Thursday March 12, 2026
At Dodge Alley (Turk & Larkin St.)
Free to attend | No registration required
$15 vouchers for food/drink at nearby businesses first come first serve
Live music returns to the Tenderloin’s Dodge Alley in 2026! Cascada de Flores share an evening of song and story, drawing on their vast repertoire and curiosity for the multitudes of Mexican music and its cross cultural reverberations. Música from the heart: song, dance, and story for all ages.
Tenderloin Museum continues the 2025-2026 season of “Sounds of the Tenderloin” programs with another “2nd Thursdays at Dodge Alley in collaboration with the TLCBD. This month, we welcome Cascada de Flores, the long-running musical project of Arwen Lawrence and Jorge Liceaga that explores the multitudes of Mexican music, threading together folkloric tradition, popular song, and keen multi-cultural connections.
Founded right here in San Francisco in 1999, Cascada de Flores has recorded four albums, collaborated on stage and screen productions, and are tireless torchbearers for musical and cultural education, frequently sharing Latin American folk song and Mexican traditional music and dance through bilingual, family friendly classes and workshops. Their most recent album Gumamela, which highlights the cross-currents between Mexican and Filipino music, exemplifies their curiosity, generosity, and multi-cultural appreciation, all of which resonate with the spirit of the Tenderloin. For this Dodge Alley performance, Lawrence and Liceaga will be joined by legendary Bay Area via Mexico City Latin jazz bassist and educator Saul Sierra.
Free, outdoor, music-centric happenings at a once notorious Tenderloin alley began in 2022 through a collaboration between TLM, the Tenderloin Community Benefit District, and longtime residents of the alley. These events were some of the first “Sounds of the Tenderloin” programs, a series of events “animating the TL’s under-sung cultural history through live music” that began with a grant from Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, continued with more support from the State of CA’s Museum Grant Program, and now exists as a monthly block party at Dodge Place. Since those initial shows, the alley has benefited from substantial community investment, including a Community Challenge Grant project that brought two stunning murals to the alley and an ongoing grant through the TLCBD to bring monthly music to the Alley along with free food/drink vouchers to spend at adjacent businesses. TLM is thrilled to return to programming Dodge Alley and to grow the vibrancy of this amazing community space and truly urban venue.
Programmed in collaboration with the TLCBD & SF Office of Economic and Workforce Development. A limited number of vouchers for free food and drink at local businesses will be available!