Happy April, SJSU SAASC blog readers! We’re glad you’re here.
This month, we’re giving some shine to Left in the Bay (LITB), an archival history project that aims to research, recover, and retell the history of people’s movements in the San Francisco Bay Area. In their own words, the LITB team reflects on how “in many places, legacies of radical struggle are simply buried and intentionally forgotten. In the Bay, they’re often reduced to a caricature and put on display. The memory of everything from the general strikes to the Black Panthers to the gay liberation movement is sanitized and made safe for power. Our project hopes to help give this history back its bite” (Left in the Bay, 2024).
LITB was founded in 2021 and started out as an informal project, digging up stories in archives, old newspapers, and books and posting them onto LITB’s social media platforms. Fast forward to today, LITB has expanded its output to include long-form writing and newsletters on its Patreon and in-person events. All of LITB’s writing and events are free to the public. You can support LITB’s work by becoming a Patreon member. Memberships support LITB’s team to put on events, organize walking tours, print pamphlets and zines, conduct interviews, produce podcasts, and much more (Left in the Bay, n.d.).
LITB’s first Patreon newsletter recounts the trials of Shujaa Graham and Lateef Allen, two New Afrikan/Black prisoners of war/inmates who were framed for the murder of Jerry Sanders, a prison guard at Deuel Vocational Institute (Left in the Bay, 2024a). After four trials and three years spent on death row, Graham and Allen were finally acquitted in 1981. While on death row, Graham co-founded Black August, an organization and monthly celebration of martyred Black prison organizers like George and Jonathan Jackson (Left in the Bay, 2024a; The Shoulders Beneath My Feet, n.d.).
Figure 1. Poster calling for the freedom of New Afrikan prisoners of war Shujaa Graham and Lateef Allen.
As mentioned above, LITB hosts in-person events to bring people together to talk about radical Bay Area history. On March 13th, 2025, LITB co-hosted a panel discussion entitled Tales of Queer Insurrection in San Francisco about the history and continuation of trans/queer anti-imperialist and anti-assimilationist solidarity movements and political projects in the Bay Area over the last 40 years (Left in the Bay, 2025). A few weeks later, on March 28th, LITB partnered with Street Sheet and East Bay Yesterday for an event celebrating the legacy of grassroots print media in the Bay Area (Left in the Bay, 2025a).
Figure 2 and 3. Flyers for Left in the Bay’s History, Utility & Legacy of Grassroots Media in the Bay Area and Tales of Queer Insurrection in San Francisco events.
You can follow LITB on Instagram and Patreon to stay updated on their most recent events, newsletters, and projects.
References
Left in the Bay. (2024, July 28). Why we need your support. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/why-we-need-your-108350966
Left in the Bay (2024a, September 2). Newsletter #1: the trials of Shujaa Graham and Lateef Allen. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/newsletter-1-of-110974725
Left in the Bay (2025, March 10). Event 3/13: tales of queer insurrection in San Francisco. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/event-3-13-tales-124069213
Left in the Bay (2025a, March 28). Event today (3/28): the history, utility, and legacy of grassroots media in the Bay Area. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/event-today-3-28-125404062
Left in the Bay (n.d.). Membership. Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/c/leftinthebay/membership
The Shoulders Beneath My Feet. (n.d.). Black August Planning Organization (BAPO). WordPress. https://blackaugustpo.org/bapo/