In conjunction with the exhibition Ferlinghetti | An Exhibit in 6 Vignettes, the San Francisco Historical Society is delighted to collaborate with another local literary light, 826 Valencia. Via their 2024 program theme, “Write Here, Write Now,” young writers were invited to reflect on their experience of San Francisco in this moment. Their poems are on display in the museum’s Lower-Level Gallery.

826 Valencia hosts summer writing workshops at each of their city locations, in the Mission, the Tenderloin, and Mission Bay. The work presented in this exhibit was created by students from schools all across the city, including elementary school students in the Mission Center Exploring Words Summer Camp, middle schoolers in Exploring Leadership Summer Camp, and high schoolers who took part in the Tenderloin Podcasting Field Trip and the Young Authors Workshop. Visitors to the exhibition are also encouraged to add their reflections to the map in the gallery.

826 Valencia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting under-resourced students ages six to eighteen in San Francisco with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.