Come celebrate our 20th anniversary! Porchlight continues our beloved neighborhood series with an evening of stories about the notorious Sunset (from the Richmond!) You know some wild stuff has happened out here in these avenues. Storytellers ready to lay it on you at the fabulous Balboa include:

Executive and former "Voice of the SF Zoo" Cammy Blackstone
Artist Ana Teresa Fernandez
Chamber of Commerce President Rodney Fong
Former SF Fire Chief Joanne Hayes White
Musician Chuck Prophet
Olympic Club Foundation honcho John Ring
Friday, Aug. 19 at 6:30
Tickets

Storyteller bios

Cammy Blackstone moved to San Francisco in 1981 to "go to college", but spent most of the time enjoying the City's live music, dive bars, eclectic culture and food. She ended up sticking around, and is now one of those old people that talks about "how great San Francisco used to be". For work, she is the Director of External Affairs for AT&T in San Francisco where she focuses on government relations, legislative affairs, community engagement and expediting AT&T’s efforts in solving the digital divide. Prior to AT&T, Cammy worked for the City & County of San Francisco, first as a legislative aide and then as Deputy Director of the Entertainment Commission. All of this follows a 25 year career in San Francisco radio, television and print media. Cammy loves San Francisco, raised two (now adult) sons here, and refuses to leave.
In addition to her duties at AT&T, Cammy serves on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and The Union Square Alliance.

Ana Teresa Fernández's work explores the politics of intersectionality through time-based actions and social gestures, translated into masterful oil and gouache paintings, installations and videos. Dismantling borders both physical and psychological is an ever-present element of Ana Teresa Fernández’s art. Fernández explores the interconnected dynamics of personal and political identity through time-based actions and social gestures, which she then translates into paintings, site-specific installations, and films. Operating formally at the intersection of land art, performance, and history painting, Fernández mines twenty-first-century feminism, postcolonial landscapes, and psychological barriers to empathy to open new vistas in the imagination. She does not think in terms of artist and audience. Fernández’s passion is to create moments of activation and change in community and for community. "I create with the hope of palpably transforming people’s outlook toward themselves and all that surrounds them. The reward is feeling boundaries slip away and new respect rise in its place."

Rodney A. Fong is a native San Franciscan and a third generation operator/owner of the Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf and President of Fong Real Estate Company, overseeing commercial activity in the heart of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.

Rodney has held office in a wide variety of civic, tourist and travel related organizations including: President of the SF Planning Commission and Port Commission, founded the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District, and Board Member of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and SF Travel Association. Rodney is currently the President & CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

Joanne Hayes-White, a proud native San Franciscan, graduated from St. Stephen Elementary School, Mercy High School and the University of Santa Clara with a Bachelor of Science in Business Commerce. She joined the San Francisco Fire Department in April 1990. After rising through the ranks, she was sworn in as the 25th Chief of the San Francisco Fire Department in 2004 by then Mayor Gavin Newsom. San Francisco became the largest urban Fire Department in the world with a female Chief. Chief Hayes-White oversaw a Department of 1,800 members and an operating budget of $400 million. After serving the Department for over 29 years and having the longest tenure as Chief, she retired in May 2019. In 2018, Chief Hayes-White was recognized by the International Fire Chiefs (IAFC) as Fire Chief of the Year.

In June 2019, Joanne was appointed by Governor Newsom to the State of California Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun. Joanne currently serves on the Public Safety Officers’ Medal of Valor Review Board, the Advisory Board for Little Sisters of the Poor, the Riordan High School Board of Trustees, and the Advisory Board of the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco. She is a former Board member of the American Red Cross-Bay Area Chapter and Mercy High School. She currently serves as Chief of Staff for Senator Feinstein’s office.

Joanne is the proud mother of three sons: Riley, Logan, and Sean.

If the best parts of your classic British Invasion, 50s country, 60s pop, and pure rock ’n’ roll records could be transformed into a person, they might look and sound a lot like Chuck Prophet. For almost 30 years, this Bay Area songwriter has reliably delivered albums so pleasingly familiar that, had he started a few decades earlier, it’d be easy to imagine him outshining the likes of Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. Prophet has the charisma of an arena star, and thanks to his catchy guitar riffs, powerful choruses, and seductively casual vocal style, which could trick you into thinking he’s talking straight into your ear, his live shows always sound larger than the clubs where he plays. Other artists often cover Prophet’s songs, and many of them, including Alejandro Escovedo and Kim Richey, have turned to him as a writing partner on their albums. Prophet’s own work has only improved over the years, as evidenced by his recent run of records, from 2012’s Temple Beautiful, a tribute to the vanishing underbelly of San Francisco, till last year’s The Land That Time Forgot, which contains sharp wordplay and lovely sad songs about dead presidents and sensitive metal heads. (Mark Guarino, Chicago Reader)

The son of Irish immigrants, Sunset District native John Ring has practiced law for the Lynch, Gilardi & Grummer firm and has helped raise more than $100 million for St. Ignatius, Riordan, and other non profits over the past three decades. His early years were spent at local hot spots such as the Tennessee Grill, United Irish Cultural Center, the Lost Weekend, Sigmund Stern Grove, and the Barbary Coast restaurant, and he loved every minute of it. John currently serves as the Executive Director of The Olympic Club Foundation (OCF), raising critical funds for youth sports programs in the Bay Area’s nine counties. In addition to his duties with The OCF, John serves as a Board Member of ICA Cristo Rey Academy, Holy Family Day Home, and the Irish Immigration Pastoral Center. John and his wife Nicole have three wonderful kids, Kieran (28), Elizabeth (20) and Aidan (18). John was the Hibernian of the Year in 2019 and John and Nicole were proud recipients of the Janet Pomeroy Center’s Humanitarian Award in 2017.