Sadie Barnette: The New Eagle Creek Saloon

“The New Eagle Creek Saloon” is Sadie Barnette’s reimagining of her father’s “New Eagle Creek Saloon,” the first Black-owned gay bar in San Francisco. The original bar (1990–1993) offered a haven for a multiracial queer community marginalized by racist profiling in other social spaces throughout the city. With this project, Barnette honors Black queer joy and her own family history by reanimating her father’s bar and its legacy as a space of community connection and engagement. Bathed in neon light and glitter, The New Eagle Creek Saloon is an open, inviting, and living space for learning, resistance, and pleasure.