What did it feel like to be there?: 12 Portraits from The Addresses Project presents a selection of twelve portraits by photographer Riya Lerner, selected from a larger multi-disciplinary project entitled the Addresses Project created by Gwen Shockey with Riya Lerner featuring lesbian and queer individuals who have dedicated their lives to creating and holding space in New York City from the 1950s to today. The individuals included in the series represent a diverse network of community builders engaged with social and political organizing, mental health advocacy, nightlife, music, journalism, visual art, literature, poetry, performance, research, safer sex and kink practices. Each portrait includes a photograph taken in a significant location for the sitter, along with segments from their oral history interview and selected ephemera from their life and work.

The 12 individuals featured are:  Grace Moon (founder of Velvetpark: Dyke Culture in Bloom), Lisa Cannistraci (owner of Henrietta Hudson), Lisa Menichino (owner of the Cubbyhole), Michela Griffo (artist and activist), Lisa Davis (author and historian), Red Robinson (sex educator and founder of Submit party), Cassandra Grant (founding member of Salsa Soul Sisters), Imani Rashid (founding member of Salsa Soul Sisters), Kay Turner (artist, musician, historian and folklorist), Lee Zevy (therapist and founding member of Identity House), Sharee Nash and Wanda Acosta (founders of Sundays at Café Tabac party). 

This iteration of the exhibition will include vinyl wallpaper designed by Gwen Shockey from scanned lesbian and queer party and bar flyers from the mid-1900s through the early 2000s. Also featured will be an immersive resource area with books about queer and lesbian gathering and history that were integral to the creation of the Addresses Map and Project.

About the Addresses Project

The Addresses Project founded by artist Gwen Shockey, investigates lesbian and queer space and memory in New York City from the early 1900s to the present day through map-making, oral history interviews, ephemera and portraiture. The purpose of this project is to explore the history of the Gay Rights Movement (and its intersections with Civil Rights and Women’s Rights), shifts in identity building (and shedding) and the sociopolitical conditions of New York City from a lesbian and queer perspective. The mission of the Addresses Project is to offer lesbian and queer-identified individuals a multi-disciplinary platform through which to access a place-based heritage as well as intergenerational community building.   https://addressesproject.com/about