BEFORE WE WERE QUEER Art Exhibit

reporter: Miguel Dominguez

Hugh Ryan, founding Director of The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History

The Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art had the opening reception on August 11 of the multimedia community installation "Before We Were Queer", presented by The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History.

When and where queer history has been preserved, it has been kept by the Queer community itself, and Pop-Up seeks to give voice to these small narratives that are so easily lost in the rush to codify a bigger, more linear, capital-H version of our history.

The show explores a wide range of queer history, going as far back as the Song Dynasty in China (960 - 1279 CE), when Guanyin (the Chinese name for the Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva), began to be depicted as both male and female. Exhibit makers for this show come from many countries, including Canada, Colombia, Netherlands, Peru, Tanzania, and the U.S., and range in age from their teens to their sixties

Michael Musto of the Village Voice

Queerness, as a sexual identity, is a modern phenomenon, developed in the early part of the 20th century. It is also something that each queer develops into at their own time and pace. As a history museum, we are interested in what comes before the modern moment.

Jerry Kajpust, LLM's Director of External Affairs, with Hugh and Graham Bridgeman, Development Director at The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History

LLM (The Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art) scheduled a series of events throughout the month of August expounding Queer life and culture before the Stonewall Riots.

Thursday, August 9: Staged reading of the play Waafrika, by Nick Mwaluko

Tuesday, August 14: Staged reading of the play The Marriage Trick, by Riley Macleod

Thursday, August 16: Before I Was Queer: An evening of queer memoir hosted by Kelli Dunham

Saturday, August 18: Queer Archives Chat: A Discussion with Siobhan Somerville about Boutilier v. Immigration Service (1967) and Finding Queer Stories in the National Archive hosted by Professor Rachel Mattson (4 - 6 pm)

Tuesday, August 21st: Queer Music Lessons: On the Joys of Queer Baroque Listening, 1640-1740: An evening of music and conversation, hosted by UCLA Musicology doctoral candidate Jeremy Mikush

Thursday, August 23: Degrees of Separation: A puppet performance about queer separatism, based on oral history interviews, conducted and performed by Yana Walton
Thursday, August 30: Chopin & Sand, an evening length performance piece exploring the relationship of George Sand and Frederick Chopin, put on by Buzz Slutzky and Chris Tyler

Graham Bridgeman has a few words as Hugh looks on

ARTISTS:

Steven Beckly, Al Benkin, Kate Conroy, Jackson Davidow, Brian DeShazor and the Pacifica Radio Archives, Kelli Dunham, Frances Felske, Alixa Garcia, Ro (Rosemary) Garrido, Daniel Rosza Lang/Levitsky, Riley Macleod, Nick Mwaluko , Rachel Mattson & Siobhan Somerville, Jeremy Mikush, Sarah Nakano, Jane Claire Remick, Kyla Schuller & Sam Feder, Xena Stanislavovna Semjonova, Buzz Slutzky & Chris Tyler, Jordi Stals, Marvin Taylor, Yana Walton (with Miriam Uranga & Katie Goldstein), Tony Whitfield, Rich Wilson, Fran Winant (with Flavia Rando)

The event was so successful (overcrowded), the overflow had to spill into the street

To See More Photos of this Event, CLICK HERE