Billie Holiday gracing the stage at the New Orleans Swing Club. Dexter Gordon mingling at Bop City. Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, all making their mark with electrifying performances.

You might think this vibrant jazz scene unfolded in New York or New Orleans, but no, it happened right here in San Francisco's Fillmore District during its glorious era.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the Fillmore District emerged as a diverse, bustling neighborhood, brimming with restaurants, pool halls, theaters, and a plethora of minority-owned establishments.

Within its compact one-square-mile boundaries, the district boasted an impressive collection of two dozen thriving nightclubs and music venues.

Sadly, the rich legacy of the Fillmore and its heyday remains largely obscured, known only through scattered songs, poems, and Maya Angelou's powerful memoir, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." The district's abrupt and thorough eradication during the redevelopment of the 1960s played a significant role in its fading from public consciousness.

Now, through a captivating display of archival photographs and compelling oral accounts from former residents and musicians, Harlem of the West proudly commemorates this remarkable and rediscovered chapter in jazz history and the African-American experience on the vibrant West Coast.