The holidays are nigh, which means the return of the Tenderloin Museum’s Holiday Bazaar! Ten local artist-vendors will bring pop up shops to the Museum for a festive marketplace flush with neighborhood wares. Forget the old chestnuts and stereotypical stocking stuffers--enliven your gift game while supporting the arts. From hand-tooled leather belts to intricately-latticed metalworks to cherry-picked vintage duds, there will be a plethora of unique gifts for sale. This year’s seasonal celebration coincides with the opening reception for Holly Coley’s solo exhibition in the TL Museum gallery, Tender Life: Graphic and Ceramic Memories of Tenderloin Living, 1999-2004. 

The Tenderloin Museum presents its debut screening of Even In Darkness (2016), a new documentary by James Hosking (Beautiful By Night) that follows the city’s Night Minister, Rev. Lyle Beckman, as he walks the streets of the Tenderloin providing emotional support at a time when many need it the most: 10PM-4AM. The film will be screened alongside Shepherd of the Streets (1966), a KRON-TV Assignment Four report that offers a rare look at the pioneering work of San Francisco’s first Night Minister, Rev. Donald E. Stuart. James Hosking will be present for a panel discussion along with Rev. Beckman, former Night Minister Rev. Don Fox, and other community leaders.

The film A Day in the Life: The World of Humans Who Use Drugs takes us through one day in the life of eight people, from seven cities, in seven different countries of the world, from morning until night. They all have something in common - all of them use drugs. But these people are not defined by their drug use. All of them have their unique personalities, stories, and social networks. And the environment in which they live, the attitudes they face, the laws that regulate drug use, and the health services available to them have an enormous impact on their lives. It strives to challenge our common myths and preconceptions about drugs and the people who use them. It gives a voice to those representing one of the most marginalized communities of our world, and shows how they engage in social activism to break the silence and fight the stigma that shadows their days.

Join us for a screening of the film at the Tenderloin Museum on July 27th at 6:30/7, and a panel discussion following the film with Eliza Wheeler (Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project Manager), Taeko Frost (Filmmaker & co-producer of A Day in the Life), Holly (International Harm Reduction Activist), Isaac Jackson (Director of Urban Survivors Union), Janet Ector (LEAD & Harm Reduction Program Coordinator at Glide), and Paul Harkin (HIV/Hep C & Harm Reduction Program Manager at Glide). These leaders in the field of harm reduction will discuss plans to bring supervised drug consumption services (SCS) to California to promote health, dignity, and respect for people who use drugs.

Join us for the second-ever reading of scenes from a new play about Tenderloin history, The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, based on events surrounding the United States’ first-ever anti-police riot by the LGBTQ community. Mark Nassar along with Tenderloin Museum director Katie Conry conceived of the idea of an interactive play based on the Compton’s Cafeteria riot, inspired by the Tenderloin Museum’s exhibits on the subject. Nassar, in collaboration with long-term Tenderloin drag queens (and TLM collaborators) Donna Persona and Collette LeGrande, has spent the past year writing the play The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot. The first ever reading took place for a packed house at the Tenderloin Museum Turns Two. On July 18th the actors will read a revised version based on feedback from this first performance. We very much value transparency and community input, and invite you to be a part of the process of workshopping this play. The play will premiere in its finalized form this fall in the Tenderloin.

Join us next Thursday July 18th at the Tenderloin Museum for a discussion of the Tenderloin's preeminent author Dashiell Hammett, and a screening of pre-code adaptations of his most famous novels.

Described by The New York Times as one of Hammett’s “pre-eminent appreciators”, Don Herron, will lead a discussion about Hammett’s work in conjunction with a screening of selections from Hammett’s pre-code film The Maltese Falcon (1931), along with The Thin Man (1934) screened in its entirety. Providing historical reference for both films, Don Herron will discuss Hammett’s relationship with the Tenderloin before the screening. 

Tickets here: www.eventbrite.com/e/dashiell-hammett-with-don-herron-tickets-35799288636

Tenderloin Museum presents Peter Fortuna: A Tenderloin Story, an abbreviated retrospective featuring the photography and ephemera of Peter Fortuna. On view will be a collaged selection of original photographs, magazine tearsheets, correspondence, and digital photographs by Peter Fortuna spanning 1970-1998. Join us at Tenderloin Museum on July 6th 6-8pm for a celebration of Fortuna's unique life in photography. The opening reception will feature refreshments along with footage from the 1991 Fortuna produced film, ‘War.’

Tenderloin Museum is proud to participate in this years San Francisco Pride Parade along with many Bay Area museums and arts organizations under the banner “Museums with Pride.” Museums with Pride will march in the 47th Annual #SanFranciscoPride Parade, which kicks off at 10:30am on Market Street. Look out for us and give us a cheer!
Participating organizations are listed below:

SFMOMA
Tenderloin Museum
The Contemporary Jewish Museum
Asian Art Museum
California Academy of Sciences
California Historical Society
Cartoon Art Museum
Exploratorium
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Museum of African Diaspora
Walt Disney Family Museum
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Join us for the closing reception of Anywhere Zines on June 24th from 2 pm - 5 pm. The show is a culmination of artist Raphael Villet's 5 month residency at the Tenderloin Museum. The exhibition chronicles the 5 months that Raphael spent facilitating a space on the street for people to make art, write stories, and share knowledge through zines. In collaboration with the Tenderloin Museum, Raphael released an Anthology book housing all the zines made by 45+ people in the Tenderloin during his residency. 

This free community Saturday afternoon event features Tenderloin performances and refreshments. Also, Raphael will set up outside the TL Museum and make zines with attendees and neighbors. An exhibition featuring zines and photographs chronicling the artist's process will be on display in the Tenderloin Museum Gallery, and the Zine Anthology will be available for viewing and purchasing. 

On Thursday June 8th, join the Tenderloin Museum for Jazz in the Neighborhood featuring the Lorca Hart Organ Trio and a special emerging musicians set to accompany the evening performances.

The Lorca Hart Organ Trio, featuring Brian Ho on Hammond B3 organ, Mike Scott on guitar, and Lorca on drums, is rooted in the classic Jazz organ sound (Jimmy Smith, Larry Young; Jazz Standards and Be Bop) but also explores more contemporary elements and structures (original compositions; John Scofield, Joshua Redman, John Ellis, R+B and pop compositions) to create it’s own unique musical identity.

Join us for the culmination of Artist Raphael Villet's 5 month residency at the Tenderloin Museum of San Francisco. Raphael will release an Anthology book that will house all the zines made by 45+ people in the Tenderloin during his residency. The exhibition will chronicle the 5 months that Raphael spent facilitating a space on the street for people to make art, write stories and share knowledge through zines!

For the month of May at the Tenderloin Museum Gallery, artists Amanda Eicher and Cara Levine have activated an interactive artwork and exhibit titled This Is Not A Gun as a part of 100 Days Action. On Wednesday, May 24 from 6-8PM the exhibit will close with a community dialogue and art-making workshop led by Amanda Eicher. Throughout these first 100 days, sculptor Cara Levine has been carving wood replicas of common objects mistaken by police as weapons that resulted in police shootings, based on a list of these objects published in Harper’s Magazine in December 2016. About her sculptural inquiry, the artist says, “We do not know the outcome of these shootings. We do know that none of these items are guns. We want to understand this error. We want to understand through questioning, grieving, looking, and making. We want to understand together, as community.” Amanda Eicher, artist and organizer has engaged in continual dialogue with both Bay Area community and Richmond Police members surrounding this national crisis. Through this series of dialogues and hands-on workshops, Amanda Eicher and Cara Levine invite the public to honor and try to understand these objects, and the lives they have impacted. Participants will sculpt their own replica objects out of clay and be invited to contribute to an open dialogue as a part of the artist talk and exhibit closing workshop at the Tenderloin Museum on May 24.

The Tenderloin Museum marks its 2nd anniversary in the midst of an important year in the history of San Francisco – it’s the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love and the 100th anniversary of the “anti-vice” Tenderloin neighborhood shutdown. On Saturday, May 13, the Tenderloin Museum is inviting its friends and neighbors to celebrate the Tenderloin’s unique contributions to San Francisco history with daylong free museum admission and free public programs from 4 pm to 9 pm, featuring accounts of the “Invisible Circus” from the Diggers, San Francisco Chronicle Columnist David Talbot, the first-ever reading of the new play The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, and a dynamic jazz night by SF Recovery Theater. We’re excited to show off the best the neighborhood has to offer and celebrate the 31 square blocks we call home.

Programming Schedule:

 4pm, The Diggers' "Invisible Circus" Remembered

Come hear what the Summer of Love was like in the Tenderloin. Judy Goldhaft (original participant in the Diggers) and Eric Noble (Diggers archivist) talk with LisaRuth Elliott (Shaping San Francisco's co-director) about who the Diggers were, and their radical anti-capitalist philosophy and activities. They will share archival materials and personal experiences from the Diggers' "Invisible Circus" Happening at Glide Church on February 24, 1967. Stories about the "Invisible Circus" became legend in San Francisco’s hip community for years. Originally billed as a 72 hour event, participants were thrown out within 24 hours. See the poster from the event and hear stories of the spectacle from the Diggers themselves.

 5pm, David Talbot on the Summer of Love, Season of the Witch, and the Tenderloin

Author of the best selling book on San Francisco’s Summer of Love and its aftermath, San Francisco Chronicle columnist David Talbot gives his unique perspective on this seminal time in history.

 6pm, The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot

Join us for the first-ever reading of scenes from a new play about Tenderloin history, The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, based on events surrounding the United States’ first-ever anti-police riot by the LGBTQ community. Followed by dazzling drag performances by co-authors Donna Personna & Collette LeGrande, and joined by Olivia Hart (all featured in James Hosking’s film about Aunt Charlie’s bar, Beautiful by Night). The play is being co-produced by the Tenderloin Museum and writer Mark Nassar, co-creator of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, and will premiere this fall in the Tenderloin.

 7:30, SF Recovery Theater: Night at the Black Hawk

Join us for a raucous tour-de-force performance of some of the best musical talent in the neighborhood! Night at the Black Hawk is a live jazz concert, part of an ongoing series that reflects on the lives and stories of the artists, musicians, and residents that lived in the shadow of the Black Hawk Jazz Club.

This April 30th explore the Tenderloin neighborhood car free at Sunday Streets. Activity Hubs will be located on Ellis and Golden Gate Ave with dozens of free activities in between offered by local merchants (the Tenderloin Museum will be exhibiting at Ellis and Leavenworth). As part of our Sunday Streets activation, the Tenderloin Museum will be hosting a workshop, 100 Days of Action: This Is Not A Gun, at the TL Museum (398 Eddy St) from 11 am - 2 pm.
 

Hotel workers tell their story. 
The rich history of organized labor in the Tenderloin includes that of today's largest San Francisco private sector union. UNITE HERE Local 2 represents approximately 12,000 hotel and restaurant workers in San Francisco and northern San Mateo county. Members of the union will read excerpts from the play, 53 Days - Local 2 on Stage, and discuss the 2004 hotel industry lockout and strike which it depicts. 

 Come see a section of this production and talk to the workers about their experience on the picket line and the proscenium. 53 Days, Local 2 on Stage is a docudrama re-creation about labor rights and speaks to the workers about their experience on the picket line. Join us for an evening celebrating the history of the labor movement in the Tenderloin.

Presented by Bill Shields, the Chair of Labor and Community Studies at City College of San Francisco, and the director of the oral history theater project, "Work Tales". 

Join us as we welcome Lidia Yuknavitch for her much-anticipated novel The Book of Joan!

A raucous celebration, a searing condemnation, and a fiercely imaginative retelling of Joan of Arc’s transcendent life. -- Roxane Gay, New York Times-bestselling author of Bad Feminist

The Book of Joan is a riveting tale of destruction and the beauty found in unlikely places—even at the extreme end of post-human experience. A book suffused with dirt, sweat, and blood, it raises questions about what it means to be human, the meaning of sex and gender, and the role of art as means for survival.

Root Division and Tenderloin Museum present a special evening in conversation with artists Alice Combs and Susa Cortez on Thursday, April 13th, 2017. The artists will discuss their individual art practices, and how they approach their role as teaching artists for Root Division, currently working with Tenderloin neighborhood residents. Combs and Cortez are interdisciplinary artists that have practices inclusive of traditional painting and drawing, sculpture, installation and performance. Utilizing their varied skill sets they have developed customized curriculum for students at  Kelly Cullen Community, Larkin Street Youth, and Community Housing Partnership, including the collaborative printmaking and collage projects that are currently on view alongside their own work at the Tenderloin Museum.

San Francisco Recovery Theatre is returning to the Tenderloin Museum Thursday March 30th! Night at the Black Hawk is a live jazz concert, part of an ongoing series that reflects on the lives and stories of the artists, musicians and residents that lived in the shadow of the Black Hawk Jazz Club. This live jazz event is free and open to the public, donations accepted and appreciated.

With the loss of so many artistic and iconic figures in 2016, not to mention the unsure political footing we find ourselves in, we are left with an open wound that needs healing. San Francisco Recovery Theatre is once again pledging its commitment to provide a safe place for those that are still suffering, their family members and those in recovery. Join us on this special date in celebrating the wealth of talent that exists in our community.

Root Division is proud to present the work of our Studio Artists and students at the Tenderloin Museum this spring. More Than a Roof and Walls features the work of Alice Combs and Susa Cortez alongside the work of their intergenerational students at several of our Tenderloin community partnerships including Kelly Cullen Community, Community Housing Partnership & Larkin Street Youth.

Root Divison teaching artists volunteer to teach residents and clients weekly creating meaningful art projects and experiences for populations that are settling into new homes and communities. The classes serve as a creative outlet for the imaginations of students while introducing them to a wide range of materials, projects, and ideas.

Join Root Division and the Tenderloin Museum for an artist lecture & closing reception of Rea Lynn de Guzman's TL Dreams on Thursday February 23rd. Learn about Rea’s process and hear about her experiences growing up in the Tenderloin; Doors at 6:30pm, Program at 7pm.

Rea Lynn de Guzman is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores psychological and socio-political themes surrounding liminal identity, cultural assimilation, and the Filipino/a diaspora, tempered by her experience as a Filipina immigrant living in the United States. At the age of fourteen, she emigrated from the Philippines to the United States with her single mother, settling eventually in San Francisco. She lived in the Tenderloin—at Turk and Taylor Streets—where she spent most of her formative years (circa 2000-2005).

Black History Month Film Series is a collaboration of ABD Productions/Skywatchers and community partners Tenderloin Museum, TL Votes, Faithful Fools, and Glide. These organizations will be hosting screenings of the films 13th, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, and Free Angela and All Political Prisoners at various locations throughout the Tenderloin, concluding in a facilitated discussion each night.

“Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” - Presented by the Tenderloin Museum
February 22nd at the Tenderloin Museum (398 Eddy Street) 5:30 pm

Free and open to the public.

The Tenderloin Museum and the Black Cat present an evening in recognition of the centennial anniversary of the Tenderloin vice district closures of 1917, on February 15, 2017 from 5:30 pm - 1 am. Join us for an evening of live entertainment at the Black Cat and celebrate 100 years of resistance to traditional social mores in the Tenderloin.

The historical efforts by reformers to close and establish a “moral” alliance in the heart of the Tenderloin, denying working women and their patrons essential freedoms and protections concluded with a neighborhood wide closure of bars and bordellos (including the original Black Cat) on February 15, 1917. Having closed down San Francisco’s notorious Barbary Coast for good in 1913, reformers assumed that they had also won a thorough cleanup of the Tenderloin once and for all. Only a few short years after reformers declared victory, the Tenderloin came back stronger than ever. The 1917 campaign would be the first of many establishment attacks on the Tenderloin’s challenge to traditional social values. 

Open to the public. Bar is first come, first served. To make a reservation for dining: www.opentable.com/r/black-cat-san-francisco

Temporal Cities is multimedia collaboration between artists Lizzy Brooks and Radka Pulliam. Over the last three years, through a sidewalk booth, they collected stories and memories from residents of San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, where they both live. Inspired by more than 300 stories, they have been working on a film, a website and a book.

You are invited to come view their work in progress, make your own zine out of your favorite printed stories, drawings and photographs of participants, and watch the 25 min film that uses a mix of technologies, images, and memories recorded and forgotten. You will discover layered history of our neighborhood, always incomplete and unfinished, a patchwork of personal stories that disappear into cracked sidewalks. 

The Tenderloin Museum first hosted Temporal Cities’ collection booth in the winter 2015. During the museum’s regularly scheduled evening events, Temporal Cities projected images in the window to attract passersby and event attendees to the installation, where they were encouraged to share a personal story using a typewriter, clipboard and pen, or a rotary phone turned into an audio recorder. The accessibility of the prompts and materials has created an inclusive environment that welcomed newcomers and longtime residents. Temporal Cities has intended to engage the Tenderloin community in a conversation about place and personhood that transcends polarizing debates about change in San Francisco. 

In an on-going collaboration with the Tenderloin Museum, Temporal Cities received support from the Neighborhood Artist Collaborative grant, to produce three themed collection events, a story-sharing booth installation at the TL Museum, and this event- a residency showcase to share their collection of stories with the larger San Francisco community. 

You can view or contribute a story at http://www.temporalcities.org/

Join the Tenderloin Museum and the EXIT Theatre for a special presentation of Fog City Magic Fest: The Magic of Danté! This family friendly event is part of the 2nd Annual Fog City Magic Fest presented by the EXIT theater, running from January 25th to the 28th 2017. The Magic of Danté is presented to the Glide Family, Youth & Childcare Center, but all neighborhood children are invited to attend, free of charge. Join Danté, family magician extraordinaire, the EXIT Theatre, and the Tenderloin Museum, for a special family neighborhood magic extravaganza.

On January 25th, join the Tenderloin Museum and the Center for Sex & Culture to celebrate the 100th anniversary of San Francisco's 1917 sex worker march. On January 25th, 1917 Reggie Gamble and Maude Spencer, two madams of the Uptown Tenderloin vice district, organized a demonstration against the planned Valentine's Day eviction of San Francisco's brothels. Targeting anti-vice reformer Rev. Paul Smith, nearly 300 prostitutes stormed the reverend's church and took over the pulpit, demanding that the congregation hear their concerns. Reggie Gamble's speech, which was covered by every one of the city's major newspapers, demanded economic justice and a halt to the looming evictions that threatened to displace the thousands of sex workers that lived and worked in San Francisco's vice districts. The 1917 march, the first of its kind in the United States, sits alongside the protests at San Francisco's Compton Cafeteria and the New York's Stonewall Inn as important historical events reclaimed by communities, and an important milestone in the struggle for sex worker’s rights.

100 Years of the Sex Worker’s Rights Movement will begin on Wednesday, January 25th at 5:30pm at the Tenderloin Museum. A $10 suggested donation will be taken at the door (no one turned away for lack of funds). Refreshments will be available. The procession to the original protest site, just two blocks from the Tenderloin Museum, will leave at 8:15pm. If you plan on attending the march, warm clothes, candles, and signs are encouraged.

The Tenderloin Museum is pleased to announce our annual Volunteer Fair will take place on Wednesday, January 18th. This is a chance to hear first hand from a select group of amazing service nonprofits in the neighborhood. A 6:30 pm reception will be followed by brief presentations from a selection of local service organizations. Come learn about the fantastic work being done by these organization to help our community, and find out ways you can get involved. Participants include Glide, Project Open Hand, De Marilliac Academy, 826 Valencia Tenderloin Center, Care Through Touch, Larkin Street Youth Services, the Gubbio Project and more!