The Portal is located at the Shared Studios offices in Hayes Valley. Previously, it was located at various sites across the city including the Presidio and at Hayes Valley.
Google used Portals at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit to connect participants to innovators at their Google for Entrepreneurs hubs in London, Seoul and Mexico City. Start-up founders who could not attend were able to pitch to Silicon Valley VCs and connect with mentors without ever having to leave their cities.
The San Francisco Portal came to Crissy Field in partnership with Luminalt, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and the National Park Service as an Art in the Parks endeavor. The Portal was powered by solar, courtesy of Luminalt, a San Francisco-based solar company.The San Francisco Portal was placed in the heart of the Golden Gate National Parks—at the Crissy East Beach, near the Crissy Field Center, from July 20 through September. The Portal was part of the Art in the Parks initiative whose goal was to provide programs to connect their visitors with creative experiences in the park that are transformative, unexpected, and inspirational.
For one year, a Portal at Oakland International High School connected it to the globe. The school was founded to provide a quality alternative education for recently arrived immigrant students, with a focus on English language acquisition and in preparation for college. Weekly connections with Milwaukee, Honduras, Erbil, and Andover explored family, trust, political corruption, and a comparison of dance moves.
It amazes me just how universal hip-hop has become. Here in America it was originally created as a means to express ourselves despite the forces oppressing us. Blacks had few ways to convey their thoughts publicly so we confused creativity with passion in hopes that the words in our hearts would be felt. Today I spoke with a man on the other side of the world who said that positive hip-hop is blooming where he lives in Afghanistan. It’s inspirational to say the least. I’m honored to be able to share my voice with the world. This portal is a gift, a treasure in time that I feel will one day be incredibly impacting! Javier S