In the 1950s, the Fire Island hamlet was a refuge for gay men and lbians. Dozens of enlarged photos om the era are now on view outsi the New-York Historil Society.
Contents:
- BEFORE STONEWALL, CHERRY GROVE: HOW A BEACH TOWN BEME A GAY 'SAFE HAVEN'
- CHERRY GROVE, WHERE GAY NEW YORKERS BEME ‘THEIR REAL SELV’
- SAFE/HAVEN: GAY LIFE 1950S CHERRY GROVE
- SWEET ESPE: PHOTOGRAPHS OF FIRE ISLAND’S CHERRY GROVE SHOW ITS HISTORY AS A GAY SANCTUARY
- THE VERY GAY HISTORY OF FIRE ISLAND
- SAFE/HAVEN: GAY LIFE 1950S CHERRY GROVE
BEFORE STONEWALL, CHERRY GROVE: HOW A BEACH TOWN BEME A GAY 'SAFE HAVEN'
* cherry grove gay history *
A few away, was said to be a welg muny of gay people. Hartmann walked down, and what she saw is on display at a new exhib at the New-York Historil Society, as well as chronicled the 1993 book “Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years Ameri's First Gay and Lbian Town” by Esther Newton. Hartmann, now 90, was terviewed for the exhib, “Safe/Haven: Gay Life 1950s Cherry Grove, ” which opens Friday at the New-York Historil Society, on Manhattan's Upper Wt Si.
CHERRY GROVE, WHERE GAY NEW YORKERS BEME ‘THEIR REAL SELV’
Wele to Cherry Grove! In the years before the Stonewall Uprisg, this seclud beach enclave on Fire Island was a rpe for gay men and women. Explore this fascatg and fotten history wh nearly 70 photographs om the 1950s, urty of the Cherry Grove Archiv Collectn. * cherry grove gay history *
And I’m gay. Hot Hoe, Grove Archiv CollectnCherry Grove was one of the first gay beach towns the Uned Stat, jog a handful of LGBTQ vatn spots and rorts that beme popular the pre-Stonewall era, along wh plac like Provcetown, Massachetts, and Sgatuck-Douglas, Michigan.
In Cherry Grove, gay rints were able to form a muny, have a voice how thgs were n and be out. Cherry Grove Archiv CollectnCherry Grove was different om the cy, where the gay bars were n by the mob, acrdg to Sargent, who scribed the urban waterg hol as “dark and seedy clubs” where “you always had to be reful that the lights would e on, ” signalg a police raid.
SAFE/HAVEN: GAY LIFE 1950S CHERRY GROVE
How did one summer settlement Fire Island bee a 'safe haven' for gay men and lbians s before the uprisg at Stonewall Inn? * cherry grove gay history *
” Cherry Grove ntued to evolve after the 1950s, movg om a sanctuary for mostly whe and affluent gay men and women to a more clive place wh the advent of the 1960s, as the civil rights movement gaed tractn and more mercial real tate the area led to affordable hog optns for greater swaths of the muny.
"Cherry Grove Archiv CollectnPart of the missn behd “Safe/Haven: Gay Life 1950s Cherry Grove” is to create an archive where there has been none.
SWEET ESPE: PHOTOGRAPHS OF FIRE ISLAND’S CHERRY GROVE SHOW ITS HISTORY AS A GAY SANCTUARY
“It's gettg that material out there for people to see and to rewre our history a way that has been very blank bee we tend to thk that gay life started at Stonewall. … People have a look at gay history before Stonewall. ” Today, Cherry Grove remas a beloved summer statn for LGBTQ beachgoers, particularly lbians, as has the adjog muny of the Fire Island P, which has tradnally tered to gay men.
THE VERY GAY HISTORY OF FIRE ISLAND
Art & Dign|Cherry Grove, Where Gay New Yorkers Beme ‘Their Real Selv’ ADVERTISEMENTCherry Grove, Where Gay New Yorkers Beme ‘Their Real Selv’In the 1950s, the Fire Island hamlet was a refuge for gay men and lbians. Muny took shape among New Yorkers on a remote Fire Island hamlet known as Cherry, visors spent summer weekends sunbathg and partyg, formg one of the untry’s first gay beach towns when beg openly gay uld rult ostracism or imprisonment.
The imag “Safe/Haven: Gay Life 1950s Cherry Grove” e om the Cherry Grove Archiv Collectn, a volunteer anizatn formed 2011, about 40 years after the muny archivist Harold Seeley began assemblg Historil Society; Glenn Grove Archiv CollectnSome of the photographs show the quotidian ease and enjoyment that me wh exprsg outlawed sexualy a safe space: In one, a pair of men kiss at a hoe party; another, two women s close together on the beach. Still, gay men and lbians flocked there each summer, cludg the wrers Tennsee Williams, Patricia Highsmh and Tman Capote. The photographer Richard Avedon and his wife were also the photographers behd the imag rema mostly unknown, many were likely the gay whe men who first began to filtrate the island the late 1940s and 1950s, followed by lbians.
SAFE/HAVEN: GAY LIFE 1950S CHERRY GROVE
Acceptance — and the joy characteristic of the place — foretold the flourishg of gay and lbian life New York Cy and beyond, she said.
” Kravz/Cherry Grove Archiv CollectnA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn C, Page 13 of the New York edn wh the headle: Gay New Yorkers Beg, the 1950s. Durg weekends and summers the pre-Stonewall era, gay men and women, cludg many New Yorkers, traveled to the seclud beach town of Cherry Grove on Fire Island where they found opportuni for sexual exploratn and self-exprsn—behavr that was both stigmatized and crimalized the straight world.
Aun, Carson McCullers, and Patricia Highsmh, the visors to the Grove took pleasure the stumed parti, theatril events, and liberated atmosphere that this gay sanctuary view outdoors New-York Historil’s rear urtyard, this exhibn explor the gay and lbian muny that flourished durg the 1950s Cherry Grove through some 70 enlarged photographs and addnal ephemera om the unique holdgs of the Cherry Grove Archiv Collectn. (Curated by Brian Clark, San Kravz, and Parker Sargent for the Cherry Grove Archiv Collectn and ordated at New-York Historil by Rebec Klassen, associate curator of material culture)Learn more:Shop books about Cherry Grove the NYHistory Store now, cludg Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years Ameri’s First Gay and Lbian Town; Koz Gay Fire Island: It's Good to be Us; and Masra, Mirth and Mayhem: Inpennce Day on Fire Island, a photography book by -curator San Kravz Related anizatns: Arts Project of Cherry Grove; Communy Associatn of Cherry Grove; Fire Island P Historil Society Documentari about Fire Island: Snap: Year of the Queen (directed by -curator Parker Sargent) The Panzi Invasn (directed by -curator Parker Sargent) Comg of Age Cherry Grove: The Invasn Cherry Grove StoriPodst about Fire Island: The Bowery Boys: A Very Gay History of Fire Island (featurg -curator Parker Sargent). New-York Historil Society Prents Safe/Haven: Gay Life 1950s Cherry GroveFree Exhibn of Photographs and Memorabilia Rells the Pre-Stonewall Era of Cherry Grove on Fire Island, Prented Conjunctn wh the Cherry Grove Archiv CollectnNew York, April 27, 2021—The New-York Historil Society prents Safe/Haven: Gay Life 1950s Cherry Grove, an timate look at one of the first gay beach towns the Uned Stat, on view New-York Historil’s rear urtyard May 14 – October 11, 2021.