Eye Zen Presents

OUR MISSION:
Unearth and elevate the stories of under-recognized queer ancestors, histories, and sites by producing innovative interdisciplinary performance and community-building events throughout San Francisco that illuminate the under-recognized legacies of our queer ancestors so that we can better understand ourselves and our lineages.

OUR VISION:
We envision a world where:

• All people in the U.S. recognize and celebrate the LGBTQ activists that fought and continue to fight to liberate the LGBTQ community from social and legalized discrimination and stigma.
• Queer people recognize themselves in queer ancestors, finding solace and inspiration in their stories, and recognizing that we are not alone but a powerful and supportive community with a length of histories as long as that of humanity.
• Our QBIPOC communities are recognized and celebrated for their histories that have for too long been covered up and appropriated by white-supremacy in mainstream culture.

OUR VALUES:

• Historical Research: We protect and promote lost LGBTQ2+ histories through rigorous research, giving image to the unseen and moving the forgotten to create a lasting body of evidence of these vital legacies to disseminate for future generations.

• Anti-Racism: We acknowledge that our board, staff, and community have been raised in a society inundated by a racist, transphobic, hegemonic, white supremacist system. Through the creation of an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion action plan, we are taking a proactive approach to unlearning toxic norms as an organization and to root our work in anti-racist practices.

• Community: We aim to build lasting relationships with our artists and patrons. We begin each of our artistic projects and programs by looking for community partnerships with local organizations and businesses and conduct regular exchanges with them once our collaboration has been established. 

• Curiosity and Growth: We dig into our past, unearthing the stories of how we got to the socio/political climate of today in order to ask bold questions about how to get to the liberation of the future. We learn from the past so we can grow.