Poetry

A guy.
12 Feb 2024

This Oakland-Based Poet Wants You to Step Up Your Politics

Darius Simpson is the kind of guy who has to wait until Saturday night to take calls. The poet, educator, farmer, and activist stays fully engaged in a plethora of Bay Area communities. And in a time when the word “activist” has become closer to a personality trait or a

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Three people.
12 Feb 2024

If Taylor Swift is a Tortured Poet, Isn’t Everyone?

While winning yet another Grammy, Taylor Swift took the chance to plug her upcoming and eleventh album: The Tortured Poets Department. Shortly after the announcement, Google recorded a 588 percent increase of users searching “Dead Poets Society.” This strange moment arrives within a year of Drake’s Titles Ruin Everything dropping, a

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08 Oct 2024

The November 2024 BAS Voter Guide

A Big Change to This Year’s Voter Guide We’ve been doing voter guides for a really long time. I’m pretty sure we put our first one out in like 2010 or something. And I know that thousands of you rely on our voter guides to help you make decision. But

BAS Editorial Team 0
A person and a backdrop.
06 Nov 2023

Why San Francisco Politics Matter After All That

There’s a tense air in San Francisco. The city is readying for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) — a major international conference hosting President Joe Biden and General Secretary Xi Jinping alike — and erupting in demonstrations against the evolving humanitarian crisis in Gaza, raised to a fever pitch by

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A man.
20 Oct 2023

Meet the Traveling Writer Penning Strangers’ Poems

BY LAUREN PARKER Ben Bernthal would like to write a poem for you. You just have to pick three words.  “A lot of people don’t know they like poetry,” Bernthal says, now based in San Francisco and a regular presence near the Ferry Building and in the Mission. Set up

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A train.
24 Jul 2023

Traveling in America Means Confronting Its Shitty Past

BY DENA ROD What started as grief and loss over Iranians fighting for their freedom shifted into gratitude. I was a US citizen. That gave me an untold privilege that has always echoed throughout my entire life.  When traveling to Iran became an impossibility rather than a high-stakes travel goal, I

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02 May 2023

San Francisco is not Detroit (no offense to Detroit)

San Francisco is not Detroit (no offense to Detroit). -by Alen Nye   San Francisco is where you go to get sexy. And be queer. To get high while getting by. To get hip living on tips. To get paid for getting laid. And get lost on the edge of

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11 Oct 2022

Artist You Should Know: A.A. Vincent

Sometimes, as much as you love a place and its people—in this case, Chicago, and all the memories it holds for me—it can’t hold all of who you are. And that’s okay. September 30th, 2021. The day I landed back in the Bay Area after having moved back to my

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24 May 2022

Broke-Ass Poets: Barbara Berman

This week’s Broke-Ass Poet is Barbara Berman, author of The Generosity of Stars (Finishing Line Press, 2008) and Currents (Three Mile Harbor Press, 2018). STOCKTON, CA. For Geraldine Law Lee. When planes buzzed    during 1950s air shows she   recalled   wartime   bombing   and   froze. She wanted her kids to feel safe, to

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