Ulysses Jenkins composed "Dream City" from documentation of a twenty-four-hour performance he organized in collaboration with David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, and Senga Nengudi. A discordant, absurdist, and poetic montage, the video weaves together jazz and punk shows, recitations by Jenkins, and shots of the Los Angeles skyline and oil wells to comment on power and nation in the early years of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

A sad Arabian queen is cheered by her attendants, a Queen Bee rules over a hive of adoring drones, and a teenage girl is transformed into a queen in a colorful musical fantasy inspired by old Hollywood musicals.