Thursday, November 6, 2025 | 6:00-8:00 PM
835 Larkin St. (The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot venue)
FREE! | No registration required | All welcome
Join sculptor, meditation instructor, and longtime Tenderloin community member Ramekon O’Arwisters for Crochet Jam, a community art experience rooted in the African-American tradition of weaving in a calm, nonjudgmental space. Blending art, mindfulness, and social connection, Crochet Jam invites participants to crochet strips of fabric into free-form, organic sculptures—without rules, patterns, or expectations. Basic instruction in crochet provided during the event. No attempt is made to dictate the creative process and there is no focus on the finished product.
O’Arwisters founded Crochet Jam in 2012 and has organized scores of them in the TL, around SF, and beyond; this iteration will be hosted at TLM’s venue for The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot play at 835 Larkin St. near the epicenter of the monthly SF First Thursday Art Walk. Over 2024-2025, Tenderloin Museum tapped O’Arwisters to participate in an “Artist Circle” convened by the Tenderloin Museum for the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Shaping Legacy project, a multi-year equity-focused initiative by SFAC to critically examine the monuments and memorials in San Francisco’s Civic Art collection. On the heels of this work, TLM invited the artist to share his signature community practice–the Crochet Jam–in a space that hosts community theater memorializing a pivotal overture in the Tenderloin’s timeline and LGBTQ Movement.
Join us! The event is free, no registration required, and drop ins are welcome!
ABOUT RAMEKON O’ARWISTERS
Sculptor and meditation instructor, Ramekon O’Arwisters, originally from North Carolina, began meditating as a teenager. While at Duke University Divinity School, he began to explore the impact of art and spirituality on issues of social justice, race, and culture. In 2012, Ramekon founded Crochet Jam, a community-art event, steeped in the African-American tradition of weaving in a calm and non-judgmental environment without rules or limitations. He is also the airport-wide Mindfulness Meditation Instructor at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), where he started the program in 2012.
ABOUT CROCHET JAM
Crochet Jam uses the folk-art tradition of crocheting strips of fabric into free-form and organic soft sculptures to foster social interaction, creativity, and liberation. There aren't any rules nor patterns. Crochet Jam is an opportunity for play, experimentation, and for allowing the material to transform naturally without any expectations nor any attempt to control the outcome. Participants become a conduit for the transformation of the material without any resistance, whether they like what they see or not. Participants just crochet and calmly observe without judgment or critique.
Part of SF First Thursday Art Walks.