Manny’s 2.0
By: Manny Yekutiel
Tags: Small Business, San Francisco, Democratic Party, Civic Engagement, Politics

Well, we did it.

Manny’s has survived the pandemic with the help of our community, the federal, state, and San Francisco government, our incredible staff, hard constant marathon-like work, and a healthy dash of good luck.

July 4th will be our grand re-opening party.

Register for it here!!

I am sitting here on the lavender couch that we bought from Harrington’s Furniture store and I am actually planning real live in-person events!

It’s surreal. It’s exciting. Honestly it’s a bit scary.

(By the way — if you’d like to book Manny’s for an event we want to host you Go ahead and fill out this booking form and let’s talk. )

This couch!

It does feel like we are starting all over again — this time with a lot more experience and (hopefully) a community of folks ready to get back into it — but it’s a fresh start nonetheless.

It’s Manny’s 2.0.

We can’t go back to the way things were when we opened in 2018.

We’re different.

The world is different.

Manny’s opened on the night of the blue wave, when we took the House back. Trump was still the President. We had only done a few pop up events to test the idea out. The future was unknown. I was younger and still had a lot to learn.

How it started..

The context is different now.

We’re coming out of a 15 month long trauma that will take time to heal from.

Trump’s out. Biden’s in. Democrats control both Chambers. And San Francisco is healing.

I know one thing: we need high quality physical spaces built for civic and political discourse now more than ever.

We need places to physically come together to meet, grow, and love each other again.

Manny’s wants to be that place.

So here’s what we’re thinking of updating:

Event Format:

More emphasis on interaction, participation, and community building

My read is that after a year of passively consuming content folks are hungry to get out there and meet people again.

People they don’t know. People not in their freakin bubble.

No more bubbles!

So I’m going to change up the traditional speaker series format to incorporate more opportunities to meet the people in the room and discuss what you just heard.

So expect shorter talks (45 minutes vs. 90 minutes) and then break outs into groups of 3–5 to actually dig into what you just heard and talk it out. Less sitting around and more wrestling with the subject alongside others. Love.

2. More space for local arts, artists and gigs

Listen — the pandemic showed us just how important art is and just how fragile being an artist in the Bay can be.

I realize what a privilege it is to own a centrally located venue right now so I want to give the space up to more artists more often to do their work.

I’m thinking of more live music, maybe weekly Jazz, more art shows, more comedy, more gigs, more poetry, more dancing, and maybe even hire a booker to bring in live music to the space.

3. More opportunities for service

I want to create a space for people who want to give back in meaningful ways. Learning is essential, conversations can be foundational, and also there are real needs that our community can help meet.

Whether this looks like food drives, a weekly neighborhood trash pick up, volunteer fairs broken down by issue area, backpack making for kids going to school , and of course fundraisers for worthy orgs doing the work — be on the lookout for more opportunities for service.

Programming Buckets:

As I am thinking about a plan for our upcoming programming I see our niche as falling into the below buckets:

Engage with the work of the Biden administration Stay informed on the issues of the day in person The 2022 election cycle and keeping Democratic majorities in both Chambers. Connect the public to local politics and policy makers Support events hosted by civic organizations who need affordable space

Growth:

As I think about how a space like Manny’s could continue to grow I’m bringing three learnings from the pandemic into the future:

Host a set of marquee political events annually:

The Victory Booths, the drive thru Presidential debate watch, and our street closure election night party all showed me that people will show up to compelling programming even if it’s not physically in our space. So, I want to do more of those.

Like this!

2. Built by Sponsors:

Full stop I don’t know if Manny’s would have survived the pandemic if it weren’t for our Sponsors.

They stuck with us and kept us alive and they will be crucial to our return and our long term contribution to the community. So I’m setting a goal to have 1,000 sponsors by the end of 2021. If we do that Manny’s will be in a strong position to withstand whatever is ahead as well as continue to deliver high quality civic programming and space affordability and for every one in perpetuity.

Become a Manny’s Sponsor here and be a part of building something useful.

3. The Online Option:

The pandemic expanded the Manny’s community globally. I’m not even kidding. We have folks join our Obama Book Club from Austria!

These people are important to me and they want to stay connected to our programming and work. So, with that in mind, we are going to have a zoom option for all of our public programming for folks to be able to attend virtually. Why not?! The more accessible the better.

Ok — that’s about it for now. I have always tried to move through this project with honesty, including honesty about what I don’t know.

And I don’t know what the future will look like but these guiding principles will, I think, help us continue to do our best to be useful.

Ultimately that, to me, is what would make this whole project a success — that we were actually useful, that we contributed in some measurable way to make things better, that we did something about it.

And while the pandemic showed that if we work together as a single unit we can get through anything it also showed me just how important our physical places are — to the imagination, to our sense of community, to the health of our citizenship.

Manny’s is back.

And I can’t wait to welcome you in again.

-Manny