SAN FRANCISCO -- Future of Us has announced the inaugural Future Culture Fellowship cohort: more than 30 civic leaders from San Francisco neighborhoods who will lead over 50 free, community-designed activations during the Future of Us Festival, July 4–12, 2026. Fellow bios, activation details, and registration links are available at future-of-us.com/collective.

“Our Fellows are bringing their own visions of the future to life in the communities they know and love,” said Alisa Ahmadian, Co-creator of Future of Us. “What's been remarkable to watch is what happens when you bring them together. Salina and Dakota met through the Fellowship, connected over a shared love of local food culture, and are now co-producing an activation called Food for Thought that explores the rich food history of the Bayview — something that likely wouldn't exist if they hadn't met through this fellowship. That kind of organic collaboration is happening across the cohort. This is what Future of Us is built to do: design with and for the communities that make up San Francisco, and create the conditions for them to shape what comes next.”

The Fellows bring expertise in fields such as marine biology, music, speculative design, neuroscience, data science, youth education, street dance history, housing architecture, and community organizing. Each Fellow contributes unique neighborhood knowledge and civic vision. The program includes neighborhood dinners, ecological activations, wellness spaces, community gatherings, dance experiences, and speculative design exhibitions.

The Future Culture Fellowship is the civic foundation of the Future of Us initiative. Rather than centrally designed programming, each Fellow develops activations based on their lived experience and personal visions for the future of civic culture. Fellows are part of a year of workshops, training, and collaboration that will continue after the festival.

Tricia Choi, a dancer and community builder who has spent two decades creating and growing roots in San Francisco, will host street dance classes and a DJ dance party across four evenings in July. “Street dance was born from marginalized communities as a physical response to exclusion,” said Choi. “That origin is still alive in the culture. You can spot a Bay Area house dancer on a dance floor anywhere. San Francisco has always been shaped by people who create culture by experimenting, sharing, and building together. You don't need status, money, or permission, just a willingness to show up. My hope is that people step onto the dance floor and feel firsthand what it means to co-create culture rather than simply consume it.”

Dakota Pekerti, founder of Kamu Siapa Kitchen, is hosting Food for Thought, a community co-created dinner at the India Basin Food Pavilion. The event will blend Indonesian and Southern Soul Food to celebrate the Bayview's rich food history, both past and future.

“For years, I've wanted to connect more deeply with San Francisco and its food scene, not just as a consumer,” said Pekerti. “That can be hard without a clear purpose or a chance to build something meaningful. The Future of Us Fellowship gave me that chance. It let me visit communities, hear their stories, listen to their concerns, and bring my own community together to create something with them. I hope people leave feeling connected to the ingredients, stories, and flavors of their neighborhoods and city. I also want them to try new tastes that help them imagine the future of food, beyond what they already know. Most of all, I want them to leave saying they just had the best meal of their life.”

During the festival's ten days, participants may engage in one-on-one conversations about economic values, attend neighborhood dinners inspired by community food memories, or experience a candlelit room with locally grown flowers and a labyrinth leading to new civic commitments. Other activities include neighborhood scavenger hunts, public art opportunities, data literacy workshops with dance, and neighborhood crawls exploring the question: who is this city built for?

Each activation is united by the belief that some of the most effective civic programming begins with what a community already knows, values, and imagines, and is best designed by those who live it. Fellows developed their activations based on their own neighborhoods, expertise, and civic vision. This approach brings civic life directly to San Franciscans, rather than asking them to seek it out.

The inaugural cohort represents ten of San Francisco's Supervisorial Districts, with activations at confirmed venues including SFMOMA, Gray Area, the Southeast Community Center in Bayview, the Miraloma Park Improvement Club, Fort Mason, and neighborhood parks and third spaces citywide. The full program will be released in the coming weeks as venues and dates are finalized.

The Future Culture Fellowship is part of Future of Us, a three-part civic initiative that includes The Visions, a year-long nationwide listening tour with over 1,000 community reflections; The Festival, the July 4–12 citywide celebration; and The Collective, a coalition of Bay Area civic builders and creatives.