YBCA

Air Between Us will be at the @ybca from 5/15-5/17 ! I got to preview this during their dress rehearsal and it was so fun to watch the aerial performers do everything from scale walls, to walk upside down, to soar across the room. It’s a cool new choreography by @mlowedancekitty that’s shaped by gravity, trust, and interdependence. Grab your tickets now and have fun. You gotta check it out! 📍701 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103 #ybca #aerialdancers #yerbabuenasf #sfinfluencer

Experience Diedrick Brackens’s exhibition in a new way—as musician Willie Alexander III performs an intimate solo set of voice and piano among Diedrick’s woven artworks. A multi-genre composer and performer, Alexander has collaborated with artists including Kanye West, Vanessa Beecroft, and Alicia Keys, bridging experimental and popular forms. The free show starts at 6p on Wed. May 20, as part of Free Wednesdays at YBCA. Come for the art, stay for the music, and don’t forget to stop by the bar. “Little Prayer” written by Danez Smith.

🪽🤸 May 15-17 at YBCA: Megan Lowe Dances takes flight! Experience “Air Between Us” as as our building becomes a stage for aerial dancers. Get your tickets for dance that defies the floor via the performances link in our bio. After the Sat, May 16 performance, stick around for a post-show talk with Megan Lowe, the dancers, and Joanna Haigood, Artistic Director for Zaccho Dance Theatre. “Split Perspectives” composed by William Cenoté. Lyrics and vocals by Megan Lowe.

On Wednesday June 3, Small Press Traffic and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts present an evening of poetic texts in dialogue with the dream-like video installation “The Prince of Homburg” by P. Staff. Four Bay Area writers—Marcel Pardo Ariza, Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert, Mara Hassan, and willow wilderness hour—will respond to the exhibition through newly commissioned texts which move between reflection, resistance, and reimagination. The program celebrates the launch of Small Press Traffic’s “The Back Room” summer folio, OMENS, featuring all four writers. Both the reading and gallery admission are free, as part of Free Wednesdays at YBCA. Guests are invited to view the video installation before or after the program. RSVP via the Free Wednesdays link in our bio. Video still from “The Prince of Homburg,” courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council. Image 6 by Tommy Lau

Look up! During Downtown First Thursday, head outside Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for a free sneak peek of Megan Lowe dance’s aerial performance “Air Between Us.” 🗓️ Thu 5/7 at 6:45p 📍 Crepe Myrtle Garden (via the walkway into the Yerba Buena Gardens from 3rd Street) 🤸 The performance will move indoors, where a bar and free gallery admission will be waiting Come see the preview, and then get tickets for the full show at YBCA from May 15–17. 📸: B Dean and Megan Lowe // All photos by Nino Fernandez, © Megan Lowe Dances. This program is supported by Yerba Buena Partnership, The Svane Family Foundation, Mayor Daniel Lurie, and the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Seen in Hyperallergic: “Diedrick Brackens: gather tender night” is a “homecoming exhibition (which) unfolds as a meditation on personal memory, myth, and the natural world.” In the review, Natasha Boas says “Brackens constructs stories, illustrated and embedded in the medium itself…and past traditions are reworked through the present and projected toward imagined futures.” Read the full article and then spend time with these works in person Wed from 11a–8p or Thu–Sun from 11a–5p. Photos by Natasha Boas, Charlie Villyard, and Mahelly Ferreira for Drew Altizer Photography.

We’re excited to announce that Essence Harden will be joining Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as Senior Curator. Harden most recently served as curator for the 2026 editions of EXPO Chicago and the Focus section for Frieze LA, and co-curated The Hammer Museum’s biennial “Made in LA” in 2025. Having grown up in Oakland and Berkeley, CA, Harden says “returning to the Bay Area through YBCA feels deeply meaningful. I’m excited to develop exhibitions with artists and colleagues that push aesthetic and conceptual boundaries, while situating the region within the diasporic and global exchanges shaping contemporary art.” Harden has also served as visual arts curator at CAAM, and curated exhibitions at the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), Art + Practice, the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), and the Oakland Museum of California, among others. Harden will begin at YBCA in May.

See what’s coming to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this May! 🤸 From 5/15-5/17, Megan Lowe Dances takes flight in “Air Between Us,” as dancers transform our campus into a living stage. Watch as aerial performers scale our walls, soar across open spaces, and cascade down our building facade. Megan and co will perform a special sneak preview outdoors on 5/7, during Downtown First Thursdays—come by! 🌙 Don’t forget: We’re free and open until 8p on Wednesdays. Come by on the evening of 5/20 for a live music performance in the galleries, or a curator tour on 5/27. You can make your own art each Wednesday afternoon from 2-4p at our free art workshops. 📽️ On Sat 5/16 from 1–4p, New Queer Cinema x Trans New Weird continues! See the films that Frameline’s Gabi Grossman tells KQED are “extraordinarily playful” and "keep the weird in queer.” 🖼️ The exhibitions “The Prince of Homburg,” “Diedrick Brackens: gather tender night,” and “Conjuring Power: Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements” are on view each week Wed 11a–8p and Thu–Sun 11a–5p. Check out our full calendar via the link in our bio. Image of B Dean and Megan Lowe © Megan Lowe Dances. Photo by Nino Fernandez. “Sure on this shining night” by James Agee. Performed by Willie Alexander III.

🔮✨On Wed 4/29 from 5–8p, step into an evening of insight, art, and queer imagination at Modern Queer Tarot. Join “Conjuring Power” artist and deck illustrator Tanya Wischerath and co-creator Bobby Barber for exclusive tarot readings from their 78 card deck which reimagines archetypes through queer histories. While you’re here, go beyond the table reading and explore the exhibition “Conjuring Power,” a striking tribute to queer resilience, transformation, and legacy. It’s all free as part of Wednesdays at YBCA. RSVP via the Free Wednesdays link in our bio.

We’ve been working hard, and having fun while doing it! Week 1 of MLD’s residency at @ybca is done, and I could not be more jazzed about this entire team! Dance collaborators @rosehuey , @roelseeber , @gabriele.mov , @thatsomajor , and @bodystorm___ are DE-LIV-ER-ING majorly, @freitag415 and Caelan Barber are bringing all our rigging dreams to life, @williamcenote is making music magic happen, and we feel so so supported and welcomed by the entire @ybca team. I can’t wait to bring in the rest of the set on Friday. This show is going to be magical! 🪄🦄🧚‍♀️ 🎟️ Get your tickets to “Air Between Us” via link in bio! ​ 🪄Fri. 5/15 at 7pm 🪄Sat. 5/16 at 2pm (with Audio Description)​ 🪄Sat. 5/16 at 7pm (with ASL Interpretation) 🪄Sun. 5/17 at 2pm Thanks @apicc_sf for including MLD in the 29th United States of Asian America Festival! #MeganLoweDances #YBCA #VerticalDance #AerialDance #Aerialist

“There is power in what we’re doing… as a community that we can overcome some of these obstacles.” – Serge Gay Jr. Organized in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society, “Conjuring Power: Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements” explores how queer and trans communities harness creativity to build and strengthen movements. Hear from co-curators Caro De Robertis and Tina V. Aguirre and artists Serge Gay Jr. and Tanya Wischerath as they tell the story behind the deep collaboration embedded in this new exhibition. See the exhibition Wed from 11a–8p or Thu–Sun from 11a–5p. Filmed and edited by Corey Marsau

“When we live our authentic truth, we conjure.” – Co-curator and author Caro De Robertis This Lesbian Visibility Week, we’re celebrating the power of living openly, creating boldly, and imagining new futures together. In “Conjuring Power,” creativity, defiant joy, and community come together to inspire us to shape what’s possible. While the Lesbian Power panel on Fri 4/24 is sold out, there’s still a lot of ways for you to participate: 🎨 Wed 4/22 from 2–4p: Create stencil art inspired by Tanya Wischerath’s work during our Free Art Workshop 🎬 Wed 4/22 from 5–8p: Catch the short films of “Conjuring Power” from the comfort of our screening room (with drink in hand). Includes a celebration of 90s Latinx queerness, a profile of California Indigenous tribes discussing gender in pre-colonial cultures, and a queer meditation on the experience of Japanese Americans during WWII. 🖼️ See “Conjuring Power” Wed 11–8p, Thu-Sun 11a–5p Visit the show, and leave inspired to conjure your own vision for the future. Photos by Robbie Sweeny, Senior Manager of Educational Programs Rea Lynn de Guzman, and Mahelly Ferreira for Drew Altizer Photography. Video still from “Looking for Jiro,” TT Takemoto, 2011.