Countdown to Pride: Dyke March 2009

Not a parade but a protest march!

Tomorrow at 5PM is the 17th annual NYC Dyke March. It'll be my 4th year in row to attend the Dyke March. I love supporting and showing love for our lesbian/queer sisters and I suggest you do the same. Besides, it's a helluva lot of fun!

Meet up is Saturday June 27th 5PM sharp at Bryant Park.

Click HERE for everything you need to know.

It's the time to hit the streets! Make some noise. Be visible. Be heard. Demonstrate, agitate, liberate! Bring signs, banners, drums, giant puppets, flags, hula hoops, or just be there! And if you really want to make things happen - be a marshal (check out ACT-Up’s marshal training for what marshals do during a march).

The Dyke March is a protest march, not a parade -- we don't ask for a permit, because we have the right to protest. As lesbians, we recognize that we must organize amongst ourselves to fight for our rights, our safety, and for visibility. Thousands of dykes take over the streets every year in celebration of lesbians and to protest against ongoing discrimination, harassment, and anti-lesbian violence in schools, on the job, in our families, and on the streets.

My Amazing friend Rich Weaver pointed me in the direction of some old Queer Nation fem-based Artivism. I'm posting them below to get your feminist anger to a raging boil!

Guest Post: Nathanial Siegel's 2,117 Days of Silence

First up with a guest post is Nathanal Siegel - writer, poet, AIDS activist. Currently Nathanial has an installation at the Leslie Lohman Art Gallery entitled "2, 117 Days of Silence." Go ahead and check it out. The exhibit runs through this Saturday.

From Nathanial:

November 19 - December 20, 2008
2,117 Days of Silence An Installation by Nathaniel Siegel Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation
26 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10013
Phone 1 212 -431-2609
www.leslielohman.org

The artist Nathaniel Siegel has created an installation at the Leslie/Lohman Gallery: “2,117 days of silence: a visual presentation.”

To mark the 20th anniversary of ACT-UP New York City, the artist has gathered documentary evidence of the first mention of AIDS in the New York Times (July 3, 1981) “RARE CANCER SEEN IN 41 HOMOSEXUALS” by Lawrence K. Altman; And a transcript of President Ronald Reagan’s first public statement of the word “AIDS” on April 1, 1987 at a Luncheon for Members of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Reagan’s inaction inspired the original poster of SILENCE = DEATH in 1986. A copy of that original poster is also on view.

Using calendars of the years 1981 to 1989, the artist visually presents those days of silence. The calendar’s presented are from the artist’s collection and are representative of images that would be available to gay men in the ‘80’s.

ACT-UP New York city notes on their website that in 1987 the year Reagan first said AIDS: 41,027 persons are dead and 71,176 persons diagnosed with AIDS in the U.S.

Today, in New York City, there is no public school education of ways to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases including the proper use of condom’s and their effectiveness in preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS. Today, the current administration’s abstinence programs regarding discussions of sexual activity among teenagers and young adults amounts to the same SILENCE=DEATH scenario for our Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans-gendered and Straight Youth: 27 years after we first learned about AIDS and effective ways to prevent infection with the proper use of condoms.

The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation is located at 26 Wooster Street between Canal and Grand Streets in SOHO New York. Gallery Hours: (for the balance of the show)
Wed. Dec 17th 12noon to 6pm
Thurs. Dec 18th 12noon to 6pm.
Fri. Dec 19th 12noon to 6pm.
Sat. Dec 20th 12noon to 6pm.

They Shoot Homos Don't They?

Shot.

I made it to the incredible NY Art Book Fair yesterday and found myself really digging the Queer arts and books section of the event. Go figure!

They Shoot Homos Don't They? is a magazine for men and their admirers but it isn't so much porn and nudity as it is a character study on the modern gay male. Each issue deals with a specific topic but it is up to the reader to decipher their own meaning out of it.

I found They Shoot Homos Don't They? to be loud and colorful and pop-gay but most of all I enjoyed their motto and stance:

Four men are involved in running the magazine. It began because they were dark about the convergence of homo culture with mediocrity - some call it the mainstream. Rather than flash their queer eyes or mount the barricades, they decided to ask different men: how are you doing, what are your motives, what are you making, and what kind of world are you creating?

TSHDT? contributors aren't just men (or men who bang men). The bottom line is that the magazine puts forward people who are prepared to take a stance. You don’t have to be gay to get this.

TSHDT? is all about getting it. But this doesn’t mean you have to give it your best Butch Queen Vogue Fem Performance. There is a concerted effort in the editorial direction to encourage people to read between the lines and negotiate their own politics. This ambiguity should not be viewed as indifference. TSHDT? is suggesting several (sexual) positions.

I am very fond of this neo-gay au naturale art thing. Keep it coming!
See also: Pinups and Butt Magazine (NSFW.)

Sidewalk Encouragement

East 11th St. Between Ave. A & Ave. B

Stencil Graffiti

WWRJD?

And other INCREDIBLE T-Shirts at Strk3.com

The Company of Men

You're killing me, Blake Little.

Oh jeez.

Just when I thought I would be able to concentrate at work I catch wind of Blake Little's photo exhibition entitled, "The Company of Men" which features the most handsome of jaw-dropping, body-slamming, take-the-wind-out-of-your-sails men.

Swoon!

This exhibit is at the other end of the SmoothN'Young Bruce Weber photography and the Abercrombie and Fitch 6-packed dominant spectrum.

The exhibit opens tonight at The Wessel + O'connor Fine Art space in Dumbo and lasts through November 1st.

You can view some of the exhibit online here. Totally safe for work, all the men are clothed yet still they're going to make you weak in the knees.

Wessel O’Connor is very pleased to present THE COMPANY OF MEN, a solo exhibition by photographer Blake Little. This is his first new work for the gallery since his 1997 series of nudes entitled “Dichotomy,” which also became a book with the same title.

Blake explains how the project started: “I wanted to start a new series yet I was bored with photographing nudes, I wanted to get past the nude. I wanted to take photographs that were emotionally charged without being obvious or consciously sexy, distilling exactly what I find compelling about men into a photograph without showing everything. I also wanted to show a particular type of masculine gay male that I appreciated and related to but that I did not see photographed anywhere else; an alternative to stereotypes or what is usually seen as†the physical ideal of a man in the mainstream.

I started photographing my friends and then friends of friends and guys who looked like they should be my friends. It turns out that these particular guys were somehow connected, a large network of men all over the country, invisible to the outside world. I photographed them using the same process and skills that I have developed over the past 20 satisfying years as a celebrity portrait photographer. I dressed them in their own clothes and photographed them in their own homes or around where they live. I choose environments and clothes that visually or characteristically complemented the subject. I photographed these men more instinctually, reacting to the way they made me feel.”

Blake Little makes his living as a commercial photographer in Los Angeles, a town where it is said there is only one industry. He has done portraits of actors, musicians, athletes, politicians and celebrities; for magazines such as Time, ESPN, Parade and Entertainment Weekly, as well as movie campaigns for the likes of “Get Smart”,"Austin Powers" and "Borat."

Killer!

Big Appletivism

Some things one might notice lately walking through town:

Iraqtivism:

Chelseavisim:

Harvey Milk Statue to be Unveiled at SF City Hall

....If you're going to San Francisco

San Francisco City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place San Francisco CA
- enter on Polk Street side
May 22, 2008.
Mayor Gavin Newsom, The Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee, The Bob Ross Foundation, The San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration Committee, and The San Francisco Arts Commission invite you to a reception and an unveiling Ceremony for The Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Sculpture by The Daub Firmin and Hendrickson Sculpture group on May 22, 2008 in City Hall, which would have been Milk’s 78th Birthday. The reception is a free public event and doors open at 6 PM with the Ceremony beginning at 7PM. It will feature remarks by colleagues of Milk’s, local dignitaries and performances by Connie Champagne and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.
Food and beverage will be provided.

Background - In 2001 The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a sculpture in remembrance of Supervisor Harvey Milk who became a symbol to the world for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender civil rights. Milk was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the Nation. Milk and (pro-gay) Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in their City Hall offices by a homophobic political opponent on November 27, 1978.

In 2003 a campaign began to raise funds for the commission of the sculpture and The Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee was formed as a non-profit organization to foster the project. It took four years to complete the funding and in fall of 2006 the Milk City Hall Memorial Committee, in concert with a large gift from The Bob Ross Foundation and in partnership with The San Francisco Arts Commission, launched a national competition to find an artist.

In January 2007 a panel of community leaders and arts professionals selected three finalists. Maquettes of their designs were displayed for community comment in City Hall and the panel, with overwhelming public support, chose Daub, Firmin, and Hendrickson Sculpture Group as the winning team.

In April of 2008 The San Francisco Arts Commission formally approved the placement of the sculpture in the Ceremonial Rotunda in City Hall where it will be unveiled on May 22, 2008.

Happy Valentine's Day

"A Union As Solid As Any"

By Artist: Michael F. Brown

Consume Your Culture

Urban Molecule is live! Writer/Editor/Thinker, Christopher De La Torre, has created a space where fellow writers, artists, photographers and thinkers can exhibit their talent and ask questions urging us to look at the world differently and feel something new. The site begs of us to simply, "consume your culture." Ask questions, share ideas, change perspectives. Urban Molecule promises to be a hub of creative depth, artistic and social networking and a source of unyielding wonderment and curiosity.

Consume. Your. Culture: write, create, blog, produce, photograph

From creator De La Torre:

"Until we ask them, questions are invisible, and progress goes nowhere. Think about molecules. They’re invisible, too, and as the basis of everything in the material world, molecules show us how important invisible can be. That’s why Urban Molecule’s mission is to find those invisible artists — the molecules — whose work makes us ask questions that matter. Urban Molecule is you.

I see Urban Molecule as a community waiting to happen. It's been conceived. Now it's in the oven. As of today it's mainly about unknown artists, but I'm hoping it will grow to include politics, philosophy and the life sciences. Answers are downplayed. This zine is all about questions. Sort of an incubator for new ideas. Open to everyone. A place where the words "smart" and "intellectual" don't have to be so scary.

Urbanmolecule.com is the actual zine - a new issue with new content goes live every three months - while the "consume your culture" blog (urbanmolecule.wordpress.com) is a weekly, sometimes daily thing. THINKTANK, the UM Interview Series, is featured there the first and third Tuesday of every month, and we'll be hosting regular column writers as well. Readers are encouraged to leave comments. UM also has its own gallery at FLICKR -- photos from readings, conceptual art and contributor photoshoots. It's going to be fun.