Saturday, July 25, 2026 | 2:00-3:30 PM

Meet at Tenderloin Museum, 398 Eddy St., SF, CA 94102

Please note: The tour guide will meet the group outside the entrance to the museum. The museum, however, is temporarily closed.

Register via Humanitix ($15)

There’s no better way to get to know the Tenderloin than by walking its streets! Traverse the neighborhood with our passionate, knowledgeable resident tour guides, visit key sites from the Tenderloin’s history, and connect these notable places to what’s going on in the neighborhood today. 

Monday July 20, 2026 | 7pm book event (6pm Appalachian music pre-show)

At Medicine For Nightmares | 3036 24th St. SF, CA 94110

Jesse Montgomery’s new book,  It Is Not Enough To Survive: The Young Patriots Story, chronicles one of the New Left’s most evocative and enigmatic anti-racist organizations composed of poor white Southern migrants who helped found Fred Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition. Formed in the late 1960s, the YPO grew from a local street gang into a powerful political and social force in the city’s Uptown neighborhood, where it fought against police brutality, racism, economic exploitation, and displacement through community organizing, the establishment of survival programs, and working-class cultural organizations.

The milieu that created the YPO has several direct links to San Francisco and the Tenderloin by way of the radical student movements of the ‘60s and Oakland’s Black Panther Party. But more broadly speaking, the aims, discourse, and challenges of the YPO should resound in the Tenderloin. Our neighborhood, like the YPO’s Uptown Chicago, has been characterized by its dense population of embattled tenants, transplants, immigrants, and refugees struggling on the margins (or just outside of) the working class and perennially fighting against forces of urban renewal. 

Due to TLM's unanticipated facilities-related closure, we are teaming up with our friends at Medicine for Nightmare, the superlative independent bookstore and community event space in the Mission, to co-present their event with Jesse Montgomery on Monday 7/20 at 7pm. Please join us there! Arrive early (6-7pm) to hear some old-time Appalachian music in homage to The Young Patriots while shopping at Medicina's excellently curated selection!" James Tracy, co-author of Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels and Black Power, a book that helped open the field for Montgomery’s scholarly focus on the YPO, will introduce the author, Chika Okoye (Center For Political Education), and Finn Finneran.

No registration required | more info via Medicine For Nightmares website

Saturday, July 18, 2026 | 2:00-4:00 PM

Meet at SW corner of Geary & Powell Sts., Union Square, SF

Register to attend via Humanitix

Tenderloin Museum is thrilled to partner with Unspeakable Vice, “a volunteer history initiative making queer belonging accessible to everyone,” to offer a monthly walking tour focused on the LGBTQIA+ history in the Tenderloin and Polk Street neighborhoods.

Thursday July 16, 2026 | 6:30-8:30 pm

NEW LOCATION! UC Law SF Auditorium, 198 McAllister St., Lower Level

Celebrate Tenderloin Museum’s 11th Anniversary with a special presentation of West is West, featuring director David Rathod and actor Sumati Patel in conversation with novelist Shruti Swamy. Shot on location in the mid-1980s, this jaunty rom-com follows Vikram, a would-be student from Mumbai whose college plans quickly disintegrate, as he lands a room and a job in a Tenderloin SRO and falls in love with a plucky, punky artist working at a Market St. cinema. While he finds his footing in work and love, his visa runs low, imperiling his new life in San Francisco. Exploits ensue, making for a highly entertaining, fast-paced romp of a film that also happens to quite realistically portray the milieu of the TL at that time, with its network of Indian run residential hotels and seedy culture of movie-going on the bedraggled Mid-Market strip, as well as the ever-present challenges immigrants face attempting to live and work in America. All this, and a love story!

Originally released in 1987, this overlooked gem of local independent cinema stars Ashutosh Gowariker, who would go on to direct the Oscar-nominated Bollywood smash Lagaan, and was directed by David Rathod, who still lives locally and is an active filmmaker. Rathod will present West Is West in person, after which he and Sumati Patel, an actor in the film, will be in conversation with San Francisco-based writer Shruti Swamy. 

$10 | Register to attend via Humanitix

Thursday July 9, 2026 | 5-8pm

At Dodge Alley (Turk & Larkin St.)

July’s 2nd Thursday at Dodge Alley features a Bay Area supergroup—The Sampaguitas play Filipino folk songs and inspired original music sung in glorious three-part harmony! Drawing influences from folk, blues, doo-wop girl groups, and the Filipinx-American diaspora, Jenevieve Francisco, Cristina Ibarra, and Aireene Espiritu share music from their roots and explore what it means to be in a “third culture” between worlds.

Free to attend | No registration required

$15 vouchers for food/drink at nearby businesses first come first serve

Wednesday July 8, 2026 | 7-9pm

At the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102

NEW LOCATION! Yes SF Headquarters | 220 Montgomery St., SF, CA 94104

​Your presence is requested at the San Francisco Commission on Sex in the year 2126. What is sex? Who has it? Who pays for it? What feels good? What is missing from the way we have sex now? What kind of sex do we want our descendants to have? How do our current laws, medical practices, and cultural norms affect the sex we have, or want to have?

“Future of Sex” gathers a speculative “San Francisco Commission on Sex”--set in the year 2126–to conjure a portrait of sex in the not-so-distant future imbued with radical and/or utopian visions we can see from the present. This “town-hall style” immersive, interactive collective imagining is presented as part of the inaugural Future of Us Festival and organized by Olivia Bratko, a regular actor in TLM’s Compton’s Cafeteria Riot. Join us on either July 7 & 8!

Click here for more info.

Sliding scale admission | Register via Future of Us Festival’s LUMA page

Tuesday July 7, 2026 | 7-9pm

At the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102

NEW LOCATION! Yes SF Headquarters | 220 Montgomery St., SF, CA 94104

​Your presence is requested at the San Francisco Commission on Sex in the year 2126. What is sex? Who has it? Who pays for it? What feels good? What is missing from the way we have sex now? What kind of sex do we want our descendants to have? How do our current laws, medical practices, and cultural norms affect the sex we have, or want to have?

“Future of Sex” gathers a speculative “San Francisco Commission on Sex”--set in the year 2126–to conjure a portrait of sex in the not-so-distant future imbued with radical and/or utopian visions we can see from the present. This “town-hall style” immersive, interactive collective imagining is presented as part of the inaugural Future of Us Festival and organized by Olivia Bratko, a regular actor in TLM’s Compton’s Cafeteria Riot. Join us on either July 7 & 8!

Click here for more info.

Sliding scale admission | Register via Future of Us Festival’s LUMA page

Indigenous Forever, a new gallery show at Tenderloin Museum, featuring paintings by Adrian Arias that honor the strength, wisdom, and continuity of Indigenous cultures, has been postponed, with a new opening date to be announced.

Tuesday June 30, 2026 | 4-6pm

at the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102

TLM presents Indigenous Forever, a new gallery show of paintings by Adrian Arias that honor the strength, wisdom, and continuity of Indigenous cultures. Join us on the evening of June 30th for a special preview reception with the artist. Opening during the 4th of July holiday and the United States’ milestone 250th year as a nation, Indigenous Forever reframes notions of place, belonging, and permanence in a poignant and timely conceptual gesture. The humble postage stamp, one of the most fundamental trappings of modern statehood and a basic currency for communication, is enlarged and remixed, memorializing the land, its Indigenous people and their culture. Medicinal plants, native flora and fauna, and sacred designs from several Indigenous cultures past and present comprise the visual vocabulary of Indigenous Forever, symbolizing solidarity amongst the land and its original inhabitants, and celebrating place and people without the overlay of divisive, extractive colonial states. Tenderloin regulars will recognize the imagery from this Indigenous Forever gallery show from an evocative mural of the same name on Larkin St. unveiled in the spring of 2025–many of the paintings in this show served as studies for the mural. Indigenous Forever is on view July 1 - October 3, 2026.

Free to attend | No Registration Required

Friday June 26, 2026 | 8-9pm (timed to coincide with the conclusion of Trans March)

at 33 Turk St. (outside of the Timbri Hotel at the corner of Turk & Taylor Streets)

TRANSMARSH is a free outdoor vertical dance performance by trans people, for trans people — and all who love them. The show features B Dean/BODYSTORM, Pangaea, and tome performing on the Taylor Street facade of the Timbri Hotel, soaring over the intersection of Turk and Taylor Streets, the site of both the 1966 trans led Compton’s Cafeteria Riots and present-day for profit reentry housing for the incarcerated. TRANSMARSH kicks off Pride Weekend by rewilding the Transgender District with the trans history and ecology alive in the Tenderloin's soil.

8pm TRANSMARSH preview performance | Free; register via Eventbrite

Thursday June 25, 2026 | 7 - 9pm

at 33 Turk St. (outside of the Timbri Hotel)

TRANSMARSH is a free outdoor vertical dance performance by trans people, for trans people — and all who love them. The show features B Dean/BODYSTORM, Pangaea, and tome performing on the Taylor Street facade of the Timbri Hotel, soaring over the intersection of Turk and Taylor Streets, the site of both the 1966 trans led Compton’s Cafeteria Riots and present-day for profit reentry housing for the incarcerated. TRANSMARSH kicks off Pride Weekend by rewilding the Transgender District with the trans history and ecology alive in the Tenderloin's soil.

The Thursday evening “preview” performance is preceded by a trans history walking tour led by community historian and advocate Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer at 7pm–separate registration required (as space is limited). The night also features a performance by Skywatchers, GRAVITY Access Services, and Oaklash Block Party at the Timbri Hotel, with local drag performers and DJs.

7pm Trans History Walking Tour | Free; register via Humanitix; space is limited!

8pm TRANSMARSH preview performance | Free; register via Eventbrite

Saturday, June 20, 2026 | 2:00-4:00 PM

Meet at Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St., SF, CA 94102

Register to attend via Humanitix | Admission to the Tenderloin Museum included with ticket

Tenderloin Museum is thrilled to partner with Unspeakable Vice, “a volunteer history initiative making queer belonging accessible to everyone,” to offer a monthly walking tour focused on the LGBTQIA+ history in the Tenderloin and Polk Street neighborhoods.

Saturday June 13, 2026 | 2-3:30pm

Meet at the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102

$15 or $25 (with TLM admission) |  Register via Humanitix

Discover the work of Herman C. Baumann, who ushered modern multi-unit hotels and apartments into the Tenderloin with distinctive flourishes inspired by Spanish Colonial Revival and baroque styles. Seasoned walking tour guide, historian, and emeritus city planning professor Linda Day continues her spotlight series on notable architects whose post-quake buildings define the TL’s built environment. 

Attendees will visit the San Francisco city landmarked Gaylord Suites at 620 Jones street, originally a residential hotel. Inspired by the buildings of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, it is embellished with a Spanish Colonial Revival building entry, facade, and lobby. The tour will also visit the Farrellworth at 601 O'Farrel, which is another stunning example of using this design vocabulary. Baumann often ornamented his buildings with terra cotta to express baroque details because it could be molded into intricate shapes and then fired with colorful glazes. A walk-by of Princess Apartments, 155 Hyde, shows his elaborate use of terracotta. In addition to this iconic trio, Day’s tour will highlight nine buildings that illustrate Baumann's artistry, equally divided between apartments and hotels.

Thursday June 11, 2026 | 5-8pm

At Dodge Alley (Turk & Larkin St.)

Free to attend | No registration required

$15 vouchers for food/drink at nearby businesses first come first serve

The Tenderloin Museum and TLCBD continue monthly “2nd Thursday at Dodge Alley” block parties featuring live music and presented as part of TLM’s ongoing “Sounds of the Tenderloin” program series. On June 11, TLM welcomes a master musician and special visitor from Cuba and some of the Bay’s most dedicated practitioners of Afro-Cuban music to share an evening of changüí, the folkloric Afro-Cuban party music from the country’s mountainous Eastern province.  The lineup will feature: 

Jose Andres aka “El Sinsonte” - lead vocals and auxiliary percussion

Jose Andres is the lead singer/songwriter of the Latin-Grammy nominated Changüí Guantanamo; and a living master of the 10-line Decima poetry. 

Einar Leliebre - lead percussion and second voice

Einar Leliebre (“Tito”) is rated “First Level” (the highest level for musicians in Cuba) both as a percussionist and vocalist, and has toured the world in Afro-Cuban folkloric troupes. He recently accompanied Omar Sosa on the Bata Drums at SFJAZZ's Miner Auditorium with the Stanford Big Band.

Ernesto Mazar - baby bass and backup vocals

Ernesto Mazar toured the world with Charanga Habanera for a decade. He is the bassist in Omar Sosa’s Quarteto Americano, and was offered the prime spot as the steady bassist for Los Van Van, Cuba's most world-renowned band.

Kai Lyons - “tres” Cuban guitar and backup vocals

Born and raised in San Francisco (Excelsior District), Kai Lyons graduated from Ruth Asawa School of the Arts with the Excellence in Guitar award. He currently teaches at SFState, CSU East Bay, and the Berkeley Jazzschool. He has studied music in Cuba 16 times.

Learn more

Thursday June 4, 2026 | 6:30-8pm

At the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102

The Tenderloin knows and loves Sheena Rose as a fixture of the queen scene at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge. Earlier this year, Sheena–aka Jacob Anthony Rose–published a powerful debut memoir entitled Stillness and Survival: A Life Between Trauma, Glitter, and the Echo of My Own Voice. TLM kicks off Pride month by celebrating this essential TL artist’s story of survival, queerness, and becoming with a reading and drag show ft. Bliss, Kelly Rose, Olivia Hart, & Sophilya Leggz!

$10 Suggested Donation (+ tips for drag performers) | Register via Humanitix