The Project is delighted to partner with our friends at Penguin Random House and Vintage Books to elevate the work of two authors whose work has, at one time or another, been banned by the broader culture for the views and words: Truman Capote and James Baldwin. As you revisit their writings, take a moment to connect with their legacies via the extant sites across New York City that weave into their life stories.

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Truman Capote Residence, 70 Willow Street, Brooklyn — From around 1955 to 1965, legendary theater designer Oliver Smith rented the garden apartment of his Brooklyn Heights home to Capote, who wrote his best-known works, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, during this time. (read more)

Hotel St. George, 111 Hicks St, Brooklyn — From the 1920s through the 1970s, this mammoth edifice was one of the best known centers of gay male life in Brooklyn. Famed for its luxurious public spaces and its blind-eye to discreet same-sex relationships, it became a favored cruising ground and residence for gay men, including Hart Crane, Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. (read more)

New York Public Library, Main Branch, 476 5th Avenue, Manhattan — Patience and Fortitude, the famed lions that guard the steps of the library, sit sentinel to the collections of so many beloved authors, including Truman Capote, whose papers are in safe keeping here.

The Plaza, 768 5th Avenue, Manhattan — Both James Baldwin and Truman Capote were in attendance at the famed Black and White Ball, held in the Grand Ballroom in 1966 and widely regarded as one of the defining social events of the 1960s. The party feted the completion of Capote’s In Cold Blood. (read more)

August Wilson Theater (then known as ANTA Playhouse), 243-259 West 52nd Street, Manhattan — Opened in 1925 as the Guild Theater and renamed the ANTA Playhouse in 1950, this venue staged multiple productions involving major LGBT performers and creators, including James Baldwin’s Blues for Mr. Charlie (1964). (read more)

The Silence = Death poster, featuring the pink triangle, is one of the most recognizable and evocative images in the fight against AIDS. Designed in 1986 by the Silence=Death Project, a New York City activist art collective, the poster has appeared at countless AIDS demonstrations around the world. Program attendees will hear first-hand from one of its designers, activist Avram Finkelstein, in an intergenerational conversation with historian Dr. Jake Newsome, who will also provide an overview of the pink triangle’s transformation from a Nazi-era symbol to one of LGBTQ liberation. Amanda Davis from the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project will host and there will be time for Q&A from the audience.

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About the Speakers:

THE HISTORIAN: Dr. Jake Newsome is an award winning scholar of German and American LGBTQ+ history whose research and resources educate global audiences. He is the Founder and Director of the Pink Triangle Legacies Project, a grassroots initiative that honors the memory of the Nazis queer victims and carries on their legacy by fighting homophobia and transphobia today through education, empowerment, and advocacy. Jake is the author of Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Cornell University Press), which traces the transformation of the pink triangle from a Nazi concentration camp badge into a global symbol of LGBTQ+ pride. He lives with his husband and son in San Diego.

THE ACTIVIST: Avram Finkelstein is an artist, writer, and a founding member of the Silence=Death and Gran Fury collectives. His book After Silence: A History of AIDS Through its Images (University of California Press) was nominated for the 30th Annual Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ Nonfiction, and an International Center of Photography 2018 Infinity Award in Critical Writing and Research. Avram’s work has shown at numerous museums and galleries, including the Cooper Hewitt and David Zwirner, and is in the permanent collection of MoMA, the Whitney, the New Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian, the Fogg Museum, the Getty Institute, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This free virtual program is part of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project’s “The Historian & The Activist: Cross-Cultural LGBTQ New York” series, made possible by a grant from Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

November is Puerto Rican Heritage Month! Celebrate the impact that the Puerto Rican LGBTQ community has made on New York City over the past 80 years, with a special focus on social life, activism, and the arts in the 1990s. Activist Charles Rice-González, co-founder of Gay Men of the Bronx (GMoB) and the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), and historian Andrés Santana-Miranda will take part in an intergenerational discussion reflecting on the lasting legacies of pioneers like Antonia Pantoja and Miguel Piñero as well as Puerto Rican LGBTQ life and culture from Loisaida to the South Bronx, and places in between. Amanda Davis from the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project will host and there will be time for Q&A from the audience.

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About the Speakers:
THE HISTORIAN: Andrés Santana-Miranda is Project Coordinator in the Historic Buildings and Sites Division at CENCOR, a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation and restoration of Puerto Rico’s cultural heritage. He also consults for the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, where his research efforts focus on historic places connected to the Latine and Spanish-speaking community. He has a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Puerto Rico and an MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University.

THE ACTIVIST: Charles Rice-González is a writer, long-time Bronx LGBTQ+ activist, co-founder of the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), and an Assistant Professor at Hostos Community College – CUNY. His debut novel, Chulito (Magnus 2011), has received awards and recognitions from the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Book Critics Circle. He is the chair of the board for the Bronx Council on the Arts and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop.

This free virtual program is part of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project’s “The Historian & The Activist: Cross-Cultural LGBTQ New York” series, made possible by a grant from Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Discover the remarkable legacies of trailblazing lesbian figures who have shaped American history and culture on this unique Green-Wood trolley tour. Join us as we journey through the Cemetery’s hallowed grounds, paying tribute to a diverse array of influential women—sculptors, painters, educators, writers, critics, activists, suffrage leaders, and medical pioneers.

This tour is led by Andrew Dolkart, Co-Director of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project and Columbia University Historic Preservation Professor, and Neela Wickremesinghe, the Robert A. and Elizabeth Rohn Jeffe Director of Restoration and Preservation at Green-Wood. Don’t miss this opportunity to honor and explore the profound contributions of these pioneering women.

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