5th Annual Tenderloin People’s Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony

Ft. TLM’s Sounds of the Tenderloin all star DOTCOM

Friday December 16, 2022 | 5pm

At Boeddeker Park (corner of Eddy & Jones)

Tenderloin Museum is thrilled to be a part of the 5th Annual Tenderloin People’s Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony at Boeddeker Park! Organized by the Tenderloin People’s Congress with TNDC, SF Recreation & Parks, the TLCBD, & Friends of Boeddeker Park, this holiday gathering is an opportunity for the neighborhood to come together and celebrate the season. The event will feature performances (& food!) by several of the Tenderloin organizations, as well as appearances from State Senator Scott Wiener & D5 Supervisor Dean Preston. 

The Tenderloin Museum has arranged for one of the standout musicians featured in our Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series, DOTCOM, to perform a couple of songs in the program! DOTCOM was a longtime member (& celebrated soloist) in the GLIDE choir and recently captivated the audience at the Dodge Alley Block Party with his band, The Noise. 

All this, AND Santa Claus. Join us for this special Tenderloin holiday tradition! The program begins at 5pm.

The Tenderloin Museum presents funky Cuban jazz ensemble Obryzon in concert at Dodge Alley as part of its Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series and in collaboration with the Tenderloin Community Benefit District.

Thursday December 15, 2022

Performance 6-7pm; Block Party from 5-8pm

Dodge Place, San Francisco, CA 94102

Free! Outdoors!

Over the course of a year of Sounds of the Tenderloin, one face appeared again and again in the bands booked to pay homage to the TL’s legendary nightlife and music scene by activating the neighborhood with live music: Obrayan Calderon. Originally from the province of Mayabeque in the Municipality of Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba, Calderon is an accomplished trombonist, pianist, percussionist and singer who has recorded extensively and toured internationally with several Cuban popular orchestras (Adalberto Alvarez y du Son, Manolito Simonet y su Trabuco, and Juan Carlos Alfonzo y su Dan Den) as well as with many Bay Area musical luminaries (Jesus Diaz, John Santos, Fantastic Negrito). For the final Dodge Alley Block Party of the year, Obrayan Calderon will present his own group, Obryzon, that mixes Afro-Cuban sounds with some of the styles and influences he’s picked up as one of the Bay’s hardest working horn players. This performance is one of several Thursday night activations organized by the TLCBD to transform Dodge Place, a neglected alleyway in the Tenderloin, into a healthy and aesthetically positive community experience for nearby families and seniors.

The Tenderloin Museum presents Agua Pura in concert at Dodge Alley as part of its Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series and in collaboration with the Tenderloin Community Benefit District.

Thursday November 17, 2022

Performance 6-7pm | Block Party from 5-8pm

Dodge Place, San Francisco, CA 94102

Free! Outdoors!

Agua Pura is a San Francisco based all femme salsa band founded on the idea of diversity and inclusivity. Invoking “divine energy,” this 10-piece ensemble plays a stirring mix of Afro-Latinx musical styles: cumbia, rumba, and son. Their shows are electrifying and infectious, and a joy and passion for the music is palpable on the dancefloor as well as the bandstand.

Agua Pura exploded onto the city’s live music scene during the strange era of loosening pandemic restrictions, establishing their prowess through weekly gigs at Radio Habana in the Mission as well as residencies at mainstays for SF’s best gigging musicians like Madrone Art Bar & The Rite Spot. Agua Pura performs with great frequency and it shows–the band is tight!--but in addition to an abundance of talent, the group’s enthusiasm for making music together is evident, whether in the club or out on the street. Featuring Rebecca Rodriguez on congas/vocals, Mena Ramos on timbales, Esther Isabel Santamaria on bongo/hand percussion/vocals, Amanda Magaña on hand percussion/vocals, Lily Stern on bass/vocals, Luna Celi on keys/vocals, Kyana Orellana on trumpet, Gaby Aldaz on trombone, Eos Black on baritone sax/vocals, Jackie Corona on hand percussion/vocals.

Join us and the residents of Dodge Place to reclaim this alleyway for the community, socialize with friends & neighbors, and move to the music of una divina banda del sabor: Agua Pura! All are welcome at Dodge Place on Thursday, November 17th from 5-8pm, with the musical performance from 6-7pm. Free to attend; food & drink by Shovels Bar & Grille available for purchase.

Join us for an opening reception for Still Lives, a Trans Portrait Project, a series of portraits of transgender people in the Bay Area by San Francisco based figurative painter Eamon McGivern.

Thursday November 3, 2022 | 5:30 - 7:30pm

Eamon McGivern & Leila Weefur in conversation at 6pm

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

FREE

This solo exhibition at the Tenderloin Museum renders the quiet beauty and dignity of trans life over seven canvases, each shimmering with the nuance and tenderness of its subjects. McGivern’s practice is rooted in portraiture, and these paintings reflect a collaboration between artist and subject. They express the multitudinous nature of trans experience as well as its normalcy, depicting subjects engaged in everyday life: getting a haircut, enjoying a cigarette, at ease in the domestic sphere, or reveling in an idyllic San Francisco blue sky day with a loved one. The creation of this work & its exhibition funded by the San Francisco Arts Council.

The Tenderloin Museum presents 10-piece reggae band ELeNA in concert at Dodge Alley as part of its Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series and in collaboration with the Tenderloin Community Benefit District.

Thursday October 27, 2022

Performance 6-7pm; Block Party from 5-8pm

Dodge Place, San Francisco, CA 94102

Free! Outdoors!

ELeNA is the musical project of David Saenz, a familiar face in the Tenderloin because of his many years producing and engineering records at the historic Hyde Street Studios. ELeNA’s sound is rooted in reggae music, but this high-energy 10-piece outfit traverses ska, cumbia, latin jazz and hip hop with a punk rock edge. Lyrically, the band discusses the worlds’ social political and ecological problems, interpersonal relationships issues, and love. This performance is one of several Thursday night activations organized by the TLCBD to transform Dodge Place, a neglected alleyway in the Tenderloin, into a healthy and aesthetically positive community experience for nearby families and seniors. The October 27th block party sports a “Carnival Night” theme, so in addition to live music, TLCBD will be hosting a variety of activities and games such as bingo, a ping-pong tournament, air hockey, skeeball, ring toss, basketball, & arcade games. Join us and the residents of Dodge Place to reclaim this alleyway for the community, socialize with friends & neighbors, and rock with the big band champion sound of ELeNA!

Sunday Streets Phoenix Day with The Kangaroo Trio (Thomas Pridgen)

Sunday October 16, 2022 | 1pm - 4pm

200 Golden Gate Ave. San Francisco, CA 94102

Sunday Streets Phoenix Day returns for a second year, activating neighborhoods across the entire city with block parties, slow streets, activities provided by local nonprofits, community groups and small businesses. Tenderloin Museum will be on the 200 block of Golden Gate Avenue with an info table and a couple of sets of instrumental groove, hip-hop, and jazz-adjacent jams by The Kangaroo Trio. Bandleader Thomas Pridgen is a GRAMMY award winner, has drummed with The Coup, Mars Volta, Christian Scott, Thundercat, Trash Talk, & Residente (amongst many others), and has a prolific recording career including a spot on the recent Lizzo & Cardi B smash “Rumors.” He’s also a regular at the Tenderloin’s Black Cat jazz supper club and frequents the neighborhood’s historic Hyde Street Recording Studios. On Sunday, Pridgen brings his sound out into the Tenderloin streets for Phoenix Day 2022 for a special performance as The Kangaroo trio.

This Sunday Streets Phoenix Day 2022 is part of the Tenderloin Museum’s Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series, generously funded by Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

FREE event | All ages welcome!

Learn more about Sunday Street’s Phoenix Day and find a full list of activities at: https://www.sundaystreetssf.com/phoenixday/

Tuesday, October 11, 2022 | 6-7pm

In person at the Tenderloin Museum (398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102)

& online via the Tenderloin Museum’s YouTube Channel

The Tenderloin Museum presents a book launch event for The Edge of Being, a new queer Young Adult novel by James Brandon that explores the multiplicities of grief, deeply held family secrets, and finding new love. This tender, heartfelt story follows protagonist Isaac Griffin on a quest to learn about his father whom he never met; the journey leads him to San Francisco and to retracing his dad’s steps through the weeks leading up to the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot. Brandon will read from his book then be in conversation with Susan Stryker and Adrian Ravarour, two individuals who are deeply acquainted with the history and social milieu that were key inspiration for Brandon’s book.

FREE

All Ages | Mask wearing strongly suggested & required if not vaccinated & boosted!

Tenderloin Museum presents Lavender Country & Brontez Purnell in concert at the Phoenix Hotel as part of the Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series.

September 25, 2022 | 3 - 6pm

601 Eddy St, San Francisco, CA 94109

$12 | Tickets via Eventbrite

This program brings together two maverick, transgressive artists–one a country singer, the other a punk rocker–whose performance practices resound with the iconoclasm & resistance that evince the glimmer in the Tenderloin’s grit. The venue shares in that spirit, too: the 1950’s-era motor court hotel is a shangri-la in the central city, and has long been the preferred boarding house of bands traveling through SF thanks to its tour bus parking and proximity to iconic venues and studios. A rock and roll vibe is evident at the Phoenix Hotel, and music history practically seeps out of the walls and floats in the pool.

The Tenderloin Museum presents Free Press Music in concert at Dodge Alley as part of its Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series and in collaboration with the Tenderloin Community Benefit District.

Thursday September 22, 2022

Performance 6-7pm; Block Party from 5-8pm

Dodge Place, San Francisco, CA 94102

Free! Outdoors!

Free Press Music is a Filipina American led San Francisco based music collective with roots in soul, jazz, blues and improvisation. Vocalist/songwriter Christie Aida and her group conjure a deep and dynamic repertoire that constellates sounds from around the globe. Singing in Spanish, Tagalog, English and French, Aida deftly interweaves her wide ranging influences to create a delightful and surprising mix of classics, deep cuts, and original numbers. Those originals often are informed by her sensitivity and advocacy for community organizing, social justice, and housing as a human right. As such, the stories, struggles, and everyday life experiences of Tenderloin and SOMA residents, in particular Filipinos and other communities of color, crop up in FPM’s music; for example, the narrative of the Tenderloin Museum’s physical home, the Cadillac Hotel, is the subject of a song “Reality House.” The song celebrates the residents and the history of the Cadillac, including one resident who practices harm reduction by using Narcan regularly to help others in crisis.

Join Photo Alliance at the Tenderloin Museum for the first lecture of the Photo Alliance 2022 Fall Lecture Series on September 20, featuring artist Bill Jacobson and J. John Priola.

September 20, 2022 | 7pm - 8:30pm

$20 | Tickets via Eventbrite

All attendees are required to wear masks and be fully vaccinated in order to attend this event. Please bring photo-proof of vaccination, including evidence of a booster shot if your initial series was completed over 6 months ago. For California residents, we recommend using the SMART Health Card.

Photo credit: Bill Jacobson, Untitled, 1975. From series American Trip 1975-1980.

American Trip, 1975 is a never before exhibited selection of early work by artist/photographer Bill Jacobson. The images, made in San Francisco’s Tenderloin at a pivotal moment in the neighborhood’s history, are infused with dreamlike splendor and beguiling candor.

Opening Reception: September 15, 2022 | 6pm - 8pm

FREE

The photographs came from the young artist’s formative journey into the heart of an unfamiliar and great city– thus, the notion of a “trip.” Originally from a small East Coast town, Jacobson spent his junior year of college on the opposite coast, studying at the San Francisco Art Institute. San Francisco engendered a cultural counterpoint that energized Jacobson both personally and artistically, and the time for the young artist was pivotal. The dense, multitudinous thrum of the Tenderloin intrigued him as an environment in which he could fully dedicate himself to self-discovery, through both observation as well as image making. Jacobson depicts vibrant bar scenes populated by pensioners and long-term denizens. Significantly, there’s also an photograph of porn celebrity Marilyn Chambers at The Mitchell Brothers’ Theater, emblematic of the neighborhood’s sensational nightlife. Together, these photographs point to the transitory nature of the Tenderloin, as well as its function as an enclave of working-class housing and as a refuge for society’s outcasts.

Photo credit: Bill Jacobson, Untitled, 1975. From series American Trip 1975-1980.

The Tenderloin Museum's Anniversary Gala returns to the iconic Phoenix Hotel to ring in 7 years of our grassroots community history museum.

Thursday September 8, 2022 | 5pm - 8pm

Tickets via Eventbrite

Let's celebrate by gathering for an evening of live music, art, refreshments, luminous neon, and a sampling of the museum's current and future projects in one of the neighborhood's most singularly enchanting and richly storied venues.

Featuring performances by Mr. Lucky & the Cocktail Party and the Alcatraz Islanders! Purchase a ticket to support the Tenderloin Museum into 2023 and beyond!

The Tenderloin Museum presents Banda Sin Nombre in concert at Dodge Alley as part of its Sounds of the Tenderloin live music series and in collaboration with the Tenderloin Community Benefit District.

Thursday August 25, 2022

Performance 6-7pm | Block Party from 5-8pm

Dodge Place, SF, CA 94102

Free! Outdoors!

Banda Sin Nombre combines folk music from around the world with performance art, drag, and dance. Their singular synthesis of everything from Peruvian chicha to Catalan rumba and Appalachian old time to cumbia sonifies the wide open spirit of multiculturalism exemplified in the Tenderloin and San Francisco at large. With creative roots in San Francisco’s Mission District, the band features rich vocal harmonies with acoustic instruments including guitar, fiddle, charango, jarana, cajon, upright bass, and saxophone.

This performance is one of several Thursday night activations organized by the TLCBD to transform Dodge Place, a neglected alleyway in the Tenderloin, into a healthy and aesthetically positive community experience for nearby families and seniors. It’s also part of TLM’s Sounds of the Tenderloin series, which animates the neighborhood’s undersung cultural history through live performances that explore, deepen, and complicate participants’ understanding of Tenderloin history while supporting local working musicians and creating accessible cultural activities for the neighborhood residents.