For those unfamiliar, Audre Lorde was a writer, poet, and activist whose work on intersecting identities — race, gender, sexuality, class — became foundational for movements on both sides of the Atlantic. She spent significant time in Berlin during the 1980s, and her influence helped catalyze Black queer organizing in Germany that echoed back to communities in the Bay Area.

Here's what makes these events worth flagging regardless of where you sit politically: they're about people organizing outside of government institutions to build community and push for change. That's something liberty-minded folks should appreciate. Not every movement for justice runs through a bureaucrat's office or a line item in a city budget. Sometimes it's poets, filmmakers, and organizers doing the work that matters — voluntarily, passionately, and without a six-figure consulting contract from City Hall.

The Conjuring Movements program draws a direct line between Berlin and the Bay, examining how Black queer activists built transnational networks of solidarity long before "global community" became a corporate buzzword. It's a reminder that San Francisco's cultural influence has always punched well above its 47-square-mile weight class.

Whether you're deeply familiar with Lorde's work or just curious about a piece of SF history that doesn't get enough airtime, these events offer something increasingly rare in this city: substance over spectacle. No ribbon-cutting, no press release from a supervisor taking credit. Just art, ideas, and people showing up.

That's community building done right.