Celebrate Pride Month with Village Preservation’s Public Programs, Past and Present
Our neighborhoods of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo have long been a hub of creativity, activism, and cultural exchange, and its LGBTQ+ history is deeply woven into the neighborhood’s identity. From the history-making actions at Stonewall and Julius’, to the rich drag and ballroom culture, LGBTQ+ residents have shaped the social, artistic, and political fabric of the Village.
Hosting over 80 programs annually, nearly all of which are free and open to the public, Village Preservation highlights the significance of the neighborhood’s LGBTQ+ history during Pride Month as well as throughout the year.
You can revisit many of these programs on Village Preservation’s YouTube channel. Today we’ll take a look at some of the notable upcoming and past LGBTQ+ programs that Village Preservation offers.
Upcoming: Queer Happend Here
Program Date: Thursday, May 22, 2025 | Learn More HERE
Celebrate the release of Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places with author Marc Zinaman and special guest and book contributor Ande Whyland to celebrate the iconic queer spaces that have shaped LGBTQ+ culture, community, and activism for decades.
Upcoming: Queer History Walk with the Whitney Museum
Program Date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025 | Learn More HERE
Help kick off the celebrations for Pride Month by joining Village Preservation and the Whitney Museum of American Art on a special walking tour. This tour explores the rich queer history of the Whitney Museum’s neighborhood. This walk will bring visitors to select historical sites that once provided a place to find and create LGBTQ+ community. From the Hudson River piers to the clubs, visitors are invited to consider their connection to the changing landscape of the neighborhood that the Whitney now occupies, as well as the city’s history.
Upcoming: Servant of Beauty – Landmarks, Secret Love, and the Unimagined Life of an Unsung New York Hero
Program Date: Thursday, June 26, 2025 | Learn More HERE
Join us for a presentation by Anthony Wood on his new book, Servant of Beauty: Landmarks, Secret Love, and the Unimagined Life of an Unsung New York Hero.
Albert Sprague Bard (1866-1963) fought for cities to have the right to protect their beauty, propelling him into a David versus Goliath battle with Robert Moses, and paving the way, after four decades of advocacy, for New York City’s Landmarks Law (1965). Today, the law protects over 38,000 buildings, mostly in historic neighborhoods, and it has inspired cities across the nation. Bard was delighted and disappointed by his two enduring loves: one for a troubled younger man, the other for the beauty of New York City.
Past: The Battle for Intro. 2 – The New York City Gay Rights Bill, 1971 – 1986
Program Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Learn more HERE, Watch the video HERE
Initially proposed in 1971, the Gay Rights Bill in New York City was the first of its kind in the nation, meant to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, and public accommodations. After 15 years of grassroots activism and strident opposition, the bill, known as local law Intro. 2, passed in City Council in 1986 by a vote of 21 to 14, making New York the 51st city in the country to pass such a measure.
Stephen Petrus and Andrew Berman joined us to discuss this bill, illuminating the seldom-told history. Many audience members shared their own stories related to the fight for the “Gay Rights Bill”.
Past: “We Started a Nightclub”- The Birth of the Pyramid Cocktail Lounge as Told by Those Who Lived It
Program Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024
Learn more HERE, Watch the video HERE
Writer Yael Friedman joined us to moderate a conversation about the new oral history of the Pyramid Club, “We Started a Nightclub,” with its co-authors, Susan Martin and Kestutis Nakas.
In “We Started a Nightclub,” Martin, Nakas, and Brian Butterick, who unfortunately passed away before the book’s completion, have provided an oral history that serves as both vivid history and invaluable archive. It captures the moments, the voices, the entire era and the Pyramid’s very specific air of both defiance and refuge. The Pyramid fostered a huge reservoir of experimentation and development of unadulterated talent. This unique space was needed not only as a refuge from the stifling suburbs of Ohio, small towns of the South, or provincialism found across the globe, but also as an antidote to the more hierarchical nightlife found throughout the city itself.
Past: Drag King History of the Village and NYC
Program Date: Wednesday, October 27, 2021
Learn more HERE. Watch the video HERE
A panel featuring Mo. B. Dick, Ken Vegas, Lisa E. Davis, and Elyssa Goodman.
This event illuminated the history of New York City’s Drag King evolution from the 19th Century to today, showcasing the gender-bending performers who donned men’s attire onstage. Beginning with Charlotte Cushman, a legendary male impersonator in the mid-1800s, the presentation moved through to the 1990s with the East Village’s Club Casanova, the world’s first weekly Drag King party, to today with The Cake Boys, a network of drag kings, trans and non-binary performers, and queer artists. Panelists included performers, historians, authors, and academics.
Past: Sarah Schulman’s “Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993”
Program Date: Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Learn more HERE. Watch the video HERE
Author Sarah Schulman joined us for a book talk on her illuminating “Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993.”
In just six years, ACT UP, New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, changed the world. Armed with rancor, desperation, intelligence, and creativity, it took on the AIDS crisis with an indefatigable, ingenious, and multifaceted attack on the corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals who stood in the way of AIDS treatment for all. They stormed the FDA and NIH in Washington, DC, and started needle exchange programs in New York; they took over Grand Central Terminal and fought to change the legal definition of AIDS to include women; they transformed the American insurance industry, weaponized art and advertising to push their agenda, and battled―and beat―The New York Times, the Catholic Church, and the pharmaceutical industry. Their activism, in its complex and intersectional power, transformed the lives of people with AIDS and the bigoted society that had abandoned them.
Based on more than two hundred interviews with ACT UP members and rich with lessons for today’s activists, “Let the Record Show” is a revelatory exploration―and long-overdue reassessment―of the coalition’s inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture. Schulman, one of the most revered queer writers and thinkers of her generation, explores the how and the why, examining, with her characteristic rigor and bite, how a group of desperate outcasts changed America forever, and in the process created a livable future for generations of people across the world.
Learn more about all of our programs here. Learn more about our efforts to preserve LGBTQ+ history here.