After a great run in the Stokes Gallery at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the 1969: The Year of Gay Liberation exhibition is now available online.  The online exhibition includes selected images from the show, a complete checklist of the items that were on view, the full-text of the panels, and suggested reading. In addition, there is a panel version of the exhibition that will be traveling in the Library’s sites throughout the year.  You can see a preview of the panel exhibition online, and keep of with the exhibition schedule. The current schedule is as follows:

July 22–August 8: Grand Central Library

September 2–19: Hamilton Fish Library

September 23–October 10: Mulberry Street Library

October 14–31: 125th Street Library

November 4–21: Kips Bay Library

Interested in bringing this traveling version of 1969: The Year of Gay Liberation to your local library, school, hospital, organization, or other venues? Contact Susan Rabbiner, NYPL’s Assistant Director for Exhibitions, @ 212-930-0757 or srabbiner@nypl.org.

 Above: Gay Activist Alliance flyer from 1970.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the Library is running an exhibition, “1969: The Year of Gay Liberation.” The free show, which runs from June 1 through June 30, is in the Third Floor North Hall of the Stephen A. Scharzman Building at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street. Just look for the chartreuse walls and authentically funky typefonts and colors of that tumultuous year. As curator Jason Baumann notes in an introduction to the exhibit, gay activism was taking place alongside struggles for African-American civil rights, the women’s momvent, protests against the Vietnam War, and the growing hippie subculture. The exhibition follows the developing vision of a gay movement from the riots to the First LGBT Pride March–Christopher Street Liberation Day 1970–held to commemorate the one year anniversary of Stonewall.

Each section displays fascinating artifacts from groups that pre-dated Stonewall (the Mattachine Society, the Daughters of Bilitis) or grew out of it (the Gay Liberation Front, Radicalesbians, Street Tranesvestites Action Revolutionaries). The exhibition shows how the next wave of LGBT activism–including groups like ACT-UP–developed from these beginnings. The displays feature period photographs, examples of the early gay press, mimeographed bulletins, letters and other documents–all of which provide a vivid visual feel for that amazing year.

The exhibition draws exclusively on the Library’s rich LGBT holdings, particularly the archives of the International Gay Information Center (IGIC) which was donated to the library in 1988, as well as other materials from the Manuscripts and Archives collection.

Admission is free, and the exhibit is open Monday, Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Tuesday-Wednesday 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m.

The exhibition has received wonderful reviews, including from the New York Times and the Advocate.

There is currently an amazing photography exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Louis B. Cullman Center. Focus on the 70s: The Fabulous Photography of Kenn Duncan presents 400 photographs from across Duncan’s career. Kenn Duncan—who was a champion roller-skater and professional dancer before picking up the camera—worked predominantly for Dance Magazine and After Dark, which had a prominent following in the 1970s gay community. Duncan, who died in 1986, photographed a wide range of 1970s celebrities—and unknowns—in dance, theatre, and film. His subjects included: Warhol drag superstar Candy Darling; divas like Bette Midler, Eartha Kitt, and Twiggy; LGBT performers like Sal Mineo, Lily Tomlin (pictured above), Harvey Fierstein, and Ian McKellan; masculine icons like Joe Dallesandro, Brad Davis, and Joe Namath; as well as cast shots for shows from Hair to The Wiz to Oh! Calcutta!

In the words of the exhibition’s curator, Robert Taylor “Ken Duncan’s camera captured the decade of the carefree 70s. It’s been said that if you remember the 70s, then you weren’t really there and, yes, the decadence did seem pervasive. But through Kenn Duncan’s lens, everything was beautiful.” This is what grabbed me seeing the show—everyone is just so gorgeous and real. In a strange way the work is reminiscent of Andy Warhol in its insistence that anyone can be a superstar.

On September 25th at 6pm Patrick Pacheco will give a talk and slide show “Before Out was In: Life After Dark with Arnold, Bette, the Baths, and the Boys.” Pacheco, who was a writer for After Dark, will remind us of the gay milieu that Duncan moved through and recorded.

More of Duncan’s work can be seen in his published collections Red Shoes, Nudes, More Nudes, and DIVAS! The Fabulous Photography of Kenn Duncan, which is forthcoming from Rizzoli in October.