A multidisciplinary work that weaves story and song with Gullah stick pounding, a rhythmic language of resistance and celebration. This work heralds a future in which we celebrate, illuminate, and amplify what is powerful and unique in our most disinvested neighborhood.

Reimagining the City as Our Own: Towards an Architecture of Inclusion is a film that considers the ubiquity of unpleasant design or, hostile architecture, in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.

In response to COVID-19, Skywatchers reimagined our creative practice to meet the urgent demands of the time. Seeking innovative solutions to continue engaging the Tenderloin community (disproportionately affected by the pandemic), Skywatchers developed new creative strategies, technologies, expertise, and partnerships for resource sharing.

Skywatchers partnered with residents and staff of the Iroquois to explore the hotel’s present-day conditions and resident policies, as well as the architectural and social history of the neighborhood. What emerged from a six-month process of sharing stories was an intimate, guided performance experience.

Came here to Live: Resilience and Resistance in the Containment Zone, which premiered at CounterPulse, which offered a glimpse into life in the Tenderloin and a vision of what it means to have a seat at the table, to dismantle the table, and to create inclusive forms of discourse through creative resistance to systemic oppression and disenfranchisement.