In a time when students and museum professionals are questioning the structures and even the founding principles of older museums and cultural institutions, this program looks at the more recent creation of the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York City. Featuring Ben Garcia, the Museum’s Executive Director and Suhaly Bautista-Carolina, Director of Public Programs & Partnership.

During the Holocaust, homosexual men imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps were required to wear inverted pink triangle badges on their uniforms, a symbol that was later reclaimed as an emblem of Gay Pride. Join Dr. Jake Newsome, Scholar and Author of Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust, and Dr. Kerry Whigham, Assistant Professor of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University and Co-Director of its Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, for a conversation about “BENT,” the 1979 play subsequently adapted for the big screen, which explores the persecution of Queer men in Nazi Germany, during and after the Night of Long Knives in 1934.

Join Dr. Alexander Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention at Rutgers University, for a discussion about how the rise of political extremism and hate speech contributes to a growing atmosphere of insecurity and dehumanization in our society. Dr. Hinton will also reflect upon how the plays, “Julio Ain’t Goin Down Like That” and “Letters from Anne and Martin,” as well as the film, “BENT,” use performance to come to terms with antisemitism, transphobia, and racism.

This open info session is for anyone interested in applying to be a 2024-2025 Social Practice CUNY Actionist. Actionists are CUNY graduate students with a serious art practice, usually from MFA programs, who are working to develop an independent project at the intersection of art and social justice. The info session will be recorded and made available for those who are unable to attend. RSVP required. You can also RSVP to receive the recording.