Despite its reputation, the San Francisco’s Tenderloin has long been populated by immigrants, artists, activists and visionaries. The Tenderloin Museum honors this forgotten history, presenting a fascinating walk through the pivotal events and characters that informed what the neighborhood is today. “Punk/Performance in the ‘Loin,” a gallery exhibition on display through July 2, is one such historic snapshot. In the late 1970s, much like New York City’s Bowery neighborhood, the Tenderloin offered cheap rent, shameless smut, drugs and dives. In other words, it provided fertile ground for punk culture, which seized the neighborhood in the early ’80s.
