As the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States, the Whitney Museum of American Art presents the full range of 20th-century and contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living artists. The Whitney is dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and exhibiting American art, and its collection-arguably the finest holding of 20th-century American art in the world-is the Museum's key resource. The Museum's signature exhibition, the Biennial, is the country's leading survey of the most recent developments in American art.
My good friend Will Kohler grew up in NY in the 70s/80s and used to talk about the Christopher Street pier all the time. I am glad this segment of history is being preserved. Continue to RIP Will🌈💔
I really can't stand the way folks totally rewrite the history of the Stonewall Riots to make it entirely the efforts of Rivera and Johnson. That is complete bullshit revisionist history and anyone there, including Rivera and Johnson themselves when they were alive, will tell you it's bullshit. It takes a queer community, then as now, to make a queer revolution. Everyone was pissed, not just Rivera and Johnson. Folks still dispute who threw the first bottle. Some say Stormy started the riots when she said to the crowd of onlookers "What are you doing to DO about it?" This obsessive focus on praising these two individuals at the expense of building an actual movement of queers to win liberation needs to end (cuz we still ain't liberated, kids; the democrats prefer to commit genocide in Gaza and provoke World War III in Ukraine rather than codify Trump nominee Gorsuch's 2020 ruling that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act also covers claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the most RADICAL victory for queer working people since the Stonewall Riots). The many many folks who picked up the baton and built the first radical queer organizations, including the protest in support of women prisoners (including Assata Shakur) just a month later, deserve credit for making Stonewall a thing to remember. Stonewall wasn't the firs riot and it wouldn't be the last. So do the many straight folks, including straight black men from Harlem, who heard that people were fighting the cops and wanted to help.
Never lived in NYC, but I knew about the piers through friends and boyfriends who had experienced the area. This installation is evocative and compelling and like what was said here, will hopefully spur the curious to learn more about queer history.
I’m 58 my grandaughter is Bi Sexual , and one of my grandsons is gay , although he hasnt said anything to anyone . I’m horrified to think parents could throw there kids out for being gay , I’ve seen documentaries about parents not accepting there sons ashes as he was gay and died of AIDS , omg first and foremost in life , a Woman is a mother , we love out children unconditionally . No matter what sexual preferences they have , I do understand that in the 80s when aids came out parents were ashamed and embarrassed , even the men dying of aids some themselves were shamed into hiding there health , if you’re neighbours will hate you for having a gay son , move houses , the neighbour isnt that good of a friend if they hate you’re gay son or daughter , im disabled and riddled with arthritis , but I’m at the front on Pride Day on my mobility scooter , which my husband and grandaughter put these big stickers on so my scooter is pride colours , and my massive Tshirt saying I’m. Proud Grandmother of gay grandchildren , I was born 1966 so in the early 80s I was a teenager and didn’t understand it all , but I’m telling you , if it happened now , I’d be first at the hospital door , giving these people food , water there medications, bed baths the lot , not one gay man will suffer on my watch , they lay in there beds while nurses wouldn’t touch them , pass there food to them , they just needed a hand to hold , a person to hug , F--K AIDS . I’m a hugger and hand shaker , and I’d be making those people feel loved , Kudos to those wards that opened in hospitals especially for aids patients to help them , my heart bleeds to think thousands of men died alone because people wouldn’t help them . 😢😢😢
actually they weren't there that night at stonewall.. we already saw that on another documentary tho... Marsha wasn't even on that side of town at the time,.
I'm shocked at the rewriting and romanticisation of the 1960s through the 1980s, to cast aside the words and actions of our elders. It's not healthy to do this and to view everything through a 2020s lens - especially was the people that were there are still alive. The only people whose voices matter are those that experienced it.
Now that rampant gay sex at the piers is over, "respectable" institutions like The Whitney can celebrate it. If polite society really wanted to celebrate this gem of our history, they'd make space for what went down at the piers back in the day along today's waterfont.
"I'm able to see the temples within which they built the divinity of queer identity" Huh? The piers were where horny gay men went to have sex. There was no political or social agenda at the time on the piers. The piers were a convenient and ignored place on the fringes of the city where men (both gay and "straight") could have anonymous sex.
I was 19 in 1981, newly arrived in the Village. I knew the piers were a hotbed of activity - but because it was so dark and scary, I was terrified of venturing over there. So, I never did go. Never got further than the West Side Highway. Kind of regret it now.
Gay nyc have no sense of what it was like to live in that community. AIDS and Reaganomics greed destroyed that era. Chelsea and then Hell's Kitchen are very poor examples of gay communities. Now the neighborhood is the internet. From the dark rooms of touch but don't see it is now screen see but dont touch. So it goes..
Great presentation! Thanks to the presenters, and thanks to the Whitney museum for exhibiting Harold Cohen's work. I worked for Harold as a young man building a robotic arm with Harold's goal to transition from b&w plotter output to full color painting output.
It’s like a curse really everywhere there is even a small resemblance of life and something interesting happening immediately the zombie breeders come and spoil the fun.
This video made me very nostalgic and sentimental. I grew up in NY and was introduced to the piers in the late 70s and early 80s. The piers were a place to relax, to breathe, to enjoy a space that was not encumbered by societies 'dont's'. To hear the music, see and talk to like-minded people, to feel the sun on your skin - or just to gaze at the water and clear your mind. It was glorious!!
True! but sadly it was the AIDS crisis of the early 1980's that speed fasted the demise of the piers and these fun places around the waterfront in Greenwich Village. Authorities and lots of homophobic people started using the AIDS crisis as an excuse to close down gay businesses like bars and bath houses too back then.
Kudos , I never knew about the pier until now. Thank heaven for the times that were had by all and sundry being themselves without retribution. An eye opener ; Dang. 🐨❤DD.
I went to the piers with my brother, must have been the early 80s. Both of us gay. He said something like “You can see all kinds of people here,” and I said, “Like a man in heels with no arms?” Because indeed there was a very tall, slim young man with long blond hair and no arms, wearing short shorts, a bikini top and high platforms, stepping over the concrete berm that was supposed to block off the pier. He was lovely. Maybe he’s reading this. Maybe someone reading this knows him.
@@tula1433Consider getting out more and experience life and others. You'll meet an incredible amount of wonderful people that can teach you about yourself.
I came out in 1968 and thee next year my parents sold our home on Long Island; they were done with living in the states. I wasn't ready to leave with them at the time when I was wide-eyed at new possibilties so i moved to the village and sofa surfed in the East Village. That's when I met Sylvia & Marsha. Talk about protective and caring, and in Sylvia - anger at all the injustices. Now, over half a century later I still remember what she said one night after trying to make some solidarity with Matachine and other groups: "At the end of all this, it's the street and trans communities that are going to take the hits from everybody else."
infuriating.i was there - a gay kid meeting wanting loving. youve given my history in this vid entirely to the trans kids - certainly a small percentage of us - because its fashionable. entirely skewing our history.
No one is skewing anything. They discussed the prevalence of gay men at the piers many times. They showed dozens of pictures that proved as much. But what’s also wrong with giving a bit more focus on the most marginalized group of people within an already marginalized community? I’m a gay man and I didn’t feel that way at all and saw gay history fully emblazoned all over the beginning of this video. It naturally turned to highlighting trans women of color because, wait for it, they were also there and it’s also their history. That shouldn’t be soemthing that infuriates you.
I used to go to the Morton Street Pier in its heyday. The buildings at one time were owned by the Erie Lackawanna Railroad so the joke about the area was, "It's kind of eerie and a lot go ona." LOL
Important to know the history. Even us stodgy old straight folks should do a little reading and educate ourselves on the hows, whys, whens and wheres of LGBTQ history. Some real heros in the tale. May they rest in fabulous and peaceful perfection.
Now everything has been sterilized, sanitized, deodorized, plasticized, lobotomized, supervised, white washed, paved over, fenced in, locked out. God forbid there be a square inch of free, wild open space in NYC.
This is so badly mis-titled. It is about SO much more than just ballet. It is one of the most, perhaps THE most quintessential interviews online Fran has done. I know because I have seen every single one….😳❤️
