From Whitman to Wigstock— LGBTQ writers and artists Greenwich Village tour

Professor Andrew Lear is a world-renowned expert on sexuality in art and the author of the best-known book on sexuality in Greek vase-painting.  He is the founder of Oscar Wilde Tours, the gay history tour company, and Shady Ladies Tours, the woman's history tour company.

Andrew Lear

Learn about Greenwich Village's role as a hotbed for LGBTQ literature and arts, from the mid-19th century until the 1980s

Where did Walt Whitman hang out with other writers? Where did James Baldwin write Another Country? Where did Gore Vidal pick up Jack Kerouac? Where did Rita Mae Brown do her PhD? Where did Harvey Fierstein workshop Torchsong Trilogy? You guessed it. In that section (vaguely defined) of Manhattan called Greenwich Village. Greenwich Village has a long history as America's first gayborhood, dating to at least the beginning of the 20th century. And it has an even longer history as America's first and main Bohemian neighborhood—sort of a large, urban artists' colony. This started in the mid-19th century, when artists like Winslow Homer, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman lived, created, and socialized in the Village. And it lasted a long time: it is in the Village that many trends, movements and artistic institutions started and flourished, among others Off-Broadway theater, the Beats, Off-off Broadway theater, Pop Art, the Factory, and Wigstock. And as so often with the arts, there was a huge overlap between the LGBTQ Village and the Bohemian Village. Just to name a few, LGBTQ Villagers included: Walt Whitman, Hart Crane, Edna St. Vincent Millay, W. H. Auden, Frank O'Hara, Allen Ginsberg, and Audre Lorde; Arthur Laurents, Edward Albee, Lanford Wilson, Charles Busch and Harvey Fierstein; Herman Melville, Henry James, Djuna Barnes, Willa Cather, James Baldwin, William S. Burroughs, Rita Mae Brown, Larry Kramer and Edmund White; Paul Cadmus, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat; Berenice Abbott and Robert Mapplethorpe; Merce Cunningham and John Cage; Lou Reed and the Village People: and Quentin Crisp.So come on this fascinating and entertaining 75 minute Zoom (including Q&A), and let Professor Andrew Lear of Oscar Wilde Tours show you where America's LGBTQ artists, writers, performers lived, worked, and played in the Village's years as America's great LGBTQ artists' colony.When will the Zoom invite come?The Zoom invite will be sent to your email 24 hrs before the event, followed by subsequent reminder emails that will include the Zoom link. Please check your spam and social folders if you do not see it in your inbox. If you do not receive a Zoom invitation by 1hr before the event please get in contact with us. And please sign on a few minutes early, to make sure that the link works for you. We will be unavailable to help once the tour starts.What time zone is the event scheduled in?The event is scheduled for 2pm Eastern Daylight Time (i.e. New York time). You can watch it in any time zone but please adjust to the time zone you are in.Will the event be recorded and available to view later?Yes the event will be recorded, please get in touch with us on an individual basis.

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