In Memoriam

On the night of December 2, 2016, thirty-six people attending an underground concert tragically died in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland, California. Soaring rents and costs had displaced San Francisco Bay Area artists and musicians and forced them to live, work, and hold events and performances in deathtraps like the Ghost Ship.

The Ghost Ship fire in Oakland highlights the tragic human price that rising rents and housing costs, and increasingly scarce safe spaces can extract. Artists driven to create and drawn to a community of like-minded individuals should not be expected to pay an unthinkable price, nor should those who love them.

Learn the stories of all of the remarkable individuals who were lost that terrible night: KQED: Honoring Those Lost to the Ghost Ship Fire

Illustrations by Claudia Escobar, Farrin Abbott, Julianna Cecere, Melanie Ruiz, Creo Noveno courtesy of KQED

Everyone at Vital Arts is grateful for the backing of the Ghost Ship families who share our commitment to securing safe, affordable spaces for artists and musicians, including relatives of Amanda Allen Kershaw, Jonathan Bernbaum, Micah Danemayer, Billy Dixon, Chelsea Faith Dolan, Nick Gomez-Hall, Travis Hough, Chase “Nex Iuguolo”, Donna Kellogg, Jason McCarty, Feral Pines, Denalda Renae, and Ben Runnels.

Ghost Ship Moon

to the dead of the Ghost Ship fire, Oakland, California, Dec. 2, 2016

The immense wailing moon
looks for her children in the rubble
of the burned ghost ship,
ghost ship of fancies,
of daydreams, of visions
of the young artists
who had nowhere
to live & create
but in the ghost ship
sails of flames.
What did Lord Shiva
intend to purify
with this sacrifice of innocents?
The greed that allowed them
only this lodging in the ghost ship?
What expiation is required?
For fault there is & it lies
broad & deep
in the hellish economics of empire.
The moon looks for her children
of the burned ghost ship
but it is that we are all lost.

—Rafael Jesús González

Luna del Barco Fantasma

a los muertos del incendio del Barco Fantasma, Oakland, California, 2 diciembre 2016

La luna inmensa llorona
busca sus hijes en los escombros
del barco fantasma quemado,
barco fantasma de fantasías,
de ensueños, de visiones
de les jóvenes artistas
que no tenían
donde vivir y crear
mas en el barco fantasma
velas de llamas.
¿Qué intentó purificar
el Señor Shiva
con este sacrificio de inocentes?
¿La codicia que sólo les permitió
esta morada en el barco fantasma?
¿Que expiación se requiere?
Pues culpa hay y reside
amplia y profundamente
en la infernal economía del imperio.
La luna busca a sus hijes
del barco fantasma quemado
pero es que todos estamos perdidos.