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TLM at “Night of Ideas” 2024

  • Tenderloin Museum 398 Eddy Street San Francisco, CA, 94102 (map)

At the SFPL Main Library!

100 Larkin St. SF, CA 94102 | full event runs from 4-11:45pm

TLM & the Living Legacy of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot 

In the Koret Auditorium from 10:30-11:30pm

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TLM organized “Tenderloin Queens Drag Show”

In the Atrium 9-9:30pm

Free! See the full schedule and register to attend here

Tenderloin Museum is honored to participate in the 2024 Night of Ideas at the SF Public Library, presenting a survey of museum highlights and an excerpt of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot play in Koret Auditorium, as well as a drag show featuring Tenderloin queens in the main atrium. 

Night of Ideas is a global event organized by Villa Albertine across 20 US cities that invites thought leaders, activists, performers, authors, and academics to engage the public in late-night discussions addressing major global issues. This year’s unifying theme, “Fault Lines,” centers urban life and development, raising questions about the impact of climate change, new technologies, gentrification, and social activism, by way of  diversity and inclusion, access to education and nature, the future  of  cultural institutions, and the shapes of artistic communities in built environments. 

Locally, this means an evening (and family friendly afternoon) of programming organized by Villa Albertine and local partners SFPL, KQED, and Circuit Network. TLM is one of many local contributors to the marathon programming that comprises Night of Ideas. Responding to the theme of “Fault Lines,” Tenderloin Museum will focus on the living legacy of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot–the seminal uprising for transgender rights that occurred mere blocks from SFPL’s Main Branch that also represents a seismic rupture of both the social order and public memory.

From 10:30-11:30pm in Koret Auditorium, we’ll we’ll be presenting an introduction to the Tenderloin Museum and its programming, an overview of overview of the Compton’s riot and the ongoing historicization of the event, concluding with a performance excerpt of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, an immersive, interactive play co-written by Collette LeGrande, Mark Nassar, and Donna Personna. The play–which premiered in 2018, sold-out an extended run, and earned rave reviews from critics and audiences clamoring for more–returns this summer as an on-going production, directed and co-produced by Ezra Reaves, in the Tenderloin Museum’s new venue on Larkin St. This preview at Night of Ideas features a full cast, many of whom originated their  respective parts: 

Donna Personna - Older Vicki

Lavale Davis - Nicki

Shane Zaldivar - Rusty

Maurice André San-Chez - Dixie

Mandela Msanii - Adrian

Jaylyn Abergas - Suki

Jupiter Peraza - Vicki

Barbara Pond - Shirley/action notes

Steven Menasche - Gus

Mary Vice - Collette

Adam Simpson - Frankie

Adam KuveNiemann - Officer Johnson

Earlier in the evening (9-9:30pm) in the library’s main atrium, catch a Tenderloin Queens Drag Show curated by the Tenderloin Museum! Featuring performances by Donna Personna, Shane Zaldivar, Mary Vice, and PerSia, this show celebrates the deep legacy of drag performance in the neighborhood, as well as the vibrant present-day scene centered around Aunt Charlie’s Lounge.

All this and much more–check out the full schedule and learn more about Night of Ideas here: https://sfpl.org/events/2024/03/02/night-ideas-2024