GAYLETTER

A “person of interest” usually refers to a suspect who has been deemed worthy of further investigation. In Sam Gordon’s exhibition ‘Persons of Interest,’ nineteen artists collectively investigate the queer individual through drawing, video and even a neon glory hole (my personal favorite). Sam refers to the exhibition as a “wunderkammer, a microcosm of books and objects presented without categorical hierarchies.” The exhibition itself strives to be as queer as the art it presents. Unlike most art spaces, there is no pecking order. Here all mediums are created equal.

The show is presented by Visual AIDS at the Bureau of General Services — Queer Division, located the second floor of the LGBT Center of New York. The Bureau is a “queer cultural center, bookstore, and event space…that seeks to excite and educate a self-confident, sex-positive, and supportive queer community by offering books, publications, and art and by hosting readings, performances, film screenings, book discussion groups, and workshops.” Most importantly, you can find every issue of GAYLETTER there.

Sam explains that the show also explores “the people left behind and the challenges with archives and legacies.” After the AIDS epidemic, exhibiting art was no longer a simple matter of organizing and categorizing. Huge gaps were left both in the canon and in the community. ‘Persons of Interest’ tries to symbolically rectify that loss, while paying homage to those who have passed. Featuring artists such as Raynes Birkbeck, Mark Carter, Chloe Dzubilo and more, the show is on view through September 4th. …

Last night, my date at Rosie’s in the East Village shared his appreciation for the restaurant’s copious amount of unisex bathrooms. I think he said something like, “it makes sense, especially in New York.” He was hinting at downtown’s inability to function within the gender binary, but little did we both know that in New York it is required that single stall bathrooms be unisex! Which, if you drink like me, is amazing, because that line always looks daunting… but it hustles!

Kristin Russo at Everyone Is Gay, an LGBTQ youth organization, says, “taking those gender markers off of single-stall restrooms creates more comfortable and safer spaces for transgender and gender nonconforming people, as well as more accessibility for caretakers,” which is why her campaign with musician Allison Weiss called OUR Restroom (One Unisex Restroom) is incredibly necessary.

When someone’s got to go, they got to go. That’s what that old people bladder commercial says. It’s not right that some essentially lose that option completely when out in public, when they’re probably just trying to have a grand old time with their friends.

OUR Restroom “is working to help educate businesses as to the importance of taking gender markers off  of single-stall restrooms.” Of course some people will not have such an easy time completely losing the strict binary society has set up, but campaigns like OUR Restroom are so, so important to support, as they’re the ones doing the heavy lifting and educating those who have reserves or false information. …

Last week, Tom, Abi & myself went to check out the OAK SS17 presentation. We liked the clothes — a cute, very New York, and wearable direction for the brand — but the model casting was fucking correct. Abi told me to go up and get in the models faces for our GAYLETTER Snapchat (add us, queen! @gayletter) because I was gagging five feet away, so I guess he figured I had an excuse to be thirsty in their personal space.

While we were carrying and reading the fashion queens post-presentation, the models came out in the street clothes and we might have enjoyed that moment even more, considering they all got to serve it in their personal style, and needless to say, they came through. One boy stuck out in particular, because while everyone was sanctioned off in small circles, sipping their vodka tonics, he was throwing it… for his phone! I’m always in awe of kids who can give public performance for Internet content. I mean, he was lip-synching for his life… alone… against a blank wall, but he added so much color to the black and white room.

This boy turned out to be Mister Wallace, the Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based rapper. His single, ‘It Girl,‘ premiered on the FADER today, and it captured all of that energy and personality we saw at the presentation. ‘It Girl,’ off his debut EP ‘FAGGOT‘ is vibrant and full of envy-worthy looks. There must be like, five or six different looks in this video, each one more gaggable, but my favorite is the cotton, long-sleeve leotard with the cropped white coat to match. …

I never thought I’d be genuinely excited to live out my inevitable fate of becoming a bitter old gay man, but, Dan Fingerman’s Boys of a Certain Age has done just that. In Fingerman’s new play, the breakout star is clearly R. Scott Williams’s “Uncle Ira.” Equal parts sad and sassy, Ira’s bitchy quips and outdated references will instantly make him your new favorite person (fictional or real).

BOYS OF A CERTAIN AGE is part of the Fresh Fruit Festival going on right now in New York City. Directed by Dan Dinero, it stars our friend Marc Sinoway alongside Brian Gligor, and Joseph J. Menino. The story revolves around four gay men of different ages as they grapple with their sexual, religious and political identities. There’s something for everyone, and sadly the politically correct hipster who can’t get his writing career off the ground and uses sarcasm to keep people at a distance was a tad more relatable than I’d have liked.

The play takes place over one weekend spent at an unnamed beach town outside of the City. The men come to a head as they delve into their collective past and try to make sense of their future. Fingerman does a great job of addressing the generational divide on issues such as the gay rights movement and AIDS. The show also deals with the complicated issues of friendships between gay men and gay self-hatred. BOYS OF A CERTAIN AGE manages to be both funny and heartwarming, which is no easy feat. …

In my opinion, you can never have enough queer film. Luckily, the first ever Outtakes Film Festival is going on right now at the historic Cherry Grove Community House and Theater on Fire Island. Cherry Grove has been a bastion of LGBT artistic expression since it began over 170 years ago. That’s a lot of homos making art. The film festival aims to commemorate Cherry Grove’s history while looking proudly into its future.

The Cherry Grove Archives Committee (CGAC) has been preserving every type of footage they can get their hands on. From 8 millimeter films to family photo albums, members of the community have generously donated their keepsakes in the name of conserving what makes Cherry Grove special. For Outtakes, the CGAC has put together documentaries, short films, and archival footage to create a truly special cinematic experience. Join in celebrating a place that’s known just as much for activism as it is for camp.

FREE (donations welcome), July 16 &17, Cherry Grove Community House and Theater, Fire Island, NY. …

For those who have ever visited the gay mecca known as Fire Island Pines, it may come as a surprise to learn that even after the Stonewall Riots the community was fairly conservative. In 1976, Teri Warren was visiting from the more queer-friendly neighborhood of Cherry Grove and dressed fabulously in drag. He was promptly denied entrance to a restaurant on account of his appearance. In protest, a group of drag queens decided to come back on July 4th and “invade” the town. Thus, the Invasion of the Pines was born.

Every year on July 4th, an ever-larger group of drag queens hop on a water taxi and invade the Pines. Photographer Susan Kravitz has for many years been there to document the event. Kravitz considers herself a “social documentarian of daily life.” She first visited Cherry Grove as a straight married woman, and then returned a couple of years later as a lesbian with her camera in tow. Kravitz has worked as a photographer for over thirty years, exhibiting her photos in galleries all around the world. Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem: Independence Day on Fire Island is her first book.

The book spans the course of four decades, intermingling photos of different eras to create the effect that every year’s invasion actually took place on the same eternally long day. The political backdrops of the photos change, every decade presenting unique tragedies and triumphs, but the magnificent queens remain the same.

The photos themselves are as majestic as the royalty they capture. …