BGSQDBureau of General Services—Queer Division
BGSQD
In Queer Moderns, Alice T. Friedman tells the fascinating story of the queer avant-garde of the 1920s and ’30s in New York, Paris, and Venice, as seen through the eyes of Max Ewing (1903–1934), a young musician, photographer, and man-about-town who, although virtually unknown today, moved in extraordinary circles. In his photographs and letters, we meet the rising stars of modern art, music, dance, and literature and enter a world of interracial friendship, “queer space,” and experimentation that shone brightly before being swept away by the Depression. It is a remarkable story that reveals that the history of modernism is more queer and more Black than previously recognized.
Author Alice T. Friedman will be joined in conversation by Vanderbilt University Professor Kevin D. Murphy.
To reserve a copy of Queer Moderns: Max Ewing’s Jazz Age New York (Princeton University Press, May 27, 2025, hardcover, $49.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Queer Moderns for May 29 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Alice T. Friedman is an architectural historian who has written numerous articles and books about gender, sexuality, and queer space, including Women and the Making of the Modern House (1998), American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture (2010), and Queer Moderns: Max Ewing’s Jazz Age New York (2025). In 2023, she retired from teaching at Wellesley College, where she was the Grace Slack McNeil Professor of Art and a founding director of the Architecture Program. Friedman’s current project is a book of essays entitled Poker Faces which examines queer domesticities and modern designs for non-conforming households.
Kevin Murphy is Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities, and Professor and Chair in the Dept. of History of Art and Architecture at Vanderbilt University. He was previously Executive Officer of the Ph.D, Program in Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center. Prof. Murphy has published on queer artists and queer space in the Art Bulletin and elsewhere.