The New York Public Library Celebrates Pride Month with a Collections Display, New Book Lists, and More Resources Highlighting LGBTQ+ voices

May 31, 2022 —  The New York Public Library is commemorating Pride Month throughout June with a slate of in-person programming, brand new book lists celebrating LGBTQ+ fiction and nonfiction, and historical collections that amplify LGBTQ+ voices, history, and experiences. 

Programming highlights include:

• 6/3 | 6:30 PM → NYPL Anti-Prom 2022: Sweet Dreams: Following a brief hiatus due to the pandemic, the Library welcomes the return of Anti-Prom, the annual event for teens celebrating personal expression. Created in 2004, the program is open to young adults ages 12–18 and offers an inclusive, safe space for attendees to embrace their sexuality, gender identity, culture, and style of dress. Held at the iconic 42nd Street Library, Anti-Prom will feature music, dancing, and reverie, followed by a fashion show featuring dream-themed creations from teen fashion designers from the High School of Fashion Industries.
• 6/23 | 6:30 PM → Writing and Living Through AIDS: America’s oldest AIDS organization, Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), was founded in 1982 in response to government inaction against a disease that was ravaging the gay and bisexual communities at the time. The Library holds the records of GMHC and will mark the organization’s 40th anniversary with a cross-generational panel of writers—some who grew up during the crisis, others who have never known a world without AIDS—to reflect on its ongoing legacy in their lives and work. NBC book critic Bill Goldstein will moderate the panel which includes Garth Greenwell, Robert Jones, Jr., Torrey Peters, and Pamela Sneed.
• 6/24 | 12 PM → Pride & Privacy: Queer Visibility in Library Collections: For people in LGBTQ+ communities, being seen can sometimes be dangerous; visibilty has been a crucial aspect of achieving equal rights and fighting discrimination, even though LGBTQ+ civil rights have been based on the right to privacy. The Library will commemorate and celebrate these themes with a one-day-only collections open house event. On view will be a selection of remarkable materials from the Library’s research collections that show examples—some heroic, some hedonistic, some harrowing—of queer visibility throughout history. Curators and librarians will be on hand to answer questions.

Branches across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island (the boroughs served by The New York Public Library) will host in-person and virtual programs for adults, kids, and teens. Information about these events can be found at https://www.nypl.org/events/pride

Readers can also explore previous lists curated by librarians that help guide, inform, and inspire New Yorkers about the LGBTQ+ experience, including:

• New LGBTQ Nonfiction for Pride 2022
• New LGBTQ Fiction for Pride 2022
• Staff Picks: Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender Nonconforming Reads
• Libros infantiles y juveniles: voces transgénero, no binarias y de género disconforme
• Early Literacy Recommendations
• Stonewall and the History of LGBTQ Activism
• Classic Memoirs
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books with LGBT+ Characters
• Historical Fiction, 20 Years Before Stonewall
• LGBTQ+ Manga

Patrons interested in learning more about the perspectives of LGBTQ+ people and their struggle for civil rights can access the Library’s extensive collections both virtually through its Digital Collections and in person. The valuable archival material in the Library’s archives document such important moments in LGBTQ+ history as the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Additional online resources include: 

• Stonewall 50 Research Guide
• Black LGBTQ Studies Research Guide
• Archives of Sexuality and Gender
• Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs
• Photographs by Diana Davies
• Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers by Robert Giard

NYC's House and Ballroom scene has been a cornerstone of Black LGBTQ culture for decades, and this year, several legendary houses are celebrating milestone founding anniversaries. Constantly resurging in popularity and acclaim, LGBTQ ballroom competitions started in the 1960s as a safe haven and form of expression for Black and Latino young people. Competitions are not just arts-based but transcending in identity, acting as a fearless response to systemic and intersectional discrimination against Black and brown LGBTQ people. Many participants in ball culture belong to chosen families known as "Houses." Below are resources in the Schomburg Center Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division chronicling the beautiful, diverse, and revolutionary history of the house and ballroom scene and its foundational impact on LGBTQ culture.

•  And the category is... : inside New York's vogue, house, and ballroom community / Ricky Tucker.
• Do you remember house? : Chicago's queer of color undergrounds / Micah E. Salkind.
• Butch queens up in pumps : gender, performance, and ballroom culture in Detroit / Marlon
•  Voguing and the house ballroom scene of New York City 1989-92 
•  Legendary : inside the house ballroom scene / photographs by Gerard H. Gaskin

About The New York Public Library

For more than 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With 92 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming, and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library receives approximately 16 million visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.