Henry Street Settlement opens doors of opportunity for Lower East Side residents and other New Yorkers through social service, arts, and health care programs.
Queer Artist/Activists of the Lower East Side, 1960-2000
Join us as we spend the 2026 season remixing our walking tours of the Lower East Side and the East Village! On our first tour offering this season, we will look at many influential queer artist/activists of the late 20th century on the Lower East Side – including Martin Wong, Miguel Piñero, Jack Smith, Mario Montez, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and the Gran Fury collective.
These artist/activists were deeply connected to the Lower East Side, and their work stands on the sometimes uneasy, sometimes joyful intersection of artistic creativity and political action. On our tour, we’ll discuss questions that these luminaries’ lives and works provoke: Is art made by queer artists always political? Would we even want it to be? Who is the audience for queer art?
The tour will begin at Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street, a community arts space with a 110-year history of art and activism.
Upcoming Tour dates:
- Sunday, June 21, 11 a.m.
- Saturday, July 11, 11 a.m.
Public and Private Queer Lives, 1890-1990
On this tour, we’ll visit iconic—as well as lesser known—East Village dance floors and private clubs, bathhouses, piers, and other spots for cruising, where queer communities explored and expressed their identities. Along the way, we’ll tell the story of the first transgender organization in the United States and examine the work of influential artists including painter Charles Demuth and photographer Alvin Baltrop. We’ll trace the evolving meaning of identifying as “gay” and consider how queer communities in the East Village navigated public, private, and liminal spaces. We’ll also highlight the ways these communities cared for one another through networks of mutual aid.
Upcoming Tour date:
- Saturday, June 6, 1 p.m.
Queer Activism Beyond the Gay Rights Movement, 1900-2000
So many queer narratives begin in 1969 with the Stonewall Uprising and the subsequent explosion of activism explicitly for gay rights and liberation. But what about queer people who were advocating for unions, for AIDS education in prisons, and for affordable housing and the rights of homeless community members? Can we call this gay activism too? On this tour of the East Village, we’ll feature a broad scope of activist movements led by queer people from garment strikes to drag king balls. We’ll tell the stories of the HIV Law Project and the Daughters of Bilitis, and we’ll end with a riot.
Upcoming Tour date:
- Sunday, July 26, 1 p.m.
About Close Friends Collective
Close Friends Collective is a group of educators, historians, and artists with a passion for teaching queer history. Since 2021, Close Friends Collective has led queer history walking tours of the Lower East Side and the East Village in partnership with Henry Street Settlement.
Queer History Walking Tour, 2024. Photos by Anna Gardner.
