Saturday, June 13, 2009

The “Snap” Heard Round the World!

Sronewall - Larry Morris - 1969

Historian David Carter, author of Stonewall
will discuss myths and facts pertaining to the the Stonewall Riots.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 6:00 p.m., Berger Forum
The New York Public Library - Fifth Ave at 42nd Street

The Emergence of Gay Liberation in New York City
Explored in Exhibition at The New York Public Library
1969: The Year of Gay Liberation
on view June 1, 2009 – June 30, 2009

The exhibition features original photographs, pamphlets, police reports, newspapers, and letters. Included are materials relating to activist groups formed between 1969-1970 such as Gay Liberation Front, the Radicalesbians, Gay Activists Alliance, and Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries. Other materials that can be found in the exhibition include a letter to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller by Jim Owles, President of the Gay Activists Alliance, asking to meet to discuss gay rights. Many of the photographs featured were taken by activist Diana Davies who captures events such as a march by the Gay Liberation Front in Times Square and protests by gay NYU students for equal rights. The exhibition shows that while each activist group fought for gay rights differently, with some more radical than others, they all shared the unified goal of equal treatment in society.

The LGBT collections at The New York Public Library are among the largest and most thorough in the country. The collections include the archives of pioneering LGBT activists, such as Morty Manford, and Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen; the papers of scholars, such as Martin B. Duberman, Jonathan Ned Katz, and Karla Jay; organizational archives of pivotal civil rights groups, such as the Mattachine Society of New York and Gay Activists Alliance; and the papers of LGBT writers, such as W.H. Auden, Virginia Woolf, and Joseph Beam. The Library’s collections also include major archives in the history of the AIDS crisis, extensive holdings in the history of LGBT theater, and the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive.

1969: The Year of Gay Liberation will be on view from June 1, 2009 through June 30, 2009 in the Stokes Gallery (third floor) at The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, located at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan. An accompanying online version of the exhibition will be launching in June. There will also be a traveling panel exhibition throughout the branches. Exhibition hours are Monday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Admission is free. For more information, call 917-ASK-NYPL or, for more information about the Library's LGBT collections and resources,visitlgbt.nypl.org

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Ghost in the Room

Jack Logan’s poster - TOSOS - 1974

Robert Patrick is high on my list of favorite playwrights. He arrived at the Caffe Cino just I was leaving and it wasn’t until November of 1974 when TOSOS, as it’s second production, presented The Haunted Host, that I met his wonderful, wicked and wise plays. Peter del Valle directed, and Joe Pichette, the Olivier of off-off Broadway, was Jay, the host. Joe had played Frank, the guest, in various productions before, and he was determined to have his way with Jay. His performance indeed haunts me to this day. William M. Hoffman, the playwright, (way back when he was pretty and blond) was the first Frank. The TOSOS Frank was Jeff Morehead (also pretty and blond).

The Haunted Host premiered at the Caffe Cino in 1964. Along with my Now She Dances! (1961), Lanford Wilson’s The Madness of Lady Bright (1964), and Robert Bob Heide’s The Bed (1965), these plays heralded the beginning of a new theatre liberated from self-hate and self-destruction. Modern Queer Theatre had been born. The prevailing stereotypical characters which had amounted to little more than nasty nelly jokes were about to become real people who had to be reckoned with. As was made abundantly clear a few years later at Stonewall

(visit Robert Patrick's Cino pages - link at the right)

TOSOS
Robert Chesley/Jane Chambers Playwright Project
Kathleen Warnock, director
presents
6:30 - Saturday, June 20, 2009
in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall
Christopher Borg (Penny Penniworth)
& Jesse May (Pig Tale)
in a reading of
Robert Patrick’s historic comedy
The Haunted Host
directed by Mark Finley
admission free - ART/NY - The Mitchell Room, 3rd floor
520 Eighth Avenue (between West 37th & 36th)
SEATING IS LIMITED
Please reserve by email: tosos@nyc.rr.com or calling 212 563-2218

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Freedom of Speech

complements of Robert Patrick