Quirky, interactive events are meant to bring together artists, scientists and everyday people together to dream and play.
Jul 1, 2026
Updated 1:40 pm PT
The Plenary, Co., a nonprofit that uses art and science to inspire people to get involved in their communities, organized Future of Us Festival with a crew of interdisciplinary collaborators. (Kathleen Sheffer)
July 4 will mark 250 years since the United States declared independence from the British crown. But for many Americans facing widening inequality, intensified immigration crackdowns and persecution of protesters, the country’s milestone birthday doesn’t feel like a time for celebration.
In San Francisco, a group of artists, scientists and culture workers are launching a festival they hope will inspire everyday people to imagine a better future. On July 4–12, the Future of Us Festival will bring over 50 interactive, free events — block parties, scavenger hunts, art-making sessions and environmental discussions — to neighborhoods from Bayview to the Richmond District.
“A lot of people in the U.S. aren’t really happy with what’s going on … yet there’s so many incredible people that are here,” says B Patt, a musician and founder of the creative agency Nothin But Hits. “What would the future of us look like if the artists, the creative entrepreneurs, the scientists, the people building community — all those who should really be leading the way — were the ones driving?”
B Patt, Alisa Ahmadian, Louise Wo, Jasmine Hiroko McAdams and Stephanie Fine Sasse (left to right) are some of the organizers of Future of Us Festival.
Neuroscientist and experience designer Stephanie Fine Sasse, whose civic engagement nonprofit The Plenary, Co. is the driving force behind Future of Us, teamed up with B Patt and a crew of interdisciplinary collaborators to produce the festival. The organizers also assembled an inaugural cohort of Future Culture fellows who’ve spent the past six months strategizing for social change through a variety of fields, including housing, tech and the arts.
“We don’t have a lot of opportunities to come together and explore ideas together,” Fine Sasse says. “And we certainly don’t have a lot of opportunities to do that creatively and in community and in multi-sensory ways.”
The festival kicks off July 4 with an all-day block party at the Pearl, a waterfront venue in the Dogpatch, which includes rooftop concerts from Tiny Desk-winning rapper Ruby Ibarra, hip-hop artist Ian Kelly and violinist Alexandra Santon. The Future of Sex on July 7 and 8 at the Tenderloin Museum invites attendees to imagine they’re at a meeting of a San Francisco Sex Commission in the 22nd century.
On July 7, Dateline 2046 offers interactive activities for youth to imagine their ideal third spaces where they can hang out and build community outside of school. And on July 8, Bay City 2051 invites residents of Bayview-Hunters Point, a neighborhood historically plagued by radioactive pollution and racist policies, to imagine what environmental justice would look like 25 years from now.
The Future of Us Festival takes place in San Francisco from July 4–12. Full schedule here.