Queer History Walking Tour of the Lower East Side

The Lower East Side is an international crossroads of communities, including queer communities, which existed well before the dawn of a queer liberation movement and have continued into the post-Stonewall period. The tour will begin at Henry Street Settlement, where you will learn about founder Lillian Wald’s intentional community of women, and will end at Bluestockings Cooperative, a Lower East Side queer and trans worker-owned bookstore. In between, every tour is different! Frequent stops include 19th century ballrooms and 20th century watering holes, monuments of queer creativity and cruising, and the homes of icons like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Martin Wong and Alvin Baltrop.

Upcoming Dates: 

Sunday, September 29, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Sunday, October 13, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Saturday, October 26, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Sunday, November 24, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 

NEW! Queer History Walking Tour of the East Village

This tour is a new offering for 2024! Explore the long and rich history of queer communities in Manhattan’s East Village, from the turn of the century to the turn of the millennium. Subjects include bathhouses of the 1910s, homophile activists of the 1960s and drag kings of the 1990s. The tour begins at the Public Theater and ends at Village Works bookstore on Saint Marks Place.

Upcoming Dates: 

Saturday, September 21, 3 to 5 p.m.
Sunday, October 6, 3 to 5 p.m.
Sunday, November 17, 3 to 5 p.m.

 

Tours are led by Henry Street’s public historian Katie Vogel, Natalie Hill, Salonee Bhaman, Daniel Walber, erin reid, and Jimmy Fay. The exact starting location will be confirmed via email ahead of your tour date.

Tours are available only to the first 20 registrants. Tickets are $20 each. Five free tickets are available for each tour on a first come, first served basis. If the date and time you’re looking for is not showing up as a ticket option, this means all tickets have been claimed. If you cannot add multiple tickets, that means we have less tickets available than you would like to purchase.

Pay it forward! If you’d like to pay more than the $20 ticket amount, your donation will be used to subsidize free tickets and support Henry Street’s history programming.