Erica Mu

San Francisco is home to a long line of comedians. “The earliest job I ever wanted was a standup comedian,” remembers San Francisco resident Thomas Reeve. “I did standup in elementary school or junior high, but I was always building stuff in the background. Like, I'd build model rockets and RC cars.”

Reeve has long since abandoned his standup comedy dreams, but all that building he was doing in the background as a kid – well, it's paid off. Reeve is now a mechanical engineer, and he's also the subject of this Hear Here story.

No matter how long you’ve lived in the Bay Area, there are probably certain neighborhoods that you’ve never visited. Here in San Francisco, Visitacion Valley is one of those places. It’s in the southeastern most part of the city; the highway exit? Well, it’s the “Cow Palace.”

What happens when you combine local public radio, a story slam, and a grilled cheese cook-off? A recipe for a good time! KALW is bringing you a live menu of food-themed tales from professional storytellers and local residents. It's part of our new community storytelling project, Hear Here: A Pop-Up Radio Project. Be sure to stay for the evening’s three acts:

APPETIZER: Professional storyteller and radio producer hamming it up on stage

MAIN COURSE: Grilled cheese cookoff, judged by select audience members

Here at KALW, we're experimenting with a new way of producing radio, and it involves you. It's our new community storytelling initiative, Hear Here: A Pop-Up Radio Project, in which we take our microphones to local neighborhoods to listen to your stories.

Anna Zhu and Alison Zhao are cousins. They shared their thoughts on family dinner in the U.S. as American-born Chinese with the producers of our new community storytelling initiative, Hear Here: A Pop-Up Radio Project.

For more information about Hear Here: A Pop-Up Radio Project, click here. You can also find the project on Facebook and follow it on Twitter at@hearhereradio.