The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide
The Sidewalk Ballet Field Guide is a growing collection of people, organizations, projects, books, ideas and ongoing conversations about cities and the people who shape them. It grows out of the podcast, but extends well beyond it—connecting the people doing the work, the places where it’s happening, and the ideas, experiments and resources worth carrying forward. Think of it as part reference library, part trail of breadcrumbs: a way to follow the conversation wherever it leads.
Explore by type, browse alphabetically or by date, or search for something specific. Follow the tags to discover connections—or explore the map to see where the people, projects and ideas in the Field Guide take us.
Susan Stryker
Stryker is the author of Transgender History, a widely used introduction to the political and cultural history of transgender communities in the United States, and co-director, with Victor Silverman, of the Emmy Award-winning documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria. The film helped recover the history of a 1966 uprising by transgender women and queer people at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin—one of the earliest documented acts of collective queer resistance to police harassment in the United States.
Compton’s x Coalition
Compton’s x Coalition is working to reclaim 111 Taylor Street, the former site of Gene Compton’s Cafeteria and the historic 1966 transgender uprising. The campaign seeks community stewardship of the property and a future centered on culture, care, belonging, and the site’s living legacy of resistance.
Compton’s Cafeteria Riots
Compton’s Cafeteria Riots is an immersive theatrical production bringing audiences into the history of the 1966 uprising by transgender and queer people at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. The production used performance and place to reconnect contemporary audiences with a pivotal piece of neighborhood and transgender history.
Mark Nassar
Mark Nassar was a writer/ producer for Compton’s Cafeteria Riots, an immersive theater production reliving the 1966 Trans uprising in San Fransisco’s Tenderloin District.