Student activism has been at the forefront of resistance in modern history. That was celebrated Monday evening with an art exhibition by San Francisco State University students, continuing its legacy as a sanctuary for oppressed communities.
Associated Students and race and resistance studies students at SFSU hosted the “Defiance” art exhibition which highlighted “queer and trans voices of resistance” in the art gallery on the third floor of the Cesar Chavez Student Center. The exhibition included art from queer and trans artists in the Bay Area, including current and former SFSU students.
Walking through the exhibit gives attendees a selection of art ranging from photographs to sculptures and a hanging tapestry, all created with the intent to resist against queer and trans erasure in the United States.
The exhibit was curated by students Eleanna Rivera, Joseph Escobedo and Kylie Choi as part of their capstone assignments. Their art was also featured in the exhibit.
Rivera contributed two embroidery pieces to the exhibit, which she had been taking up as a hobby.
“My inspiration for both of these pieces has been the influence of my academic career here,” Rivera said. “I feel like these past two years have been focused on Palestine and the people of Gaza, as well as being able to adopt the acknowledgment of being on native land.”
The curators all come from a queer BIPOC background, which helped create an air of intersectionality around the artwork on display.
Choi, who is double majoring in race and resistance studies and studio art as well as minoring in queer and trans ethnic studies, said this exhibit integrated all of their fields of study into one.
“I wanted to kind of curate a gallery to highlight other queer and trans BIPOC artists and highlight their intersectional identities as well as their own experiences,” Choi said.
Friends and family members of the artists walked through the gallery and interacted with the artists. Lakshyaraj Bhati, a computer science student, is a friend of Choi and Escobedo and came to see the artwork of his friends.
“I love this theme because I’m also an immigrant and also I’m brown,” Bhati said. “I’m an outsider to all these situations and problems that are going on, but I very much like to be involved.”
Escobedo’s photos, which were shot from 2024 to 2025, showed students who were members of student organizations Movimiento Estudiantil para La Liberación de las Américas and the General Union of Palestine Students.
His photos were accompanied by handwritten notes from his friends answering the prompt, “Why do you think youth movements are important?” Escobedo’s art was inspired by the love he has for his friends and all of the student organizations he joined on campus.
The curators also invited SFSU alum Kin Folkz to display their activist art in the gallery. Folkz graduated from SFSU in the early ‘90s with a master’s degree in ethnic studies after she journeyed to San Francisco to be taught by activists, such as Phil McGee and Angela Davis who were part of the faculty at the time.
“When I first came, I had not been accepted. I didn’t even apply yet. I didn’t have a job. I didn’t have a place to live,” Folkz said. “But I knew that I wanted to learn from Angela Davis.”
Although Folkz was not enrolled at the time, they still went to every class and studied in the College of Ethnic Studies. Folkz currently owns the Queer Arts Center gallery in Oakland, but returning to SFSU to be featured in the “Defiance” gallery was very exciting for them.
“This gallery, for me, is a gallery that is supporting fine art,” Folkz said, “And when I say fine art, I mean fine art through the lens of what actually matters.”
As an advocate for and creator of queer art, Folkz commended the students for holding the exhibit.
“In a space like this, everyone has a chance to share openly and to be respected for that sharing,” Folkz said. “Those narratives are important to find solutions, not just for marginalized people, but for every human.”
