Tenderloin Museum Turns Two

The Tenderloin Museum marks its 2nd anniversary in the midst of an important year in the history of San Francisco – it’s the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love and the 100th anniversary of the “anti-vice” Tenderloin neighborhood shutdown. On Saturday, May 13, the Tenderloin Museum is inviting its friends and neighbors to celebrate the Tenderloin’s unique contributions to San Francisco history with daylong free museum admission and free public programs from 4 pm to 9 pm, featuring accounts of the “Invisible Circus” from the Diggers, San Francisco Chronicle Columnist David Talbot, the first-ever reading of the new play The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, and a dynamic jazz night by SF Recovery Theater. We’re excited to show off the best the neighborhood has to offer and celebrate the 31 square blocks we call home.

4pm: The Diggers’ “Invisible Circus” Remembered
Come hear what the Summer of Love was like in the Tenderloin. Judy Goldhaft (original participant in the Diggers) and Eric Noble (Diggers archivist) talk with LisaRuth Elliott (Shaping San Francisco’s co-director) about who the Diggers were, and their radical anti-capitalist philosophy and activities. They will share archival materials and personal experiences from the Diggers’ “Invisible Circus” Happening at Glide Church on February 24, 1967. Stories about the “Invisible Circus” became legend in San Francisco’s hip community for years. Originally billed as a 72 hour event, participants were thrown out within 24 hours. See the poster from the event and hear stories of the spectacle from the Diggers themselves.

5pm: David Talbot on the Summer of Love, Season of the Witch, and the Tenderloin
Author of the best selling book on San Francisco’s Summer of Love and its aftermath, San Francisco Chronicle columnist David Talbot gives his unique perspective on this seminal time in history.

6pm: The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot
Join us for the first-ever reading of scenes from a new play about Tenderloin history, The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, based on events surrounding the United States’ first-ever anti-police riot by the LGBTQ community. Followed by dazzling drag performances by co-authors Donna Personna & Collette LeGrande, and joined by Olivia Hart (all featured in James Hosking’s film about Aunt Charlie’s bar,Beautiful by Night). The play is being co-produced by the Tenderloin Museum and writer Mark Nassar, co-creator of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, and will premiere this fall in the Tenderloin.

7:30pm: SF Recovery Theater: Night at the Black Hawk
Join us for a raucous tour-de-force performance of some of the best musical talent in the neighborhood! Night at the Black Hawk is a live jazz concert, part of an ongoing series that reflects on the lives and stories of the artists, musicians, and residents that lived in the shadow of the Black Hawk Jazz Club.