Oakland-based artist Sadie Barnette mines her family archive to reawaken personal and collective histories across generations. The New Eagle Creek Saloon (2019) is an interactive installation and performance series that reimagines San Francisco’s first Black-owned gay bar, which the artist’s father, Rodney Barnette, operated from 1990 to 1993. Originally located at 1884 Market Street, The New Eagle Creek Saloon served as a safe gathering space for the multiracial queer community that was otherwise marginalized by the racist profiling practices of San Francisco’s queer bar scene at that time, as embodied in its slogan: “A friendly place, with a funky bass, for every race.” Here, Barnette honors the legacy of a bar that supported activist groups, celebrated Black heroes, and participated in vigils for those lost in the AIDS epidemic.
As you enter, Barnette’s installation glimmers in a pink neon light. Framed by mirrors from The New Eagle Creek Saloon’s original location, the U-shaped bar includes photographs of past patrons, sparkly crumpled cans, musical equipment, and a zine that documents its history. As Barnette describes: “The glittering bar structure—glowing somewhere between a monument and an altar . . . 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.”
For this presentation at STABLE Arts, local relevance is drawn via invited guests whose programs will activate the space in homage to past, present, and future Black Queer Life in Washington, D.C.
You're invited to join Khepera Wellness for a Trap Yoga class set to Beyonce's Renaissance album at STABLE. This one-of-a-kind class will combine the power of yoga with the queen of pop's iconic hits, creating a high-energy and transformative experience.
This class is for literally EVERY BODY. Come as you are. You will be cared for.
Fierceness Served! The ENIKAlley Coffeehouse focuses on the history of The Coffeehouse, which was home to a vibrant community of Black LGBT artists and activists in Washington, DC during the 1980s.
The film will be followed by a conversation between STABLE Executive Director, Maleke Glee, and ENIKAlley Coffeehouse regulars Wayson R. Jones and Christopher Prince.
Over the years, a number of gathering spaces and events have helped to define Washington, DC as an important cultural center for Black queer life. The stories of these spaces are often interconnected with locally-founded Black queer publications. Such publications have and continue to serve as a record of the gatherings, the concerns, and the ideas of DC’s Black queer communities. This panel will explore the histories of some of these publications and their impact.
In partnership with The People's Archive of the DC Public Library
You're invited to join Khepera Wellness for a Trap Yoga class set to Beyonce's Renaissance album at STABLE. This one-of-a-kind class will combine the power of yoga with the queen of pop's iconic hits, creating a high-energy and transformative experience.
This class is for literally EVERY BODY. Come as you are. You will be cared for.
Sadie Barnette’s multimedia practice illuminates her own family history as it mirrors a collective history of repression and resistance in the United States. The last born of the last born, and hence the youngest of her generation, Barnette holds a long and deep fascination with the personal and political value of kin. Barnette’s adept materialization of the archive rises above a static reverence for the past; by inserting herself into the retelling, she offers a history that is alive. Her drawings, photographs, and installations collapse time and expand possibilities. Political and social structures are a jumping off point for the work, but they are not the final destination. Her use of abstraction, glitter, and the fantastical summons another dimension of human experience and imagination. Recent projects include the reclamation of a 500-page FBI surveillance file amassed on her father during his time with the Black Panther Party and her interactive reimagining of his bar — San Francisco’s first Black-owned gay bar.
Barnette holds a BFA from CalArts and an MFA from University of California, San Diego. She has enjoyed solo exhibitions at The Kitchen, New York; Pomona College, Los Angeles and Pitzer College Art Galleries, Los Angeles; ICA Los Angeles, The Lab, San Francisco; the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; MCA San Diego; and the Manetti Shrem Museum, UC Davis. Barnette’s work has been included in recent exhibitions at Oakland Museum of California; FotoFocus Biennial, Cincinnati, OH; and the California Biennial at Orange County Museum of Art. Her work is in the permanent collections of LACMA, CA; Brooklyn Museum; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Guggenheim Museum, NY; San José Museum of Art, CA; Oakland Museum of California; the Berkeley Art Museum, CA; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; and the Walker Art Center, MN. She’s the recipient of numerous grants and residencies including the Studio Museum in Harlem, Artadia, Art Matters, Eureka Fellowship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Camargo Foundation in France, and was the inaugural Artist Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Black Studies Collaboratory. Recent commissions include Bay Area Walls at SFMOMA and a permanent, site-specific installation at the Los Angeles International Airport is forthcoming in 2024. Barnette lives and works in Oakland, CA.
