Scene Reading from New Play: 'Painting Coit Tower'

Sunday, July 16, 2017

2:00 PM (free, limited seating)

Canessa Gallery - 708 Montgomery Street, in North Beach

With Jon Golinger, founder of Protect Coit Tower

Detail of the Maxine Albro mural 'California', 1934

“What do powerful men fear most?

Honest questions from free minds. Brush fresh paint on a blank slate – who knows what you may find?” So says artist Bernard Zakheim in a scene from Painting Coit Tower, a new play that tells the wild story of the Coit Tower murals – how they came to be and why they remain as powerful today as when they were painted on top of Telegraph Hill 83 years ago.

Painting Coit Tower explores themes of free speech vs. censorship, the promise and challenge of publicly-funded arts, and the struggles creative people face to express themselves freely while also making a living. Scenes from the new play will be read in an informal setting at the Canessa Gallery, located on the very block of Montgomery Street where the Coit Tower mural story begins.

This event is part of San Francisco LaborFest 2017, an annual event every July that commemorates the anniversary of the San Francisco General Strike and West Coast Maritime strike of 1934, which took place at the same time as the artists were painting the Coit Tower murals. For more information about LaborFest2017 please visit: www.laborfest.net

Event sponsored by Protect Coit Tower and Telegraph Hill Dwellers

For more information or to support the production of this play, please contact Jon Golinger at: ProtectCoitTower@gmail.com