Sasha Sommer
Community organizerSasha is organizing a free neighborhood potluck on the Slow Street in her district, bringing the community together to discuss their dreams for the future of their neighborhood at a communal table.
SOCIAL FUTURESDISTRICT 2
ABOUT SASHA
In her professional work, Sasha organizes and design activities programming for underserved women, creating intentional spaces where clients can build community, exchange skills, and feel a sense of belonging that is often missing from traditional service models. This work has taught her that civic culture isn’t abstract, it’s built through consistency, trust, and environments where people feel seen and empowered to participate. San Francisco’s social fabric, with all its challenges and contradictions, has been the most fertile ground for this kind of work.
INTERESTSGathering, Shared presence, Conversation as a civic practice
VISIONOne where civic life is participatory, creative, and deeply relational.
Slow Street Community Potluck
Gathering the Neighborhood on the Slow Street for a Communal Meal
The Slow Street community potluck reimagines what sharing a meal together looks like, taking place on one of our prominent neighborhood resources - the Slow Street. One big long table will be set up in the middle of the street where participants will bring food from home to share.
There will also be a live art piece being created as the event takes place. With input from participants based on the conversation topics at each table, the participants will be able to “submit” their ideas to the artist who will render them artistically to create a mosaic of ideas brought together by the community into one larger piece.
July X, 2026 • time-timeLocation
Sasha’s Picks
Check out some of the materials and resources that have helped shape Sasha’s visions for what could be.
Season of the Witch
In Season of the Witch, David Talbot chronicles the cultural and political evolution of San Francisco from the late 1960s through the early 1980s—a period of upheaval, idealism, and rebirth. Against the backdrop of protests, assassinations, and radical change, the city emerges as a microcosm of the nation’s own growing pains.
The Art of Gathering: How we Meet and Why it Matters
In The Art of Fighting, Priya Parker explains that we can’t form and grow effective relationships without a fight. She rejects the idea that conflict is abnormal or that good groups don’t fight. All groups change and evolve; indeed, it’s because people disagree that good groups flourish.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being
The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments—and lifetimes—of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.