Beyond Innocence

Beyond Innocence: The Power of Community and the Arts & The Prevention of Gun Violence

12:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Taube Atrium Theater at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera 
Friday, May 31, 2024 
401 Van Ness Ave, 4th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102

Curated by Pastor Mike McBride, Ryan Marchand & Elena Park

Presented by San Francisco Opera, Live Free USA & Lumahai Productions

About the event

What makes a safe healthy community?

Featuring local and national civic, arts and media leaders, this urgent day-long convening will tackle topics including full circle advocacy (from grassroots to legislative) to prevent violence in our neighborhoods; community vitality, resilience, and healing; and how trauma may be thoughtfully depicted on stage, screen, and in music, from opera to hip-hop. Conceived for an audience of peacemakers, community organizers, and representatives from a host of community- and faith-based organizations, as well as members of the public, the convening will not only help attendees foster new and existing relationships, but create connectivity across sectors in order to achieve deep and focused collective impact. 

The Beyond Innocence Symposium will feature three panels on topics relating to trauma, healing, and community violence as well as performances by local hip-hop artist Gunna Goes Global and poet Chinaka Hodge.

For more information click on the panels.

Please be advised, the topic of gun violence and trauma will be discussed in detail. Discretion advised.

Beverages and light snacks will be provided throughout the day.

The event will also be livestreamed for free on YouTube. A limited number of symposium seats are available to the public.

 watch BEYOND INNOCENCE Symposium

• Symposium Agenda

  Program begins at 12:00pm

  WELCOME from Matthew Shilvock, General Director, San Francisco Opera

  WELCOME from Ryan Marchard & Elena Park, convening co-curators

  REFLECTIONS from Pastor Mike McBride, convening co-curator

  12:25pm INTRODUCTION to Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence

  • Aleksi Barrière, multi-lingual librettist for the work
  • Sofi Oksanen, original librettist (Finnish)
  • Elena Park, Moderator

  12:45pm PANEL #1 Full Circle Advocacy: From Grassroots to Assembly Halls

  • Tinisch Hollins, Executive Director, Californians for Safety and Justice
  • Mike McLively, Community Violence Intervention Policy Director, GIFFORDS Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
  • David Muhammad, Executive Director, National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform
  • Mina Kim, KQED Forum, Moderator

  1:45pm COFFEE BREAK (20 min)

  2:05pm PERFORMANCE, Chinaka Hodge

  2:10pm PANEL #2 A Delicate Balance: Depicting Trauma on Stage, Screen, and in Music

  • Karega Bailey, recording artist, angel parent, educator
  • Chinaka Hodge, poet & educator
  • Vilma Jää, (Markéta), Innocence cast member in Finland/SF
  • Kamau Bell, TV host, author, community activist, Moderator

  3:10pm PERFORMANCE & TALK, Gunna Goes Global

  3:20pm COFFEE BREAK (20 min)

  3:40pm / PANEL #3 The Power of Community: Community Vitality, Resilience & Healing

  Pastor Mike McBride, Host & Convener

  • Ewan Barker Plummer, Chair, San Francisco Youth Commission
  • Sheryl Davis, Executive Director, San Francisco Human Rights Commission
  • Rochelle A. Dicker, Advisor, UCSF’s Wraparound Project and Section Chief, Acute Care Surgery
  • Gabriela Lena Frank, Composer & Founder, GLF Creative Academy of Music
  • Tyese Wortham, Director of Community Engagement, Community Arts Stabilization Trust

  5:00pm CLOSING THOUGHTS

  5:15pm CLOSING PERFORMANCE: Pacific Edge Voices to-go, conducted by Ash Walker

  5:30pm - 6:30pm RECEPTION

• Panel: Full Circle Advocacy: From Grassroots to Assembly Halls

  A discussion about violence prevention, community activism and justice policy reform will feature Tinisch Hollins (Executive Director, Californians for Safety and Justice), Mike McLively (Policy Director, GIFFORDS Center for Violence Intervention), and David Muhammad (Executive Director, National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform). KQED Forum host Mina Kim will moderate.

• Panel: A Delicate Balance: Depicting Trauma on Stage, Screen, and in Music

  Addressing the impact and responsibility of artists using arts and entertainment as a medium for presenting trauma and how it might encourage resilience, recovery, and healing. What is the responsibility of the artist to the audience? What healing might result from the artistic expression of such experiences? Speakers will include recording artist and angel parent Karega Bailey, poet and educator Chinaka Hodge, and multi-genre instrumentalist and vocalist Vilma Jää, who makes her American operatic debut as the student Markéta in Innocence. TV host, author, and community activist W. Kamau Bell (1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed, United Shades of America) will moderate.

• Panel: The Power of Community: Community Vitality, Resilience & Healing

  Hosted by Pastor Mike McBride, this expansive dialogue will gather together Sheryl Davis (Executive Director, San Francisco Human Rights Commission), Dr. Rochelle A. Dicker (Advisor to UCSF’s San Francisco Wraparound Project and Section Chief, Acute Care Surgery), composer Gabriela Lena Frank (Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music), youth activist and organizer Ewan Barker Plummer (Chair, San Francisco Youth Commission), and Tyese Wortham (Director of Community Engagement, Community Arts Stabilization Trust).