The L.A. Conservancy is hosting an outdoor screening of LGBTQ Historic Places in L.A., a short film series that aims to bring together a diversity of stories, perspectives and experiences that reveal the layered historic and cultural importance of LGBTQ places.
Each of the films showcases a different location — Plummer Park/Great Hall Long Hall in West Hollywood, The Woman’s Building in Chinatown and The Black Cat in Silver Lake — all which have strong ties to LGBTQ civil rights history.
The screening will take place on March 16, at The Viaduct at Los Angeles State Historic Park under the historic North Broadway Bridge. Immediately following the screening, a panel of L.A.-based LGBTQ rights activists will participate in a conversation about their experiences in L.os Angeles and the importance of preserving LGBTQ historic places.
Nathan Masters, host and producer of Lost LA on KCET, will introduce the event. The panelists are:
— Cheri Gaulke, an artist, educator, and activist who moved to Los Angeles in 1975 to be involved with the Feminist Studio Workshop at The Woman’s Building. She worked primarily in performance art from 1974-1992, addressing themes such as the body, religion, sexual identity, and the environment. In addition to her solo work, she co-founded collaborative performance groups Feminist Art Workers (1976-81) and Sisters of Survival (1981-85). Gaulke’s public art includes a Metro station and a Filipino WWII Veterans Memorial. Her artists’ books are in university and museum collections nationwide, and her videos have been screened in film festivals internationally.
— Wes Joe, a native of Los Angeles and a longtime resident of the Silver Lake neighborhood. His initial foray into historic preservation was the designation of The Black Cat as an L.A. Historic-Cultural Monument in 2008. Joe helped spearhead the 2012 dedication of the Mattachine Steps in Silver Lake and contributed to the City of Los Angeles’ LGBT Historic Context Statement, published in 2014.
— Ashley Love , a journalist and media advocate who has written for or been interviewed by the Advocate, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, Windy City Times, the Washington Blade, BBC, BET, and NPR about feminist, transsexual and social justice issues. Love has hosted and co-wrote MTV/Logo’s edu-tainment series “LGB to the T, wrote “Trans Forming Media” and organized Black Trans* Women’s Lives Matter.
Registration for the event is $5, and proceeds will be used to support the Conservancy’s LGBTQ film project. More information and registration is available online laconservancy.org/events/lgbtq-historic-places-la.
