Category Archives: Art

  Art, Dance, FREE, News and Happenings, Non-Profit News and Events, Theatre and Entertainment   No comments

LIVESTREAM PREMIERE OF PARAMODERNITIES

Photo: Maria Baranova, Courtesy of New York Live Arts, March 2019.

NETTA YERUSHALMY PRESENTS THE LIVESTREAM PREMIERE OF HER

EPIC WORK PARAMODERNITIES.

 

THE SIX-PART ENCYCLOPEDIC SERIES DECONSTRUCTS HISTORIC DANCE WORKS BY ALVIN AILEY, GEORGE BALANCHINE, MERCE CUNNINGHAM, BOB FOSSE, MARTHA GRAHAM, AND VASLAV NIJINSKY.

EACH PERFORMANCE IS FOLLOWED BY A LIVE DISCUSSION WITH SPECIAL GUESTS AND AN INTERACTIVE CHAT WITH THE AUDIENCE.

 

MAY 4-9, 2020   @    3-4PM DAILY

*Closed-Captioning provided for all performances.*

Trailer linked here.

 

“Take six classic dances. Chop them up. Then tear open the modern canon, with equal parts love and fury.” – Gia Kourlas, The New York Times

 

 Netta Yerusalmy to present the week-long livestream event of Paramodernities Live, May 4-9, 2020, featuring 2019 performances at New York Live Arts with live “post-show” discussions with special guests and a chat feature for the audience. This event is directed by Jeremy Jacob and produced by Marc Crousillat, Jacob, and Yerushalmy.

 

The six-part encyclopedic series is a multidisciplinary work that weaves theory and performance into a marathon-style hybrid event. Yerushalmy and a cast of 20 dancers and scholars, ranging in age from 20 to 68, perform deconstructed installments of Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (1913), Martha Graham’s Night Journey (1947), Alvin Ailey’s Revelations (1960), a mix of Merce Cunningham works Rainforest, Sounddance, Points in Space, Beach Birds, and Ocean (1968-1990), dance numbers from the Bob Fosse’s 1969 film Sweet Charity, and a response to George Balanchine’s Agon (1957) that includes none of the original choreography.

 

Paramodernities boasts a radical and undefinable rethinking of the canon, involving virtually no music. Each section was created as an independent unit with a distinct creative process that features text, read live, by scholars and writers from various fields who place the dances within a larger context. The cast joins Yerushalmy in generating questions about the different paths taken by the modern tradition in dance and beyond. Within each installment, fundamental tenets of modernism are explored, such as sovereignty, spectacle, race, feminism and ableism.

 

The performances at New York Live Arts theater feature dancers Michael Blake, Gerald Casel, Marc Crousillat, Brittany Engel-Adams, Joyce Edwards, Stanley Gambucci, Taryn Griggs, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Nicholas Leichter, Jeremy Jae Neal, Hsiao-Jou Tang, Megan Williams, Netta Yerushalmy; and scholars/writers Thomas F. DeFrantz, Julia Foulkes, Georgina Kleege, David Kishik, Carol Ockman, Mara Mills, Claudia La Rocco, with lighting by Tim Cryan and costumes by Jarkowiec.

 

Each livestream performance will feature closed-captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Livestream events of Paramodernities take place at nettay.com from May 4th to May 9th at 3pm. This event will be live and free. The running time is approximately 1 hour.

 

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

PARAMODERNITIES #2: Trauma, Interdiction, and Agency in ‘The House of Pelvic Truth’

A response to Martha Graham’s Night Journey (1947)

 

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

PARAMODERNITIES #3: Revelations: The Afterlives of Slavery

A response to Alvin Ailey’s Revelations (1960)

 

Thursday, May 7, 2020

PARAMODERNITIES #4: An Inter-Body Event

with material from Merce Cunningham’s Rainforest, Sounddance, Points In Space, Beach Birds, and Ocean (1968-1990)

 

Friday, May 8, 2020

PARAMODERNITIES #5: All that Spectacle: Dance on Stage and Screens

A response to Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity (1969 film)

 

Saturday, May 9, 2020

PARAMODERNITIES #6: The Choreography of Rehabilitation: Disability and Race in Balanchine’s Agon

A response to George Balanchine’s Agon (1957)

 

PARAMODERNITIES is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. PARAMODERNITIES is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project, commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow in partnership with New York Live Arts, HMD’s Bridge Project, and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency).

For more information: www.npnweb.org.

 

 

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  Art, Celebrity, Eye Candy, News and Happenings, Theatre and Entertainment   No comments

James Bidgood at Museum of Sex

 

James Bidgood was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1933, at the height of the Depression. From the time of his arrival in New York at 18 years old, he immersed himself in the underground worlds of drag, hustling, and pornography. In the 1950s, Bidgood was a drag queen and set and lighting designer at the legendary New York nightclub Club 82. He attended Parsons School of Design, and went on to design elaborate costumes for society balls, among other jobs that would come to inform his art.

In the 1960s, he turned his attention to “physique photography,” the highly-coded gay pornography of the time, where he found creative freedom, an eager audience, and his own groundbreaking artistic voice. Bidgood was proudly and uncompromisingly “out” during a pre-Stonewall moment when rapid social change around gender roles and sexuality coexisted with widespread hostility and discrimination against homosexuality. His work stands as a crucial link in the history of queer art and cinema, as historically important as it is visually ravishing.

 

Extraordinarily, almost the entirety of Bidgood’s work was shot in his tiny Hell’s Kitchen tenement. Bidgood literally lived in his sets, and used colored lighting, homemade props, and a variety of clever illusions—from the ingenious use of forced perspective to complex, Rube Goldberg like mechanisms that operated moving sets, fans, or lights—to create impressionistic wonderlands.

The culmination of this work was Pink Narcissus, a dreamily erotic feature-length film depicting the allegorical fantasies of a gay prostitute, and shot almost entirely in the same apartment. Upon its release in 1971, Pink Narcissus was an immediate underground hit, but due to creative disagreements between Bidgood and the film’s producer, Bidgood took his name off the credits, and the film was released anonymously. While rumors flew that the film had been made by a major, presumably closeted Hollywood celebrity, Bidgood remained in obscurity.

Since his rediscovery in the 1990s, Bidgood’s work, made for the worlds of mail-order pornography and midnight cinema, has been exhibited in such prestigious venues as The National Portrait Gallery, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Musée d’Orsay, and is included in vaunted collections such as the Tate Modern, London and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Alongside Bidgood’s remarkable photographs, this exhibition brings together a variety of ephemera from his extraordinary life, from vintage physique magazines, showing the original context of the work, to vintage photos from Bidgood’s time as drag queen Terry Howe at Club 82—all evidence of an extraordinary, productive, and utterly uncompromising life.

 

‘James Bidgood: Reveries’will be on view through September 8th, 2019.

All images courtesy of The Museum of Sex. Full color images courtesy of ClampArt New York.

MUSEUM OF SEX
233 Fifth Avenue (@ 27th Street)
New York, NY 10016
(212) 689-6337

MUSEUM HOURS:
Sunday thru Thursday 10:30 am to 11pm.
Last entry is 9pm
Friday & Saturday 10:30 am to 12am.
Last entry is 10pm

Last ticket sold 2 hours before closing

 

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  Art, Benefits, Celebrity, Community, Health and Wellness, HIV, Men, News and Happenings, Non-Profit News and Events, Theatre and Entertainment   No comments

Broadway Bares Raises $1.8 MILLION

Sexy seamen were ready to sink Battleships, frolicsome friends played “Striptionary,” and a rambunctious round of flashlight tag involved the entire audience during the steamy evening of sensational stripteases at Broadway Bares: Game Night.

This year’s record-breaking edition of the annual spectacular raised $1,875,090 with two standing-room-only performances at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom.

Produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Game Night gave your ordinary night out a tantalizing twist with striptease production numbers inspired by beloved board, video, and arcade games.

Check out more  photos  on Gay Cities

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  Art, Fashion, News and Happenings   No comments

Louis Vuitton Exhibit thru January 2018

As travel changed, so did luggage.

That’s the story told by an elaborate exhibition about Louis Vuitton, the luxury luggage and fashion brand.

The exhibition, free to visit and on display in Lower Manhattan through Jan. 7, is called “Volez, Voguez, Voyagez,” which means fly, sail, travel. It showcases the company’s history, products and craftsmanship, demonstrating how designs changed with the evolution of travel. Luggage was designed first for transport by wagon, then for travel by sea, on trains, in cars and planes.

Trunks and bags are shown behind glass like works of art in a series of museum-like galleries. Lids open to reveal intricate compartments as if they were the contents of treasure chests. Included are cases and carriers designed for everything from toiletries to hats, from picnics to art supplies. Trunks with small drawers protected fragile objects; standing trunks had roll-out wardrobe racks so clothes could be hung, not folded. A plane is on display, along with a boat.

LOUIS VUITTON EXHIBITION: 86 Trinity Place, through Jan. 7. Free. Tickets not required but timed reservations are available at https://ticketing.louisvuitton.com/content/ticket-options . Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Check website for holiday hours.  READ THE FULL ARTICLE  HERE.

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  Art, Community, Gay Marriage, News and Happenings, Travel   No comments

Gay New York Subway Art

Metropolitan Transit Authority
The 72nd Street mural by Vik Muniz
28 December 2016
by David Hudson  @ Gay Star News

A new subway line in New York, features a gay couple on a mosaic mural at one of its stations.

The mural will feature at 72nd Street station, on the platform for the new Second Avenue subway line.

The mural has been created by artist Vik Muniz, and shows real-life couple Thor Stockman and Patrick Kellogg. They are included as part of the Brazilian-born artist’s ‘Perfect Strangers’ mural project.

A statement from the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) described the project: ‘For 72nd Street, Vik Muniz photographed more than three dozen “characters” who represent all of the unique and quirky kinds of people one encounters on the subway.

‘These photographs have been re-created in mosaic and installed throughout the mezzanine and entrance areas, populating the station with colorful New Yorkers of all stripes.’

Muniz told Associated Press about his use of the gay couple: ‘They are just people you would expect to see … You would expect to see men holding hands.’  READ  MORE  ABOUT  IT  HERE!

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  Art, Community, Health and Wellness, HIV, News and Happenings   No comments

The largest AIDS memorial in the U.S.

The idea for the New York City AIDS Memorial was first born in early 2010 while Christopher Tepper was reading “And The Band Played On,” one of the definitive histories of AIDS in America, for the first time. A midwesterner by birth, Tepper was shocked by how much he didn’t know about the early years of the AIDS crisis, even though he had never lived in a world without HIV.

“I found that what was really disturbing was that that ignorance that I had was really prevalent across a lot of my peers,” he told NBC OUT.

Tepper was equally shocked to read about so many new heroes within the LGBTQ community, who he had never had the opportunity to learn about while he was in school.

“One of the things that was really upsetting to me was that there was this giant community of heroes, of activists and caretakers, who really should be like war heroes up on pedestals and honored by our community,” Tepper said.

READ THE WHOLE STORY  about the largest AIDS memorial in the U.S.  @  NBC

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  Art, Celebrity, Film, News and Happenings, Non-Profit News and Events, Theatre and Entertainment   No comments

BUSBY BERKELEY Film Fest!

“BUSBY BERKELEY,” a nine-day festival spotlighting the early movie musical trailblazer famous for his eye-popping kaleidoscopic production numbers, will run at Film Forum from Wednesday, December 7 through Thursday, December 15.

He really took off when Ruby Keeler, via a single cut, moved from tapping in front of a painted backdrop to dismounting from an actual cab on a three-dimensional set of 42nd Street, complete with traffic, mounted police, and hundreds of dancers, all in character – but that was only the beginning. Dance director, choreographer, auteur… and visionary. In his heyday, Busby Berkeley (1895-1976) mounted a series of still must-be-seen-to-be-believed musical numbers (most in lustrous black & white) that included overhead shots of dancers forming mind-boggling kaleidoscopes; fifty-six white grand pianos rolling around the stage in patterns; scores of chorus girls playing neon-lit violins in the dark; a camera tunneling through the gams of tightly-muscled dames; a Technicolor dream with Carmen Miranda sporting a 50-foot fruit basket – all enough to send a hardened surrealist’s head spinning.

 

Says Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Director of Repertory Programming, “Berkeley was the first to realize the endless cinematic possibilities of the musical form. Imitators have never even come close to what he created in the early 30s – not even with tools like CGI.”

Berkeley was born to an actress mother in Los Angeles and first performed on stage at age five. After a stint in the army during WWI, he began his career as a dance director and choreographer, working on nearly two-dozen Broadway shows. His film career began with producer Samuel Goldwyn, but he became a household name with his a string of iconic successes at Warner Bros.: 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, and many others, featuring one astounding production number after another.

In addition to his work as a choreographer and dance director (though neither title does justice to what he actually did), the festival also includes features films entirely directed by Berkeley, including Gold Diggers of 1935 (featuring the spectacular “Lullaby of Broadway” number); Hollywood Hotel (which introduced the song “Hooray for Hollywood”), the Technicolor extravaganza The Gang’s All Here, with Carmen Miranda sporting the world’s largest fruit basket; Strike Up the Band and Babes on Broadway, both featuring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney; For Me and My Gal, with Garland and Gene Kelly (in his debut); Take Me Out to the Ball Game, with Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Esther Williams, and written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green; and a rare non-musical, They Made Me a Criminal, starring John Garfield, Claude Rains, and the Dead End Kids. Most films in the series will be screened as part of double features (two films for one admission), and most of the features will be screened in archival 35m prints.

December 7, the opening day of the festival, is the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. In addition to the Berkeley double feature that day, Cavalcade of 1941, a vintage short including FDR’s famous “date that will live in infamy” speech, will be screened.

“Busby Berkeley” has been programmed by Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Director of Repertory Programming.

For complete public screening schedule, see below.

Public Screening Schedule

DECEMBER 7 WED
DOUBLE FEATURE
ROMAN SCANDALS (1933, Frank Tuttle) 35mm
Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, Gloria Stuart
3:30, 7:55

STRIKE UP THE BAND (1940, Busby Berkeley) 35mm print preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive
Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Paul Whiteman and Orchestra
Songs by George and Ira Gershwin.
12:30, 5:25, 9:45
PLUS “Cavalcade of 1941” 35mm

DECEMBER 8 THU
DOUBLE FEATURE
DAMES (1934, Ray Enright) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress
Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell
12:30, 4:00, 7:30

FASHIONS OF 1934 (1934, William Dieterle) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress
William Powell, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh
2:20, 5:50, 9:20

DECEMBER 9 FRI
DOUBLE FEATURE
THE GANG’S ALL HERE (1943, Busy Berkeley) DCP
Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
12:30, 4:30, 8:30

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME (1949, Busby Berkeley) 35mm
Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams
2:35, 6:35

DECEMBER 10 SAT
DOUBLE FEATURE
42ND STREET (1933, Lloyd Bacon) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress
Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell
12:30, 4:25, 8:20

THE GANG’S ALL HERE (1943, Busby Berkeley) DCP
2:20, 6:15, 10:10

DECEMBER 11 SUN
DOUBLE FEATURE
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933, Mervyn LeRoy) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress
Warren William, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers
12:30, 4:30, 8:30

FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933, Lloyd Bacon) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress
James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell
2:25, 6:25

DECEMBER 12 MON
Separate Admission
FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933, Lloyd Bacon) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress
12:40

DECEMBER 12 MON
DOUBLE FEATURE
THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL (1939, Busby Berkeley) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress  
John Garfield, Claude Rains, Ann Sheridan, the Dead End Kids
4:05, 7:20

NIGHT WORLD (1932, Hobart Henley) 35mm
Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff
2:45, 6:00, 9:10

DECEMBER 13 TUE
DOUBLE FEATURE
THE GANG’S ALL HERE (1943, Busby Berkeley) DCP
12:30

42ND STREET (1933, Lloyd Bacon) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress
2:35

DECEMBER 13 TUE
DOUBLE FEATURE
BABES ON BROADWAY (1941, Busby Berkeley) 35mm
Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland
4:25, 8:45

FOR ME AND MY GAL (1942, Busby Berkeley) 35mm print courtesy Harvard Film Archive  
Judy Garland, Gene Kelly
6:45

DECEMBER 14 WED
DOUBLE FEATURE
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 (1935, Busby Berkeley) 35mm
Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Stuart
12:30, 4:15, 8:00

WONDER BAR (1934, Lloyd Bacon) HD
Al Jolson, Kay Francis, Dick Powell, Dolores del Río,
2:25, 6:10, 9:55

DECEMBER 15 THU
Separate Admission
42ND STREET (1933, Lloyd Bacon) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress
12:30

DECEMBER 15 THU
DOUBLE FEATURE
HOLLYWOOD HOTEL (1937, Busby Berkeley) 35mm print preserved by Library of Congress
Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Hugh Herbert, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
4:35, 8:40

IN CALIENTE (1935, Lloyd Bacon) New 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress
Dolores del Río, Pat O’Brien, Glenda Farrell
2:35, 6:40

Repertory calendar programmed by Bruce Goldstein
For more information, links and showtimes, visit www.filmforum.org
For downloadable photos and press notes, go to: www.filmforum.org/press

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  Art, Cabaret, Celebrity, Drag, Fashion, News and Happenings   No comments

Magnus Hastings new book!

WHAT A GORGEOUS BOOK! And for a coffee table art book, its very affordable at about $35! Why Drag?

You saw the exhibit last year…now  buy the book!  224 pages of the biggest and most diverse queens across America and beyond, all answering the question, Why drag?

Everyone loves to gag over photographs of their favorite queens, and chances are, some of the photographs have been taken by talented drag queen photographer, Magnus Hastings. His popular Facebook page, Dragged Around the World, archives some of his best work.

This celebrated artist has been photographing drag queens for the past 10 years- and his artwork showcasing queens is taking the world by storm! LAST YEAR, Hastings’ first photo exhibition in New York, Why Drag?, ran during Pride, at the OUT HOTEL. The best part about this unique exhibition is that each queen he photographs explains why it is that they do drag (but you’ll have to the exhibit to see that!) – Now, you can get the book!

Magnus Hastings came up through the London Gay scene and quickly gained recognition as one of the forerunners of his type of the pop art photography. playing with campy ideas when it was not fashionable to do so and embracing drag queens as a subject and study. He says, a “child of drag,” prone to putting on his sister’s clothes and dancing around his childhood home. But he didn’t truly discover the drag world until much later, long after he himself had stopped dressing across gender lines.

He completely revamped the Gaydar franchise in 2009 and has been published worldwide in magazines such as Glamour (uk), GQ (uk), Cosmopolitan (Italy),People (usa) , US weekly (use), Attitude (uk) ,AXM (uk), Bent (uk), QX international (uk), Blue (australia), Boyz (uk), Nois (spain) to name a few.

In 2003, on a visit to Sydney, Hastings walked into the Arq nightclub and saw the drag queen Vanity Faire lip-syncing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz in a flawless Dorothy outfit. The experience changed his life.

“I started shooting drag because it’s my home and my world and it feels like my family,” Hastings said.

Watching that performance connected Hastings to a part of himself that he’d abandoned due to social pressures as a child but that he still longed to explore.

 

With Vanity’s guidance, Hastings began photographing the city’s vibrant drag scene and developing a polished, dynamic style of portraiture reflecting his subjects’ creativity and humor.

 

As he traveled the world, he continued capturing local queens with a focus on those who best represented the art’s diversity and daring, from the bearded to the “fishy,” or ultrafeminine.

His images attracted a larger audience when he started posting his photos to his Facebook group, “Dragged Around the World.”

Magnus now lives in Los Angeles with his Jack Russell named George and is heavily involved in photographing the drag scene.

‘Why Drag?‘ with photographs by Magnus Hastings and a foreword by Boy George, was published in May by Chronicle Books. BUY THE BOOK!

Why Drag?

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  Art, Film, FREE, Men, News and Happenings, Non-Profit News and Events, Television   No comments

Mapplethorpe Pop Up Show Flatiron Building

Pop-Up Installation featuring works of Robert Mapplethorpe

 

A special Robert Mapplethorpe pop-up installation arrives in NYC in Flatiron Plaza North (23rd St. and Broadway) on Friday, March 18 (6pm-11pm) and Saturday, March 19 (6pm-10pm). The installation features larger-than-life projections, a stunning array of famous and more personal works, and rare, revealing commentary from Robert Mapplethorpe himself. This is a very special chance for guests to experience first-hand the magnitude of Mapplethorpe’s legacy.

This pop-up arrives prior to the premiere of HBO’s upcoming documentary “Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures,” which will debut on Monday, April 4 at 9:00 p.m. exclusively on HBO.

Venture inside the mind of one of the 20th Century’s most important artists, and come face to face with his provocative masterpieces. Presented on a scale worthy of its artistic impact, this digital gallery features rare and revealing commentary from the photographer himself.

Where– Flatiron Plaza North (23rd St between 5th Ave & Broadway)

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  Art, Celebrity, Community, FREE, News and Happenings   No comments

Pride Flag Creator Gilbert Baker at MoMa

RAINBOW FLAG CREATOR GILBERT BAKER TO DISCUSS HIS FAMED SYMBOL OF GAY PRIDE AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART JANUARY 7TH

 

Artist Gilbert Baker, who in 1978 created the rainbow flag, the iconic symbol of gay pride that was recently acquired by the Museum of Modern Art for its permanent collection, will speak on Thursday, January 7 at 11:30 a.m., at The Museum of Modern Art, Floor 3, Architecture and Design Galleries. As part of MoMA’s “Gallery Sessions” program, Architecture and Design Curatorial Assistant Michelle Fisher will lead a conversation with Baker about the flag, which has come to represent the power of a simple image and the potential of community organizing.

 

Facilitated by MoMA educators, Gallery Sessions are impromptu interactions that explore the creative process, art history, and the experience of art. The Sessions take place daily in select galleries at the museum and are free with museum admission.

 

            WHAT:         Q&A with Rainbow Flag Creator Gilbert Baker

 

            WHEN:         Thursday, January 7            11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

                      

            WHERE:      The Museum of Modern Art

                                  11 West 53rd St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues

                                  Floor 3, Architecture and Design Galleries       

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  Art, Cabaret, Celebrity, Community, Eat Drink and Be Mary, Music, News and Happenings, Non-Profit News and Events, Theatre and Entertainment   No comments

Loisaida Festival and LES History Month

Continuing its commitment to showcase the Lower East Side’s independent and diverse spirit, Loisaida Inc. announced its lineup for the 2015 Loisaida Festival.

The programming includes: Chicano Batman, Calma Carmona, Herencia de Plena, and Papote Jimenez y su Orquesta.

Latin Soul, plena, salsa, psychedelic beats, from east L.A. to Puerto Rico, will all converge in one spot. Beloved actor, and Loisaida’s own, Luis Guzman will host the Festival, which takes place on Sunday May 24th, 2015 from 11:00AM to 5:00PM.

 

Speaking of the long-standing power of the Festival, Libertad Guerra of Loisaida, Inc. said, “The success of Loisaida Inc. and the Loisaida Festival year after year is a testament of what we can accomplish in our communities. We are moving with full force to reactivate awareness of Latino cultural vitality, heritage and contributions to the Lower East Side while maintaining our footprint in the Downtown area. This year’s programming really captures that irreverent, resilient, ethos that made Loisaida a creative hub for NYC’s Latino community.”

 

Leading up to the festival Loisaida, Inc. will host two days of activities at its new Center on 710 east 9th Street that will highlight the contributions of the LGBTQ Latin@ community on the Lower East Side. The Friday and Saturday expanded programming, a new element introduced last year, integrates the Festival with LES History Month during the month of May. The programs, Performing Queer Latin@ Loisaida: A Cabaret and Reconstructing Queer Latin@ Loisaida in Cinema, Literature, and Art, will celebrate the often-overlooked cultural contributions of LGTB Queer Latino Loisaida.

 

On Sunday May 24th, these elements merge into the Festival, where a host of culinary, cultural, artistic and musical experiences will come together under the theme of one neighborhood…an entire community. A Carnival Procession, rare these days in the downtown area, will open the event. Parallel to the main stage programming, the festival also includes a Theater Lab initiative, where diverse Latino, Spanish or bilingual theater companies will present original site-specific pieces.

The revamped Loisaida Festival will capture the meaning the event held in its early days back in the 80s. What may have started as an impromptu community gathering for neighborhood children unable to leave the city during Memorial Day weekend soon became an event to share and celebrate community, Puerto Rican and Latino culture, as well as the social and cultural differences that make Loisaida such a vibrant neighborhood.

Today, with the over 15,000 attendants from all walks of life and ages that congregate at the festival each year, #LoisaidaFest2015 is the landmark event for Latino historical and contemporary contributions to the downtown area, bridging cultural and generational divides.

 

Schedule of Events and Details:

Friday, May 22, 2015 (8:00PM-10:00PM) – In Performing Queer Latin@ Loisaida: A Cabaret some of New York City’s most legendary Queen Latin@ performance artists pay tribute to Loisaida’s long-standing tradition of LGBTQ Latin@ artistic expression, experimentation, and activism with a one night performance.

 

Saturday, May 23, 2015 (1:00PM – 5:30PM)  – Reconstructing Queer Latin@ Loisaida in Cinema, Literature, and Art: An event to celebrate the often overlooked contribution of Queer Latin@ artists and activists to the Lower East Side’s rich cultural fabric.

 

Sunday, May 24, 2015 (11:00AM – 5:00PM)  – Loisaida Inc. will celebrate the 28th Annual Loisaida Festival, which includes an opening Carnival Procession, Main Stage performances, and a Theater Lab at La Plaza Cultural. Hosted by actor Luis Guzman.

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  Art, Celebrity, Community, Eye Candy, Fashion, FREE, News and Happenings, The Center   No comments

The Center – Once Upon A Time


LGBT Center: Once Upon A Time And Now

February 3, 2015 – March 3, 2015

The Center is revisiting The Center Show  (1989) by reinstalling artworks from artists such as David LaChapelle and incorporating new artwork, under the curatorial direction of Ian Alteveer, Associate Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The goal of the exhibition, Once Upon a Time and Now, is to encourage guests and supporters to explore The Center including our rich, cultural history while continuing our role as a cultural destination for years to come.

LaChapelle’s artistic temperament is characterized by an unremitting effort to discover the ever newer possibilities offered by the medium of photography. His works from the 1980’s often represent a sort of fusion of photography, collage and graphic art.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center has undergone a major renovation of their historic main building over the last year and a half, upgrading the capabilities of the space while preserving their unique history in New York City.

Presented to celebrate the renovation of The Center, Once Upon A Time and Now, examines historic works from the 1980s preserved in the renovation and looks to the future with new works.

Featuring: Arch Connelly, Leon Golub, Gran Fury, Keith Haring, David LaChapelle, Stephen Lack, Thomas Lanigan Schmidt, Kay Rosen, Barbara Sandler, Kenny Scharf, Nancy Spero, Robert Storr, Susan Strande, Richard Taddei, George Whitman, and Martin Wong

Alongside more recent work by Deborah Kass, Tseng Kwong Chi, Glenn Ligon

Curated by Ian Alteveer, Associate Curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011 | www.gaycenter.org

ONCE UPON A TIME AND NOW
FEBRUARY 3, 2015
6:00-9:00 PM
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011 | www.gaycenter.org

Phone:
212.620.7310

Building Hours:
Mon–Sat 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sun 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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  Art, Film, News and Happenings   No comments

4 Moons in New York City

The Mexican LGBT drama Four Moons (Cuatro Lunas) will be playing at The Quad on November 21, 2014  in New York City! (Available on DVD/VOD (iTunes, Amazon Instant) December 2, 2014).

 

Directed by Sergio Tovar Velarde, Four Moons stars Antonio Velázquez, Alejandro de la Madrid, César Ramos, Gustavo Egelhaaf, Alonso Echánove, and Juan Manuel Berna. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles.

The film tells four different stories about love and self-acceptance: a boy secretly attracted to his male cousin; two college students starting a secret relationship; a couple wasted due to the arrival of another man; and an old man dazzled over a young male prostitute.

4 Moons has won several Film Festival Awards and is a beautiful film!

 

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  Art, Benefits, Celebrity, Fashion, Hotels, Men, News and Happenings, Recommended Reads   No comments

Model Actor Mark MacKillop ROOM FOURTEEN

Mark MacKillop is a singer actor dancer. Originally from Vancouver he studied ballet in Vancouver with Li Yaming at Pacific DanceArts and spent summers training with the Boston Ballet and American Ballet Theater in New York, both on full scholarship. After three years dancing with the Atlanta Ballet Mark moved to New York to pursue musical theatre and just finished a year on tour playing Riff with the international production of West Side Story – which leads us to this story about Mark!

Earlier this year, our good friend Michael Cavnaugh, founder of HEROnews.org and HIVhero.org interviews the very talented and handsome Mark MacKillop – the Broadway HERO of the month. Mark talks about his international tour of West Side Story, Broadway Bares, his struggle to become a performer and so much more. This man is an inspiration, smart sexy and a great guy- please check it out here!

From Huffington Post: New York performer Mark MacKillop offers musical theater fans a provocative peek at the offstage life of a working actor in his coffee table book, Rm. XIV.

The new book comprises 80 black-and-white selfies of MacKillop in various stages of undress, shot in various hotel rooms around the world while he was in the midst of an international tour of “West Side Story” last year.

Though the steamy images will no doubt set pulses racing, MacKillop sees Rm. XIV as capturing “physicality, composition, reflection” as opposed to being intentionally scintillating.

“I had just finished a year touring all over Europe and Israel with the international production of West Side Story. During the course of my time abroad i started taking pictures of myself in each hotel room I stayed in. This quickly became a staple of my experience on tour.”

“ Surprisingly traveling around with 30 cast members and a 30 piece orchestra left me feeling incredibly isolated and at times lonely. I used the photos as a way of connecting with friends who I was separated from to give them a unique, intimate look at my life on the road,” MacKillop, who originally hails from Canada, told The Huffington Post. Noting that he shot all of the images on his iPhone with a self-timer app, – which are REALLY  REALLY  GOOD!!  “I definitely wouldn’t call myself a photographer. I would just call myself an artist exploring in various mediums.”

MacKillop, who is openly gay, said the photos also represent a very personal journey, and were partly inspired by Tom of Finland in addition to his own ballet and modern dance training.

 

A very successful kickstarter campaign was launched and the book was printed!

(Photo Right : is from one of the MANY fashion shoots Mark has done. Photographer Walter Kurtz Emporio Armani Underwear. See more on Pinterest.)

 

 

Having performed in the 2014 installment of “Broadway Bares,” MacKillop will donate a portion of the proceeds from Rm. XIV to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA). In addition, the book will feature an introduction by Tony Award-winning “Kinky Boots” star Billy Porter and a foreword authored by New York artist Robert W. Richards.

You can read more about Rm. XIV here. BUY THE BOOK!

Sneak Peak Video on YouTube

Instagram @markmackillop
Twitter @mark_mackillop
markmackillop.net

 

 

On a side note…..

OCTOBER  19th!   Please support  this event!   $20 tickets.  Other donations  on Indigo.

The best of both worlds performing together.

Featuring performances from the brightest stars from Broadway and Ballet.

Honoring The Actors Fund, Tony Award Winner, Jerry Mitchell and Ballet Star, Stephen Hanna

A benefit for HERO – HIV Experience Resources Organization.

Sunday, October 19th, 2014

42 West, 516 West 42nd Street, NYC

8–10 p.m.  Doors open at 7 p.m.

 

Purchase Tickets $20 General Admission – Premium seating $100  – Tables of Ten

 

 

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  Art, Men, News and Happenings   No comments

Wes Hempel at George Billis Gallery

George Billis Gallery is delighted to present the solo exhibition of work by Wes Hempel. The exhibition will run from September 30th through October 25th, 2014.

The opening reception will be held at the gallery located at 525 West 26th Street between 10th and 11th avenues on Thursday, October 2nd, from 6-8 pm.

Wes Hempel portrays his vision of masculinity through the juxtaposition of contemporary art and historical play. Using the psychological demeanor found within the portraits of present-day men and placing them in similar backdrops that resemble paintings of the historical Neoclassical era, Hempel’s work creates the perfect blend of provocative dialogue of historical references with familiar modern day aspects.

The exhibition features paintings where contemporary figures showcase the artist’s interest in masculine sexuality and its representation throughout art history. Hempel writes of his work, “A walk through any major museum will reveal paintings that depict or legitimate only certain kinds of experience. Despite the good intentions of critical theorists questioning the validity of the canon, paintings of the old masters on the walls of museums like the Met, the Louvre, Rijks museum still have a certain cache. They’re revered not just for their technique but because they enshrine our collective past experience. Of course, it’s a selected past that gets validated. Conspicuously absent to me as a gay man is my own story. By presenting contemporary males as objects of desire in familiar looking art historical settings, I’m able to imagine (and allow viewers to imagine) a past that includes rather than excludes gay experience  and ride the coattails, as it were, of art history’s imprimatur.”

Hempel has an MA in creative writing from the University of Colorado Boulder. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Washington, and is in the collections of museums such as the Denver Art Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Arnot Art Museum, and in the Columbus Museum.

The George Billis Gallery marks its 18th year in the Chelsea Art District
and its sister gallery is located in the gallery district of Culver City in Los Angeles.

George Billis Gallery
525 West 26th Street, ground floor
new york, ny 10001
PHN: 212.645.2621

www.georgebillis.com

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  Art, Drag, News and Happenings   No comments

Magnus Hastings Photos WHY DRAG? at OUT Hotel

 

 

 

“WHY DRAG?” WONDERS ARTIST IN NEW PHOTO EXHIBITION LAUNCHING DURING NYC’S GAY PRIDE MONTH

This month, Magnus Hastings, a pioneer in drag photography, presents a remarkable installation of photographs that capture some of the world’s most celebrated drag superstars and asks them the question, “Why Drag?”. Photos represent a wide spectrum of drag ranging from mainstream icons, underground drag royalty and the new breed of reality television stars. Included notables are Bianca Del Rio, Courtney Act, Sharon Needles, Lady Bunny, DWV, Jackie Beat and an introduction by Boy George. The exhibition will take place at New York’s Out Hotel Monday May, 26th through August 31st, during New York City’s Pride month. It will then move on to other North American cities. A coffee table book featuring many of the images from the “Why Drag?” exhibition is also in the works.

“I have been shooting drag queens for the past ten years,” explains Magnus Hastings from his home in Los Angeles. “Drag is the creative love of my life. I view it as both a magical fantasy world and as an art form. In art, you can have a Picasso or a Matisse. You can also have a painting of velvet dogs playing poker. I like to think that my show is presenting a room full of Picassos.”

Hastings describes himself as a child of drag. As a youth, he would raid his mother’s closet and play with old hairpieces and accessories he found. He particularly loved her white ostrich feather fan. He would run up and down the street, naked, wearing only the fan and a pair of his sister’s silver clogs. He also regularly put on shows for his parents, usually opting for the female lead and relegating his sister to the supporting roles.

Then ten years ago, while visiting Sydney, Hastings came across an extraordinary group of drag queens. Among them was Vanity Faire, upon whom Hastings found himself transfixed by. “I thought I had left drag behind in my childhood, but it felt like I found my way home,” he says.

Vanity Faire was the first queen he shot and would become his first muse. His portrait of her dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz is included in the exhibition. The piece is so special to him that its original hangs in his living room.

 

Magnus Hastings’ love of drag was reignited once again, only this time, instead of dressing in it, he was seizing the pageantry in beautiful photographs. He continued shooting drag personalities, quickly becoming the go-to photographer for drag portraits. The queens appreciated the fun he brought to a shoot, his skill in lighting and his willingness to do just about anything to get the perfect shot.

To capture the image of Courtney Act featured in the Why Drag? exhibition, Hastings photographed her in a filthy dumpster behind her apartment. For the Sharon Needles photo, he flew to New York armed with a straight jacket. He intended to photograph Needles in her hotel room but it was so tiny, they ended up shooting in the hotel lobby instead. “I was panicking that the security would stop me because we were causing a fire hazard. I just clicked like crazy, without checking what the hell I was getting, and then sorted it out afterwards.”

Thinking on his toes is how Hasting’s captures many of his most popular images. “Some see it as chaos but I see it as mixing it up,” he says. “Shooting superb photos is about being able to come up with an idea instantly, trying it, and hoping it works. I did a great shoot with Adore Delano running around the streets of West Hollywood simply grabbing anything that caught my attention as background.

“I find using a tripod very difficult because it makes everything static, which is fine if that’s what you want, but it’s not me. My way makes for some, umm, interesting contact sheets.”

The “Why Drag?” photo exhibition will be the first time Magnus Hastings’ work is on public display in New York. In addition to the portraits, each queen featured answers the question, “Why Drag?”.

It’s a simple enough question, but it’s interesting to see the girls that take it as an honest inquiry and those who view the question as an attack. Some mistake the question to mean, ‘What the fuck are you dressing up for?’

“My intention was to learn what lead them to their love of drag,” explains Hastings. “To uncover what drag means in their life.”

Alaska Thunderfuck arguably answers the question best, saying, “Drag is like being a nun or a priest. Once you get the divine calling, you have no choice in the matter and you belong to drag for life.”

Through the process of shooting them, Magnus Hastings has developed his own thoughts on the question. “The queens do it because it’s in their blood. Some enjoy the attention and the infamy, but it is more than that. They are artists and their canvas is their face and body.”

The “Why Drag” photo exhibition takes place at New York’s Out Hotel beginning Monday, May 26th through Tuesday, August 26. For more information, visit http://magnushastingsphotography.com.

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  Art, FREE, Gay Marriage, News and Happenings   No comments

Gay Couples Kissing in Churches Photo Exhibit in New York

I do not go to church – but I love to look at them!  And I was always told,

In the United States, each state regulates photography restrictions. State and local regulations vary, but all photographers, amateur and professional, must comply with them.

 

Typically, photography in public places is permitted, unless special equipment that allows the photographer to take pictures of private locations is used. For example, you can take a photo in a public park, but you cannot stand in that park and use a telephoto lens to take a picture of people inside their home.

Privately-owned museums, shopping malls, tourist attractions and other businesses may restrict photography as they please. And usually it is posted if you can not take pictures.

HOWEVER, different countries can have different rules. And if the photos are to be used in a public way and not just for personal use, then permission is always required.

The kisses seen around the world are coming to New York.

Spanish artist Gonzalo Orquin’s controversial series “Si, Quiero” is taking up residency in Manhattan’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art on April 30.

Orquin shocked the Vatican last fall with his photos of gay, lesbian and straight couples kissing inside Catholic churches in and around Rome. The artist was forced to cover up the pieces after the Vatican threatened legal action.

It was disappointing turn of events for Orquin, who considers himself a faithful Catholic.

See the photos in SoHo  thru June  at

Manhattan’s Leslie-Lohman Museum

where they will be on display in the windows, for all to see!

See the rest at NY Daily News

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Green Haired Lady – Hedda Lettuce Art Show April 4th

HEDDA LETTUCE – the queen of green!

is having her first solo art show this week, beginning April 4th!

 

Titled: The Green Haired Lady (of course!) opens April 4th at 6:30pm. MCCNY Gallery 446 w 36th street.  It is a series of new works combining camp and spirituality, to create a series of portraits of the magical Green Haired Lady.

Performance by Hedda Lettuce at 8pm. Free wine and cheese!

  • 446 West 36th Street, between 9th & 10th Avenues
  • New York, New York 10018
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  Art, Celebrity, Gay Bars and Clubs, Hotels   No comments

Lady Gaga, G.U.Y and The OUT NYC

­ March 26, 2014 ­ Lady Gaga fans will be given unprecedented access to the costumes, props, art and more from the multi-platinum and Grammy Award-winning artist¹s latest video G.U.Y. when THE OUT NYC (510 W. 42nd Street) transforms into The G.U.Y. Hotel, presented by 42West, on Friday, March 28th at 1pm.

One lucky little monster will win a pair of tickets to Lady Gaga¹s April 7th sold-out show at Roseland Ballroom during the gallery exhibition.  THE OUT NYC¹s nightclub, BPM, and CLICK will also play host to the singer¹s official Roseland after-party on Friday, April 4th with her producer DJ White Shadow and Steven Redant of Bent Collective spinning.

 

G.U.Y., the third single from her latest album ARTPOP was filmed on location at Hearst Castle in Northern California, the first commercial production at the National & California Historical Landmark mansion since Stanley Kubrick’s film ³Spartacus² was filmed in the late 1950¹s.  The first single from ARTPOP, ³Applause² is her 12th top-ten Billboard Hot 100 single in the United States.  Lady Gaga wrote the treatment as well as directed the video, which includes cameos from Andy Cohen and the cast of Bravo¹s ³The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.²  The G.U.Y video, which launched on March 22nd on NBC and Vevo, is already closing in on 16.6 million views in just a few days.

Lady Gaga¹s G.U.Y. an ARTPOP Film can be viewed by visiting: http://vevo.ly/PQ4N4F

and her new album ARTPOP is available now at: http://smarturl.it/ARTPOPalbum

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  Art, Celebrity, Drag, Eat Drink and Be Mary, Eye Candy, Fashion, Movers and Shakers, News and Happenings, Recommended Reads   No comments

New Book looks at the history of New York Nightlife…THE FUN: THE SOCIAL PRACTICE OF NIGHTLIFE IN NYC

Surveying the evolving nature of nightlife in New York City,
THE FUN: The Social Practice of Nightlife in NYC
is a first-of-its-kind publication, documenting the new forms of
nightlife practitioners to emerge since the turn of the millennium.
Through profiles of over 30 artists, including the royalty of Manhattan
nightlife like Susanne Bartsch and Ladyfag; hybrid forms like Xtapussy
and FCKNLZ; the continuation of minimal wave and goth communities
through Pendu Disco; and the vibrant queer scenes of JUDY, Frankie
Sharp, and My Chiffon is Wet, THE FUN documents the rich
contemporary cultural activity keeping NYC as weird and innovative as
decades past.
Accompanying these profiles are essays by a range of
voices in the nightlife, including artists Rob Roth and Genesis
P-Orridge, curators and critics Claire Bishop and Jake Yuzna, as well as
journalist Michael Musto providing both historical context and
contemporary understanding of nightlife as a vital artistic practice
that has been marginalized by the arts sector for hundreds of years.
THE FUN traces the history of nightlife as it has evolved,
from the explosion of large and small discos throughout the 1970s like
Studio 54, which paved the way for 80s megaclubs; the candy-colored club
kid movement of Michael Alig and the Limelight in the early 90s; the
parallel expansion of the boundary shattering merger of drag,
performance, and music in downtown venues such as the Pyramid Club and
Mother; the rise of Brooklyn as a new focal point in the 2000s with the
emergence of Luxx, Secret Project Robot, Silent Barn and other hybrid
arts/music/nightlife venues; and on into the many vibrant forms found
today.
 (Paperback, 8.5 x 10.33 inches, 336 pages, ISBN:
978-1-57687-659-6, $39.95)
Richie Rich and Traver Rains, aka  Heatherette got to enjoy the club scene as well as celebrity and notoriety. Pop culture loved Heatherette, but so did society princesses. Everyone
from Paris Hilton and Lydia Hearst to the Backstreet Boys, Foxy Brown
and Gwen Stefani was drawn to their taste for sparkly streetwear glam.
“The clothes were attention getting and fun,” Heatherette’s longtime
friend and muse Amanda Lepore remembers. “They had a distinct look,
which at that time — everyone wanted it. David LaChapelle was using it. All the
celebrities wanted it. It was in demand.”   (from Paper Mag).
Since their last show Rains moved to LA to pursue photography
while Rich is set to launching two fashion lines this spring: Rich
& Warr, a mens line, and a womens, Chantilly Rich, with Chantilly
Lace designer, Chantelle Warr. Although busy, Rich still has his eye on
the club scene. “It’s been fun watching the new generation of kids. When
I moved to New York I was ‘the new’ to the old nightlife generation,”
Richie says. “Now it’s fun to see all the new kids coming on the block
and dressing up. I feel like the style is coming back. Who knows, maybe
Heatherette will too.”
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