Sylvester, the Queen of San Francisco
Thursday May 30, 2024 | 6-9pm
At theTenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102
Register via Eventbrite | Free or Suggested Donation ($10 or more!)
Celebrate disco-soul legend and San Francisco icon Sylvester with the Transgender District and the Tenderloin Museum. Join us for a screening of Unsung: the Sylvester Story (2010), live music by Sylvester collaborators Jeanie Tracy & LZ Love, plus a discussion with Andrea Horne, and Minister Marvin K. White (GLIDE), moderated by the District’s Co-Executive Director Breonna McCree.
On March 11th, 1979, Mayor Diane Feinstein declared “Sylvester Day” in San Francisco to honor the Queen of Disco. That night, Sylvester performed an epic 3 hour set at the War Memorial Opera House, a master musician at peak powers, performing a career’s worth of immortal music for a doting hometown crowd. The Opera House stands just outside of the Tenderloin and SOMA, neighborhoods that nurtured queer underground music and that stand in stark contrast to Civic Center’s palatial monuments to “fine” arts.” Indeed, Sylvester’s big show elevated disco into one of the city’s most hallowed halls for arts and culture, and the celebratory designation of “Sylvester Day” enshrined the disco diva into the city's mythology, as well as acknowledged the empowerment of a Black, queer, visionary artist who defied norms and confidently, joyously, paved his own singular path.
In collaboration with the Transgender District, Tenderloin Museum presents Sylvester, the Queen of San Francisco, a public program celebrating the supreme diva of disco with an emphasis on Sylvester’s connections and legacy in the place and community both organizations call home, the city’s Tenderloin/Mid-Market area. We’ll be screening Unsung: Sylvester, a rare 2010 documentary that survey’s Sylvester’s remarkable life story, in conjunction with a live musical tribute by two of Sylvester’s musical collaborators Jeanie Tracy & LZ Love, plus a discussion with both performers, artist, activist, and local historian Andrea Horne, and GLIDE’s Minister Marvin K. White, moderated by the District’s Co-Executive Director Breonna McCree. In addition, Dark Entries Records, Sylvester’s TL-based indie label, and the GLBT Historical Society, home to much of Sylvester’s archival materials, will share rare photos, footage, and ephemera to this celebration.
The program is part of the Transgender District’s Empowerment Month, a “time dedicated to fostering growth, resilience, and positive change within our community.” The District’s Empowerment Month is not only a series of events and initiatives but also a commitment to empower each other, lift up voices that may have been marginalized, and create an environment where everyone feels valued, supported, and capable of achieving their goals. The Queen of San Francisco is presented as part of the Tenderloin Museum’s ongoing Sounds of the Tenderloin, a series of public programs that seeks to animate the neighborhood’s undersung cultural history through live music. Sylvester’s music remains ubiquitous on dancefloors to this day, and both his personal and artistic legacies draw a line through the milieu of the Tenderloin, the city’s queer underground, its emergent LGBTQ movement, and into the mainstream.
This extremely special program gathers several folks who have uniquely close and direct relationships with Sylvester as well as deep ties to the Tenderloin and the TL community. Jeanie Tracy and LZ Love, have sung with Sylvester in various capacities, Andrea Horne, longtime friend of Sylvester since her teenage years, and Minister Marvin White regularly cites Sylvester as an inspiration for his poetry and ministry, the latter of which is rooted at GLIDE, the Tenderloin’s church of radical love and inclusivity. Sylvester famously infused disco music with powerful gospel and blues, and in Sylvester’s trailblazing life and art, Minister Marvin has taken a message that “you have to activate God on your behalf, and spirituality, and the divine.” In short, a message of empowerment, affirmation, and godliness in us all. In advance of the program on 5/30, Minister Marvin will center GLIDE’s Sunday Celebration (on 5/26) around Sylvester, his music, and his message. Follow GLIDE for updates as we get closer to the date!
Don’t miss Sylvester, the Queen of San Francisco–register via Eventbrite today to reserve your seat and let us know you’re coming. It’s free if you want it to be, although a suggested donation of $10 (or more) helps support TLM, our partners, and public programs like this.
Sounds of the Tenderloin program in the 2023/2024 season received funding from the Specified General Fund for the Museum Grant Program under the California Cultural and Historical Endowment.