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This Week’s Best LGBT Events in New York City

Written by Kevin Phinney| April 18, 2019| Things to Do

(Amanda Palmer photo courtesy of Kahn and Selesnick)

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 a few handpicked favorite queer events this week.

What’s your pleasure? This week: It’s a night of laughs at Pete’s Comedy Store with Kweendom, the Rugby United New York team hosts a Pride night, and Amanda F*cking Palmer returns to the Beacon!

Reclaiming Our Own Narratives: A Reading from Headcase

Thursday, April 18

Headcase (at Bluestockings) is a groundbreaking collection illustrating the intersection of mental wellness, illness and LGBTQ identity, as well as the lasting impact of historical views equating queer and trans identity with mental illness. The pieces offer personal views from both providers and clients, often one and the same, about their experiences. Traversing boundaries of race and ethnic identity, age, gender identity, and socioeconomic status, Headcase’s prose and artwork tell personal stories that are vital to LGBTQ survival.

Kweendom

Friday, April 19

Join us at Pete’s Comedy Store for Kweendom, a night of laughs, characters and storytelling that’s sure to make Mike Pence uncomfortable. It’s not just gay, it’s GAAAAAYYYYY. Gay like The B-52s are gay. Gay like Hocus Pocus is gay. Gay like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse is gay. Come for the laughs, stay for the fresh faces in your Grindr grid.

Featuring: Jessica Henderson (We Will Slay), Kate Sisk (Boston Women In Comedy Festival), Walter Kelly (Space), Rachel McCartney (Laugh Factory Chicago) and David Perez (SUCK.) Hosted by Bobby Hankinson (Awkward Sex and the City)

More From Metrosource

Queer Black Films: Looking for Langston and Two Films by Hayat Hyatt

Saturday, April 20

An intergenerational pairing of film and video works at Tompkins Square Library explores black queer inheritance and desire through Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston and two films by Hayat Hyatt.

Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston (1989) is a lyrical meditation on Langston Hughes and other black queer figures from the Harlem Renaissance. Filmmaker Hayat Hyatt will also present two of his films: Villanelle (2015), which blends documentary, poetry, and found footage to delve into the history of the AIDS crisis and its impact on black gay men living in New York City; and Structures of Feeling: Other Countries (2019). Hyatt, a video artist, filmmaker, and writer who was born in Detroit, Michigan and is now based in New York City, will join us for the screening.

Rugby United New York Pride Night

Saturday, April 20

Live in Brooklyn, your Blue and Orange take on the Utah Warriors at their home in MCU Park. Currently 7-1 in the standings and 2-0 at home don’t miss your opportunity to see New York’s most dominant sports team this year. Prior to the game, the Roosters are welcoming the ‘International Gay Rugby’ community to open proceedings as NYC’s own Gotham Rugby Club takes on the DC Scandals with a kick off at 5:30pm. Wear your Blue and Orange or wear your rainbow just make sure you’re there to support your Roosters!!

Amanda Palmer: There Will Be No Intermission

Saturday, April 20

The inimitable Amanda Palmer (or Amanda F*cking Palmer, if you prefer) brings her solo tour to the Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side in support of her forthcoming album, There Will Be No Intermission. Palmer rose to fame as the lead vocalist, pianist and lyricist of the groundbreaking indie rock-meets-punk cabaret duo, The Dresden Dolls. Her new album and its accompanying artbook is a crowdfunded project three years in the making. amandapalmer.net

Opening Reception of “Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989“

Tuesday, April 23

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.

safeword.

Through July 7

Midnight Theatricals presents the World Premiere of safeword. written and directed by S. Asher Gelman (the playwright of Afterglow fame) at The American Theatre of Actors.

safeword., an exploration of power dynamics through BDSM and food, reveals how the people closest to us often have the most to hide. An unlikely meeting between New York City neighbors fosters a new friendship among two couples, laden with secrets. After an incident in which everything is revealed, they must all come to grips with the pieces of themselves they keep most hidden.

The cast stars Jimmy Brooks (Off-Broadway: A Clockwork Orange, TV: Madame Secretary), Maybe Burke (TV: HBO’s The Deuce, Netflix’s Tales of The City), Joe Chisholm (NY: Afterglow) and Traci Elaine Lee (National Tour: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical).

Spilling Over: Painting Color in the 1960s

Ongoing Through September 22

The notion of color is tied to countless constructs, from race to gender to politics. Spilling Over: Painting Color in the 1960s is an exhibition which draws from The Whitney’s existing collection and features an array of artists who also served as activists during the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights movements. Their work reveals just how powerful these varying tones can be. A mostly abstract presentation invites viewers to draw their own conclusions regarding perception and presence, shades and shapes.

Yangtze Rep presents June Is the First Fall

Though April 20

What compels people to cross mountains and seas to another country, another continent, and another culture to find their true selves? What are the journeys we take to find home and belonging? In Yilong Liu’s play June Is the First Fall, Don, a gay Chinese man, returns home to Hawaii to rediscover missing memories of himself and his family that he moved away from. His week-long stay opens wounds with his father and sister that never healed, aggravating Don’s struggle to find love and belonging in his life. June Is the First Fall – the second-prize winner at the 2017 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, bestowed by the Kennedy Center – looks at sexuality, family, and immigration through a contemporary Chinese lens, yet its themes cross multiple cultural boundaries.

Hap-penis – Gallery Exhibit Opening Reception

Continuing through May 12

In honor of the 50th anniversary of a Japanese tradition, Kanamara Matsuri, Festival of the Steel Phallus, La Vie Galerie LLC is presenting a special exhibit by international artist Kou Shou –Hap-penis. The images are lyrical and fun with the penis being personified in everyday activities. The exhibit runs from March 31 to May 12, 2019 with an Opening Reception on March 31st from 12 – 4pm.

The festival, which will be on April 7th this year, is a celebration of the penis and fertility. The festival is centered around a Shinto shrine in Kawasaki, a suburb of Tokyo. People parade phallic shaped Shinto shrines down the street, revelers enjoy penis decorated snacks, purchase penis themed memorabilia and pose with sculptures in the shape of penises.

Within the shrine, there is a second inner shrine dedicated to the goddess of creation, Izanami who is one of the most important deities of the Shinto religion. After she gave birth to her son, Kagutsuchi, the god of fire, she died thus the shrine is dedicated to sexual health. From the Edo era (17th Century), people have prayed at the shrine to recover from sexually transmitted diseases which were very prevalent in Japan at the time. The actual festival began in 1969.

Kanamara, steel penis, symbolizes protection from STD as well as on a broader level, fertility and sexual harmony. Today the festival is designed to raise awareness about safe sex practices and is a fund raiser for HIV prevention. Join us at La Vie Galerie LLC 106 Naylon Ave. Livingston, New Jersey for a celebration – Hap-penis.

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