Maya Angelou and GLIDE: Rainbow in the Clouds screening & discussion

Tenderloin Museum and the San Francisco Public Library present a screening of Rainbow in the Clouds, a documentary exploring Dr. Angelou’s deep and meaningful history with Glide Memorial Church, in a public program hosted by Marvin K. White, the current Minister of Celebration at the TL’s church of radical love. 

In 1992, the Detroit Educational Television Foundation produced a documentary about the GLIDE Memorial Church from the perspective of poet, writer, Civil Rights activist, and longtime GLIDE congregation member Dr. Maya Angelou called Rainbow in the Clouds. Originally broadcast on PBS, this extraordinary hour of TV gives a snapshot of GLIDE in the early ‘90s: its robust Sunday Celebrations, expansive programs serving the Tenderloin, collective activism, along with profiles of the remarkable individuals who comprise the GLIDE community. Dr. Angelou conducts interviews with her friends Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani as well as with many folks who have found community, transformation, and love at GLIDE.

The Tenderloin Museum is partnering with the San Francisco Public Library to screen Rainbow in the Clouds in conjunction with a multifaceted celebration of Dr. Angelou’s legacy in San Francisco. She is the subject of the recently unveiled “Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman” monument by artist Lava Thomas–the first commemorating a Black woman in San Francisco’s Civic Art Collection–that is located outside the SFPL Main Branch. The new monument inspired SFPL to choose Angelou’s classic I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as the 19th “One City One Book” selection. And with its recent acquisition of GLIDE’s historical archive, the San Francisco History Center has organized Dear Sister Maya Angelou, an exhibit on the sixth floor of the SFPL Main Branch that explores her longtime membership in the congregation at GLIDE and her with Reverend Cecil Williams and poet Janice Mirikitani.

On November 14, come to the Tenderloin Museum to view Rainbow in the Clouds in community.  The writer, artist, preacher, public theologian, and current  Minister of Celebration at Glide Memorial Church Marvin K. White will introduce the film, share a brief invocation, and host a group reflection after the screening.