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Santísima Yelamu is an offering to the spirit of the city of San Francisco.
Throughout the past 5+ years, the city has been through many changes. We as individuals and as a community have lost so much without the usual ritual and ceremony that such changes necessitate. Rituals like funerals, graduations, birthday parties, weddings, baby showers, were put on hold. Without the space these rituals create to gracefully integrate big life changes, there is a sense of unfinishedness, of incompleteness that permeates our world. We have been stuck in this liminal space for too long, and the unease it creates can be felt in everything we do. Through this offering, we hope to provide a space to grieve, release, honor, and integrate whatever it is that you are holding. We offer this space to put it down, to rest your arms, to share the load. We intentionally chose Incline Gallery, this liminal space, to create a portal to rest and healing. We invite you to offer up something you are honoring, mourning, letting go of, moving through, as you walk the ramps of this in-between space. Let the spirit of Yelamu hold you as you go. We are so thankful to this city for raising us, loving us, holding us. So let your journey here be an offering to her. You entered here as one person, and you will leave as someone new. How will you mark this change? |
About the Sisters Magtoto
Niki has devoted her career to creating safer and more informed spaces for under-resourced members of our community.
Monica has devoted her career to making beautiful spaces and bringing magic to the ordinary.
As fourth-generation San Franciscans of Filipino, Mexican, Cape Verdean, and Irish descent, the Sisters Magtoto have been nurtured, grown, loved, and held by our city. And, there have been so many changes and losses of all kinds for us in the past few years that we have yet to grieve.The fabric of our communities was torn and thrown in so many directions as the larger fabric of the world is snagging and tearing.
In early March of 2020, our mother lost her battle with cancer, and in January of 2022, we lost our remaining matriarch, our grandmother. These true blue San Francisco homegirls were the epitome of love and community. They welcomed in everyone who needed love, everyone who needed and extra mom or grandma.
We never got to honor them in the grand fashion they deserved.
So, in their lineage of inclusivity, open hearts, and explosive, fierce love, we welcome you to Santísima Yelamu.
Check out a walkthrough of the space
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Slide show of the prints, 5 large paintings, and 11 papier-mache sculptures created for the show as our three ofrendas - for community, past selves and spirit.
Here is the ceremony we performed on 11/1/25 as part of our space activation