The New Eagle Creek Saloon (2019 — ongoing) is an installation, and a vibe, that reimagines my father’s bar—the first black-owned gay bar in San Francisco. I built the glittering bar structure—glowing somewhere between a monument and an altar—as an invitation, a place to be, and an invocation. I did not want to make a project about the bar; I needed to make a project that was the bar, that bent space and time and reanimated the bones of the Eagle Creek in an intergenerational revival. So, my bar is not quiet as it honors; it is a party. It is all my friends and my dad’s people. It is permission to dance and dream, to call the names of those lost, and to see one another as we are in the glow of our own small moments of freedom.
In 1990, Rodney Barnette (aka my dad) opened the New Eagle Creek Saloon to serve a multiracial gay community marginalized by the racist profiling practices of San Francisco’s queer bar scene at that time. My dad’s brothers helped remodel the interior and added a large picture window, and talented patrons added flair to the decor. Located at 1884 Market Street, the bar was a space of celebration and resistance—hosting fundraisers for activist groups,
honoring Black holidays and heroes, and participating in the historic Market Street vigils for those lost to AIDS. Though the bar closed in 1993, its slogan embodies its legacy: “A friendly place, with a funky bass, for every race.”
The project has been hosted by many institutions but operates as its own independent community space, gathering archival materials, making friends and providing new programming as it travels. People are invited to raise a glass at the bar, dance the afternoon away, read a zine featuring ephemera from the original bar, experience film screenings, live music, DJs, panel talks and an ever-expanding range of offerings. I am introducing the New Eagle Creek Saloon into the channels of existing queer histories, but I am also manifesting its own archive, which recognizes the limits of “official histories” and celebrates the unknown and unknowable.
— Sadie Barnette
The New Eagle Creek Saloon (2019 — ongoing) is an installation, and a vibe, that reimagines my father’s bar—the first black-owned gay bar in San Francisco. I built the glittering bar structure—glowing somewhere between a monument and an altar—as an invitation, a place to be, and an invocation. I did not want to make a project about the bar; I needed to make a project that was the bar, that bent space and time and reanimated the bones of the Eagle Creek in an intergenerational revival. So, my bar is not quiet as it honors; it is a party. It is all my friends and my dad’s people. It is permission to dance and dream, to call the names of those lost, and to see one another as we are in the glow of our own small moments of freedom.
In 1990, Rodney Barnette (aka my dad) opened the New Eagle Creek Saloon to serve a multiracial gay community marginalized by the racist profiling practices of San Francisco’s queer bar scene at that time. My dad’s brothers helped remodel the interior and added a large picture window, and talented patrons added flair to the decor. Located at 1884 Market Street, the bar was a space of celebration and resistance—hosting fundraisers for activist groups, honoring Black holidays and heroes, and participating in the historic Market Street vigils for those lost to AIDS. Though the bar closed in 1993, its slogan embodies its legacy: “A friendly place, with a funky bass, for every race.”
The project has been hosted by many institutions but operates as its own independent community space, gathering archival materials, making friends and providing new programming as it travels. People are invited to raise a glass at the bar, dance the afternoon away, read a zine featuring ephemera from the original bar, experience film screenings, live music, DJs, panel talks and an ever-expanding range of offerings. I am introducing the New Eagle Creek Saloon into the channels of existing queer histories, but I am also manifesting its own archive, which recognizes the limits of “official histories” and celebrates the unknown and unknowable.
— Sadie Barnette
The New Eagle Creek Saloon was commissioned by The Lab, San Francisco, with support from the California Arts Council and the San Francisco Arts Commission.