Hi Villagers:

You are reading the second issue of our revamped newsletter. With this month’s theme of Creativity I am asking all of you to put on your creative caps and help us name the newsletter.

The newsletter team and I stand ready to make a decision on the variety of name suggestions we know we’ll receive. We’d like to have a new name by the next issue for November.

Please email me at gayleu@sfvillage.org or call the office at 415-387-1375 with all ideas, suggestions. We want to be inundated with calls and email because I just know someone has the creative spark that will light up as the name for this newsletter.

Best,
Gayle Uchida, Editor and Publisher

Creative problem solving is the spark that ignited the village movement at its inception, so it makes good sense that creative innovation continues to flourish at SF Village.

We are proud to announce that on December 1st 2010, SF Village will launch a first-of-its-kind partnership with CitiScape Property Management to create “vertical villages” in their high-rise condominiums to make living in the city a sustainable option for older condo dwellers – Welcome, CitiScape Villagers!

CitiScape’s path towards launching this innovative partnership for aging in place began when a property manager received a phone call from a concerned adult daughter begging him to check in on her elderly mother. Mom was 86-years-old and lived alone. The daughter lived out of state. And for some reason, mom wasn’t answering her phone that night. So, could he please just knock on the door? Staff did check on the unit, and were relieved to find that mom was fine and that the phone had just been off the hook. But this scenario was one in an increasing volume of unusual calls related to older residents asking for services well outside the realm of commonly practiced property management expertise.

The demographic reality is that in 2011, someone in America will turn 65 every 8 seconds, and recent U.S. Census data shows that residents 65 and over comprise 14.5% of the San Francisco population. CitiScape’s experiences and this unarguable demographic trend got them thinking more about the over 900 older residents in communities that they manage. They sat up, took notice, and took action.

In the CitiScape and SF Village model, we’re bringing the full program and service benefits of SF Village membership to condo dwellers through a group membership agreement, and consequently providing needed support to CitiScape management staff. Condo communities are well-designed to realize the benefits of the village model. With members in close physical proximity, Village staff can easily schedule a series of in-home safety inspections. Not to mention the greater ease of building a sense of community to organize neighbor-to-neighbor and volunteer support for mail pick-ups, carpools, walking groups and maybe even a mattress flip day!

If you know of a condo community or other group or association that might be interested in SF Village, I would be delighted to explore working together to help make our communities strong and vibrant, all the while getting gray together! Contact me at christabel@sfvillage.org or (415) 387-1375.

Reminder!

San Francisco Village’s Members’ Meeting is happening on Wednesday, October 13th at the Old First Presbyterian Church, on 1751 Sacramento Street at Van Ness.

It runs from 4-6PM and will showcase the art of our own Village creatives.

We’d love to see you there to meet and mingle with your fellow Villagers!

To RSVP, please call the Village office at 415-387-1375, extension ZERO, or send an email to info@sfvillage.org.

October is creativity month at San Francisco Village. This issue of our newsletter is dedicated to it; this month’s members’ meeting is a showcase for it.

On October 13th, at the Old First Presbyterian Church on Sacramento Street, we will have the opportunity to admire many examples of our members’ creativity, including photography, sculpture, paintings, mixed media, book binding, crafts, family histories, memoirs, and more.

What we won’t be able to see are all the other forms of creativity in which many of our members participate: gardening, cooking, collecting, writing, performing arts, music, just to mention a few. We will just have to find a way to celebrate these members at other events.

As we shed our responsibilities of careers and raising children, we have more time to explore our creative spirits. I know many accomplished business people who have started painting, sculpting, writing, or doing needlework in their freed-up time. Some of my friends have taken up photography in a serious way; others are creating family memoirs. Another friend of mine, who never picked up a paintbrush until she was in her mid-seventies, has created a portfolio of her art and is determined to have it shown in a gallery.

San Francisco Village in itself is an expression of creativity – cultural and social creativity. Our members, our volunteers, our partners, and our service providers are writing a new book on aging. Everyday we are creating the building blocks for an active, independent, engaged lifestyle that enables us to stay in our most favorite place in the world – in our own homes, in our own neighborhoods, in San Francisco. Together, we are creating community, developing new connections, meeting new people, and making innovative choices that are changing our lives. And most importantly, we are having fun doing it.

See you all on Wednesday, October 13, and please bring a guest or two to experience the creativity of San Francisco Village first hand.

Is creativity a gift that one is born with, or can you learn it? When the question was posed to renowned French-born documentary photographer and San Francisco Village Member, Michelle Vignes, her wise, French-accented reply was, "I believe it can be developed."

Michelle, who has photographed some of the most seminal American events of the past half-century, should know. As a young girl in Paris, she took a temporary job at a relatively new, but now legendary photo cooperative in Paris, called Magnum Photos. She laughingly calls Magnum "a gypsy factory," but during her years there (1953 – 1957) she learned from talented photographers who founded the agency, including Robert Capa. Asked to name the most creative person she ever worked with, Michelle quickly identified revered Magnum photographer, Henri Carrier-Bresson, with whom she worked closely as photo editor. Ironically she never took a photo in the company of those talented professionals. ‘I would have been ashamed to mess up in front of them," she admits.

Four years as a photo editor for UNESCO in Paris were followed by four years in public relations for photographers at the United Nations in New York. But it was a move to San Francisco in 1966 that changed her life. An increasingly adventurous freelance photographer, Michelle found herself in the midst of notable historic events that took place in northern California. Frequently on assignment to top magazines such as Time and Newsweek, she admits that some of her best coverage was "self-assigned."

"I had learned how to build a story and I became interested in many topics including the American Indian Movement," she recalls. In 1969, when Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island, Michelle captured their protest in dozens of memorable black and white photos. In fact, she was taken into "the sacred loop" and also covered the Indian occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. She also photographed Vietnam War protesters, the Black Panthers , Altamont Music Festival and Oakland, California’s blues clubs, among many other topics.

Asked to name her most favorite photo subject, she quickly answers "The Blues." Michelle has published two books called Bay Area Blues and Oakland Blues that focus on the music and the small local clubs of the 1980s.

The 84 year-old Ms. Vignes taught Photography and Culture Documents at UC Extension for 20 years and still stays in touch with former students. In 2003, her photo archives were acquired by UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, and her work covering Black Panthers and their events was made available to Stanford University. She still prefers a trusty Leica to a modern digital camera.

Save the Date!

San Francisco Village invites you to attend the San Francisco City Chorus Fall 2010 Concert. It is on Sunday, November 21st at 3:00 PM. The concert location is Saint Cecilia Catholic Church, 2555 17th Avenue at Vicente.

Two Village members, Alice Rosenthal and Susan Poor, are members of this amazing Chorus that performed at our first Birthday celebration earlier this year.

For Seniors tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. There is a special group rate for Seniors that the Village wants to have if we obtain a group of at least 10 people. A savings of $2 for each ticket will make the cost a mere $10!

Please send your check made out to SFCC to the Village office at 3330 Geary Blvd, 3 East, San Francisco, CA 94118.

For RSVPs, please email Village member, Veronica Fields at veracurtis@earthlink.net.

I had talked some months ago to Benjamin Lewis, who runs a forward-thinking support project for those in their senior years, about the helpful services his organization provides.

In a recent interview, I wanted to get his take on what can really make a difference in the lives of those whose horizons may have shrunk. What can instill a sense of worth and "creativity" in those bound by the four walls of an apartment and unwilling, or unable, to get out and interact with the world around them. Not surprisingly, his words were thought-provoking.

While not denigrating them, I got the sense he feels that many of the programs offered by senior-citizen support groups and residences are just so much icing on the cake. Take those oh-so-familiar projects like "basic ceramics", or "watercolor painting", or book-discussion groups. These are fine for the already-motivated, the socially-aware and those who just plain enjoy being involved in such things.

But what about that person in the back row, who doesn't say much? Who may fumble the lines in a play-reading group, stutter a bit and doesn't really "mix" with the other participants. The shrinking violet who's sort of a drag on the whole positive enterprise. That's the person in need of of some kind of "creative" connection. He or she is representative of the minority Lewis wants to reach.

Lewis recalls a member of a senior group who was just such a non-participant. Then it was discovered he was a devotee of Sinatra songs and he was introduced to a player of pop music. The two got along famously, and the non-participant broke out of his shell in the warmth of this continuing human interchange. Here was a true engendering of "creative" spirit.

Whatever the subject - it can be French poetry or some obscure period of history - Lewis feels the key is establishment of some sort of "rhythm" of human interchange. His organization provides trained volunteers to offer just that. It's called Engage As You Age and anyone interested - that includes families worried about isolated or failing relatives - may learn more by calling 690-6944, or via the Internet at www.EngageAsYouAge.com.