Conjuring Power: Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements @ YBCA

Conjuring Power is a multimedia exhibition exploring the resilient beauty, cultural richness, and fierce resistance of Bay Area queer and trans communities.

Broadly organized as a journey through time, this multimedia exhibition explores how queer and trans communities harness creativity to build culture, sustain one another, and strengthen movements across generations. Across epic murals, rarely-seen documentary photography from the 1970s and 80s, and queer-futurist contemporary video work, Conjuring Power is a potent blend of art, archive, and imagination.

The exhibition will include work by Ester Hernández, Serge Gay, Jr., Tanya Wischerath, and Crystal Mason, and emerging artists from the Queer Ancestors Project, as well as archival material from the GLBT Historical Society and audio clips from Caro De Robertis’ oral histories with the groundbreaking Elders Project. Accompanying public programs such as panel discussions, gallery talks, and live performances will be announced in early 2026.

An alchemy of legacy and imagination, joy and defiance, Conjuring Power is a timely exhibition that will inspire, provoke, and revitalize communities across the Bay Area.

About the co-curators:

Tina V. Aguirre is an artist, activist, filmmaker, the Director of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, and winner of a 2025 Walter & Elise Haas Fund Creative Power Award.

Caro De Robertis is a novelist, professor, and the award-winning author of seven books including So Many Stars: an Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color.