Opening Night: The Gay Harlem Renaissance Exhibition at The New York Historical

Описание: OPENING NIGHT: AMERICAN LGBTQ+ MUSEUM & THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL

Join us in the Robert H. Smith Auditorium for remarks on "The Gay Harlem Renaissance" and a musical performance by Gary Mitchell's Harlem Renaissance Ensemble.

Following the program, head up to the second floor to explore the exhibition and toast the evening with a Prohibition-era party featuring dancing (with DJ Dada Cozmic) and a pop-up performance (by New York Swings and Mickey D. & Friends). Attire inspire by the 1920s or 1930s is encouraged!

ABOUT THE GAY HARLEM RENAISSANCE

To mark the centennial of The New Negro—the groundbreaking 1925 anthology of poetry, essays, and art edited by Alain Locke—The Gay Harlem Renaissance invites visitors to immerse themselves in the richness of Black LGBTQ+ life in the 1920s and 1930s.

This exhibition recognizes that Locke and many of the best-known writers and artists he championed were gay or bisexual, and it explores the queer mentorship and gay-inclusive salons and friendship circles that helped sustain the Harlem Renaissance. It takes visitors to Harlem’s posh segregated nightclubs, where LGBTQ+ singers and dancers lit up the stages for white downtowners—and to its modest rent parties and cellar speakeasies, where lesbian, bisexual and transmasculine blues queens sang for gay and straight working-class Harlemites partying together. Throughout, it provides a sweeping portrait of Harlem after the First World War, when the Great Migration of Black Southerners, Caribbean migrants, activists, writers, painters, and performers transformed the neighborhood into the dynamic new capital of Black America.

Uniting painting, sculpture, artifacts, documents, photographs, and music from collections across the country, The Gay Harlem Renaissance celebrates the creativity, innovation, and resilience of Black LGBTQ+ Harlemites in the face of racist pressures and homophobic laws.

The exhibition is curated by lead curator Allison Robinson, associate curator of history exhibitions; with Anne Lessy, assistant curator of history exhibitions and academic engagement; with Rebecca Klassen, curator of material culture and decorative arts, contributing; and with George Chauncey, author of Gay New York and DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University, as chief historian.