LGBT@NYPL

Tomorrow at 6pm, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium will be hosting the Fourth Annual Drag Video Vérité Festival.

Curated by Drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys, the festival will premiere film and video footage capturing over four decades of New York's top male and female impersonators, presented in celebration of LGBT Pride Month. The show will include rare footage of: Brandy Alexander, Jackie Beat, Bebe Zahara Benet, Milton Berle, Acid Betty,Lady Blue. Lady Bunny, Bernie Brandall, Johnny Cat, International Chrysis, Sugar Pie Coco, Miss Columbia, Lavinia Co-op, Consuela Cosmetic, Jason Cozmo, Jackie 

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the LGBT Pride March (originally called the Christopher Street Liberation march) in New York City and LA.  While the 1970's March is often cited along with Stonewall as the start of the Gay Pride Movement, there were actually public forms of protest happening as early as 1965.These protests were organized primarily by The Mattachine Society of DC and the Daughters of Bilitis.  A driving figure of the protests was Frank Kameny, an astronomer who was fired from his position in the Army Map Service in 1957 for being Gay.  These protests, called Annual Reminders, looked a bit different from the glitter and glamor that we've come to associate with 

If you're between the ages of 12-18 you'd better get ready to break out your feather boa for the Anti-Prom this Friday, June 11th.

An event organized to  provide an alternative, safe space for teens who may not feel welcome at official school proms or dances because of their sexual orientation, the way they dress, or any other reason, the Anti-Prom this year promises to be a fabulously rich experience.A highlight will include a fashion show featuring garments created by the High School of Fashion Industries students.  See their creative process and glam garments here.

Yours truly will be there to scope out the scene and report back here with highlights.

If you've 

Hi all!

My name is Maggie Keenan-Bolger and I'm the summer intern for the LGBT Collections at the New York Public library.  That means you'll be getting more blog posts, facebook updates and information about all the incredible LGBT resources here at the public library!

As someone who considers herself fairly well-versed in the ways of LGBT History and Information (I did attend Oberlin College for undergrad after all), I was shocked and surprised to see how many incredible things are at the library that I had no idea existed.  For instance, did you know:

1. The NYPL has an extensive digital collection of  photographs, posters and images from LGBT and AIDS Activist 

  John Waters says "Modern Art hates you because you're stupid." That was just one of a battery of provocative statements that Waters volleyed from the analyst's couch last night with Paul Holdengraber.  Waters is of course the director of cult classics Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Hairspray, among others. He is also an Ambassador of the Library's LGBT Committee. Holdengraber played psychoanalyst to Waters, getting him to dig deeply into his wild mind, pulling out everything from his love of Johnny Mathis, his friendship with Leslie Van Houten, the influence of Tennessee Williams, to Thanksgiving dinner with Lana Turner.  Check out his new book Role Models for more 

 Join Sapphire, Staceyann Chin, Sofia Quintero, and Girls Write Now this Wednesday, June 9th at 5 p.m. at the Countee Cullen Library to celebrate the work of June Jordan. Be there to ask your questions about June Jordan, “His Own Where,” poetry, and more.

The Feminist Press celebrates the much anticipated reissue of June Jordan ’s 1971 young adult novel, His Own Where , with a new introduction by Sapphire . This classic novel about two young people in Brooklyn navigating poverty and discovering love for the first time was a finalist for the National Book Award and gained both praise and notoriety for being 

  Very sweet picture of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home on display side by side with Catcher in the Rye at the newly opened St. Agnes Branch. The juxtaposition is perfect. It makes me realize how Bechdel's graphic novel is our classic coming-of-age story for contemporary LGBT readers. If you haven't read it yet, check it out. From Bechdel's great blog.

Each year the Library's young adult librarians and participating teens pick the very best in young adult literature, music, games, and more in Stuff for the Teenage. This includes the best in the growing genre of LGBT literature for young adults. This year's picks include two great new titles:
 
The Vast Fields of Ordinary
Nick Burd   
Dial
Between his crappy job and his crappy “boyfriend,” Pablo, who won’t even acknowledge their relationship, Dade’s last summer at home before college pretty much sucks.But when Alex Kincaid becomes part of Dade’s social circle, Dade finds him a welcome distraction. Even as the two of 

Start off National Poetry Month right by checking out Walt Whitman's "Blue Book" on the Library's Treasures of The New York Public Library page.  The "Blue Book" is Walt Whitman's hand edited copy of the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. The entire book is available online through the Library's Digital Gallery. When you're done, check out Gary Schmidgall's classic study of the role of homoeroticism in Whitman's work Walt Whitman: A Gay Life.

Yank!, an amazing new musical portraying the lives of gays and lesbians in the armed forces during WWII, opens this week at the York Theatre. The production is incredibly well timed given the renewed debates taking place over the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The musical is even more notable for the in-depth research that the show’s composer and lyricist, brothers Joe and David Zellnik, undertook to support writing the piece. The show’s provocative title, Yank!, came 

In case this Valentine's day found you lonesome, why not try checking out these two current advice guides for gays and lesbians on finding true love:   

Boyfriend 101:  A Gay Guy's Guide to Dating, Romance, and Finding True Loveby Jim Sullivan, provides light-hearted and very practical advice on gay relationships. For the truly relationship-challenged, he starts at the very beginning by defining "What is a date?"    

D. Merilee Clunis and G. Dorsey Green's Lesbian couples : a guide to creating healthy relationships, takes a more serious look at overcoming tRead More ›

 
Pulitzer Prize winning poet John Ashbery (who is also an ambassador of the Library's LGBT Committee) just came out with a delicious new book of poems. Planisphere has all of the vision, humor, slant observation, and colloquial intelligence for which Ashbery is famous. The new poems also have a careful intimacy and elegiac sense, which were noted in the New York Times' glowing review.  I've been reading it back and forth all week; my favorite poems so far is "Episode":

"In old days, when they tried to figure out
how to write the sweetest melodies, they fell
on a bed, chewed the 

Above, Michael McConnell and Jack Baker photographed by Kay Tobin Lahusen, 1970.  

Given the New York State Senate’s rejection of marriage equality last week, it seems a good moment to remember the history of LGBT struggles for marriage rights in the U.S. During the early years of the modern American LGBT civil rights struggle, during the 1950s through 1960s, marriage was a lively topic of discussion. Most of these discussions of marriage in early LGBT political journals like One and The Ladder focused on how to 

The New York Public Library LGBT Visiting Scholars Program
Martin Duberman Visiting Scholars

Each year, The New York Public Library provides stipends for up to three Martin Duberman Visiting Scholars. The stipends support travel to New York City and related expenses to do research in the Library’s premier LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) history collections. The travel grants awarded range from $1,000 to $8,500. The program is limited to emerging scholars—those without permanent academic appointments—or those who are unaffiliated with an academic institution. Recipients must supply a written summary of their findings upon completion of their 

  
A "tour de fuerza" of queer Latino literary talent convenes in the South Bronx this Saturday for the second part of this groundbreaking queer NYC reading series' visit to the Library.Performance and slam poet-extraordinaire Karen Jaime and writer Charlie Vázquez (who were featured at BAAD!'s recent "From the Page to the Stage" reading) join novelist and playwright Charles Rice-González and Nicaraguan-American poet Cristina Izaguirre for an afternoon gathering of queer Latino words and wizardry. This event is free and open to the public. Please try not to miss this rare public gathering of queer Latino writers in the South Bronx! This Saturday, November 7th at 2:15 p.m. at 

Following up on last week's standing-room-only reading at the Schomburg Center, tonight, three esteemed writers will read from their latest works and engage questions about being immigrants, creative artists, and pushing against the grain of social norms as queer artists of color. Featuring Staceyann Chin, Anton Niblett, and Curu Necos-Bloice. Hosted by Steven G. Fullwood, project director of the Library's Black Gay & Lesbian Archive. Books will be available for purchase in the gift shop prior to the event. Tonight, 7 p.m. at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at 515 Malcolm X Blvd.

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Join us on Monday, October 26th at 7 p.m. at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for a lively reading and discussion with four writers whose thought-provoking, innovative works challenge conventional social and cultural norms. Readers include Pamela Sneed, Herukhuti, G. Winston James, and Cheryl Boyce-Taylor. Hosted by Steven G. Fullwood, project director of the Black Gay & Lesbian Archive. Books will be available for purchase in the gift shop prior to the event.

Pamela Sneed

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PANIC! is New York City’s only ongoing LGBT reading series, held every last Wednesday of the month at Nowhere in the East Village. Hosted by Charlie Vázquez, PANIC! offers changing themes and features writers from different sectors of New York City’s LGBT community. The New York Public Library is thrilled to present PANIC! @ the Library on Saturday, October 17th at 2:30pm at the Jefferson Market Library, 427 Avenue of the Americas at West 10th Street, 212.243.4334. The scheduled readers are: 

Charlie Vázquez is a writer of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. His fiction and essays have been published in various anthologies such as the iconoclastic volumes Queer and 

In July we were very happy to host the winners of the newly-created LGBT Visiting Scholars Program. Thanks to the program, each year the Library will appoint up to three Martin Duberman Visiting Scholars who will be provided with stipends to travel to New York City to conduct LGBT studies research in the Library's collections. The fellowship is targeted to emerging scholars---those without permanent academic appointments. The fellowship has been generously supported by LGBT Committee Ambassador and eminent historian Martin Duberman and his partner Eli Read More ›