Daily Newsletter
An interview with Flavia Rando, Danielle De Jesus at the Knicks parade, and the great Reflecting Pool fiasco.
Flavia Rando is an influential yet under-recognized figure in New York’s queer scene. She made history by participating in the first art exhibition to include “lesbian” in its title, and she was a fixture at the “gay table” in the Brooklyn College cafeteria. In a serendipitous moment in 1969, she encountered Martha Shelley, a lesbian feminist activist, while riding the 14th Street crosstown bus. This meeting led her to a Gay Liberation Front meeting, marking the beginning of her ongoing legacy. Alexis Clements interviews Rando for Hyperallergic’s Queer Elders series.
Meanwhile, in New York: Artist Danielle De Jesus attended the Knicks parade with a press pass and a film camera, reflecting on her childhood memories of watching basketball games in Brooklyn’s public courts. Her photographs capture the magical atmosphere following the Knicks’ historic win.
Regardless of team loyalties, everyone can appreciate the irony of Trump’s Reflecting Pool paint job turning into a messy spectacle, complete with algae-themed memes. It’s amusing when a climate change skeptic inadvertently fosters his own ecosystem.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
By the Force of Flavia Rando’s Presence
Many queer elders remain underappreciated due to the barriers their identities have posed, yet they persist. Flavia Rando exemplifies this resilience.
A Brooklyn native and child of immigrants, Rando came out as a lesbian in her late teens in 1961. She joined the Gay Liberation Front and Radicalesbians, started a photo research business, and participated in the first art exhibition with “lesbian” in the title. Her work, along with that of other lesbian artists, adorned Midtown through wheat-pasting. Later, she inspired thousands as a professor of women’s and gender studies and art history across New York City classrooms.
We talked about her journey into art and politics, her teaching career, and the insights she’s gained during our phone interview. | Alexis Clements
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How the GW Corcoran Is Rethinking Interaction Design Education
The Interaction Design program at the George Washington University Corcoran School of Arts and Design is utilizing partnerships across DC to encourage its students to develop more inclusive design practices.
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News
- The paint color “American Flag Blue” applied by President Trump on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has turned a barf-green hue. Here are some of the best memes that have emerged.
- Brooklyn’s South Bushwick Community Church is fundraising $2 million following a three-alarm blaze that caused significant damage.
Photo Essay
Film
From Our Critics
Opinion
Marc Spiegler Got It All Wrong
In a guest essay for the New York Times, the former Art Basel global director presented a vision of a Brave New Art World that has little to do with art and those who make it. | Barbara Pollack
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Those interested in the role of textiles in the lives of the enslaved should read All that She Carried, which traces the history of Ashley’s sack. The sack was given to Ashley by her mother when the young girl was taken from her and sold to a new owner. The author uses the contents of the sack, and the message embroidered on it, to illuminate slave life in South Carolina, one of the most rigorously oppressive states. Fascinating history, and you won’t be able to avoid a few tears along the way.
Mary Boast on “The Inner Worlds of Black Quilters”
From the Archive
