Opening Reception & Artist Talk for Roots, Tides, Leaves

Saturday, August 9, 2025 | 1 - 4 p.m.  (Artist Talk at 1:30 p.m.)
EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park, 32 Jennings St, San Francisco, CA 94124 
Free and open to the public 
Parking available

Join the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD), and the Eco Center at Heron's Head Park for the opening reception of a new solo exhibition by photographer and dancer Conni McKenzie titled Roots, Tides, Leaves. 

In 2024, McKenzie was one of two artists selected to participate in the SFAC's yearlong Artist-in-Residence program at RPD's India Basin Waterfront Park site in the Bayview-Hunter's Point neighborhood. Her culminating project, Roots, Tides, Leaves explores Black presence, joy, and curiosity in nature. Drawing from the artist’s own outdoor practice, the exhibition highlights the radical act of exploration in a Black body—especially for Black women, whose access to such spaces has historically been shaped by the intersecting forces of racism and sexism. Through photographs of landscapes, self-portraits, and community members engaging with nature, the exhibition looks at how the outdoors become a space for healing, introspection, and reconnection. 

Light refreshments provided.

A short walk from the India Basin Waterfront Park, the EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park is a place where McKenzie's themes of environment, visibility, and justice resonate deeply. Roots, Tides, Leaves will be on view at the EcoCenter through August 16, 2025.

about the artist

Conni McKenzie is a San Francisco–based multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of dance theater, video production, and photography. Her work explores themes of nature, memory, and community through immersive, site-specific experiences. In 2021, she debuted her first concept film, Set Me Free, which was featured in the San Francisco Dance Film Festival and screened at international festivals across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. In 2023, she directed Flow, an immersive performance and exhibition examining the convergence of nature, movement, and digital art. Most recently, she completed Borrowed (2024-2025), a two-phase, site-responsive project presented in Joshua Tree and the Bay Area, which investigated the links between environmental crisis and cultural displacement. Conni has been a resident artist with New Performance Traditions (2023), PUSH Dance Company (2024), BoxoPROJECTS (2024), and the International Association of Blacks in Dance (2025). She is also part of the inaugural Artist-in-Residence cohort at 900 Innes in partnership with SFAC Galleries and San Francisco Recreation & Parks. connimckenzie.weebly.com  

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