What do you do to celebrate a year that took so much away?
So many people wiped out in terrorist violence around the globe.
So much hope seemingly snuffed out in the slow moving circus-turned-car-crash we called Election 2016.
And just when many of us in the Bay Area thought it couldn’t get any worse, there was the inconceivable tragedy of the Oakland warehouse fire.
And yet for all the pain, the answer is looking us right in the face.
We do what we have always done, what our artists have always exhorted us to do:
Tell our stories of grief and hope and unsinkable will. Climb back in our saddles and write and paint and make music. Connect with each other and do everything in our power to protect and preserve what matters most.
Because even if, as seems likely, it gets worse before it gets better, it will get better.
The proof is on display in this video — in the inextinguishable determination, energy and joy of the people and artists of the Bay Area.
We hope you feel the love and carry it with you into 2017.
