Tenderloin Museum and the San Francisco Public Library present a screening of Rainbow in the Clouds, a documentary exploring Dr. Angelou’s deep and meaningful history with Glide Memorial Church, in a public program hosted by Marvin K. White, the current Minister of Celebration at the TL’s church of radical love.
Thursday November 14, 2024 | 5:30-7:30pm
At the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102
In 1992, the Detroit Educational Television Foundation produced a documentary about the GLIDE Memorial Church from the perspective of poet, writer, Civil Rights activist, and longtime GLIDE congregation member Dr. Maya Angelou called Rainbow in the Clouds. Originally broadcast on PBS, this extraordinary hour of TV gives a snapshot of GLIDE in the early ‘90s: its robust Sunday Celebrations, expansive programs serving the Tenderloin, collective activism, along with profiles of the remarkable individuals who comprise the GLIDE community. Dr. Angelou conducts interviews with her friends Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani as well as with many folks who have found community, transformation, and love at GLIDE.
The Tenderloin Museum is partnering with the San Francisco Public Library to screen Rainbow in the Clouds in conjunction with a multifaceted celebration of Dr. Angelou’s legacy in San Francisco. She is the subject of the recently unveiled “Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman” monument by artist Lava Thomas–the first commemorating a Black woman in San Francisco’s Civic Art Collection–that is located outside the SFPL Main Branch. The new monument inspired SFPL to choose Angelou’s classic I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as the 19th “One City One Book” selection. And with its recent acquisition of GLIDE’s historical archive, the San Francisco History Center has organized Dear Sister Maya Angelou, an exhibit on the sixth floor of the SFPL Main Branch that explores her longtime membership in the congregation at GLIDE and her with Reverend Cecil Williams and poet Janice Mirikitani.
On November 14, come to the Tenderloin Museum to view Rainbow in the Clouds in community. The writer, artist, preacher, public theologian, and current Minister of Celebration at Glide Memorial Church Marvin K. White will introduce the film, share a brief invocation, and host a group reflection after the screening.
Free to attend (donations welcome) | Register to attend via Humanitix
Join us for an opening reception to celebrate new, collaborative works by Tenderloin-based artists Tan Sirinumas and Rik Lee Leipold that depict some of the neighborhood’s most iconic locales.
Thursday December 5, 2024 | 5-7pm
At the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. San Francisco
Tenderloin Texture: Carved Histories in Urban Form is a visual homage to the neighborhood’s architectural past and present, as well as a tactile experience that invites you to explore the TL’s built environment through touch. The show features new, collaborative works by Tan Sirinumas and Rik Lee Leipold, two Tenderloin-based artists with deep experience making innovative public art in the neighborhood, and longstanding ties to the Hospitality House Community Arts Program (CAP). Both artists are passionate about uplifting the Tenderloin and are masters at evoking beauty in unlikely, overlooked spaces.
Tan Sirinumas is originally from Thailand, but his artistic journey began in San Francisco making architecture-inspired paper collage designs at CAP, evolving into a practice that spans painting, ceramics, and printmaking. Several Sirinumas’ richly detailed, realist yet soulful illustrations of famous Tenderloin buildings were featured on SFMTA traffic control signal boxes and city trash cans as part of the 2017 Art Wraps for the Heart of the Tenderloin project. Sirinumas currently works as an educator at the Hospitality House Community Arts Program, using his art as a tool for empowerment and helping to instill strength and self-expression in low-income artists.
Rik Lee Leipold is a designer and fabricator with a specialty in facilitating public art. Leipold’s personal practice draws on his experience using plastics and resin, and includes a multi-year project of commemorating queer spaces in the TL by filling potholes with resin and found objects in small but evocative acts of reverse urban archaeology: “fixing” holes in the sidewalks and streets through bearing witness to the past. TLM was proud to present Leipold’s solo show Trolls & Potholes in 2021.
For this show at the Tenderloin Museum, Sirinumas and Leipold developed a collaborative practice to create new work that celebrates some of the TL’s most iconic locales. They describe their process as similar to a conversation: Leipold would use a CNC machine to create a 3D rendering of TL street scenes–the textured “canvas”--and Sirinumas would detail and paint the pieces in his unique style. In addition to the collaborative wood panel & acrylic pieces, Sirinumas and Leipold share behind the scenes documentation of their process.
Free! All welcome! Presented as part of SF First Thursday Art Walk!
Experience an intimate live performance inside the historic Hyde Street Studios with violinist Anthony Blea & percussionist John Santos, two of the Bay Area’s preeminent practitioners of Afro-Cuban traditions.
At Hyde Street Studios | 245 Hyde St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Thursday December 5, 2024 | performances at 6:30pm & 8:30pm
As part of its Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series, the Tenderloin Museum presents another installment “Hyde Street Studio Sessions,” an intimate live music experience that gives music lovers and history buffs alike the opportunity to experience a local legend perform inside the iconic recording studio (formerly known as Wally Heider Studios) that is responsible for the “San Francisco Sound.” On December 5, 2024, violinist Anthony Blea and percussionist John Santos lead a Latin jazz quintet for two hour-long sets of music and storytelling, recounting their experiences recording at the TL’s historic studio.
As two of the Bay Area’s preeminent practitioners of Afro-Cuban traditions and masters of Latin jazz, Blea and Santos have been musical collaborators for decades both on and off the record. Their collective recording credits at Hyde St. Studios are vast and stylistically diverse; however, for this installment of “Hyde Street Studios Sessions” the duo will undoubtedly focus on two records cut at Hyde St. by Orquesta Batachanga. La Nueva Tradicion (1982) and Mañana para los Niños (1985) mixed traditional rhythms with contemporary sounds and significantly influenced the Bay Area’s Afro-Latin music scene.
The Orquesta Batachanga / Hyde St. Studios connection came to TLM’s attention thanks to Josealberto “Beto” Salazar, longtime Tenderloin resident and co-host (with his father Alberto) of the superlative Discomovil Salazar, a weekly radio show on Psyched! Radio SF that features “tropical music from all over the world.” So, we’ve asked Beto to lead a conversation with Blea & Santos during each set to get the history of Orquesta Batachanga recording at Hyde St. in the 1980s and to trace their influence into the present.
Not only will audiences be up close and personal with these Bay Area musical luminaries, they will also get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at an active recording studio and the dedicated crew of engineers and musicians that create and sustain musical community in the heart of the Tenderloin. Nestled in what was historically San Francisco’s entertainment district, Hyde Street Studios has been an active recording studio for over 50 years, and throughout that time has stood as a bastion for working musicians, creative collaboration, and independent artistry. Blea, Santos, & their band will play two (separately-ticketed) sets on the floor ofStudio A, Hyde Street’s main live room that drips with vintage vibe and resonates with over 50 years of musical history. The venue is unique, site-specific, and, given the nature of the space, close quarters–there are only 20 seats available for each set!
Click here to learn more about John Santos and here for more on Anthony Blea.
This program is made possible by support from the Specified General Fund for the Museum Grant Program under the California Cultural and Historical Endowment.
Seating is limited | Tickets $40 via Humanitix on sale soon
TLM Staff host a year-end celebration for active museum members and program partners with an after-hours fete. Small bites and drinks will be served.
Thursday December 12, 2024 | 5-7pm
At the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102
Want to join the fun? Become a member or renew your membership today
TLM Members are welcome to attend for free!
Explore the neighborhood's rich tradition of public art on the Murals of the Tenderloin Walking Tour, and get to know some of the artists and community groups behind the TL's diverse and dynamic visual culture.
Presented as part of “I Love Tenderloin Day”
December 13th, 2024 | 2:30pm - 4pm
Meet at the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102
To mark the December 2024 “I Love Tenderloin Day,” Tenderloin Museum offers a walking tour of the neighborhood that highlights some of the neighborhood’s iconic murals as well as less obvious public artworks hidden in plain sight. Led by TLM Program Director Alex Spoto, this celebratory survey explores how the neighborhood’s built environment serves as a canvas for resident artists and neighborhood advocates to tell the story of the Tenderloin, its community, and its culture. For this tour, two artists based in the TL join the group to share about their works on the street: Tan Sirinumas and Rik Lee Leipold both depict the Tenderloin’s history in their innovative public art practices. They are also the featured artists inside the Tenderloin Museum–their show of new, collaborative artworks–Tenderloin Texture: Carved Histories in Urban Form–is on view in the TLM Gallery from 12/5/24 to 2/1/25!
The mural featured in the event image is “Tenderloin Together” by Sylvester “Slick” Guard Jr. organized by Paint the Void.