GLIDE Talk & Screening with Rev. Cecil Williams, Janice Mirikitani & Hon. Willie Brown, Jr

GLIDE is excited to continue its thought-leaders’ series with a screening of Lost Footage of Cecil Williams, part of the 1975 PBS series Interface, directed by Robert Zagone on Wednesday, April 27 at GLIDE Church. Following the screening, three beloved San Francisco icons, Reverend Cecil Williams, Janice Mirikitani (who joined Williams in 1965 to build GLIDE’s many programs), and Hon. Willie L. Brown, Jr., (two-term Mayor of San Francisco and legendary Speaker of the California State Assembly), will reminisce about this unique era in San Francisco's history and share insightful dialogue on creating unconditional love, radical acceptance and beloved community throughout San Francisco's past, present and future. 

Thanks to the heroic efforts of film director Robert Zagone and the Tenderloin Museum, a 1975 television program on Reverend Williams, the legendary leader of GLIDE Church, is now available for showing after four decades. Zagone, whose 1966 film Drugs in the Tenderloin has played to two sold-out showings at the Tenderloin Museum and a series of sold-out showings at the Roxie Theater, directed the television program for the national PBS series, Interface, which presented an innovative perspective on African-American and Latino culture. Zagone captured Williams at his most fiery and most revolutionary. It is this young, charismatic Williams whose Sunday services mesmerized audiences at GLIDE and which became renowned throughout the world. If you want to see the essence of Cecil Williams, you have to see this film.

WHAT:   
GLIDE Presents Lost Footage of Cecil Williams, a film screening and talk with Hon. Willie L. Brown, Jr., Janice Mirikitani and Rev. Cecil Williams on Wednesday, April 27

WHERE:        
GLIDE Sanctuary, 330 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

WHO:
Reverend Cecil Williams, GLIDE’s Co-Founder and Minister of Liberation

Janice Mirikitani, GLIDE’s Co-Founder and Founding President who joined Williams in 1965 to build GLIDE’s many programs

Hon. Willie L. Brown, Jr., two-term Mayor of San Francisco, legendary Speaker of the California State Assembly, and widely regarded as the most influential African-American politician of the late twentieth century

Randy Shaw, Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and Board member of Uptown Tenderloin, Inc., the group that operates and spearheaded the Tenderloin Museum
 
WHEN:         
Wednesday, April 27, 2016

6:00 PM: Arrivals with a special performance of the GLIDE Ensemble and the Change Band

6:30 PM:  Welcome message from GLIDE, Randy Shaw (Director of The Uptown Tenderloin), film director Robert Zagone and screening of Lost Footage of Cecil Williams

7:00 PM:  GLIDE Talk with Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani in conversation with Hon. Willie L. Brown, Jr. 

7:30 PM:    Q&A with audience

7:45 PM:  Food and Wine Reception             

ADMISSION: 
        
Free and open to the public; registration required at: Eventbrite

For more information, call 415.674.6060 or email echan [at] GLIDE.org

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Reverend Cecil Williams, for over 50 years, has expanded the limits of spirituality, compassion and diversity as Co-Founder and Minister of Liberation of GLIDE Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco. As minister, author, social activist, lecturer, community leader and spokesperson for the poor and underserved communities, Reverend Williams is respected and recognized as a national leader on the forefront of change and in the struggle for civil and human rights.  His ministry underscores his roots in liberation theology. 
 
Often considered controversial and radical, Rev. Williams was one of the first clergymen to take a revolutionary stand for same sex couples by presiding over their weddings nearly five decades before today’s marriage equality victory. His vision for the 21st century church can be seen in GLIDE’s unique and powerful blend of spirituality, principled compassion, and cutting edge programs for those most in need. With a membership of over 11,000 and located in the heart of the San Francisco’s toughest neighborhoods, GLIDE is one of the fastest growing United Methodist churches in North America. People of all races, ethnic backgrounds, cultures, social classes, ages, faiths, and sexual orientations join together at every Sunday Celebration to experience the energy of spiritual liberation coupled with the fusion of jazz, blues and gospel performed by the renowned GLIDE Ensemble and the Change Band. 
 
Rev. Cecil Williams is married to Janice Mirikitani, Co-Founder and Founding President of the Glide Foundation. Together, they have created a radical and unique partnership, bringing a powerful yet sensitive direction to GLIDE’s many social programs which offer comprehensive support services to San Francisco’s poor and homeless communities to overcome the barriers of poverty, violence, addiction, dependency and low self-worth. The organization has held steady the vision of supporting and uplifting the disenfranchised through unconditional love, acceptance and respect for over five decades. 
 
Williams has authored two books, I’M ALIVE: An Autobiography and NO HIDING PLACE: Empowerment and Recovery for Our Troubled Communities and co-authored BEYOND THE POSSIBLE: 50 Years of Creating Radical Change in a Community Called GLIDE with Mirikitani.
 
Janice Mirikitani, a Sansei (third generation) Japanese American, is recognized as a poet, visionary, editor, administrator and community activist.  Mirikitani is the Co-Founder and Founding President of GLIDE where she in partnership with her husband, Reverend Cecil Williams, have achieved worldwide recognition for their groundbreaking organization which empowers San Francisco’s poor and marginalized communities to make meaningful changes in their lives to break the cycle of poverty and dependence.  For over 50 years, they built comprehensive programs that provide education, recovery support, primary and mental health care, job training, housing and human services.   Mirikitani's passion has been to create programs for women and families as they struggle with issues of substance abuse, rape, incest, domestic violence, the AIDS crisis, single parenting, childcare, health/wellness, education, and jobs development.  
 
Mirikitani is San Francisco’s second Poet Laureate, appointed in 2000.   She has authored five books of poetry -- OUT OF THE DUSK, AWAKE IN THE RIVER; SHEDDING SILENCE; WE, THE DANGEROUS, and LOVE WORKS -- and is the editor of nine landmark anthologies, which provide platforms for writers of color, women, youth and children.   Mirikitani is the co-author of the BEYOND THE POSSIBLE: 50 Years of Creating Radical Change in a Community Called GLIDE with Rev. Williams. Mirikitani has also worked in civil rights causes for various multi ethnic communities, including the struggle for redress for Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII.
 
Mirikitani has received two honorary doctorate degrees, graduated from UCLA, and received a teaching credential from UC Berkeley. She and her family were incarcerated in a Rohwer, Arkansas concentration camp with the mass internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
 
Hon. Willie L. Brown, Jr. is the two-term Mayor of San Francisco, legendary Speaker of the California State Assembly, and widely regarded as the most influential African-American politician of the late twentieth century. He has been at the center of California politics, government, and civic life for an astonishing four decades. His career spans the American Presidency from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, and he’s worked with every California Governor from Pat Brown to Arnold Schwarzenegger. From civil rights to education reform, tax policy, economic development, health care, international trade, domestic partnerships, and affirmative action, he’s left his imprimatur on every aspect of politics and public policy in the Golden State. As Mayor of California’s most cosmopolitan city, he refurbished and rebuilt the nation’s busiest transit system, pioneered the use of bond measures to build affordable housing, created a model juvenile justice system, and paved the way for a second campus of the University of California, San Francisco, to serve as the anchor of a new development that will position the City as a center for the burgeoning field of biotechnology. Today, he heads the Willie L. Brown, Jr., Institute on Politics and Public Service, where this acknowledged master of the art of politics shares his knowledge and skills with a new generation of California leaders.
 
The Tenderloin Museum celebrates the rich history of one of San Francisco’s oldest and most unique neighborhoods. The museum's permanent collection tells the story of the neighborhood from its rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake through the present. The vibrant community based arts and educational programming is built on the diverse culture of this historic neighborhood. The Tenderloin Museum is a project of Uptown Tenderloin, Inc., a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization. Uptown Tenderloin sponsored the application that created the national Uptown Tenderloin Historic District, which includes 409 buildings on the National Registry of Historic Places. Uptown Tenderloin also led the effort to install nearly 100 historic plaques on Tenderloin buildings, and nine “Lost Landmark” sidewalk plaques. The organization also worked with Academy of Art University to create and install murals reflecting Tenderloin history on the PG&E substation at Eddy and Hyde Streets.