Opening Reception for “What did it feel like to be there?: 12 Portraits from the Addresses Project”
What did it feel like to be there?: 12 Portraits from the Addresses Project
Featuring lesbian and queer individuals who have dedicated their lives to creating and holding space in New York City
Created by Artists Gwen Shockey and Riya Lerner
On view from
March 29, 2024 – June 30, 2024
City Lore Gallery
Opening Reception: March 29, 2024, 6 PM – 8 PM
RSVP: CityloreandAddressesProject.eventbrite.com
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. Framing and printing of portrait materials made possible by The Center’s Queer Womxn’s Series funded by Amy Ellis and Trudy Sanders Reece.
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
Artist and project founder, Gwen Shockey had this to say, “So many of the bars, community centers and sites of queer and lesbian activism that are listed in The Addresses Project were (and still are) located in the East Village. It is a dream to bring this exhibition to City Lore Gallery mere blocks away from the former locations of Meow Mix, Bluestockings, The Pink Pony and more. As Lisa Davis (featured in our exhibition) would say: the East Village belonged to the girls honey.”
“The individuals, places, organizations, and events highlighted in this exhibition are community pioneers and community anchors, including our very own beloved board member–folklorist, scholar, and rockstar Dr. Kay Turner! People, place, memory, and creativity—the foundations of City Lore’s work—are the heart, soul, and fabric of this show, and resonate deeply with our core mission,” shared Molly Garfinkel, City Lore Co-Director. She went on to say, “We are so honored to host the stunning portraits, powerful oral histories, and distinctive ephemera that Gwen and Riya have included in What did it feel like to be there?: 12 Portraits from The Addresses Project, and to help amplify and celebrate the voices and contributions of trailblazers whose community organizing, advocacy, and vision have built networks, resources, and places that matter for current and future generations.”
About the Creators – Artists Gwen Shockey and Riya Lerner
Gwen Shockey is a Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary artist, activist and educator. She teaches drawing and
painting and directs the Anne Reid ‘72 Gallery at Princeton Day School in New Jersey. She was a recipient of
the 2018–2019 Leslie-Lohman Museum Queer Art Fellowship and was a consultant for the Stonewall 50
exhibition Letting Loose and Fighting Back: LGBTQ Nightlife Before and After Stonewall at the New-York
Historical Society. She is the founder of the Addresses Project, conducting the oral histories and creating the
project map. For more information: www.gwenshockey.com
Riya Lerner is a Brooklyn-based photographer and artist currently pursuing her Master of Social Work (2024)
from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service. Before attending Fordham, she accumulated
over a decade of experience working in museums as a public art curator, focusing on the intersection between
art, identity, and social justice. Both her work as an artist and her impending role as a therapist are grounded in
underlying principles of empathy, observation, interpretation, and connection. Lerner’s fascination with identity
and experiences in the construction of individuals’ narratives plays a significant role in all her works. She is a
collaborating artist on the Addresses Project, creating portraits of the featured participants.