>> we all sound very excited because we have some special guests. we have nearly -- mayor lee. [applause] and we also have our very own superintendent coranza. i am sure you want to hear a few words from the superintendent, correct? from mayor lee? the spring them a warm harvey milk will come.

-- let us give them a warm harvey milk will come. >> good morning, everybody. welcome back to harvey milk academy. it is my pleasure to join all of you, the students, parents, faculty, and school administration, to kick off a wonderful year. how many students want to be mayor of san francisco? how about a mayor from the civil rights academy of harvey milk? we would be proud of that. i want to welcome everybody back. i know you had a great summer. i want you to approach this school like a sponge, soak up everything that you can learn. it is great to have knowledge about everything going on in the world, what is going on in the city. by the way, i will be supporting

your parents and teachers and faculty to make this the best school in san francisco. how about that? [applause] and you are starting out fantastic. this is what san francisco is about. all the parents involved children and faculty to make this the best school. you have a mayor that will pay attention to our school, education, make sure you get the best education, because i want you to have my job some day. how about that? welcome back, welcome to the great school of harvey milk. you have a wonderful faculty who is going to teach you and expose you to a lot of different things to keep you active. we are going to help the city make sure your after-school programs are solid. thank you and have a great year.

welcome back. [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. superintendent coranza. [applause] >> good morning, boys and girls. we can do better than that. when i say good morning, i want to yell as loud as you can. good morning. >> good morning! >> that is beautiful. are you excited to be back in school? and one more time, good morning. >> good morning! >> we are excited to be here with the mayor who has a busy schedule. i will tell you why we wanted to be here at harvey milk. harvey milk looks like san francisco. it is the most diverse school in our district. it is a beautiful school. you know what is also great about harvey milk? we know, based on last year's

assessment, we predict harvey milk will have great growth in student achievement again this year. isn't that great? [applause] that is great because we know it does not happen without the wonderful teachers you have. so i want you to be sure to listen and pay attention to your teacher this year and do what they say. if you do, they will prepare you to be mayor one day or superintendent one day, or president one day. so listen to your teachers. you have a great principle. she fights for you every single day to make sure you have your resources to be successful. i brought some people with me that wanted to come and see harvey milk civil rights academy. these are people i work very closely with but they are so excited to be here because they heard about all the good news and all the good stuff here at harvey milk civil rights academy. first is our board member.

hydra mendoza. the other person is the assistant superintendent that supervises harvey milk's above its academy, margaret chu. [applause] i also brought with me the deputies said pete produce superintendent for so solid justice, mr. garrido. this is such a special school, i brought two deputy superintendent. the other deputy is in charge of policy and operations. myung lee. he is jumping back there. does anybody here want to be a lawyer? oh, come on, parents. this is so special, we brought the general counsel, the big lawyer in the district. his name is don davis, and he is

over there. and then our director of communications is a factor as well. -- back there as well. why do i introduce the people to you? because we are so proud of harvey milk civil-rights academy, we all wanted to be here on the first day of school. this is not the last time you will see us. we want to come back to read in the classrooms. i understand you do a school dance. maybe we get invited to do that. we want you to have a great school year. q want to thank all of you parents for all that you do. we cannot do this without you. let's have a great year. yay! [applause] >> thank you. we have traditions here at harvey milk. one of the traditions is a dance that we do.

boys and girls, what do you do? tell us what we do. >> the cuban shuffle. >> come to the middle if you are going to do the cuban shuffle. this is a dance that we do. parents, teachers, come on up. ♪

>> this is really a great opportunity to express to you my appreciation for the america's cup, for deciding to come into san francisco to have this 34th race. the economic impact to the city is incredible. we estimate there will be $1 billion spent by everybody involved throughout the bay area as a result of this race. 8000 jobs have been this 34th

race. , to hospitality, all the hotels, all the activities that you see around this waterway. it is an incredible infusion of economic activity for our bay area. i am also very excited -- the world series races -- as you know, i got to be on the ac 45 vote last week. i just want to let you know, i just graduated from a tire tube to an ac 45. that was a wonderful experience. that was just on one boat by itself going at top-notch creatm construction speed, getting a good to experience the teamwork that happens. i can only imagine how the teams and 11 votes that will be in the races today will practice the rest of the week will have to coordinate a long haul of the balancing of the wind, the waves along the day when they are competing against each other. i am very happy to welcome all of you to the beginning of this race. it is expected to be an exciting part. i can feel it already.

i think our audience, as you said, getting into the details and the technology involved, along with the team work and the race itself, will be incredibly great for theppreciate. i want to think the organizing committee, particularly the racing committee and steve partly and ian murray for their wonderful collaboration with the city. they have been working with us for 18 months, negotiating from permits to the race to the details and with all the difference to the agency's credit to the coast guard and the safety of the racers themselves and the audiences along the water and waterfront. i also want to thank the rec and park commission president, head of the organizing committee, that is mark buell and carry mcclellan, for their excellent work for helping to lead the city side of it.

and i want to thank, of course, all the racing teams that have made the decision to start racing in this wonderful day of hours. that will be, again, the first time ever that you will be able to see these races from the shore. the book to use the technology to get the excitement down, right on the boat itself. with that, i would like to welcome, and then i look forward not only to this race and next year, for the louis vuitton cup and america's cup, but i look for to announcing that this is, in addition to the third fourth america cup, it will be the san francisco america's cup. thank you and welcome. >> thank you.

>> i tried to think about this room as the dream room, where we dream and bring some of those dreams to life. i feel very blessed that i have been able to spend the last 31 years of my life doing it my way, thinking about things better interesting to me, and then pursuing them. there are a lot of different artists that come here to work, mostly doing aerial work. kindred spirits, so to speak. there is a circus company that i have been fortunate enough to work with the last couple of years. i use elements of dance and choreography and combine that with theater techniques. a lot of the work is content- based, has a strong narrative.

the dancers have more of a theatrical feel. i think we are best known for our specific work. in the last 15 years, spending a lot of time focusing on issues that affect us and are related to the african-american experience, here in the united states. i had heard of marcus shelby and had been in join his work but never had the opportunity to meet him. we were brought together by the equal justice society specifically for this project. we were charged with beginning work. marquez and i spent a lot of time addressing our own position on the death penalty, our experiences with people who

had been incarcerated, family members, friends of friends. pulling our information. beyond that, we did our own research. to create a picture that resonated with humanity. it is the shape of a house. in this context, it is also small and acts like a cell. i thought that was an interesting play on how these people make these adjustments, half to create home. what is home for these people? the home is their cell. people talk a lot about noise -- very noisy in prisons. that is interesting to me. looking at the communication

level, the rise of frustration of being caged, wondering, where does redemption fit into the equation here? [singing] i think both of us really believe the death penalty is wrong, and is flawed for many reasons. the list is as long as my arm -- about several others. we feel this is important for both of us, personally, to participate in the debate of this issue in a way that we can

help people frame it for a conversation.

good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the commonwealth club in formed division, connect your intellect. that is our tagline. i am the president of the inform board. tonight, we