The New York Public Library is very pleased to be offering teen programming in conjunction with the exhibition at the StephenA.SchwarzmanBuilding highlighting the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Martin Boyce and Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt were both teenagers at the time of the riots, and will be participating in a panel discussion with Philip Bockman and David Carter on Monday, June 29th at 4 pm in the South Court Auditorium.

As gay marriage and equal rights are being spotlighted in the media and are under discussion in many communities, this panel provides timely and helpful information for getting involved and getting heard.

About the guests:

David Carter:

An activist and author, David Carter has long advocated for gay and lesbian issues. He co-started the second gay television in the Untied States, “Glad to be gay” and the spin-off, “Nothing to hide.” During his time at Chelsea House, he helped launch a gay and lesbian studies series, as well as a gay and lesbian biography series. During that time, he worked with Allen Ginsberg on his interviews and eventually published “Spontaneous Mind” in 2001. Inspired by Michael Denney, Carter began work on an in-depth account of the Stonewall Riots, and 2004 saw the release of “Stonewall : the riots that sparked the gay revolution.” His work contributed to Stonewall being designated as a National Historic Landmark. WGBH’s   American Experience series BLAH. Carter’s current projects include a biography on Dr. Frank Kameny, who worked to get the American Psychiatric Association to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness. He is also working with the Velvet Foundation to mount an exhibit on the Stonewall Riots in Washington , DC in April of 2010.-

Philip Bockman

Philip Bockman is an author, activist and psychotherapist working in New York City . He has written about his participation in the Stonewall riots and other early experiences in “Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution” and “Boys Like Us: Gay Writers Tell Their Coming-Out Stories.”   In the 1980s he regularly wrote for Christopher Street magazine and contributed to the New York Native newspaper, both landmark gay literary publications. He helped found the first GLAAD phone tree and wrote hundreds of protest letters for their Media Committee. In his psychotherapy practice, he has worked to help people deal with prejudice and discrimination, and find their voices in the important struggle for equal rights. He lives with his partner, Paul Feiler, who is also a psychotherapist in the community.

Martin Boyce

On the night of the 1969 Stonewall Riot, Martin Boyce was out as Miss Martin, and joined arms with other protestors to sing the famous lines, “"We are the Village girls, we wear our hair in curls. We wear our dungarees above our nellie knees." He lives in New York .

Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt

Exploring class, religion, and sex through his artwork, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt has artwork in many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney. His work has exhibited extensively both in the United States and abroad, including the Venice Biennale of 1984, the Whitney Biennial of 1991 and the 1999 exhibition The American Century at the WhitneyMuseum.