Lincoln Center June Pride events
One of the most iconic locations in New York City is glamming up and rolling out the rainbow carpet for us.
Photos by Chris Lee and Kevin Yatarola
Here are some cool events:
Tuesday, June 21 at 7:30 pm: David Rubenstein Atrium National Queer Theater presents Criminal Queerness Festival
Criminal Queerness Festival: Courage Rebirth by Muleme Steven, directed by Ann C. James
Across the globe, queer playwrights risk censorship, jail time, and physical danger simply by telling their truth. This Pride, you are invited to honor their bravery and witness new plays from East African LGBTQIA+ authors fighting criminalization through their art. Now in its fourth year, National Queer Theater’s Criminal Queerness Festival (CQF) is an international theater festival created in partnership with NYC Pride and the Stonewall Community Foundation. By presenting the work of international queer artists alongside activist talks and workshops, CQF aims to uplift the careers of these artists and raise awareness about criminalization. Ugandan LGBTQIA+ advocate Muleme Steven’s Courage Rebirth follows the story of a gay 21-year-old Somali woman displaced by political unrest.
Wednesday, June 22 at 4:00 pm: “The Oasis”: Josie Robertson Plaza A Tribute to Paradise Garage and Larry Levan with Victor Rosado
Style: Freestyle, Garage Classics, Dance Music
From 1977 to 1987, the nightclub Paradise Garage was the center of the international dance world and a key nexus point of New York LGBTQIA+ culture. Much of the Garage’s fame can be attributed to its longtime resident DJ, the master remixer Larry Levan, who was notorious for his all-night, experiential, and musically diverse explorations into sound. Levan was among the first club DJs to elevate his work into the realm of undeniable art, a tradition continued by his devotee and the final Paradise Garage resident, DJ Victor Rosado. Rosado’s blissful dance floor vibes, genre-blind selections, and obvious passion for the music will be on full display at this loving tribute to the Garage and to the memory of Levan on the thirtieth anniversary of his passing.
Wednesday, June 22 at 7:30 pm: David Rubenstein Atrium National Queer Theater presents Criminal Queerness Festival
Criminal Queerness Festival: Three Short Plays Jonathan Wamukota Opinya, directed by Raz Golden
Across the globe, queer playwrights risk censorship, jail time, and physical danger simply by telling their truth. This Pride, you are invited to witness new plays from East African LGBTQIA+ writers fighting criminalization through their art. Now in its fourth year, National Queer Theater’s Criminal Queerness Festival (CQF) is an international theater festival created in partnership with NYC Pride. By presenting the work of international queer artists alongside activist talks and workshops, CQF aims to uplift the careers of these artists and raise awareness about criminalization. Kenya-based writer Jonathan Opinya highlights the painful intersections of private love and public violence between gay couples in these short works.
Thursday, June 23 at 6:00 pm: “The Oasis”: Josie Robertson Plaza ULTRA PRIDE!! With Ultra Naté, Bright Light Bright Light, and DJ Rissa Garcia
Presented in collaboration with Peace Bisquit
Style: Nu Disco, House Music, Anthemic Pop
Come and see how Lincoln Center does Pride Week at this celebration of timeless 90s club culture! Start the evening with a Burlesque House dance lesson from the outrageous glam choreographers Edie Nightcrawler and The Maine Attraction, scored by DJ Rissa Garcia. Put your new skills to the test with sets from Bright Light Bright Light, whose electro-pop songs are deeply rooted in LGBTQIA+ empowerment and representation, and the iconic singer-songwriter Ultra Naté. Ultra’s venerated platinum classic “Free” turns 25 in 2022 and it still hits just as hard as a post-pandemic anthem as it did back in 1997.
Thursday, June 23 at 7:30 pm: David Rubenstein Atrium Tareke Ortiz
Mexico City-based artist Tareke Ortiz’s transgressive pop-art cabaret-noire springs from a unique life lived fully. Ortiz’s stage dress of curling bull horns sprouting from his temples, “ritual protective makeup,” and gothically rococo clothing provides a darkly camp edge to his soulful, haunting Spanish ballads. His new original work, Lujuria, features songs that draw from Latin musical traditions of bolero, tango, danzón and ranchero and burns with the passionate heat of lost loves past. Ortiz’s political performances invite the audience to join him cruising in graveyards and nighttime markets. He speaks to the forbidden experience of queerness within authoritarian regimes and transitive immigrant worlds where such desires render the lustful invisible, even among the already invisible.
Friday, June 24 at 7:30pm: David Rubenstein Atrium National Queer Theater presents Criminal Queerness Festival
Criminal Queerness Festival: The Survival by Achiro P. Olwoch, directed by Jacob Basri
Across the globe, queer playwrights risk censorship, jail time, and physical danger simply by telling their truth. This Pride, you are invited to witness new plays from East African LGBTQIA+ authors fighting criminalization through their art. Now in its fourth year, National Queer Theater’s Criminal Queerness Festival (CQF) is an international theater festival created in partnership with NYC Pride. By presenting the work of international queer artists alongside activist talks and workshops, CQF aims to uplift the careers of these artists and raise awareness about criminalization. North Ugandan playwright Achiro Olwoch’s daring work explores the taboo of homosexuality and the thin line between culture and modernity in typical African society.
Friday, June 24 at 8:00pm: “The Oasis”: Josie Robertson Plaza Mini Kiki Ball: Know Your History
Presented in collaboration with BAAD!
Bling out your heels and bring on the realness, because it’s time to werk it outdoors! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance transforms Lincoln Center into a ballroom competition where only your fiercest walk can save you from getting chopped. The Mini Kiki Ball honors the skills and style that have made ballroom the cultural force it is today while also honoring and elevating contemporary dancers of the form. Diva Egyptt LaBeija teams up with acclaimed filmmaker Félix Milan to judge a battle between BAAD-approved artists serving their freshest looks on the runway, where one winner from each competitive category will earn their place among ballroom royalty.
