Image: Buttons from The LGBT Community Center National History Archive
Y’all Better Quiet Down
June 14 – September 15, 2019
Opening reception on Friday, June 14, 2019, 6-9 PM
Companion exhibition at
Leslie-Lohman Museum
June 6 – July 21, 2019
Curated by Nelson Santos and Jeanne Vaccaro
Download Press Release
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is proud to present Y’all Better Quiet Down, a group exhibition of art and ephemera in response to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. A companion exhibition will take place at the Leslie-Lohman Museum. Both exhibitions are curated by Nelson Santos and Jeanne Vaccaro.
Y’all Better Quiet Down takes its title from a 1973 speech made by trans activist Sylvia Rivera at the Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally in Washington Square Park. Responding to an anti-trans statement by lesbian feminist Jean O’Leary, Rivera tells the crowd she’s been beaten and thrown in jail for gay liberation. Amidst a chorus of boos, she implores her “gay brothers and gay sisters” to understand gay liberation as an intersectional struggle for racial justice, gender self-determination, prison abolition, and housing, employment, and economic equality.
On the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, Y’all Better Quiet Down recalls Rivera’s impassioned demand to show up and commit to the collective struggle. What showing up looks like takes many forms—rage, protest, care, community and introspection. This exhibition presents contemporary works, protest banners, archival ephemera, and stories from the New York City Trans Oral History Project, Y’all Better Quiet Down centers the everyday and enduring legacies of liberation movements.
Artists include Brogan Bertie, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Luis Carle, Sebastián Castro Niculescu, LJ Roberts, Tourmaline & Sasha Wortzel, Tuesday Smillie, and Chris Vargas; and ephemera from The LGBT Community Center National History Archive, Leslie-Lohman Museum Collection, WRRQ Collective, and the NYC Trans Oral History Project.
Y’all Better Quiet Down will be presented at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division from June 14-September 15, 2019; and the Leslie-Lohman Museum from June 6 -July 21, 2019.
The exhibition will include two events at the Bureau:
- a performance by Sebastián Castro Niculescu, titled Tired Selena, on Wednesday, June 26, 7 to 9 PM
- an intergenerational lesbian all-star poetry reading by Belladonna* Collaborative inspired by the NYC Lesbian Switchboard, on Friday, July 12, 7 PM
More information about these events will be announced soon. Please check the Bureau’s events calendar (bgsqd.com/events) to see our upcoming events.
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Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
@The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street, Room 210
NY, NY 10011
Hours: Tuesdays-Sundays, 1-7 PM
Closed Mondays
Summer Hours: (July & August): Wednesdays-Saturdays, 1-7 PM
Closed Sundays, Mondays, & Tuesdays
The Leslie-Lohman Museum is the only dedicated art museum in the world to exhibit and preserve artwork that speaks about the LGBTQ experience. Our roots trace back to 1969 when Charles Leslie and Fritz Lohman held an exhibit of gay artists for the first time in their SoHo loft. Throughout the 1970s, they continued to collect and exhibit gay artists while supporting the SoHo art community. During the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s, the collection continued to grow as they rescued the work of dying artists from families who, out of shame or ignorance, wanted to destroy it. This led to the formation of the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation in 1987. In recognition of its importance in the collection and preservation of LGBTQ history, the organization was accredited as a museum in 2016. With a collection of over 30,000 objects, the Museum hosts six major exhibitions annually, offers several public programs throughout the year, publishes an arts newsletter, and maintains a research library of over 3,000 volumes.
Leslie-Lohman Museum
26 Wooster Street
NY, NY 10013
Admission is free with a suggested donation of $9
Hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 12-6 PM, and Thursday, 12-8 PM
Website: leslielohman.org
Email: info@Leslielohman.org
Phone: 212-431-2609
