New York Live Arts has partnered with Visual AIDS to create a large-scale installation asking "What Is 21st Century Liberation?" in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and NYC/World Pride for the Live Arts Ford Foundation Live Gallery lobby wall. The installation is produced in conjunction with Visual AIDS' 2019 Pride Broadsheet project, designed by Avram Finkelstein, co-creator of SILENCE=DEATH, and Rodrigo Moreira.
What Is 21st Century Liberation? highlights quotes from prominent queer activists and artists Bill T. Jones, Corey Johnson, Elle Woods, ALOK, Jason Collins, Chris Vargas, Lola Flash, Timothy Duwhite, Elizabeth Koke, Tenzin Gund-Morrow and Winter Collins sharing their insights and provocations around the idea of "liberation" in today's cultural, social, and political context. The quotes are set against contact sheets by Eric Stephen Jacobs from the first "Pride," Gay Liberation Day in 1970, reflecting on the past, present, and future of liberation. The project aims to address the complex intersectional issues that link AIDS activism with LGBTQI+ activism, and with expansive forms of social justice activism, both historically and today. Free broadsides will be available in Live Arts' lobby for visitors to take away, and will be distributed in the thousands by Visual AIDS during the 2019 New York City Pride March for Stonewall 50.
The installation at Live Arts will be the central backdrop to the 2nd annual Live Arts Pride 2019: The House Party - 50 for 50; On Sunday, June 30, 2019, fifty artists of all kinds pay tribute to the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall uprising through dance parties, drag performances, DJ sets, visual and video art, an experiential installation, and more. Both legendary and young families from NYC's queer nightlife and art scene Bubble_T, Papi Juice, RAGGA NYC, Switch n' Play, and The Legendary House of Labeija honor the historical importance and unwavering power of collectives in LGBTQAI culture in a 6-hour building-wide multi-genre celebration for the ages.
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