Board meetings and bathhouses
When I interned at Apple in 2009, my friends in corporate housing and I would regularly call "board meetings" — which is to say, someone over 21 would buy a jug of Carlo Rossi sangria, we'd wait until night fell and the yard fell quiet, and scurry out laughing to meet at the complex hot tub.
My tech industry board meetings in the years since have been a bit more structured, so — imagine my joy this year to be joining the board of an arts nonprofit that I absolutely adore. Oasis Arts is legendary for its contributions to the queer community and the arts in San Francisco, and I am thrilled to be joining a group of artists and leaders in service to this space for creative play.
D'Arcy Drollinger is San Francisco's first Drag Laureate and the star and creator of Lady Champagne — premiering at this year's opening night of Frameline50 — and the founder and artistic director of Oasis Arts. I had the honor of working with D'Arcy and executive director and Broadway producer Greg Sottolano last year, to help tell the story of Oasis Arts' impact and vision when the future of Oasis was unknown.
It is a treasure to get to play a role in keeping a space like Oasis open. Original art feels rare to come by these days, and the creativity and lens of queer artists is breathtakingly essential — and has a real heart in San Francisco. In 2024 Oasis Arts hosted live works with the frequency of a Broadway house, paid $750K directly to artists, and provided thousands of community members with free tickets. Oasis Arts makes being human feel like the glittering gift that it is.
Cheers to being of service to the Oasis Arts creative community, and cheers to a new board member hang at the San Francisco Ballet this weekend — Jessica Bryndza and I got to see Mere Mortals with Madeline Woo as Pandora. There was no warm jug of sangria but we went to Beaux after, and that was pretty great too.
As an aside, Oasis is actually on the site of a gay bathhouse from the 1980s — bringing my Cupertino hot tub board meetings spiritually full circle.
I look forward to inviting you to experience Oasis Arts' new works in person soon.
