Stonewall and Beyond: Memoirs from the Gay Liberation Front

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Pioneering LGBTQ+ activists share their firsthand accounts of the early days of post-Stonewall activism in 1969–1972 New York City. This special gathering – with live readings, Q&A, and a book sale – offers a rare opportunity to hear LGBTQ+ history directly from the people who helped make it. Gay Liberation Front members, Perry Brass, Mark Horn, Karla Jay, Mark Segal, Martha Shelley, and Allen Young, bring to life the extraordinary period of social upheaval, political activism, and cultural transformation that followed the June 1969 Stonewall Rebellion. Through personal recollections and selections from their published works, these LGBTQ+ pioneers illuminate not only the political struggles of the era but also the friendships, conflicts, creativity, and everyday experiences that shaped the emergence of a new queer consciousness. Following the readings, audience members have an opportunity to ask questions, meet the speakers, enjoy light refreshments, and buy a memoir or two to take home. The setting is particularly significant. The Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center occupies 51 Christopher Street, part of the original Stonewall Inn, where the 1969 rebellion helped ignite a new era of LGBTQ+ activism. This event brings the voices of the liberation movement back to one of the places where that history began.

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