area local who took a five-week sabbatical all over the Northern Hemisphere. But stopped I was. Without anyone responding to me on WhatsApp, there was no way that I

What to do with mine was so clear to me: I had to go to Iran. After a lifetime of my parents always advising me I should wait until my thirties to sojourn to the motherland (something I’ve explored before), here was the perfect opportunity. What could possibly go wrong with planning this type of adventure? 

I’ve got some awesome news! We received a grant from the Civic Joy Fund to put out a literary magazine celebrating SF and acting to counter the stupid “Doom Loop” narrative. It’s a gift to the people of San Francisco. And after months of working on this project it’s now available

By Ian Firstenberg American empire and liberalism go hand in hand and this resolution on Nicaragua is no different.  ‘We must stop the divisiveness.’ It’s a common line in today’s political climate, meant to decry the emotional fervor from the extremes of the political left and right, upholding that meaty

Sooner or later, Northern California will experience a major earthquake. Statistically, it’s likely to be on the Hayward Fault, which means less-affluent parts of the Bay Area like Oakland and Richmond may bear the brunt of the destruction. The recovery will be arduous, and decades-long, and it will almost certainly

“There’s always a tweet” has been the axiom of the Trump era, the definitive proof that almost any ridiculous thing the president says or does will have been preceded by an accusation that someone else was doing it. It’s as true as “There’s always a bigger fish” or “There’s always

We’ve got a loaded news wrap for you, stacked full of history, homeless, strikes and being black in America. Here goes…   Fight Brewing at People’s Park There’s a long history of resistance at the site of Berkeley’s People’s Park – it was actually built by the community itself out

Buckle your seat belts, this week’s news dives into the Oakland A’s and their search for a home, a submarine gone astray, violence in Kabul and the latest out of the Trump legal circus. A’s: Last stop, Oakland There’s no question that 1968 was a year to remember, here in

This is part of our Books from Banned Countries series. You can see them all here. Enemy In Translation: Iran American’s aren’t known for their appreciation for foreign cultures. From certain states demanding that everyone speak English, to the lack of foreign films on streaming platforms. Most American’s are definitely nationalists when