hiyaswanhuyser, Author at substrate arts

Slough City: You City

By Hiya Swanhuyser, with Ani & Bonnie Bonani

Substrate Arts co-founder Hiya Swanhuyser talks to Ani & Bonnie Bonani about the history behind Petaluma’s inclusive queer arts space: Slough City Studios.

September 2, 1990

By Hiya Swanhuyser

Nazi punks, fuck off! The night of a small-town rebellion.

Bad trouble came to Petaluma’s Phoenix Theater in the form of skinheads wearing military-style jackets, tall boots, and armbands with swastikas. That night, a group of teenagers banded together to resist that racist violence—culminating in an intense but nearly forgotten confrontation.

Sweet Heartache Landscape

By Hiya Swanhuyser, with Yea-Ming Chen

As part of Substrate Arts’ Launch Party held at Magic Theatre in June 2023, Substrate Arts co-founder Hiya Swanhuyser spoke onstage with songwriter, composer, and actor Yea-Ming Chen.

Fence Me In: A Sonoma County Story

Graphic Design of the Running Fence stretched across a landscape. the Text reads Fence Me In, in 1975, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “Running Fence” existed in, or on top of, the place I call home. The fence isn’t written in my own memory, but I saw it.

By Hiya Swanhuyser

“Sonoma County children both growing and grown share memories of the Running Fence…They don’t notice it lining the community center ceiling to baffle sound. They sell the livestock they’ve raised in front of it. If they do notice it, they wonder why it’s so huge, and what it’s made of, and why it’s so oddly unlikely to catch fire, although if you really try you can set it on fire a little.”