Happenings
We see Crossroads as one ongoing happening animated by a broad range of energies and adventures. Here’s just a small sampling of the series we have in store.
Heart Of Town
Our branded weekly performance series akin to NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts showcases high-profile touring musicians live from the corner of Haight & Ashbury. Filmed and recorded in front of an intimate audience and webcast on Nugs.net, the premier national concert streaming platform, Heart Of Town will become a magnet for touring artists, in turn raising visibility and growing attendance for Crossroads while reaffirming San Francisco’s reputation as a signature musical destination.
Roots & Branches
Pairs Bay Area heritage artists of multiple disciplines with contemporary counterparts they’ve influenced for collaborations and conversations that connect where we’ve been and where we’re heading. Legacy lives.
Talking Book
Worlds within words. Bay Area authors on the cutting edge turn the page with their latest works for lively readings and engaging conversations.
In The Grooves
Classic recordings from funk to folk, jazz to jam, roots, rock, reggae, and hip-hop to who-knows-what get the utmost attention in intimate listening sessions hosted by local music luminaries.
Cross Talks
Where are we at? Why are we here? What is hip? The current condition considered in roundtables featuring the finest minds around the Bay.
Next Vic
Selective screen time just down the block. Come catch a cool new indie flick or beloved classic with friends and family in a living room much bigger than yours.
KidsMix
An adventurous series rethinking how to connect kids with arts in ways that resonate and endure to create the change makers of tomorrow.
The Daily Dose
Did we mention we love music? Ample portions of local flavors and spices served throughout the week at The Frequency. Yes, that includes Balinese gamelan.
Haight Street Sessions
High concept mash ups and mixed bags curated by our in-house collective and an array of seasoned Bay Area tastemakers with their ears to the ground and fingers on the pulse.
Together in Tune
We'll offer free concerts and cultural experiences for neighbors like Walden House and others in need, creating welcoming spaces for connection, dignity, and healing through music.
A Dream Week at Crossroads
Monday
The welcome mats are out and doors open for neighborhood group meetings in The Portal and The Frequency.
Up in The Heights that night, our In The Grooves listening session brings KPFA’s Bonnie Simmons to the intimate woody loft for timeless recordings and the tales that shaped them.
Tuesday
At Gathering Grounds, happy hour hits with a hipster jazz trio playing a few sets from the café stage while neighbors catch up on what’s new and what’s next and music drifts out to the inviting corner parklet.
Next door, our Talking Book series features a Bay Area author in conversation about her new book chronicling the local lesbian scene of the 1950s.
Wednesday
Mahjong anyone? What’s old is new again. Join newbies and experts alike for a few rounds of this hip social game.
Miss the Red Vic? It’s Community Film Night in The Portal. Come catch Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters just down the street with friends and neighbors.
Thursday
Local high schoolers drop into our after-school learning lab for classes on audio engineering and then help set up soundcheck for the bands that evening.
Roots & Branches pairs members of the Broun Fellinis with Martin Luther McCoy and Marcus Shelby for collaborations and conversations about Afrofuturism and black musical legacy.
Friday
Peter Coyote’s narrated immersive history of the Haight opens that morning, animating the exhibit galleries in mind-expanding fashion.
Early evening, inspired young voices from Youth Speaks turn up the volume for a powerful poetry slam at The Frequency
Nighttime gets funky with a modern spin on a shining star, as Kev Choice’s soul collective throws down for a Sly & The Family Stone dance party in The Portal.
Saturday
Morning kicks off as KidsMix listens to jazz, talks about how to hear it, and then takes a joyful hands-on dive into collective improvisation, kid-style.
That afternoon, Americana songstress Gillian Welch, playing The Fillmore later that evening, will perform an intimate daytime set at Heart Of Town, our nationally streamed webcast.
The beat goes on at Haight Street Sessions featuring a creative collab between La Doña and the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, grooving to interactive video projections in The Portal.
Sunday
Afternoon sees the Crossroads Twang Ensemble amble into The Frequency for three sets of California country travelogues as expansive landscapes float across the venue walls.
The week ends with food for thought at CrossTalks, an eclectic roundtable featuring SF’s best and brightest considering what counterculture means in our present moment.