Nonprofit led by San Francisco woman helps revitalize Mission District theater
This week's CBS News Bay Area Icon Award winner is a woman credited with saving and revitalizing a cultural centerpiece in San Francisco's Mission District.
Anastacia Powers Cuellar remembers the first time she visited the Brava Theater back in 1983.
"I came to see a film about Machito. And John Santos was giving a lecture about the history of Latin jazz and salsa and I was just blown away," Powers Cuellar told CBS News Bay Area.
She has never lost that sense of awe. Since 2012, she's led Brava! for Women in the Arts.
The nonprofit highlights productions by women, the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, youth and other underrepresented voices.
"Whether it was through the movies or live performances, it's always been a vortex of creative energy," Powers Cuellar said.
The theater first opened in 1926 as a vaudeville stage and eventually became a movie house with ownership and name changes before Brava bought the building in 1996.
But some 15 years later, a recession nearly dropped the curtain on the cultural centerpiece.
"It was $2 million in debt; there were 25 liens on the property. It was very sad," she recalled
Powers Cuellar was hired to save it.
"I knew what this place meant in the community," she explained.
Drawing on three decades' experience in the arts and administration, she secured grants and community partnerships. She led the effort to resuscitate the theater center, renovated its storefronts along 24th Street, and carved a new cabaret space.
Jose Carrasco, director of the Loco Bloco performing arts group at Brava, had a front row seat to the transformative work of Powers Cuellar, also known as "Stacie."
"It takes an important skill set of knowing how to work with people," Carrasco said. "I really couldn't tell you what the secret recipe is for Stacie, but she makes it happen."
Today, 30,000 people come to more than 200 events a year at Brava, showcasing local artists in music, theater, dance and more.
Brava provides affordable rental space to nonprofits. And it's home to youth performing arts and paid internships for teenagers learning production.
Empress Kehinde Koyejo, one of a dozen resident artists at Brava, celebrates Powers Cuellar's gifts of collaboration and innovation.
"As an artist, you need someone who can see and believe in you and say without question, 'Let's go ahead and do it,'" Koyejo said, smiling.
After more than a dozen years as executive director, Powers Cuellar said she is ready to step down in June 2025.
She urges people to continue to support Brava and the arts, especially in today's climate, when costs are rising, and utility bills alone have more than doubled in the last few years.
Powers Cuellar said she is proud that she helped usher a new period of stability for the arts community.
"And we need it for our heart and soul and well-being," she said.
For saving and breathing new life into the Brava Theater Center, this week's CBS News Bay Area Icon Award goes to Anastacia Powers Cuellar.
