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This Week’s Best LGBT Events in New York City

Written by Kevin Phinney| June 13, 2019| Things to Do

Looking for gay things to do in New York? Whether you’re looking for drag shows, parties talks & lectures, film screenings, theater, or art exhibits, Metrosource has got you covered. Our complete list of LGBT things to do is just a click away, but here are some upcoming queer events.

This week: Broadway Bares it all, the OutCinema Film Festival returns to Manhattan, and … Ross Watson paints men — in all their uniformed and natural glory!

Come Back Once More So I Can Say Goodbye

Friday, June 14 – June 17

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall and World Pride coming to New York for the first time ever, Come Back Once More So I Can Say Goodbye is an evening-length theatrical dance performance which tells the story of the gay community from 1965-1995 in New York City. The piece takes us from the early Gay Rights Movement with the historic Sip-In at the Julius Bar, to the uprising at Stonewall and through the widespread apathy and abject hysteria of the AIDS crisis. Through stunning performances, we experience the indomitable resolve of those who defiantly faced the siege against them with humor, bravery and compassion. Each performance will be dedicated to supporting the work of an LGBTQ youth or HIV service-related organization.

Presented by Labyrinth Dance Theater, the show features thirty renowned dancers, singers and musicians representing a multi-generational and diverse cast, which reflects the diversity and energy of the characters in the piece. Come Back Once More So I Can Say Goodbye take placeat the Ailey Citicorp Theater/The Joan Weill Center for Dance, 405 West 55th Street @ 9th Avenue, NYC, 10019

Chelsea Wine Vault Presents The Legends of Gay Pride

Friday, June 14 through June 29

Friday June 14th at 8 pm, thrill to the First Annual Legends of Gay Pride event at the Chelsea Wine Vault in the Chelsea Market! at 75 9th Avenue in Manhattan! Festivities include MC Miss Dina Delicious and drag performances from Princess Diandra as Diana Ross, plus music from DJ Carl Beats. In addition, you’ll be treated to an open bar and other special guests — including Housewives of New Jersey star Jennifer Aydin. Share your Pride love with Jennifer us and help raise money to bring awareness to issues surrounding the LGBTQ community. Get your tickets now! Come out and see Jennifer, Princess Diandra, Dina Delicious and Kahlil Dee Martin!

Discotechnique: Rainbow Disco

Friday, June 14

Get ready for a bright night out at Brooklyn’s most inclusive venue: House of Yes’ monthly dance party gets a colorful makeover as New Yorkers begin gearing up for Pride week. Masterful DJs like Yuksek, Musclecars and Rimarkable man the decks as nighttime revelers are transported back to the golden age of disco. Expect a collection of retro-fitted mirrorball classics and nu selections, all tailored to set the dancefloor on fire. And don’t forget to dress the part in garments spanning the full spectrum of the rainbow.

#AscendWithPride

Saturday, June 15

Get your cameras ready: a 12’ x 100’ Pride flag is coming to FDR Four Freedoms State Park to celebrate World Pride in NYC! On Saturday, June 15 from 12:00-6:00 PM, the park hosts a free World Pride celebration for all ages, including food trucks for a special picnic on the lawn (with food, wine and beer available for purchase), VideoOut onsite all day capturing coming out stories for their online library (you can sign up for a time slot here) and Drag Queen Story Hour, at 12:30 PM and 2:00 PM, reading books that focus on diversity and inclusion, from Little Bee Books. Event details subject to change.

The event serves as the official unveiling of New York City’s largest LGBTQ Pride Flag. From Friday, June 14 to Sunday, June 30, the Park’s monumental staircase will transform into a massive Pride flag, sponsored by Bloomberg, to celebrate the progress that’s been made over the past 50 years, and to shine a light on the LGBTQ community’s continued fight for the universal human rights articulated in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech: freedom of speech & expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Located on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island in New York City, in the East River between Manhattan and Queens, the Park is the first memorial dedicated to the former president in his home state of New York.

Trans New York Harbor PRIDE Sails (for the Hetrick Martin Institute)

Saturday, June 15

For the benefit of transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming youth support programs of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, Classic Harbor Line hosts a series of five weekend benefit sails throughout the duration of the World Pride Festival in New York City. All the proceeds of net ticket sales go to the Hetrick-Martin Institute.

Benefit sails are Saturdays: June 15, 22 and 29, from 10:30 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. aboard either the schooner Adirondack or the schooner America 2.0.

Each sail will include a standard bar and mimosas as well as a triumphant flying of their nearly 400 square foot spinnaker cloth Pride Flag. The flag will be hoisted to the aft-leaded edge of their mainsail as they glide from Chelsea Piers, south on the Hudson River to the Statue of Liberty and back. This Pride Flag is nearly half the size of schooner Adirondack’s mainsail and will certainly prove to be an epic and awe-inspiring experience for all those who see it.

Broadway Bares

Sunday, June 16

This year’s Broadway Bares at Hammerstein Ballroom will be directed by Laya Barak, an accomplished dancer and choreographer whose work has appeared in the last five editions of Broadway Bares. Barak co-directed last year’s Broadway Bares: Game Night with Nick Kenkel, who joins Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell as an executive producer.
Broadway Bares was created in 1992 by Mitchell, then a Broadway dancer, as a way to raise awareness and money for those living with HIV/AIDS. In Broadway Bares‘ first year, Mitchell and six of his friends danced on a New York City bartop and raised $8,000.

Last year, Broadway Bares invited stars and fans alike to play at Broadway Bares: Game Night. The tantalizing twist on a typical game night raised a record-breaking $1,875,090. The 28 editions of Broadway Bares have raised more than $19.1 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Broadway Bares receives generous support from presenting sponsor M∙A∙C VIVA Glam.

Pride Table

Monday June 17 through June 29

PrideTable is a two-week-long (June 17-29) pop-up theatrical dining experience with five courses and five personal stories from a diverse and intergenerational team of LGBTQ+ chefs. Each night will include all five courses and stories. Today, we are announcing our five chefs and storytellers! Engage all five senses as you immerse yourself in these stories from Chefs Charle Anderle, Dima King, Martin Boyce, Mellissa Santiago, and Woldy Reyes. Tickets are on sale for dinners between June 17-29, 2019 at Avenues: The World School at 259 10th Avenue.
Get Tickets @thepridetable

StoryCourse produces uniquely moving and delicious theatrical dining experiences which tell the stories
of marginalized voices. The story informs the menu and the menu informs the story.
www.StoryCourseNYC.com @storycourse

Sex in the (Ancient) City

Tuesday, June 18

Join Olympia Dukakis, Professor David Sider (NYU), actor Theodore Bouloukos, singer Nektarios Antoniou, Mia Theodoratos (orphic lyre), and Professor Constantina Rhodes in an illustrated and dramatic examination of sex, gender, sexuality and love in the ancient Greek world.

Professor Sider, an expert on gender and sexuality in the ancient world, will compare ancient and modern concepts of sexual identity. Oscar winner Dukakis will perform the poetry of the immortal Sappho accompanied authentically by the orphic lyre. Rhodes will present Sappho’s most famous poem in Greek. Bouloukos will deliver love poetry from Greek antiquity.

OutCinema

Tuesday, June 17 through June 19

Lights, camera, action! NYC Pride OutCinema, in partnership with NewFest and the SVA Theatre, celebrates LGBTQIA+ pride and community on film. Expect three jam-packed days of red carpet realness with the who’s who of queer cinema coming out for outstanding films that speak to the LGBTQIA+ experience. NewFest, known as NYC’s LGBT Film and Media Arts Organization, recently celebrated The 30th Annual New York LGBT Film Festival this past October screening over fifty films including shorts, narratives and documentaries.
NewFest is dedicated to “bringing together filmmakers and audiences to build a community that passionately supports LGBT cinema and storytelling.” Much like NewFest, OutCinema will take place at SVA Theatre at 333 West 23rd Street.
The festival will feature specially curated screenings followed by Q&As and open bar after-parties. The new format provides a wide variety in LGBTQIA+ cinema that reflects the community. OutCinema helps to raise needed funds for NYC Pride and NewFest to help continue their annual programming.

Ross Watson: Hominus Uniformis

Tuesday, June 17 through June 30

Watson’s distinctive, hghly detailed, realistic paintings are a celebration of the male form, in its uniformed and its natural glory.

“He’s a leader in contemporary realism” Sir Elton John. This exciting exhibition, homines uniformis at the beautiful Rogue Space | Chelsea, adjacent to the High Line, features gay football players, naked surfers and soldiers in various states of dress and undress. This series is a cross-cultural celebration of the male form, both in its uniformed and natural glory.

This is Watson’s first solo show in NYC in his 40 year career after sold out exhibitions in Los Angles, London, Berlin, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne. Available for sale are Paintings and Limited Edition Prints along side a commemorative WorldPride NYC | Stonewall 50 edition of his brand new art book.

With the artist in residence throughout the exhibition, this will be a rare chance to learn first-hand about his style, his intentions and the stories behind the artwork on display. A full multi-media experience awaits each visitor into the exhibition with video presentations on the artist’s work giving insight into the creative process and final sentiment. Open from 11am – 6pm daily. This event is free to attend.

Oscar at the Crown

Ongoing

It’s a musical. It’s a queer dance party. It’s a show with original music that’s immersive — meaning you get to take part as well. Oscar at the Crown posits that the apocalypse has come and gone, and here we all are in a bunker where all that’s survived is reality TV and a decidedly unorthodox master of ceremonies — the ever youthful and irreverent Oscar Wilde. Get your gear and glitter on. It’s time for a Wilde ride at 3 Dollar Bill.

Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now

Through January 5, 2020

Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now will show the groundbreaking work of gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The prolific artist captured the images of famous folks like his friend Patti Smith, as well as striking self-portraits and images of the S&M scene that drew controversy during Mapplethorpe’s lifetime. This exhibition will also showcase artists who succeeded Robert Mapplethorpe, portraying self and/or the body with similar frankness and beauty. These artists will include Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Lyle Ashton Harris, Glenn Ligon, Catherine Opie, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya. This exhibition runs January 25-July 24, 2019, closes briefly, and reopens July 24, 2019-January 5, 2020 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. General admission tickets include access to all exhibitions on view and daily 2pm guided tour.

Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall

Friday, May 3 – December 8

Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising — a six-day clash between police and civilians ignited by a routine raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City—and explores its profound legacy within contemporary art and visual culture today. The exhibition draws its title from the rallying words of transgender artist and activist Marsha P. Johnson, underscoring both the precariousness and the vitality of LGBTQ+ communities.

The exhibition presents twenty-two LGBTQ+ artists born after 1969 whose works grapple with the unique conditions of our political time, and question how moments become monuments. Through painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and video, these artists engage interconnected themes of revolt, commemoration, care, and desire.

“Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989”

Ongoing

Join us at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery for the opening reception of “Art after Stonewall, 1969–1989” at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprisings, “Art after Stonewall” is a long-awaited and groundbreaking survey that features over 200 works of art and related visual materials exploring the impact of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) liberation movement on visual culture.

Presented in two parts — at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art — the exhibition features artworks by openly LGBTQ artists such as Vaginal Davis, Louise Fishman, Nan Goldin, Lyle Ashton Harris, Barbara Hammer, Holly Hughes, Greer Lankton, Robert Mapplethorpe, Catherine Opie, Joan Snyder, and Andy Warhol. Art after Stonewall juxtaposes works—many of which elude categorization—and music with historical documents and images taken from magazines, newspapers, and television. The exhibition is organized by the Columbus Museum of Art and is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue.

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