Thursday November 12, 2026 | 5-8pm
At Dodge Alley (Turk & Larkin St.)
Jordan Glenn's BEAK (est. 2014) is a percussion heavy ensemble that blurs the line between dynamic/energetic grooves and chaos. The power of this electric ensemble is wheeled by Jordan Glenn’s curious baton, moving in and out of composed and spontaneous material. The group features Sudhu Tewari (homemade instruments), Robert Lopez (percussion), Mark Clifford (vibraphone), Jon Arkin (drums), Lisa Mezzacappa (bass), David James (guitar) and Karl Evangelista (guitar).
Glenn’s BEAK is experimental music at its most fun, deftly balancing spontaneity and noise with infectious grooves and sensory delights. Importantly, this music points to the rich tradition of experimental music in the Tenderloin nurtured via Luggage Store’s Creative Music Series and the Center 4 New Music… a first for TLM’s music-forward programs at Dodge Alley’s. Plus, the band is somewhat of a supergroup of the improvising musicians at the heart of the Bay Area’s deeply rooted experimental and New Music scene. Not to be missed!
Free to attend | No registration required
$15 vouchers for food/drink at nearby businesses while supplies last
Saturday, November 21, 2026 | 1:00-3:00 PM
Please note the new start time of 1:00 pm.
Meet at the SW corner of Geary and Powell Street, Union Square
Register to attend via Humanitix
🏆 48hills Best of the Bay 2026: Best Tour (Runner-Up)
Tenderloin Museum is thrilled to partner with Unspeakable Vice, “a volunteer history initiative making queer belonging accessible to everyone,” to offer a monthly walking tour focused on the LGBTQIA+ history in the Tenderloin and Polk Street neighborhoods. Created by downtown San Francisco resident and professor at California College of the Arts Shawn Sprockett, Unspeakable Vice extends Sprockett’s richly detailed and craftily delivered approach to the TL and Polk Street to offer a deep dive into the emergence of LGBTQIA+ icons and movements that shaped the area from the 1960s to the 1990s.
The “Valley of the Queens” tour highlights key events such as the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, a landmark action of trans resistance that predates the Stonewall Riots, and the site of San Francisco’s first Pride parade. The tour also uncovers lesser-known yet significant histories, including a drag ball raided by the San Francisco Police Department that was defended by local Christian ministers—showing how a diverse coalition of activists, sex workers, and religious leaders helped shape the foundations of queer San Francisco.
Saturday, December 12, 2026 | 2:00 – 3:30pm
Meet at UN Plaza (at the Halprin fountain) | Market St. & Leavenworth St., SF, CA 94102
Each year on December 10, the world marks International Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As part of a city-wide observance in San Francisco, the Tenderloin Museum presents a walking tour that explores our district’s rich history of people fighting for and honoring their human rights, as well as our location’s physical connection to the United Nations and the origins of International Human Rights Day.
Led by Dr. Linda Day, professor emerita of urban planning and seasoned city guide, the walking tour begins in United Nations Plaza, the public space at the convergence of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood and its stately Civic Center. The plaza commemorates the 1945 signing of the UN Charter in SF, and the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is literally enshrined into the plaza’s built environment. Yet, mere blocks away in the edgy urban enclave of the Tenderloin, working people and those on society’s margins have fought (and continue to struggle) against threats to their human rights like poverty and discrimination.
The Human Rights History Tenderloin Walking Tour telescopes between UN Plaza as a monument to a worldwide notion of human rights and the many struggles for those human rights in the specific locality of UN Plaza and the Tenderloin. The tour will cover:
The 1977 Section 504 sit-in, during which disabled activists occupied SF’s Federal Building for 26 days, which won the first federal civil rights protections for people with disabilities.
The ARC/AIDS Vigil, which kept watch at UN Plaza for a decade, demanding care and attention for people the government was content to ignore.
The Ambassador Hotel, with its heroic ad-hoc network of mutual aid, community healthcare and hospice during the AIDS epidemic.
The 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, at which transgender women and queer youth stood up against harassment and discrimination by police and
GLIDE Memorial Church, Cecil Williams, the organization's prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement, and its daily struggle against systemic poverty.
This walking tour is presented as part of a week-long, city-wide celebration of International Human Rights Day organized by the San Francisco and the Heising-Simons Foundation. In addition, TLM presents a special matinee (4pm) of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot following the Human Rights History Tenderloin Walking Tour.
Free to attend; donations welcome! | Register via Humanitix
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