Your Custom Text Here
Join us for happy hour featuring make-it-yourself shrub cocktails, and meet Aja Gabel! Don't forget to sign up for Aja Gabel's reading, starting at 7 p.m.
Aja Gabel, author of the debut novel, The Ensemble, is The Ruby's September Writer in Residence. The Ruby's Writer in Residence program seeks to support the best writers writing, and to bring writers from outside the Bay Area to The Ruby to read. Writers in residence stay in our upstairs writers loft.http://www.ajagabel.com/
About THE ENSEMBLE
The addictive debut novel about four young friends navigating the cutthroat world of music and their complex relationships with one another, as ambition, passion, and love intertwine over the course of their lives.
Brit is the second violinist, a beautiful and quiet orphan; on the viola is Henry, a prodigy who's always had it easy; the cellist is Daniel, the oldest, the angry skeptic who sleeps around; and on first violin is Jana, their flinty, resilient leader. Together, they are the Van Ness String Quartet.
In The Ensemble, each person picks up the melody, from the group's youthful rocky start through to adulthood. As they navigate devastating failures and wild success, heartbreak and marriage, triumph and loss, betrayal and enduring loyalty, they are always tied together--by career, by the intensity of their art, by the secrets they carry, and by choosing each other over and over again.
Following these four unforgettable characters, Aja Gabel's debut novel gives a behind-the-scenes look into the competitive, mysterious world of high level musicians. The story of Brit and Henry and Daniel and Jana, The Ensemble is a heart-skipping portrait of ambition, friendship, and the tenderness of youth.
About Aja Gabel
Aja Gabel's debut novel, The Ensemble, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House.
Aja's short fiction can be found in New England Review, New Ohio Review, Glimmer Train, BOMB, and elsewhere. Her lyric essay, "The Sparrows in France," appeared in Kenyon Review and earned her an honorable mention in Best American Essays 2015. She has taught fiction, non-fiction, and literature at the University of Virginia, the University of Houston, Sweet Briar College, and Pacific University, as well as at undergraduate creative writing conferences and community workshop organizations. She earned her BA at Wesleyan University, her MFA at the University of Virginia and has a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston.
Aja has been the recipient of awards from Atlantic Monthly and Inprint, as well as fellowships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where she was a fellow in fiction 2012-2013.
She lives in Los Angeles with her dog, Bear.
Many artists go through periods of trying different types of mediums, and wind up accumulating art supplies from their experiments that they no longer use. So we thought, why not swap materials? Let's purge and refresh our art cabinets! Bring your gently used art supplies* such as paper, stationary, watercolors, color pencils, pens, inks, clay, tools, textiles, threads, etc.! Take as much as you need at the swap. Any unclaimed art supplies will be donated to SCRAP, our local reuse materials shop.
This art swap is happening simultaneously with our BOOK & SUCCULENT SWAP, so please feel free to also bring/take books and succulents!
*Disclaimer: please do not bring any hazardous or toxic materials such as moldy textiles, old electronics, house paint, dangerous tools, ect. For a full list of materials we can and cannot accept, refer to SCRAP's donation page.
Join us for a book and succulent swap! Bring your pre-loved books and succulents to The Ruby to swap for others. This should go without saying, but please make sure you are bringing books that you’re excited to share: that you love or could see someone loving (that is to say, not trash books you got once in a gift bag)!
BYO tote bags to bring your new books home, and Tupperware for your new succulents.
Tip: When cutting your succulents, be sure to cut from a well-established plant. Ideally, bring succulents that you’ve left out to dry and that have developed callouses over their cuts.
“Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” —bell hooks
Each month, we'll read a short article or several, and discuss it together, through the lens of intersectional feminism.
For our October meeting, we'll read and discuss three essays by Audre Lorde:
Come at 5:30 p.m. if you'd like to read at The Ruby before the discussion begins at 6 p.m.
Come learn embroidery basics and walk away with a cool embroidered piece!
In this 2.5-hour class, we’ll show you how to transfer a pattern onto fabric, do some basic stitches, and get started on a great design that you can finish at home. It’s an unconventional way of learning embroidery, but one that leaves you with a cool little piece of art. Bring a piece of clothing you’d like to embellish or, if that’s too intimidating, we’ll be providing fabric scraps to choose from. Everything else is supplied and you’ll take home your own needle, hoop, and three colors of thread. No prior embroidery experience necessary!
PLEASE NOTE: Materials fee is $25, payable at the start of class. Nonmembers, this cost is included in the price of your ticket.
About Emma McGowan
Emma McGowan comes from a family of craftswomen and has been fascinated by needlework for years, but she didn’t actually learn how to do it herself until she traveled to Guatemala and was blown away by the handiwork done by Mayan women. So she bought a hoop, some thread, a needle, and taught herself how to make her own beautiful designs. When Emma is not embroidering, you can find her writing about feminist issues, reading (a lot), sewing outlandish clothing, and experimenting with new crafts projects.
It goes by many names—Sculpey, Fimo, Premo—and it’s an exceptionally versatile material for making jewelry, sculptures, and objects. In this workshop, we’ll learn some techniques for working with it, including “millefiori” which is a method borrowed from glasswork to get highly detailed designs. Learn how to use a familiar material a new way, or just come and play.
PLEASE NOTE: There is a materials fee of $15, payable at the start of class.
About Kathryn Jaller
Kathryn Jaller develops content, campaigns, and experiences for creative brands and business. Most recently she led the digital team at Chronicle Books and prior to produced content of all kinds at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. She’s also an avid maker who has shown at West Coast Craft and her recent Necklace Aura Reading project about the intersection of identity, anxiety, and fashion was featured by Kickstarter. See her other creations at freundthings.co
Tarot isn't only about fortune-telling or divination; it can also be used as a tool for intuition, reflection, growth, and creative projects.
Ruby members Helen Tseng and Melissa Graeber, the co-hosts of Astral Projection Radio Hour, a weekly witch-themed radio show on BFF.fm, are two friends who have been meeting once a month for the past year to lightly study tarot and eat noodles. They call it "Decks and Noods," and we're bringing a version of it to The Ruby! Every month, we'll gather for thoughtful discussion and practice, and the occasional guest reader. We'll choose one card as a group to interpret/think about, then break into smaller groups to be in conversation about the ways to interpret a card or spread.
BYO Tarot Deck if you have one (and extra decks if you own multiple decks!); Helen and Melissa will also bring decks for the deckless. No prior knowledge of Tarot is assumed! We'll provide noodles of course!
Rubies are a passionate bunch with ideas to spare, which often need to be developed outside of the 9 to 5. That’s where this program comes in! Led by Ruby Kathryn Jaller, this is a side hustle support group for those with passions outside their day jobs. Put your head-down for focused work, or join us in the conference room for an hour-long conversation on a topic like time management, goal-setting that’s both realistic and ambitious, and the thrill/fear of testing out your ideas in the market, all with special guests or who have been there.
Whether it’s a business, creative project, or something in-between, come get time, space, and support for it.
About Kathryn Jaller
Kathryn Jaller develops content, campaigns, and experiences for creative brands and business. Most recently she led the digital team at Chronicle Books and prior to that produced content of all kinds at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. She’s also an avid maker who has shown at West Coast Craft and her recent Necklace Aura Readingproject about the intersection of identity, anxiety, and fashion was featured by Kickstarter. See her other creations at freundthings.co.
Curious about Ayurveda, and how it might fit into your life? Rasa, the Sanskrit word for taste, translates to experience, enthusiasm, and essence. Accordingly, taste not only determines how we experience our food,
but ultimately, the overall flavor of our lives. On a functional level, each of the six tastes—sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, astringent—ensures we eat what our body needs and, therefore, has a vital role to play in our
overall well-being. If you're missing one of the six, you're left with anything from cravings to poor digestion. Taste really is a natural map towards vibrant health!
Join Ayurvedic practitioner and holistic health educator Sachi Doctor in an exploration of these six tastes and how they correlate to common spices. You'll learn how to spice mixes to maximize their benefits and will make a your own fall spice blend to support you through the season.
About Sachi Doctor
Sachi Doctor is a holistic health educator, tea maker and founder of Elemental Alchemy. Imbued in Eastern tradition and Western culture since childhood, both ancient healing practices and modern medical systems have shaped my understanding of health. Balancing the wisdom of these two worlds, her work blends ancient Ayurvedic practices, yogic philosophy, plant-based medicine and nutrition to help individuals reconnect with their inner healer and cutivate clarity on what makes them thrive. Learn more about services & products at www.elemental-alchemy.com, and find her on Instagram: @elemental_alchemy.
The Ruby’s Cookbook Club is a combination potluck and book club. Each month, we’ll discuss a new cookbook. Participants should cook a dish from the book (at least 6 servings). Drinks will be provided.
This month, we'll be discussing Now & Again by Julia Turshen, bestselling author of Small Victories and Feed The Resistance. Julia, visiting from New York, will be joining us for the meeting and potluck.
PLEASE NOTE: Cookbooks are free for Ruby cookbook club participants. If you are not ultimately able to attend the potluck, you will be charged $20 for the book.
About Julia Turshen
JULIA TURSHEN is the bestselling author of Feed the Resistance, named the Best Cookbook of 2017 by Eater, and Small Victories, named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2016 by the New York Times and NPR. Her latest book, Now & Again, will be out in September 2018. She has coauthored numerous cookbooks and hosted the first two seasons of Radio Cherry Bombe. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Vogue,Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Saveur. Epicurious has called her one of the 100 Greatest Home Cooks of All Time. She is the founder of Equity At The Table (EATT), an inclusive digital directory of women and non-binary individuals in food. Julia lives in the Hudson Valley with her wife and pets.
Join us at The Ruby, a work and gathering space for women of all definitions, for dinner and conversation with bestselling author Julia Turshen, on tour in support of her new cookbook, Now & Again. Julia is also the author of Feed The Resistance: Recipes and Ideas for Getting Involved, a practical and inspiring handbook for political activism — with recipes. When people search for ways to resist injustice and express support for civil rights, environmental protections, and more, they begin by gathering around the table to talk and plan. Julia Turshen will be in conversation with Bay Area writer, educator, and community organizer Shakirah Simley, Chef Preeti Mistry, and Chef Rahanna Bisseret Martínez of Top Chef Junior to discuss food, activism, and more.
Food will be provided by Preeti Mistry of Juhu Beach Club. Wine will be provided by Laura Brennan Bissell of Inconnu Wine.
About Julia Turshen
JULIA TURSHEN is the bestselling author of Feed the Resistance, named the Best Cookbook of 2017 by Eater, and Small Victories, named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2016 by the New York Times and NPR. Her latest book, Now & Again, will be out in September 2018. She has coauthored numerous cookbooks and hosted the first two seasons of Radio Cherry Bombe. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Vogue,Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Saveur. Epicurious has called her one of the 100 Greatest Home Cooks of All Time. She is the founder of Equity At The Table (EATT), an inclusive digital directory of women and non-binary individuals in food. Julia lives in the Hudson Valley with her wife and pets.
About Shakirah Simley
Shakirah Simley is a writer, educator, and community organizer in San Francisco. She earned her organizing chops with over a decade of working on food equity, labor and youth justice campaigns. The daughter of a social worker, and granddaughter of a Black Panther, she graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania and completed master’s at Italy’s University of Gastronomic Sciences as a Fulbright Fellow. In San Francisco, she served as the Community Director for famed local grocer, Bi-Rite and its Family of Businesses, directing $1.3 million dollars worth of support towards over 2,500 organizations within the San Francisco Bay Area, prioritizing initiatives that support a good, clean, and just food system. In 2016, she co-founded Nourish|Resist, a multiracial collaborative using food spaces and people as tools for collective resistance. Last year, she was a prestigious Fellow for the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. Her writing has appeared in Bon Appetit, Civil Eats, The Huffington Post, SF Chronicle, and Julia Turshen’s recently published cookbook for the revolution: Feed the Resistance. Shakirah sits on several boards, including CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) and Equity At the Table. In her day to day, she manages community benefits programs that prioritize environmental justice and equitable economic development for the city and county government of San Francisco.
About Preeti Mistry
Preeti Mistry is a chef, author and entrepreneur. She was the co-owner of now-closed Navi Kitchen and Juhu Beach Club restaurants in Oakland, California, where she served her own versions of the street food she enjoyed as a kid on family trips to Mumbai. The twice James Beard Nominated Chef is the author of The Juhu Beach Club Cookbook, was featured on CNN's Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain and was a contestant on Bravo's Top Chef Season 6.
About Chef Rahanna
Rahanna Bisseret Martínez is a fourteen-year-old aspiring California chef, who loves all things culinary. In 2017, She joined the cast of Top Chef Junior Season One, which culminated with Rahanna as the runner up. On that show, Rahanna featured California, Mexican, and Louisianan cuisines. One of her goals on the show was to present Mexican and Soul food as delicious, regal, and healthy. She was known for presenting elegant dishes with a depth of flavor. Since then, Rahanna has enjoyed cooking and creating recipes for large corporations like Samsung, NBC, Universal Kids, Chrysler, and the Television Critics Association. Highly influenced by the edible schoolyard movement, Rahanna loves to speak at schools, youth programs and religious organizations to promote youth cooking and eating fresh vegetables. Rahanna has been featured in Refinery 29, Food and Wine, New York Magazine, Parade, Today Show, Mercury News, and the Daily Californian. Rahanna has staged at Chez Panisse, Californicos, Dominique Ansel LA, Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, Emeril’s, Merils, Compere Lapin and Broken Spanish. Recently, She was part of a team that cooked for King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain for the Tricentennial Celebration in New Orleans. Rahanna can be found visiting farmers markets and different types of grocery stores to explore and learn. Rahanna hopes to travel, study and share with others the culinary knowledge she has acquired. Currently, she has started a small business to finance her culinary education and travels.
Join us as we volunteer with St. Anthony's! To attend this volunteer shift, you need to RSVP by reserving a ticket here, and filling out this form:
The Ruby Group Member Sign-up Form: 10-21-2018 @ 9:15 AM
We'll meet at St. Anthony's, in the Dining Room, promptly by 9:15. Volunteers should wear close-toed shoes and comfortable clothing. Do not wear open-toed shoes, high heels, skirts, shorts, leggings, or tank tops.
Jean Rhys said that "reading makes immigrants of us all," that "it takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." Now more than ever, it's vital—and heartening—to read, and read widely. We'll read thrilling, mind-blowing, intriguing, heartbreaking, comic, strange, and/or provocative books by women of color—and, each month, we'll gather to talk about what we've read! When possible, we'll also have the writer join us.
October's book is THE INCENDIARIES by Ruby member R.O. Kwon!
About The Incendiaries
Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall meet in their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who doesn't tell anyone she blames herself for her mother's recent death. Will is a misfit scholarship boy who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe.
Grieving and guilt-ridden, Phoebe is drawn into a secretive cult founded by a charismatic former student with an enigmatic past. When the group commits a violent act in the name of faith, Will finds himself struggling to confront a new version of the fanaticism he's worked so hard to escape. Haunting and intense, The Incendiaries is a fractured love story that explores what can befall those who lose what they love most.
About R.O. Kwon
R. O. Kwon is the author of the novel The Incendiaries (July 2018), and is a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. Her writing is published in The Guardian, Vice, BuzzFeed, Time, Noon, Electric Literature, Playboy, and elsewhere. She has received awards from Yaddo, MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Omi International, the Steinbeck Center, and the Norman Mailer Writers' Colony. Born in South Korea, she has lived most of her life in the United States. She can be found at http://ro-kwon.com.
Each month, at The Ruby we will be holding Do Something Dinners where we gather with one another to engage with current topics facing our communities and take political action. Each dinner will focus on one or two specific issues; corresponding information about these issues and action items will be provided.
For October's Do Something Dinner, we'll be joined by our friends from Shelter Tech. What will you do in this event? Collaborate with members of the homeless community, learn about services available to folks experiencing homelessness, and help those experiencing homelessness access information about available resources. ShelterTech, a volunteer-led 501c3, is creating an online resource directly (think Yelp!) to help the underserved community in San Francisco gain information on basic needs (i.e food, shelter, shower). Their goal is to create the most reliable, up-to-date online database of services available to homeless and underserved communities in San Francisco. One of the regular public events/workshops we hold is a Datathon, which is an opportunity for you to work side-by-side with community representatives -- people who are currently or previously homeless -- to verify and vet information and make sure the 500+ services in our system are correct. No technical skills or knowledge is necessary -- just a good attitude and a willingness to learn.
A wholesome dinner and nonalcoholic beverage will be provided (BYOB and wine — to share, if you are able!). We believe that gathering together as a community is at the foundation of sustained activism. The Ruby is a work and gathering space for women-identifying and nonbinary folks in the Bay Area. Children are welcome as long as they are supervised.
Do Something Dinners will be open to suggestions for specific actions (send them our way!), and may feature rotating guests. We will be addressing immediate political concerns with action and engagement. While these dinners will not require anyone commit to a certain political stance, all actions will be centered around creating equality for all peoples, and dismantling systems of oppression. While no political affiliation is required, these dinners are centered around resisting and dismantling white supremacy, the patriarchy, misogyny, homophobia/transphobia, attacks on religious and ethnic communities, etc. Hate speech of any kind will not be tolerated. We will be resisting many of this current administration’s policies, so be forewarned.
No experience of being politically active? Overwhelmed by all there is to be done? Not sure where to begin? No worries, these dinners are for you. We’ll provide info about the issues and actions you can take, whether it’s calling your reps, writing letter to elected officials, or organizing online or IRL. Join us, and bring your friends!
Suggestions for specific actions? Email us at staff@therubysf.com with the subject line “Do Something Dinners.”
Learn the basics of sewing with a machine by making a quilted throw pillow for your home. In this workshop, we’ll go over the ins and outs of using a sewing machine including:
Once we have the basics down, we will construct a patchwork envelope-style pillow from beautiful linen, denim chambray, organic cotton, and organic hemp fabrics. We will cover quilt design and color theory all while using rotary cutters to cut our fabric. This workshop includes all the supplies you need to make your pillow. We provide a sewing machine for you to use, thread, pins, fabric, and an insert for your pillow. All you need to bring is yourself!
PLEASE NOTE: There is a materials fee of $15, payable at the start of class. (Nonmembers, this is included in the price of your ticket.) Space is limited to 8 attendees, so sign up early! If you aren't able to attend this class, please let us know; there will be a waitlist.
About Jennie Lennick
In addition to being a Ruby member and neighbor (check out her shopat 3043 24th Street!), Jennie Lennick is a San Francisco–based artist, entrepreneur, and teacher. As a child in the Midwest, Jennie became enamored with traditional domestic craft, learning to sew and embroider. In 2010, She moved to the Bay Area to attend the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting. Inspired by the natural beauty of Northern California, Jennie launched Jenny Lemons (jennylemons.com), a collection of modern block printed and hand painted women’s clothing and textiles. Jennie's work has been featured in publications like the San Francisco Chronicle, Brit + Co, and San Francisco Magazine. Her retail store in the Mission District of San Francisco is a community space where she facilitates DIY workshops, produces her products, and showcases the talents of other local artists.
Mid-terms are coming up, and the ballot will be full of candidates, props and measures. You ready? It’s okay, we aren’t either. But after this ballot party, we will be!
Join us at The Ruby's Ballot Education party to get informed, have fun, and meet other brilliant humans as we flex our right to vote for the future we want.
Bring some shareable refreshments (strongly encouraged), bring research on candidates and issues you care about (optional) and bring a notebook / pen (highly recommended). We will be walking through the SF ballot and swapping resources to help each of us cast a vote that is true to our values.
Need to register to vote? Want to double check that you are registered? Need an absentee ballot? Confused about deadlines? Not sure where your polling place is? Go here: www.vote.org
Want to get a head start on researching the ballot? Check this out: www.bythebay.cool
Want to encourage your employer to give your company a full or half day off on Election Day to vote? Use this template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12dpBO3TpQo3hylqgKyja0QI18uelZtOJzy5a5ruEl3E
About Jenny Gottstein
Jenny Gottstein is the Principal Experience Designer in the Design For Play studio at IDEO. Previously she designed Zombie Apocalypse Disaster Preparedness Games, hitched a ride as the Director of Programming on the Millennial Trains Project, produced music and art events in NYC, covered youth protests in Chile, interviewed the oldest working showgirl in the US, sang on an acid-house Lady Gaga remix that was briefly popular in Ukraine, and founded a company that reduces waste through parties. She is passionate about building community, engagement, resilience, and creative solutions through play. Be in touch! jennygottstein.com
About Shakirah Simley
Shakirah Simley is a writer, educator, and community organizer in San Francisco. Shakirah has over a decade of experience working on food equity policy issues, as well with national youth organizing and labor unionization campaigns. She is a 2017 Fellow for the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, former Community Director for Bi-Rite and its Family of Businesses in SF, and is the co-founder of Nourish|Resist, a multiracial organizing collaborative dedicated to using food spaces and people as tools for collective resistance. She graduated from UPenn in 2007 with a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Urban Studies, and received her M.A. from the University of Gastronomic Sciences via a Fulbright scholarship. Shakirah has been honored for her work as one of Zagat’s "30 under 30" and received special commendations from the City of SF from former Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor London Breed. She currently works for the City and County of San Francisco, doing community and economic development in the city's Southeast neighborhoods. Her writing has been featured in the Huffington Post, SF Chronicle, Civil Eats, and the recently published book: Feed the Resistance.
Are you interested in longform interviews? Are you an interviewer looking to hone your skills? Have you ever been curious about exploring the lives of your family members? Here's your chance! Ruby member Shanna Farrell will be leading a 4-week oral history workshop that will dig into planning, conducting, and presenting a family oral history project.
The workshop will meet every Monday in November: November 5, 12, 19, 26.
Shanna will cover how to decide on interview themes, types of questions to ask, how to plan the interview, choosing the right setting, what type of equipment is best, recording formats, transcription, storage and archiving, and different uses of the interview. Each participant will be required to conduct at least one interview and commit to all four of the workshop classes. This workshop is designed for anyone, no matter their level of experience.
About Shanna Farrell
Shanna Farrell is an interviewer with UC Berkeley's Oral History Center and the author of Bay Area Cocktails. Her writing has appeared in Imbibe, Life &Thyme, PUNCH, The San Francisco Chronicle, Edible San Francisco, and The Oral History Review. Her audio work has appeared on Gravy and the Berkeley Remix. She holds an MA in Oral History from Columbia University and an Indisciplinary MA from NYU.
Nicole Chung, author of the memoir, All You Can Ever Know (Catapult, 2018), is The Ruby's November Writer in Residence. The Ruby's Writer in Residence program seeks to support the best writers writing, and to bring writers from outside the Bay Area to The Ruby to read. Writers in residence stay in our upstairs writers loft. Join us for a reading and casual conversation.
About All You Can Ever Know
What does it mean to lose your roots—within your culture, within your family—and what happens when you find them?
Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From early childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parents had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hopes of giving her a better life; that forever feeling slightly out of place was simply her fate as a transracial adoptee. But as she grew up—facing prejudice her adoptive family couldn’t see, finding her identity as an Asian American and a writer, becoming ever more curious about where she came from—she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth.
With warmth, candor, and startling insight, Chung tells of her search for the people who gave her up, which coincided with the birth of her own child. All You Can Ever Know is a profound, moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets—vital reading for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out where they belong.
About Nicole Chung
Nicole Chung’s debut memoir All You Can Ever Know will be published on October 2, 2018. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Shondaland, ELLE, Longreads, BuzzFeed, Vulture, and Hazlitt, among others. She is the editor-in-chief of Catapult magazine and the former managing editor of The Toast. Find her on Twitter @nicole_soojung.
As gifted artists and writers, many of us have amazing, game-changing projects that need seed funding, visibility, and support. It's not an easy process to seek out and secure funding, and although the application process is not often complicated, the writing itself can be laborious and intimidating, even discouraging.
During this workshop, Ruby member Cristiana Baik will provide some practical nuts-and-bolts tips related to grant writing: doing your due diligence, building realistic timelines, building your budget (and communicating your budget in a clear way to funders) and discussing the writing style that funding committees often look for in "winning" proposals. She'll also provide some basic templates related to grant proposals/narratives and budgets.
About Cristiana Baik
Cristiana Baik is a writer working and living in San Francisco. Currently, she works as the Director of Development for the Richmond Area Multi-Services, Inc. (RAMS), one of the largest mental health agencies serving the Asian/Pacific Islander community in the Bay Area. She has been doing development and sustainability building work for nonprofits for more than a decade, having raised nearly $10 million in foundation grants and $30 million in government contracts for nonprofits in California, Minnesota and New York in the past five years. In the past, she has led grant writing efforts for arts-based nonprofits, including ART21 and the San Francisco Art Institute.
Join us for a Ruby field trip! We'll be heading to the Rosie The Riveter World War II National Park in Richmond, California, for a Rosie Friday: We'll watch a film about the park, and hopefully meet some real-life Rosies. We'll wrap up the trip by getting some lunch and cider nearby. Join us! Carpool details and more to come.
The world of whiskey can feel daunting — how it's made, how to talk about it, what makes a brand better than another, and how it goes best in drinks — unless you have a framework to understand it. In this class, taught by Ruby member Shanna Farrell, you'll get a primer on the history of whiskey production in the U.S., learn the basics of what makes whiskey a bourbon, rye, or single malt, how to describe it, and some tips on how to order it in a cocktail. And you'll learn how to make a cocktail yourself, so you can whip up fantastic drinks for friends at home.
About Shanna Farrell
Shanna Farrell is an interviewer at UC Berkeley's Oral History Center, where she works on a wide variety of projects and specializes in contemporary cocktail culture. She is the author of Bay Area Cocktails.Her writing has appeared in Imbibe, PUNCH, Gravy, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Edible San Francisco.
Watercolor is a wonderful art form that is portable and easy! In this workshop, we will learn all the basics of painting with watercolor including different blending and layering techniques and how to compose an image. We will go over the ins and outs of choosing brushes and styles of watercolor paint (pan vs liquid watercolors), how to use watercolor pencils, and when to use waterproof pens while doing several exercises to get comfortable with the materials. Once everyone is ready, we will practice painting from a still life composed of fruits, plants, and other fun items! Everyone will go home with several finished paintings ready to adorn your walls and all the supplies you need to keep painting!
PLEASE NOTE: There is a materials fee of $20, payable at the start of class. (Nonmembers, this is included in the price of your ticket.)
About Jennie Lennick
In addition to being a Ruby member and neighbor (check out her shop at 3043 24th Street!), Jennie Lennick is a San Francisco–based artist, entrepreneur, and teacher. As a child in the Midwest, Jennie became enamored with traditional domestic craft, learning to sew and embroider. In 2010, She moved to the Bay Area to attend the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting. Inspired by the natural beauty of Northern California, Jennie launched Jenny Lemons (jennylemons.com), a collection of modern block printed and hand painted women’s clothing and textiles. Jennie's work has been featured in publications like the San Francisco Chronicle, Brit + Co, and San Francisco Magazine. Her retail store in the Mission District of San Francisco is a community space where she facilitates DIY workshops, produces her products, and showcases the talents of other local artists.
We have a lot to celebrate! Join our resident Ruby authors in toasting the 2018 releases of books from members Maggie Hoffman (The One-Bottle Cocktail), Rachel Levin (Look Big: And Other Tips for Surviving Animal Encounters of All Kinds), Jill Diamond (Lou Lou & Pea and the Bicentennial Bonanza), Jennifer S. Cheng (Moon: Letters, Maps, Poems), Rita Bullwinkel (Belly Up), R.O. Kwon (The Incendiaries), Georgia Freedman (Cooking South of the Clouds), Anita Felicelli (Love Songs for a Lost Continent), Mia Malhotra (Isako Isako), and Caroline Paul (You Are Mighty).
Snacks & drinks provided, and books available for purchase.
Ruby members, let's gather together to continue discussing The Ruby: what's been working, what could be better, and how we might improve operations going forward. Come with ideas, and ideas for solutions.
Come, also, with your ideas for events we might host, cooks/chefs/makers we might feature. Come with your ideas for how we might do good in our community, and ideas for how we can work toward making The Ruby an even more inclusive and diverse space, welcoming to women and nonbinary people of all ages and backgrounds. Let's gather to brainstorm the programming that supports this goal of inclusion and diversity.
Join Kim Zitzow for a guided meditation, followed by a nourishing herbal tea made from a locally available herb.
Combining geologic and place-based research, movement, and visualization, Kim leads meditation practices that focus on the alchemy between the mind and the intuitive knowing ways of the body, offering a deep and embodied experience specific to a place.
We will begin with light movement to orient our attention to our bodies and then slip into a relaxed, candle-lit meditation guided by Kim that will bring our bodies into deeper knowing of this land we are on and the space we share. Afterwards, we will have some tea with a local plant ally, and learn its uses for healing body and spirit.
$10 suggested donation. Bring a yoga mat and comfortable clothes for light movement. All levels, all abilities welcome. No prior experience with movement practices or mediation necessary.
About Kim Zitzow
In her art practice, Kim’s multimedia projects are guided by the understanding that we are our relations of responsibility to other, both human and nonhuman. In her community-based spirit practice, Kim explores this notion of interconnectivity through mediation: between the city and the natural world; between inner experience and outer; between our wise magnificent living, breathing human bodies, and the wise magnificent living, breathing Earth body. Kim’s work is inspired by a web of teachers, artists, farmers, activists, and folk healers who have taught her in various ways the same thing: that the healing of the self is inseparable from healing in community, and that community extends beyond the human and includes the natural world.
If you're a writer or anyone working on a long project, you probably know how hard it is to find the undivided time to work on the thing, between taking care of all the people you’re supposed to take care of, doing other jobs to make ends meet, and simply feeding yourself properly! Though retreats and artist residencies are ideal, they aren’t always possible when life is hectic (and they don’t necessarily come cheap).
This fall, join us at The Ruby for our second weekend writing/making retreat — a chance to “get away” while staying in San Francisco. Let The Ruby take care of you while you work on your project! The Ruby will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. All meals and snacks will be provided.
We know it's coming, so let's prepare for the next Big One together, potluck style! We'll each bring an essential earthquake kit supply. Together we'll assemble earthquake kits for ourselves, and for The Ruby itself. Bring a backpack (or two) for filling. We'll also talk through what to do when disaster strikes.
Register by 9/1 so we can divvy up the supplies to purchase.
Join us for a reading and Q and A with author Lucie Greene, author of Silicon States.
About Silicon States
SILICON STATES: THE POWER AND POLITICS OF BIG TECH AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR OUR FUTURE by Lucie Greene(Counterpoint, Nonfiction): Tech writer and Worldwide Director of The Innovation Group J. Walter Thompson addresses the big question on how technology is NOT being regulated (while slowly taking over our government). She interviews tech heavy hitters such as Nick Denton, has received blurbs from tech/entertainment leaders such as Robert Safian (founder ofFast Company) and Dan Lyons (contributing writer on SiliconValley). My favorite chapter addresses women in Silicon Valley who are part of the #metoo movement. Lucie is a rising star in her industry (if you missed it, check out her recent New York Daily News piece on Cambridge Analytica).
About Lucie Greene
LUCIE GREENE is the worldwide director of the Innovation Group, J. Walter Thompson’s in-house futures and innovation think tank. The Innovation Group’s work is frequently cited in publications including The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian, WWD, USA Today, and The Times(London). She’s a thought leadership columnist for Campaign, writes for the Financial Times on futures, and has spoken at conferences including CES, SXSW, Web Summit, Cosmoprof, and Ad Week, discussing future trends across multiple lifestyle sectors. She has appeared on BBC, Fox News, and Bloomberg TV as an expert on the future
Jean Rhys said that "reading makes immigrants of us all," that "it takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." Now more than ever, it's vital—and heartening—to read, and read widely. We'll read thrilling, mind-blowing, intriguing, heartbreaking, comic, strange, and/or provocative books by women of color—and, each month, we'll gather to talk about what we've read! When possible, we'll also have the writer join us.
June/July's book is NUMBER ONE CHINESE RESTAURANT by Lillian Li
About NUMBER ONE CHINESE RESTAURANT
The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland, is not only a beloved go-to setting for hunger pangs and celebrations; it is its own world, inhabited by waiters and kitchen staff who have been fighting, loving, and aging within its walls for decades. When disaster strikes, this working family’s controlled chaos is set loose, forcing each character to confront the conflicts that fast-paced restaurant life has kept at bay.
Owner Jimmy Han hopes to leave his late father’s homespun establishment for a fancier one. Jimmy’s older brother, Johnny, and Johnny’s daughter, Annie, ache to return to a time before a father’s absence and a teenager’s silence pushed them apart. Nan and Ah-Jack, longtime Duck House employees, are tempted to turn their thirty-year friendship into something else, even as Nan’s son, Pat, struggles to stay out of trouble. And when Pat and Annie, caught in a mix of youthful lust and boredom, find themselves in a dangerous game that implicates them in the Duck House tragedy, their families must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to help their children.
Generous in spirit, unaffected in its intelligence, multi-voiced, poignant, and darkly funny, Number One Chinese Restaurantlooks beyond red tablecloths and silkscreen murals to share an unforgettable story about youth and aging, parents and children, and all the ways that our families destroy us while also keeping us grounded and alive.
ABOUT LILLIAN LI
Lillian Li is the author of the novel Number One Chinese Restaurant, forthcoming from Henry Holt in June 2018. Her work has been published in Guernica, Granta, Glimmer Train, and Jezebel. She is the recipient of a Hopwood Award in Short Fiction, as well as Glimmer Train's New Writer Award. She received her BA from Princeton and her MFA from the University of Michigan. Originally from the D.C. metro area, she lives in Ann Arbor.
Books ($12) will be ready for pick up at The Ruby by June 10.
Each month, at The Ruby we will be holding Do Something Dinners where we gather with one another to engage with current topics facing our communities and take political action. Each dinner will focus on one or two specific issues; corresponding information about these issues and action items will be provided.
For September's Do Something Dinner, we'll be joined by our friends from the Coalition on Homelessness. They'll give a presentation on Prop C in our upcoming election, the large business tax on businesses with a gross revenue of more than $50M; generated revenue would go toward homelessness and supportive housing. This will be followed by phone banking to get the word out.
A wholesome dinner and nonalcoholic beverage will be provided (BYOB and wine — to share, if you are able!). We believe that gathering together as a community is at the foundation of sustained activism. The Ruby is a work and gathering space for women-identifying and nonbinary folks in the Bay Area. Children are welcome as long as they are supervised.
Do Something Dinners will be open to suggestions for specific actions (send them our way!), and may feature rotating guests. We will be addressing immediate political concerns with action and engagement. While these dinners will not require anyone commit to a certain political stance, all actions will be centered around creating equality for all peoples, and dismantling systems of oppression. While no political affiliation is required, these dinners are centered around resisting and dismantling white supremacy, the patriarchy, misogyny, homophobia/transphobia, attacks on religious and ethnic communities, etc. Hate speech of any kind will not be tolerated. We will be resisting many of this current administration’s policies, so be forewarned.
No experience of being politically active? Overwhelmed by all there is to be done? Not sure where to begin? No worries, these dinners are for you. We’ll provide info about the issues and actions you can take, whether it’s calling your reps, writing letter to elected officials, or organizing online or IRL. Join us!
Suggestions for specific actions? Email us at staff@therubysf.com with the subject line “Do Something Dinners.”
Get a mini tarot reading with Ruby member, Dorothy Santos. Dorothy is a writer, curator, artist, and activist; she has been reading tarot privately for some time and is in the process of expanding her practice! Each session is ~15 minutes long. There are only five slots available!
About Dorothy Santos
New media and digital art, basically art made with computers and machines, fascinate and perplex Dorothy in equal measure. She is currently a PhD student at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the Film and Digital Media department and serves as the Program Manager for the Processing Foundation. However, she should not be confused for someone who actually knows how to use technology (having recently learned how to screenshot an entire screen on her Mac, SHIFT + COMMAND + 3, for anyone interested). She loves working with artists and curates their work, on occasion. Her writing can be found on Art Practical, art21, Hyperallergic, Ars Technica, Vice Motherboard, and SF MOMA's Open Space. Outside of school and her professional work, she loves burning candles, moon ceremonies, and reading tarot for friends and family.
Join Cece from London Tea Club for afternoon tea and conversation. We'll talk tea culture, cultivation, ceremony and more while enjoying a traditional Chinese tea ceremony.
Chinese gong fu tea is the informal yet beautiful and serene practice of preparing tea. Traditional teaware is used to brew in the Eastern method (more leaves, less water, many infusions) which emphasizes quality, presentation and mindfulness.
We will taste the difference between Japanese and Chinese green tea, roasted and unroasted Taiwanese oolongs and even delve into the world of Puerh - the final frontier of tea. Learn what makes each of these teas unique, and a bit about tea's surprisingly political history.
This cozy event is perfect for both tea lovers and the tea curious. Drinks and snacks will be provided.
About Cecelia Lau
I grew up drinking tea with my family and started London Tea Club during my expat years in the UK. My own relationship with tea, and the farmers behind it, has deepened over time, and the tea club directly reflects my journey with this precious gift from nature. When I’m not serving tea, you can find me hiking Windy Hill with my schnauzer Charlie, splashing in the local pool with my daughter Anaya and meditating on my cushion at home or favorite retreat centers Spirit Rock and 1440 Multiversity. See more of my tea journey at @londonteaclub and www.londonteaclub.com
Come play Mahjong at The Ruby's Mahjong night. (6 to 6:30 p.m. will be a quick refresher in how to play mahjong, taught by Ruby member Mimi Lok. Come at 6:30 to play!)
Or come join our circle of knitters and crafters led by Ruby member Jourdan Abel. Crocheters, embroiderers, darners... all are welcome!
Attention visual artists and illustrators! Join us for Drawing Group at The Ruby, co-led by Rubies Reina Takahashi & Anastasia Tumanova. Please bring whatever supplies you’d like to work with. After a round of intros, we’ll doodle and draw, and snack and chat.
Do you have phone anxiety? Email anxiety? Do you get depressed when you look at instagram? What is your body position, the feeling in your gut, when you open your inbox? Are you expecting to 'get in trouble' when you open an email? Are you gritting your teeth or gripping your mouse when you send out an email? What about when you're online banking? What about when you're online dating?
Most of us, to be a person interacting and working in the world in 2018, need to communicate in a variety of ways on the internet, using a cell phone and a computer. And we tend to not acknowledge the extent to which this negatively affects us, or if we do, we yell at ourselves to get off of our phones. So much of the time this is not realistic or helpful, and causes us to feel we are failing and then experience even more anxiety.
HEALING OUR INTERNET LIVES is about reclaiming our rightful place as the boss of our internet lives. During this class, we'll use mindfulness practices to look closely at what is happening when we engage with the internet, especially via our phones. Then we'll use Astrology and energetic tools to transform blockages, anxieties, and stress into feelings of lightness and wellbeing. We'll bring more consciousness to this part of our lives so that we are choosing it instead of just letting it happen to us. You'll leave the class with a set of tangible practices that bring healing to your internet time.
About Sarah Fontaine
Sarah Fontaine practices experimental healing arts in the forms of writing, performance and astrology readings. She publishes books with her sister at Carville Annex Press. She breathes and drinks water and lives in San Francisco, and spends as much time with plants as possible.
Inspired by Barbara Sher's 1979 book, Wishcraft, we're hosting a Resource Party, also known as a barn-raising! We'll gather as a group to brainstorm our way through problems we might be facing as individuals. Do you have a goal you're trying to reach, or something you need for your business or yourself? Come with specific needs or requests, and a desire to help.
From Wishcraft:
“Pioneer families and small farmers had to pool their labor to get their barns built, their crops plowed and harvested, their corn husked. In the process, they reaffirmed the bonds of community — and had a whale of a good time. Working together toward vital common goals strengthened their relationships as it lightened their labor. There was no split in their lives between love and work, self-interest and mutual aid."
“Most of us remember and treasure every part we’ve ever played in someone else’s survival, satisfaction, or success. And that’s not because we’re a bunch of altruistic saints. It’s because helping each other is creative and makes us feel good."
"Your get-together can begin and end with socializing, but in the middle it's got to be a business meeting, with everyone's attention focused on the problem at hand. You start things off by telling everyone, first, all about your goal, and second, everything you've figured out you need in order to get it."
And from Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, along these same lines:
"For women, the need and desire to nurture each other is not pathological but redemptive, and it is within that knowledge that our real power is rediscovered. It is this real connection which is so feared by a patriarchal world. Only within a patriarchal structure is maternity the only social power open to women.
Interdependency between women is the way to a freedom which allows the I to be, not in order to be used, but in order to be creative. This is a difference between the passive be and the active being."
Join us for happy hour featuring Megan Cline of Cline Family Cellars. Megan will be bringing two Cline Amphorae wines to the Ruby.
Cline Family Cellars is a family-owned and operated winery in Sonoma, California, built on a passion for winemaking and rooted in respect for the land.
Megan's father, Fred Cline, started Cline Family Cellars in 1982 in Oakley, California, making his first vintages from original plantings of Mourvedre, Zinfandel, and Carignane, some of which dated back to the 1880's. In 1989, Fred purchased a 350-acre horse farm in Carneros and moved the winery to Sonoma County. As one of the original Rhone Rangers, he began planting varietals that included a number of vineyards dedicated to Syrah, Viognier, Marsanne, and Roussanne. Since those first plantings, Fred and his wife Nancy have continued to plant vineyards throughout Sonoma County, expanding to include more classic varieties like Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Chardonnay.
Cline's Amphorae wines are Megan's project. Terra-cotta clay vessels, called Amphorae or Qvervri, date back to ancient times. They were the original containers used by the Greeks and Romans to age and store wine. Working with amphorae requires a slow and patient approach to winemaking. It’s a labor of love. All work is done by hand from first fill to last empty. It is very much about allowing the wine to speak for itself. The winemaking approach is extremely unobtrusive, letting the wine naturally go through fermentation.
Artists, writers, and makers of color: please join us for a night of sharing our work, hosted by Laila Bahman. Bring a piece of writing, art, or photography to share. We have a projector for projecting work as well.
About Laila Bahman
Laila Bahman is a photographer working between the Bay and LA. Laila has been photographing for over ten years and is continuing to explore her personal work and voice as her practice evolves. Laila works on commercial and editorial projects and collaborates with film directors on creating imagery for their films during pre-production and production. Some of her clients/collaborations include Modern Fertility, Thumbtack, Linked In, Walrus Advertising Agency, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, American Paradise, Ulysses Press, Owl N Wood, Magic Carpet Yoga Mats and more. Her work has been published in New York Magazine, Filmmaker Magazine and Vice. She is at work developing her first experimental short film based in Southern Oregon and delving into structuring her first photo book. Laila believes everyone is an artist at heart, and can hone in on their creative skills, no matter where they are in life.
Publishing a book can seem like a daunting process, and it can be. But it doesn't have to be so shrouded in mystery!
Come hear from a diverse group of 2018 debut novelists about our paths to—and through—publishing our first novels! With books out this summer and fall from Riverhead, Ballantine, FSG/MCD, Doubleday, Henry Holt, and William Morrow, we'll first hold a roundtable about our various journeys, then we'll have a Q&A for all your questions.
The roundtable will feature local novelists Vanessa Hua, Lydia Kiesling, R.O. Kwon, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras, as well as visiting writers Crystal Hana Kim and Lillian Li.
Their debut novels will be available for purchase, and the authors will be available to autograph them!
About Vanessa Hua
Vanessa Hua is an award-winning author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Her short story collection, Deceit and Other Possibilities, received an Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature, was a finalist for a California Book Award, and O, The Oprah Magazine called it a "searing debut." Her novel, A River of Stars, is forthcoming (Ballantine, August 2018). vanessahua.com
About Lydia Kiesling
Lydia Kiesling is the editor of The Millions. Her writing has appeared at a variety of outlets including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and Slate, and was recognized in Best American Essays 2016. Her first novel, The Golden State, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux's MCD imprint. lydiakiesling.com
About R.O. Kwon
R. O. Kwon’s first novel, The Incendiaries, is out from Riverhead in July of 2018. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Vice, BuzzFeed, Noon, Time, Electric Literature, Playboy, San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. She has received awards and fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Omi International, and the Norman Mailer Writers' Colony. ro-kwon.com
About Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Ingrid Rojas Contreras is the author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree, a Barnes & Noble Summer 2018 Discover Great New Writers selection. She was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Guernica, and Huffington Post. She is the book columnist for KQED. ingridrojascontreras.com
About Crystal Hana Kim
Crystal Hana Kim’s debut novel, If You Leave Me, is out from William Morrow in August. She was a 2017 PEN America Dau Short Story Prize winner and has received scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Hedgebrook, Jentel, among others. Her work has been published in or is forthcoming fromThe Washington Post, Elle Magazine, Nylon, Electric Literature,and elsewhere. She is a contributing editor at Apogee Journaland is the Director of Writing Instruction at Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband. crystalhanakim.com
About Lillian Li
Lillian Li received her MFA from the University of Michigan. Her work has been featured in Guernica, Granta, Glimmer Train, Bon Appetit and Jezebel.She is from the D.C. metro area and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Number One Chinese Restaurant is her first novel. lillianliauthor.com
In this introductory workshop, Ruby member Heather D’Angelo, founder of the sustainable fragrance brand Carta, will guide students through the process of designing and crafting a custom fragrance. Students will have the chance to work with a palette of over 30 essential oils, absolutes, and natural isolates, including a few rare ingredients that Heather personally sourced from the Amazon rainforest and were featured in Carta’s debut fragrance, Moena 12|69.
The class will cover the structure of perfume, including basic technical info on top, middle, and base notes in relation to fragrance families, the tools of the trade, recipe development, how to build accords, and simple blending techniques. Heather will also go over how to read material safety data sheets in order to provide students with an understanding of essential oil safety, and the importance of sustainable sourcing when choosing natural materials.
Students will leave with a bottle of fragrance that they have developed under Heather’s guidance, as well as information about how to continue their exploration with fragrance at home.
No previous experience with fragrance design is necessary.
PLEASE NOTE: For Ruby members, there is a materials fee of $30, payable at the start of class. For nonmembers, your materials fee is included in the price of your ticket.
About Heather D’Angelo
Heather D’Angelo is a San Francisco-based perfumer, musician (with the band Au Revoir Simone), and ecologist. The dream for Carta originated while she was collecting botanical samples from the Malaysian rainforest as part of her research at Columbia University. After several years of working with plant-based aromatic compounds, she developed an understanding that scent, like music, is a transformative instrument. Both have the arcane power to suspend moments and places in time.
With Carta, D’Angelo explores the artistry of perfume craft through her mastery of musical composition and ongoing scientific inquiry. Rooted in her passion for environmental conservation, D’Angelo’s romance with perfume is shaped and driven by a commitment to conscious practices and a desire to share the stories behind Carta’s ingredients.
Laura Van Den Berg is The Ruby's August Writer in Residence, visiting us from Cambridge, MA. The Ruby's Writer in Residence program seeks to support the best writers writing, and to bring writers from outside the Bay Area to The Ruby to read. Join us for a conversation between Laura and her editor, Emily Bell, about her latest novel, The Third Hotel.
About The Third Hotel
In Havana, Cuba, a widow tries to come to terms with her husband’s death—and the truth about their marriage—in Laura van den Berg’s surreal, mystifying story of psychological reflection and metaphysical mystery.
Shortly after Clare arrives in Havana, Cuba, to attend the annual Festival of New Latin American Cinema, she finds her husband, Richard, standing outside a museum. He’s wearing a white linen suit she’s never seen before, and he’s supposed to be dead. Grief-stricken and baffled, Clare tails Richard, a horror film scholar, through the newly tourist-filled streets of Havana, clocking his every move. As the distinction between reality and fantasy blurs, Clare finds grounding in memories of her childhood in Florida and of her marriage to Richard, revealing her role in his death and reappearance along the way. The Third Hotel is a propulsive, brilliantly shape-shifting novel from an inventive author at the height of her narrative powers.
“I love Laura van den Berg for her eeriness and her elegance, the way the fabric of her stories is woven on a slightly warped loom so that you read her work always a bit perturbed. The Third Hotel is artfully fractured, slim and singular; it’s a book that sings, but always with a strange pressure more felt than heard beneath the song.”
―Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies
About Laura Van Den Berg
Laura van den Berg was born and raised in Florida. She is the author of two collections of stories, The Isle of Youth (FSG, 2013) and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009), and the novel Find Me (FSG, 2015). Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish her next novel, The Third Hotel, in August 2018.
Join Kim Zitzow for a guided meditation, followed by a nourishing herbal tea made from a locally available herb.
Combining geologic and place-based research, movement, and visualization, Kim leads meditation practices that focus on the alchemy between the mind and the intuitive knowing ways of the body, offering a deep and embodied experience specific to a place.
We will begin with light movement to orient our attention to our bodies and then slip into a relaxed, candle-lit meditation guided by Kim that will bring our bodies into deeper knowing of this land we are on and the space we share. Afterwards, we will have some tea with a local plant ally, and learn its uses for healing body and spirit.
$10 suggested donation. Bring a yoga mat and comfortable clothes for light movement. All levels, all abilities welcome. No prior experience with movement practices or mediation necessary.
About Kim Zitzow
In her art practice, Kim’s multimedia projects are guided by the understanding that we are our relations of responsibility to other, both human and nonhuman. In her community-based spirit practice, Kim explores this notion of interconnectivity through mediation: between the city and the natural world; between inner experience and outer; between our wise magnificent living, breathing human bodies, and the wise magnificent living, breathing Earth body. Kim’s work is inspired by a web of teachers, artists, farmers, activists, and folk healers who have taught her in various ways the same thing: that the healing of the self is inseparable from healing in community, and that community extends beyond the human and includes the natural world.
Each month, at The Ruby we will be holding Do Something Dinners where we gather with one another to engage with current topics facing our communities and take political action. Each dinner will focus on one or two specific issues; corresponding information about these issues and action items will be provided.
A wholesome dinner and nonalcoholic beverage will be provided (BYOB and wine — to share, if you are able!). We believe that gathering together as a community is at the foundation of sustained activism. The Ruby is a work and gathering space for women-identifying and nonbinary folks in the Bay Area. Children are welcome as long as they are supervised.
Do Something Dinners will be open to suggestions for specific actions (send them our way!), and may feature rotating guests. We will be addressing immediate political concerns with action and engagement. While these dinners will not require anyone commit to a certain political stance, all actions will be centered around creating equality for all peoples, and dismantling systems of oppression. While no political affiliation is required, these dinners are centered around resisting and dismantling white supremacy, the patriarchy, misogyny, homophobia/transphobia, attacks on religious and ethnic communities, etc. Hate speech of any kind will not be tolerated. We will be resisting many of this current administration’s policies, so be forewarned.
No experience of being politically active? Overwhelmed by all there is to be done? Not sure where to begin? No worries, these dinners are for you. We’ll provide info about the issues and actions you can take, whether it’s calling your reps, writing letter to elected officials, or organizing online or IRL. Join us, and bring your friends!
Suggestions for specific actions? Email us at staff@therubysf.com with the subject line “Do Something Dinners.”
PLEASE NOTE: Dinner is $10 for women-identifying/nonbinary nonmembers. We ask that Ruby members bring a drink to share, or contribute $10 to our supplies/meal costs.
And a note about accessibility: The Ruby is on the second floor and has a set of stairs leading up to it. Unfortunately we do not have an elevator. Please email staff@therubysf.com if you require assistance and we will be happy to help!
This 6-week workshop is for anyone attempting to make invented people and events real using words. Members will meet weekly (Thursdays at 6:30 p.m., August 23–September 27) to read one another's work, and help it become the best version of itself. We'll consider the craft of fiction from the cellular level of words and sentences to the mysterious forces that transform a situation into a story. We'll break down stories into their elements — character, conflict, tone, voice, perspective, tension, etc — in order to see how they succeed or fail. Along the way, we may also generate new writing with prompts and exercises, and turn to the masters for guidance, reading the stories of writers such as Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Yiyun Li.
PLEASE NOTE: To participate in this workshop, you must commit to 1) attending every session to the best of your ability, 2) submitting one work in progress (up to 25 pages) to the group, and 3) attentively reading and giving feedback to fellow writers' work every week. Participation also includes a private conference with the workshop leader.
***If you are NOT a Ruby member, please email staff@therubysf.com with the subject line "Fiction Workshop" and a note introducing yourself and why you want to take this workshop, along with a 10-page writing sample. The cost to attend this six-week course is $375.
About Meng Jin
Meng Jin has degrees from Harvard and Hunter College, where she received her MFA in fiction. Before moving to SF she taught creative writing and literature in New York City, where she worked with the Hunter College English department to develop fiction writing curricula for marginalized voices. Her short fiction has been published in Ploughshares, The Masters Review, The Bare Life Review, The Arkansas International, and elsewhere, and she is currently finishing her first novel. A Kundiman Fellow, she has received fellowships and grants from Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, M on the Bund Shanghai, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and the David TK Wong Fellowship. Starting fall of 2018, she will be a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University.
Happy six-month birthday to us!
Ruby members, let's gather together to discuss The Ruby's first six months: what's been working, what could be better, and how we might improve operations going forward. Come with ideas, and ideas for solutions.
Come, also, with your ideas for events we might host, cooks/chefs/makers we might feature. Come with your ideas for how we might do good in our community, and ideas for how we can work toward making The Ruby an even more inclusive and diverse space, welcoming to women and nonbinary people of all ages and backgrounds. Let's gather to brainstorm the programming that supports this goal of inclusion and diversity.
This week we're enjoying Vikre Boreal Gin & Tonics!
Vikre's gin comes from Northern Minnesota based Vikre Distillery, co-founded by Emily & Joel Vikre.
From their website:
Our Boreal Gins are inspired by the wildness of this place, by its purity and its quiet astonishments. Blending foraged botanicals from the Northwoods with the backbone spices of traditional gins, they reflect what we know in our bones about Northern nature and its flavors.
Our gins feature a combination of foraged wild botanicals and traditional gin botanicals. They’re not too proud for gin and tonics, but damn well good enough for sipping. They’re the perfect companion on a portage through the North country (remember, no glass!). But, if you’re not fortunate enough to experience this amazing landscape yourself, with these gins at least you can still drink it in.
Boreal Gins are for adventurers—be they intrepid mixologists, hikers, snowshoers or canoeists. Each is anchored by one of the unique flavors of Northern Minnesota.
Join us for a conversation about San Francisco's perennial homelessness problem, and get informed about all of the ways we might be able to solve it. What services does the city offer? How are they performing? What can we do to help?
Yvonne Leow, the co-founder of By The Bay (www.bythebay.cool), a nonpartisan local media organization based in SF, will guide us through an evening of learning, storytelling, and hands-on brainstorming. It's time we changed the status quo. Are you ready to help?
About Yvonne Leow
Yvonne is a digital journalist by trade. She has worked at Vox.com, Digital First Media, and the AP. She is currently the president of the AAJA and she was the youngest John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford. Find her at yvonne@bythebay.cool or @yvonneleow.
Love to run? Run with your fellow Rubies!
We'll start Running Club with a brisk half-hour run in our neighborhood, planned by member Emily Storms.
Granola bars provided by Worthy Granola.
Come play Mahjong at The Ruby's Mahjong night. (6 to 6:30 p.m. will be a quick refresher in how to play mahjong, taught by Ruby member Mimi Lok. Come at 6:30 to play!)
Or come join our circle of knitters and crafters led by Ruby member Jourdan Abel. Crocheters, embroiderers, darners... all are welcome!
Attention visual artists and illustrators! Join us for Drawing Group at The Ruby, co-led by Rubies Reina Takahashi & Anastasia Tumanova. Please bring whatever supplies you’d like to work with. After a round of intros, we’ll doodle and draw, and snack and chat.
“Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” —bell hooks
Each month, we'll read a short article about a relevant subject — current affairs, race, politics, gender are all fair game — and discuss it together, through the lens of intersectional feminism.
For our August meeting, we'll read and discuss Rebecca Solnit's Lit Hub piece, "Whose Story (and Country) Is This? ON THE MYTH OF A "REAL" AMERICA."
Come at 5:30 p.m. if you'd like to read a hard copy of the article at The Ruby before the discussion begins at 6 p.m.
After weeks of waiting for our brew to ferment, we can finally enjoy our very own Ruby beer! Come hang with us at our summer beer and patio potluck party!
We'll be joined by our mentor brewers, the wonderful Gwen Thompson and Molly O'Brien, and clink glasses full of ruby red grapefruit saison (with a pink peppercorn finish)! This is also a potluck picnic, so bring something to share with our beer loving community or contribute $10 for food/beer costs. You can peep what others are bringing and add your own contribution here.
Contact Peggy if you have any questions at all. See you all soon and cheers!
Join Heath-Ade kombucha for cocktails and mocktails at The Ruby.
Health-Ade kombucha was started in 2012 by a husband, wife, and best friend in a true farmers’ market start-up story: a small credit card and a big dream to make real food and bring only that to the commercial shelf.
The best tasting and highest quality kombucha you can buy is just the start, as our ultimate mission is to be the champion of the happiest and healthiest you.
Join poet, essayist, and former laser physicist (and Ruby member), Kate Greene, for three short physics lessons interspersed with an introduction to palm reading. Charm yourself into and out of any social situation with brief but fascinating tidbits about the expanding universe, the Higgs particle (or is it a field?), and the thermodynamics of death. Entertain friends at parties by assuring them that fame, fortune, and love may or may not be written in their palms. The format is as follows: lecture, discussion, and practice with a partner. You’ll receive a pamphlet on the material covered as well as notes for further resources. Poems too, probably.
About Kate Greene
Kate Greene is an essayist, journalist, poet, and former laser physicist whose work has appeared in Aeon, the Atlantic, Discover, The Economist, Harvard Review, the New Yorker, Pacific Standard, Slate, and WIRED, among others. Her essays have been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, CBS News Radio, and the BBC World Service. She has taught writing at Vanderbilt University, San Francisco State University, and the Tennessee Prison for Women. In 2013, Greene was the crew writer and second-in-command on a four-month simulated Mars mission for the NASA-funded HI-SEAS project. Her book inspired by the experience, ONCE UPON A TIME I LIVED ON MARS AND OTHER STORIES, is forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press. She currently lives in New York City where she is an MFA candidate in poetry at Columbia University.
San Francisco, CA