Take a deeper look at the people of the TL in Street Music (1982), a whimsical story about a street musician and other residents of the fictitious Victory Hotel who must fight their eviction from the Tenderloin, and Tenderloin Blues (1987), a cinéma vérité-style documentary film chronicling the lives of people who live on the streets of the neighborhood. Both of these ‘80s films were shot on location in the TL and speak to today’s predicaments of homelessness, poverty and displacement. A panel discussion will follow the screenings.

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This event is part of Voice of the Central City: The Tenderloin Times, 1977-94, an exploration of the Tenderloin’s past as seen through two decades of reporting by the trailblazing neighborhood newspaper, The Tenderloin Times. Created in collaboration with community historian and former Times Editor Sara Colm, this exhibition will showcase a number of the publication’s rare archival images, articles, and political cartoons documenting our vibrant community during the pivotal years of 1977-1994.

The Tenderloin Times had its start in August 1977 when three homeless men mimeographed 150 copies of the first edition from the basement of Hospitality House. Over the next 17 years, The Times grew into an award-winning newspaper with a circulation of 15,000 that was published in four languages – English, Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian. As the nation’s first four-language newspaper, it was recognized in 1991 by the Smithsonian Institution for its groundbreaking use of desktop publishing technology (thanks to a donation from Apple computers) to produce the polyglot paper.

Exhibition Run: November 2nd, 2017 - March 30th, 2018

SF Urban Film Fest 2017 Film Screening Event

Catch a rare screening of the film “Drugs in the Tenderloin” and witness stories of "outcasts" flocking to the Tenderloin for sanctuary starting in the early 1960s (even before the Summer of Love which was centered in the Haight/Ashbury District). The second film, "Tender Souls", by local filmmaker Brenton Gieser, about three Tenderloin residents current stories of struggle and redemption, makes us reflect on our own fragility and strength.

The Tenderloin Museum, as the film screening venue is appropo, as under the direction of Katie Conry, its exhibits bring the neighborhood’s history to life to bring greater appreciation of how the area has changed and yet not changed at all. Film screening followed by discussion with the Director of Tenderloin Museum and "Drugs in the Tenderloin" filmmaker.

Co-presenter: Tenderloin Museum

Moderator: Ron Sundstrom, Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies, University of San Francisco

Panelists:

Katie Conry – Executive Director, Tenderloin Museum
Robert Zagone – Director, “Drugs in the Tenderloin”
Paul Trudeau - Executive Director, City Hope

Doors open at 5:30 pm
Cost: $10 per person (all proceeds go to the Tenderloin Museum)

Follow a group of refugees as they journey from Asia to the TL and beyond in Who I Became (2013), a documentary film that follows Pounloeu Chea, a Cambodian youth who grew up in the TL during the 1980s; Refugee (2003), a glimpse into the life of a young man as he leaves the Tenderloin to reunite with his father in Cambodia; My Journey Home(2004), a PBS film that accompanies Bay Area journalist (and former Tenderloin Times contributor) Andrew Lam back to Vietnam in the early aughts. A panel discussion will follow the screenings.

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This event is part of Voice of the Central City: The Tenderloin Times, 1977-94, an exploration of the Tenderloin’s past as seen through two decades of reporting by the trailblazing neighborhood newspaper, The Tenderloin Times. Created in collaboration with community historian and former Times Editor Sara Colm, this exhibition will showcase a number of the publication’s rare archival images, articles, and political cartoons documenting our vibrant community during the pivotal years of 1977-1994.

The Tenderloin Times had its start in August 1977 when three homeless men mimeographed 150 copies of the first edition from the basement of Hospitality House. Over the next 17 years, The Times grew into an award-winning newspaper with a circulation of 15,000 that was published in four languages – English, Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian. As the nation’s first four-language newspaper, it was recognized in 1991 by the Smithsonian Institution for its groundbreaking use of desktop publishing technology (thanks to a donation from Apple computers) to produce the polyglot paper.

Exhibition Run: November 2nd, 2017 - March 30th, 2018

Join Tenderloin Museum in From Broadsheet to Broadband: Community Media in the Digital Age, a panel discussion with Bay Area journalists on how technology is re-defining how we connect to media, as well as the very concept of community itself. Speakers will include: Sara Colm and Rob Waters, Former Editors, The Tenderloin Times; Andrew Lam, The Tenderloin Times & New American Media; Juan Gonzales, Founder, El Tecolote newspaper & chair of CCSF Journalism Department; Carrie Sisto, Tenderloin Editor, Hoodline

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This event is part of Voice of the Central City: The Tenderloin Times, 1977-94, an exploration of the Tenderloin’s past as seen through two decades of reporting by the trailblazing neighborhood newspaper, The Tenderloin Times. Created in collaboration with community historian and former Times Editor Sara Colm, this exhibition will showcase a number of the publication’s rare archival images, articles, and political cartoons documenting our vibrant community during the pivotal years of 1977-1994.

The Tenderloin Times had its start in August 1977 when three homeless men mimeographed 150 copies of the first edition from the basement of Hospitality House. Over the next 17 years, The Times grew into an award-winning newspaper with a circulation of 15,000 that was published in four languages – English, Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian. As the nation’s first four-language newspaper, it was recognized in 1991 by the Smithsonian Institution for its groundbreaking use of desktop publishing technology (thanks to a donation from Apple computers) to produce the polyglot paper.

Exhibition Run: November 2nd, 2017 - March 30th, 2018

On Oct 24th, The Tenderloin Museum's resident magician and storyteller, Christian Cagigal, returns to share his favorite stories of San Francisco's fantastic and forgotten past in The Spooky, Strange, and Magical History of San Francisco. The extravaganza tells the tales of the city’s most bizarre characters, including The Mother of Civil Rights in California who still haunts the six eucalyptus on Octavia Street, the Founder of the Church of Satan that lived in the Outer Richmond, and the surprising spots you may not know San Francisco's corpses are buried.

Now, in its second year, Christian Cagigal presents an even wilder history of our fascinating city — this time with added stories and surprises about the stranger-than-fiction characters of the most fascinating city in the world.

About Christian Cagigal:

Christian Cagigal has been performing his trademark blend of theatre, storytelling, and magic as an Artist in Residence at EXIT Theatre since 2006. He's a regular speaker at Odd Salon as well as a regular performer at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. He's been named a Finalist for the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Solo Performer, two years in a row; recipient of a Mastermind Award by the SF Weekly; and three time winner of the Best Magician of the Bay Award by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Christian has consulted for A.C.T.'s MFA program, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire Theatre Company, Marin Shakespeare Company, EXIT Theatre, Wilderness, and Tilted Frame. He's the Co-Founder of the new Fog City Magic Fest (EXIT Theatre January 2018), and the new owner of the San Francisco Ghost Hunt Walking Tour, 19 year tradition in the City by the Bay.

Uphill Arts and Tenderloin Museum are proud to present the artwork of Where Art Lives, a youth-focused program that gives Tenderloin students the tools to unleash the type of creativity that shapes a community for the better. The exhibition will showcase the developing voices and personal visual art styles by middle schoolers of United Playaz and the Boys and Girls Club Tenderloin Clubhouse.  

Where Art Lives uses best practices in arts education to explore real world issues with people in San Francisco. Their mission is to support teens as they shape the future of their community with the kind of skills, knowledge, and creativity that could make San Francisco a more beautiful and inclusive city. Created in an effort to navigate the complexities of adulthood and positively mold their surroundings, the program uses arts education to explore the ideas around artistic expression in everyday life.

Where Art Lives features the work of teenagers that focuses on transforming public spaces and gives audiences a window into the colorful San Francisco of the future today’s adolescents strive toward.

The opening reception has been conceptualized and organized by students of Galileo Academy of Science and Technology and will include live music, snacks, and interactive teen activities from 5pm - 8pm.

The Where Art Lives program is funded through a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission and will run through October 30th.

Central City SRO Collaborative, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, and Tenderloin Museum are pleased to present Art Wraps for the Heart of the Tenderloin, a collection of custom-designed vinyl art wraps that will encase 20 SFMTA traffic control signal boxes and 22 city trash cans throughout the Tenderloin. The project, which covers various streets within the parameters of Golden Gate Avenue, Larkin Street, O’Farrell Street, and Taylor Street, will showcase work directly influenced by the vibrant and storied neighborhood it seeks to illuminate.

Mirroring the many murals and public art projects that have long been integral to the identity of the Tenderloin, Art Wraps for the Heart of the Tenderloin features the work of seven Bay Area artists, all of whom were juried by an open community call and a panel of neighborhood experts including Rob Duncan, Tenderloin-based branding agency Mucho; Dan Williams, owner of PianoFight; Gayle Rosemond, Tenderloin-based artist and resident; Kim Jackson, 30 year Tenderloin advocate; and Tino Meki, former Supportive Housing Manager, Tenderloin Housing Clinic and Tenderloin resident.

The selected artists are:

Nico Berry - Former art director, Thrasher Magazine; freelance graphic designer; muralist; children’s book author/illustrator; San Francisco resident 

Sylvester Guard Jr. - Street artist; skateboard designer; Tenderloin resident 

Lisa Hoffman - Director of Graphic Design at FIDM; SJSU and SFAI alumna 

Alan Khum - Art Preparator; Fine Artist; San Francisco State University alumni; San Francisco resident

Piper Lewine - Painter; large-scale muralist; bassist; lo-fi electronica musician; San Francisco resident 

Christopher Stokes - Artist, Design professional, Founder Sevenfortyseven Studios, San Francisco Resident

Deirdre Weinberg - Monoprinter; screenprinter; painter; muralist; San Francisco resident 

Currently undergoing installation, the project will be completed in mid-October of 2017. Tenderloin Museum is proud to host the opening reception for Art Wraps for the Heart of the Tenderloin on October 12th 5:30-9pm. Patrons are encouraged to join us at 6pm for a walking tour of the Art Wraps — led by long-time Tenderloin Museum tour guide and neighborhood advocate, Pam Coates — to see the transformative artwork and hear more about the inspiration and connection to our neighborhood from the artists themselves.

Funding for this project is provided in part from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development and Shorenstein LLC.

Tenderloin Museum is pleased to present City Looks by J.B. Higgins, a collection of Tenderloin-based imagery by local photographer and 2017 ArtSpan SF Open Studio Artist, J.B.Higgins. In his debut solo exhibition, Higgins continues his four-decade-long exploration of patience and repetition within his own artistic process as a portal for his audiences into the quiet nuances of day-to-day life in San Francisco.

Higgins creates his collections by visiting and revisiting, photographing and rephotographing the same spots in the city — sometimes for dozens of years — to study the role that time plays on his subjects. Minute changes, that for most would be entirely unnoticeable, become the subjects of extensive study, turning many of his pieces into lessons of patience as much as they are glimpses of an active city. With a knack for capturing moments of softness and beauty within the boisterous and ever-changing city, Higgins’ work tells the often unnoticed stories of the people, structures, and spirit of San Francisco, and more specifically, the Tenderloin.

The show is comprised of a collection of photographs, all scenes from San Francisco. The exhibition will be on view October 5th - 17th and October 31st - December 5th, with an opening reception on Thursday, October 5th at 6pm with the artist in attendance.

City Looks by J.B. Higgins is presented as part of SF Open Studios, the oldest and largest open studios program in the country. The annual, month-long art event in October and November showcases over 800 emerging and established San Francisco artists in their studios in an effort to connect collectors with artists for engaging dialog and a glimpse into the life of the working artist. City Looks by J.B. Higgins for SF Open Studios will be on view November 4th and 5th from 10am to 5pm, again with the artist in attendance. Visit the SF Open Studios website for a full list of participating artists.

About The Artist:

J.B. Higgins was born and raised in Kentucky. He was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam war era and was released in 1972. For the next 10 years he lived in Florida, Atlanta, GA, and Washington D.C. He moved to San Francisco in 1982, where he has remained for the past 35 years. His portrait, commercial, artistic, and documentary work has been shown in various movies and magazines, as well Magnet Gallery, Art Saves Lives Gallery and the Castro Country Club. This is his first show with the Tenderloin Museum.

Scheduled to debut in early 2018, The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot is an interactive play based on the Compton’s Cafeteria riot, inspired by the Tenderloin Museum’s exhibits on the subject. It was conceived of by playwright Mark Nasser and Tenderloin Museum director Katie Conry, written in collaboration with long-term Tenderloin drag queens (and TLM collaborators) Donna Persona and Collette LeGrande

Tenderloin Museum has been a key partner in the development of the play, connecting Nassar with Tenderloin LGBT history experts Susan Stryker, and Victor Silverman, as well as legendary neighborhood drag queens for academic and first-hand accounts of the scene at the cafeteria. The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot will be performed at an unconventional venue reminiscent of Compton’s Cafeteria itself.

Nassar has completed the script, and early readings and feedback sessions at the Museum have been packed with interested audiences. The third and final workshop of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot will be held on September 26th at 7pm. We very much value transparency and community input, and invite you to be a part of the process of this play before its 2018 premiere.

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This event is part of our Compton’s Film Series: Queens to the Front, a four-event series culminating in a final workshop of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, an interactive play directly inspired by the 1966 riot, produced by the Tenderloin Museum.

In the summer of 1966, a drag queen patron of the Tenderloin’s Compton’s Cafeteria threw her cup of hot coffee in the face of an police officer as he made an unwarranted attempted to arrest her. The riot that followed would be come to known as the United States’ first recorded act of militant queer resistance to social oppression and police harassment in history. Three years before the famous gay riot at New York’s Stonewall Inn, the neighborhood’s drag queens and allies banded together to fight back against their ongoing discrimination, beating the cops with their high heels and throwing furniture out of the cafeteria windows.

The Compton’s Film Series: Queens to the Front will consist of works created as a response to the story of Compton’s, the movement that followed, and the Tenderloin’s continued support of queer communities. This history is an integral component of the neighborhood’s identity, and we are honored to recognize the individuals whose tenacious spirit spawned a movement against the long history of discrimination and violence.

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Compton’s Film Series: Queens to the Front

8/16: The Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria

8/24: Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight

9/14: Beautiful by Night + Queens At Heart 

9/26: The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, A Workshop 

SF Civic Center, UN Plaza, and Fulton Street present their third-Thursday iteration of The Commons Block Party. Curated by Bay Area music and culture champion, Noise Pop, this FREE family-friendly event will feature three stages of live music, a food truck marketplace, and entertainment from various local businesses and organizations.

Join us for our Outdoor Art Gallery by Tenderloin Museum, a boutique collection of works for sale from past and future Tenderloin Museum artists such as photographers J.B. Higgins, Darwin Bell, and Marissa Patrice Leitman, and painter Ira Watkins. Jazz music will be performed by former Tenderloin Museum collaborator and Tenderloin youth advocate, Tomas Jay.

About The Commons Block Party:

The Commons Block Party on 3rd Thursdays is a series of FREE events held on four nights, one each month from 5:00 to 9:00 pm.

Headlining the September event will be French Cassettes and EagleWolfSnake on Fulton Street, Omega LIVE band in Civic Center Plaza and DUCKWRTH in UN Plaza – unique and compelling performers highlighting the diversity in San Francisco’s music scene.

The events encompass the linked public spaces in Civic Center Commons: Civic Center Plaza, UN Plaza and Fulton Street, between the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Main Public Library.

The Commons Block Party on 9/21 adds FREE skating & rentals from The Church of 8 Wheels http://www.churchof8wheels.com/. Listen 2 FREE music while you skate. http://civiccentercommons.org/

For more information, please visit http://www.civiccentercommons.org/, or their social media pages: https://www.instagram.com/civiccentercommons/ https://twitter.com/CivicCenter

Beautiful By Night is a documentary film and photo series that follows three older drag entertainers, Donna Personna, Collette LeGrande, and Olivia Hart, at famed San Francisco gay bar, Aunt Charlie's, over the course of one evening. Directed by James Hosking (The California Sunday Magazine, Mother Jones, The Washington Post) and shot by Vanessa Carr and the film has received a Platinum Award from the Spotlight Documentary Film Awards, was chosen by Vimeo as a Staff Pick, and has been screened at the Boston LGBT Festival, Frameline, Atlanta Documentary Fest.

Beautiful By Night will be shown alongside Queens At Heart, a rare and provocative glimpse into pre-Stonewall queer life. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary the 1967 short documentary introduces us to four trans women and explores their histories, travails, and dreams. The film is screened with permission by Outfest / UCLA Legacy Project.

Beautiful By Night + Queens At Heart will be held on September 14th; reception at 6:30pm, screening at 7pm with drag performances by Donna Personna, Collette LeGrande, and Olivia Hart.

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This event is part of our Compton’s Film Series: Queens to the Front, a four-event series culminating in a final workshop of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, an interactive play directly inspired by the 1966 riot, produced by the Tenderloin Museum.

In the summer of 1966, a drag queen patron of the Tenderloin’s Compton’s Cafeteria threw her cup of hot coffee in the face of an police officer as he made an unwarranted attempted to arrest her. The riot that followed would be come to known as the United States’ first recorded act of militant queer resistance to social oppression and police harassment in history. Three years before the famous gay riot at New York’s Stonewall Inn, the neighborhood’s drag queens and allies banded together to fight back against their ongoing discrimination, beating the cops with their high heels and throwing furniture out of the cafeteria windows.

The Compton’s Film Series: Queens to the Front will consist of works created as a response to the story of Compton’s, the movement that followed, and the Tenderloin’s continued support of queer communities. This history is an integral component of the neighborhood’s identity, and we are honored to recognize the individuals whose tenacious spirit spawned a movement against the long history of discrimination and violence.

---

Compton’s Film Series: Queens to the Front

8/16: The Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria

8/24: Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight

9/14: Beautiful by Night + Queens At Heart 

9/26: The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, A Workshop 

Join us at Virgil’s Sea Room on Wednesday, September 13th for COCKTAILS FOR A CAUSE, a night of boozing in support of LGBTQ-focused arts! 

Raise a glass (and a bit of funding) for the upcoming production of Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, an interactive play directly inspired by the historical 1966 riot — one of the first recorded militant uprising by the transgender and queer community against police harassment in US history — produced by the Tenderloin Museum.

Supporters of the museum are integral in keeping the history of LGBTQ communities alive in San Francisco. The history of these marginalized groups is an essential component of the city’s identity, and together with allies like you, we are honored to recognize the individuals whose tenacious spirit spawned a movement against the long history of discrimination and violence.

With your help, we can bring the stories of the pioneering trans and queer individuals to a new generation of San Franciscans.

How can you help? By joining us for a cocktail! Sip a Vicki Marlane, a specialty sweet and sassy cocktail named after the famed Tenderloin drag queen herself. A portion of each drink sold, in addition to the $5-$10 suggested donation at the door, will go directly to support production costs of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot.

Come by from 6pm to 9pm to hang out with Tenderloin Museum on Virgil’s patio, raise a glass, and celebrate the queer groups that help make San Francisco, San Francisco.

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About the Play:

Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, is an upcoming interactive play by Bay Area-based artist Mark Nassar inspired by the eponymous 1966 uprising for TLGB rights. Taking place in the Tenderloin and predating the more famous Stonewall Inn riot in New York City by three years, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot still remains relatively unknown. With San Francisco on the verge of creating the nation’s first-ever TLGB Cultural District—a move grounded partly in the significance of the Compton’s riots—there has never been a better time to support cultural projects that celebrate this rich history. 

This project will combine artistic innovation with powerful historical reference, emphasizing research, high-quality production, and contemporary staging through site-specific location and audience interaction. In this way, program partners will deploy vibrancy and creativity of the Bay Area’s theater community to share this critical LGBTQ story with a wide audience.

Since 2016, the Tenderloin Museum has been a key partner in the development of the play, connecting Nassar with Tenderloin LGBT history expert Victor Silverman, as well as legendary neighborhood drag queens Donna Personna and Collette LeGrande, for academic and first-hand accounts of the scene at Compton’s Cafeteria. Nassar has completed the script, and early readings and feedback sessions at the Museum have been packed with interested audiences.

Mark Nassar along with Tenderloin Museum director Katie Conry conceived of the idea of an interactive play based on the Compton’s Cafeteria riot, inspired by the Tenderloin Museum’s exhibits on the subject. Nasser, in collaboration with long-term Tenderloin drag queens Donna Persona and Collette LeGrande, has spent the past year writing the play The Riot in Compton’s Cafeteria.

Compton’s Cafeteria Riot is set to premiere in early 2018.

Tenderloin Museum is pleased to present, for the first time in its entirety, Gay San Francisco, a documentary film delving into the Tenderloin’s early queer movements during the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Created by filmmaker Jonathan Raymond, the full-length, never-before-screened Gay San Francisco gives an unabashedly raw window into queer life decades ago. Restored from its original 16mm film, and transferred to digital in a collaboration between Tenderloin Museum and California Preservation Program, this extended version features, among other new scenes, lesbian subject matter and a fetish “tickle sacrifice” scene. A true mondo film with no shortage of pornographic material, Gay San Francisco tackles its gay and erotic themes with a respect and humor that was all but unheard of at the time of its shooting. This footage — along with scenes from San Francisco’s thriving LGBTQ culture, interviews with gay men and transwomen, and rare pieces from a Halloween drag show at the historic On The Levee gay bar — give a shockingly complete depiction of homosexual life in San Francisco, and more specifically, the Tenderloin, San Francisco’s first queer neighborhood.

Gay San Francisco was discovered by filmmakers Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman during research for their Emmy-winning documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, which includes footage from Gay San Francisco. The original 8mm film was generously given to Stryker and Silverman by Ed Muckerman, cinematographer of Gay San Francisco.

The restoration of the film was a collaboration between Tenderloin Museum and California Preservation Society as a part of California Reveale, a State Library initiative to help digitize, preserve, and serve online historically significant Californiana. California Revealed is currently accepting submissions on behalf of the Tenderloin Museum. Participants are encouraged to bring in material related to the history of the Tenderloin (e.g., books, documents, photographs, audiovisual recordings) to be digitized and added to the Tenderloin Museum’s digital collection as well as the California Light and Sound collection. In exchange, participants will get free copies of the files. The Tenderloin Museum will gather basic description and help send the original materials to California Revealed for digitization. The next deadline for nominations will be Spring 2018.

To arrange a drop-off, please contact the Tenderloin Museum at info@tenderloinmuseum.org.

Since 2010, California Revealed and its sibling project, the California Audiovisual Preservation Project, have worked with over 150 partner institutions across the state — including public libraries and local historical societies — to help preserve California’s history through digitizing materials, making them available online, and providing long-term storage. For more information about California Revealed please visit the California Preservation Program.

Bryn Hoffman, archivist with California Revealed, will be speaking following the screening of Gay San Francisco. Hoffman specializes in “non-av” materials: photos and print. She has previously done work at the Internet Archive and the Freedom Archives in San Francisco, and as a rural librarian in Vermont. She received her MLIS in archival studies from Simmons College in 2016.

Tenderloin Museum is pleased to present Concerts at the Cadillac Redux: Celebrating The Fab Four & The First Lady of Song, an evening honoring 100 years since the birth of Ella Fitzgerald and the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles’ iconic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band.

In Concerts at the Cadillac Redux, Tenderloin Museum celebrates the Cadillac Hotel’s Concerts at the Cadillac, a monthly event created to provide high-quality music for hotel occupants and the residents of the district. The ongoing programming seeks to uplift and empower the neighborhood via the very music that was born in the Tenderloin. Concerts at the Cadillac Redux will feature jazz artist and Tenderloin tenant counselor, educator, and community activist, Pam Coates. As our leading Tenderloin Museum tour guide, her valuable insight into the neighborhood has been integral to the museum’s identity since its inception. Coates will be performing alongside Benn "The Bass Of The Bay" Bacot, a local jazz singer whose stylings have been compared to Billy Eckstine, Joe Williams, and Nat King Cole.

These vocalists will be channeling iconic music that enraptured the world, including selections from The Beatles’ 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a record lauded for its unprecedented innovation in songwriting, sound design, cover art, and concepts. The eighth studio album by the famed English group won four Grammy Awards — including Album of the Year, and has been called “the most important rock & roll album ever made” by Rolling Stone Magazine.

The 50th Anniversary of the famed album coincides with the centennial of the birth of "The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald. The winner of 13 Grammy awards, Fitzgerald worked with virtually every jazz great of the time, and has sold over 40 million albums.

Pam Coates and Benn Bacot are pleased to celebrate these great artists in collaboration with the Cadillac Hotel and Tenderloin Museum.

Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight chronicles the remarkable experiences of Vicki Marlane, a drag performer still strutting it onstage in her seventies. Vicki takes us on the ride of her life — from rollerskating crossdressed in her youth, to hoochie-coochie girl carnival sideshows and romantic road trips. We hitchhike through the adventures that led to her being San Francisco’s “Toast of the Town” in the early ’70s, and Vicki even shares her tips of the trade acquired from decades of drag experience at hot-spot venues including Aunt Charlie’s in the Tenderloin District. Directed by Michelle Lawler, and produced by archivist and historian Kim Klausner (It’s Elementary:Talking About Gay Issues In School, Frameline20) and Emmy Award-winning Susan Stryker (Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, Frameline30), this film is a loving tribute to a legend.

Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight will be held on August 24th; reception at 6:30pm, screening at 7pm followed by a discussion with producers Susan Stryker and Kim Klausner.

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This event is part of our Compton’s Film Series: Queens to the Front, a four-event series culminating in a final workshop of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, an interactive play directly inspired by the 1966 riot, produced by the Tenderloin Museum.

In the summer of 1966, a drag queen patron of the Tenderloin’s Compton’s Cafeteria threw her cup of hot coffee in the face of an police officer as he made an unwarranted attempted to arrest her. The riot that followed would be come to known as the United States’ first recorded act of militant queer resistance to social oppression and police harassment in history. Three years before the famous gay riot at New York’s Stonewall Inn, the neighborhood’s drag queens and allies banded together to fight back against their ongoing discrimination, beating the cops with their high heels and throwing furniture out of the cafeteria windows.

The Compton’s Film Series: Queens to the Front will consist of works created as a response to the story of Compton’s, the movement that followed, and the Tenderloin’s continued support of queer communities. This history is an integral component of the neighborhood’s identity, and we are honored to recognize the individuals whose tenacious spirit spawned a movement against the long history of discrimination and violence.

---

Compton’s Film Series: Queens to the Front

8/16: The Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria

8/24: Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight

9/14: Beautiful by Night + Queens At Heart 

9/26: The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, A Workshop