"Infinite City" at the University of San Francisco

“Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas,” by Rebecca Solnit, was chosen by my university to be the book that this year’s incoming freshmen all read and then discussed upon arrival on campus. This book, which I wrote about here on 3/18/11, was the subject of a wonderful campus event I attended yesterday, where Solnit herself, along with contributor and University of San Francisco Professor Aaron Shurin, spoke about the book and its implications. In addition, Solnit and her colleagues had created a brand new map, in the style of the maps in the book, of the USF campus and its surroundings. We who attended were each given a large, beautifully colored and produced copy of this map; I will display mine in my office. It notes the various cultural sites, both past and present, in the area. (USF is located in the geographical center of the city, near Golden Gate Park, and at the crossroads of several neighborhoods: the Haight, the Western Addition, the Richmond, and Presidio Heights.) For one example of historical/cultural sites, our university is located where there were many cemeteries, but many years ago the city banned cemeteries within city limits and moved all the graves out of the city; these cemeteries are marked on the map. Such nearby cultural sites as the Grateful Dead house, the house where Janis Joplin lived, and the house where Patty Hearst was held hostage are all marked. There is a list of all the African American churches in the area, with their long traditions, especially in the nearby Western Addition neighborhood. Solnit gave a mesmerizing talk about the importance of maps, and about how almost anything can be expressed through maps. She spoke of how we all are a collection of maps, in that we carry in our heads maps of all the places we have been. She pointed out that maps we use online or on smart phones are so partial, so drained of meaning except for the strictly functional, and said that one of her goals was to “make paper maps sexy and desirable.” She told us that after living 30 years in the Haight area near USF, she has recently moved to the Potrero area, and feels she is discovering a whole new aspect of San Francisco (“infinite San Francisco"). She reminded the audience that maps can be beautiful and surprising, and can capture the past and the present. She urged us to add our own stories to her maps and our own maps. Professor Aaron Shurin then gave a beautiful, poetic talk (he is a well published and well regarded poet) about the experience of writing his contribution to “Infinite City.” This event was a thought-provoking one, combining cartography, culture, literature, history, the environment, and more. I was happy to see many freshman students in the audience, and I hope and believe that they were inspired by these thoughtful, beautifully crafted talks as well as by the maps and the book itself.