From Loisaida to the South Bronx: Puerto Rican LGBTQ Culture in NYC

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.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

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.