Friday June 7, 2024 | 6-9pm
At the Tenderloin Museum | 398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102
Optional walking tour 5-6pm
Walking tour begins at 835 Larkin (play venue) and ends at 398 Eddy St (Tenderloin Museum)
San Francisco Pride & the Tenderloin Museum kickoff PRIDE SEASON with a festive party at the museum that celebrates the legacy of the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot and anticipates the upcoming production of the The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot play in the TL.
Thank you to our Community Sponsor Hyve Solutions for their support of this event.
The Tenderloin Museum is honored to team up with San Francisco Pride to host a festive party to kick off Pride Season in San Francisco! Attendees will be supporting both the museum and SF Pride, one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the world in the city that was instrumental in galvanizing the modern LGBTQIA+ movement. The evening’s program centers on honoring one of the most important yet undersung overtures in San Francisco’s queer history: the 1966 riot at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, a seminal act of trans-led queer resistance that took place right here in the Tenderloin.
The Compton’s riot is the inspiration for an immersive theater experience–The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot play–that is produced by TLM and set to open as an ongoing production in a permanent, purpose-built venue at 835 Larkin St in the TL. The story of the riot is an essential and pivotal part of queer history, and it also teaches us a great deal about how history is made, collective memory, and why art is a powerful tool to bear witness to the past as well as carry our forbears’ resistance and resilience in the present and into the future.
The program for this SF Pride Kickoff Party features the creative team behind The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot–Ezra Reaves (director/co-producer), Donna Personna (co-writer), & Collette LeGrande (co-writer)--in conversation with historian Joseph Plaster, author of Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, plus remarks by SF Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford SF Pride Board President Nguyen Pham & Tenderloin Museum Executive Director Katie Conry. Additionally, the special exhibition Transition Times: Re-Membering Anti-Carceral Resistance in the Tenderloin will be on-view in TLM’s gallery space; the must-see show contextualizes the story of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot utilizing the archive of historian Susan Stryker. The evening culminates with a live auction, featuring objects and experiences generously donated from supporters of SF Pride, the TL Museum, and the Compton’s play.
Join us on June 7th to hear directly from the writers and director of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot about bearing witness to the TL’s historic act of queer resistance through theater, realizing this highly anticipated production of the play, and reflecting on the role and power of art to shape history. Your participation will raise funds for both SF Pride and TLM’s new production of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot play. Tickets are $25, but NOTAFLOF (no one turned away for lack of funds!). Support queer community and queer history; register to attend today!
A limited number of attendees will be able to start the evening with a short walking tour that visits both the physical site of the Compton’s riot and the immersive venue for the eponymous play just a few blocks away. Historian Joseph Plaster and play co-producers the Tenderloin Museum, Ezra Reaves & Mark Nasser will join & share their knowledge and experience on site! Don’t miss this walking tour of Tenderloin queer sites, both past and present.
Light food and drinks will be served
SF Pride Event Sponsorship Opportunities are available.
Those in need of sliding-scale tickets or other financial aid can contact info@sfpride.org for a ticket discount.
Friday June 7, 2024 | 6-9pm
