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The student-run magazine of San Francisco State University

Xpress Magazine

The student-run magazine of San Francisco State University

Xpress Magazine

The student-run magazine of San Francisco State University

Xpress Magazine

This year, 4,300 students will graduate at Oracle Park and none of their names will be read during the ceremony. But, their image will be shown on a four-way split jumbotron as they pose in front of a backdrop. (Braelyn Furse / Xpress Magazine)
Fixing Commencement Isn’t So Simple
Eddie Monares, Senior Editor • May 15, 2026

Thousands of feet bustling and swarming cheers fill the stadium — this is a typical day on Third and King Street. In May, it isn’t a foreign...

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Marco Cochrane's R-Evolution is a 45 feet tall steel-mesh sculpture in Embarcadero Plaza. (Klyde Java special to Xpress Magazine)
The Art of Slowing Down: Finding Reflection in San Francisco’s Streets
Grace Pastene, Staff Reporter • May 15, 2026

Margaret Martinez steps past a wall layered in paint — tags over murals, colors bleeding into one another, some fresh, some fading. She sees...

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Students use many forms of technology for multiple hours of the day when doing school work. (Braelyn Furse / Xpress Magazine)
Always On: San Francisco’s quiet pushback against tech burnout
Grace Pastene, Staff Reporter • May 15, 2026

Between classes, homework and constant notifications, many college students are struggling to find a moment away from screens. What once felt...

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Tamanna Shirol is an international student at SF State and is studying industrial design with a minor in both marketing and visual communication design. (Gwen Murray / Xpress Magazine)
Guest Essay: The U.S. Is Pushing Away the Students It Profits From
Tamanna Shirol, Contributor • May 15, 2026

The first time I realized how fragile my future in the U.S. was, I was filling out a job application. After four years of studying and building...

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Model: Xpress  design editor Jack Glancy
AI: Artificial Intimacy
Asé Mora, Staff Reporter • May 15, 2026

When Eric Edland initially began experimenting with ChatGPT, he was intrigued by the tool’s capacity to hold intellectually stimulating conversations....

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Anahid and Ayline Magdesian standing
hand-in-hand in their California home as an officiant legalizes and officiates their
marriage, in 2008. (Photo courtesy of
Magdesian family)
Closets, Culture and Three Daughters Later: The Making of a Modern Armenian Family
Lara Magdesian, Copy Editor • May 14, 2026

It’s 2008 and I’m sitting in my living room. Dressed in a nylon-polyester dress, I look toward my two moms standing hand-in-hand in front...

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Scott Weiner, Connie Chan and Saikat Chakrabarti at a San Francisco Candidate Forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of San Francisco, in the Mission Bay Conference Center on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (Giselle Garza Lerma / Xpress Magazine)
A Conversation With Connie Chan and Saikat Chakrabarti
Ben Rubin, Staff Reporter • May 14, 2026

In June, San Francisco residents will vote in a top-two primary election for the 11th Congressional District to decide which two candidates will...

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Japantown’s Peace Pagoda under construction for their renovation project which will increase its stage size and seating capacity. Following its completion, Osaka Way will be Japantown’s next renovation project. (Lindsey Hoang / Xpress Magazine)
New Look: Osaka Way’s Makeover in Japantown
Gibran Beydoun, Contributor • May 14, 2026

Cherry blossom trees, stone benches and bronze idle fountains surround the intersection of Post and Sutter Street — one of the many heartbeats...

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The Bawdy Caste performing the last scene in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The cast performs a kickline while singing the song “Rose Tint My World” at the Balboa Theatre on April 25, 2026. (Gwen Murray / Xpress Magazine)
The Credits Aren’t Rolling Yet
Claudia Perez Aguilera, Copy Editor • May 14, 2026

Performers wearing fishnets and corsets dance on stage in front of a screen playing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” leading the audience...

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The Bay Area CyberRays team moments before their first game, commemorating it in a photo. Later that season, the team made history clinching the first Women’s United Soccer Association title. (Courtesy of Marlene Bjornsrud)
Built to Last: Professional Women’s Sports Take Root in the Bay Area
Eddie Monares, Senior Editor • April 29, 2026

Inside Rikki’s in San Francisco’s Castro District, every screen is tuned to a game — but not the ones you might traditionally expect. Whether...

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While the 1906 earthquake brought devastation, it also opened up new avenues for geologists and engineers to understand the complexities of living and building along active fault lines. (Chadwick, H. D / Wikimedia Commons)
An Epicenter of Uncertainty: A Conversation with Local Geologist Expert on Seismic Safety in SF
Hannah Clark-Nixon, Managing Editor • April 23, 2026

The sun rose as it always does on April 18, 1906. The difference this morning was the reflection of red flames against dense brown clouds that...

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Memetic Warfare: How Jokes Turn into Propaganda
Memetic Warfare: How Jokes Turn into Propaganda
Angelique Persails, Staff Reporter • April 20, 2026

When the U.S. launched air strikes on Iran in conjunction with Israel, killing Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, 2026, the White...

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SF State student, Audrey MacVicar, transferred for the anthropology program that shortly after announced it was being discontinued. (Eliza Arthur / Xpress Magazine)
The Hollowing of Humanities: From Exploration to Vocation
Bailey Zitko, Editor-in-Chief • April 17, 2026

In a fluorescent-lit classroom, where whiteboards are usually filled with mathematical equations and diagrams, Professor Mojtaba Azadi’s early-semester...

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Amy Sueyoshi speaks with Student Union on topics including funding, AI, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on campus during open negotiations, which took place in Malcolm X Plaza on April 8, 2026. (Gabriel Carver / Xpress Magazine)
An Imperfect System and an Unsolvable Crisis
Bianca Sieraski and Josh Miranda April 17, 2026

Elena Pace left her world in North Carolina to pursue film production at SF State because she believed its online rankings could support her...

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Women fight a constant battle, mentally and physically, with their body as societal expectations constantly change and favor arbitrary measurements. Model: Samara Gutierrez (Giselle Garza Lerma / Xpress Magazine)
Shrink Yourself: An Admission to Womanhood
Hannah Clark-Nixon, Managing Editor • April 17, 2026

There is a genie who grants a particular kind of wish — one that takes root in adolescence, when bodies begin to change and judgment seeps...

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