Fire Island’s relationship with the gay community goes way back. In the pre-Stonewall era of the 1950s and 60s, when being gay was still taboo, the secluded beach town of Cherry Grove became a sort of safe haven for gay people of all profiles, whether celebrities such as Truman Capote, Patricia Highsmith, Christopher Isherwood, and Tennessee Williams or ordinary New Yorkers. This free exhibition, which takes place outdoors in the New-York Historical Society’s rear courtyard, comprises photographs and other ephemera that invoke mid-20th-century gay life on the shores of Cherry Grove. —J.V.
The Arts Intel Report
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
Safe/Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove
When
May 14 – Oct 11, 2021
Where
170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024, USA
Etc
Patricia Fitzgerald and Kay Guinness on Cherry Grove Beach, 1952. Photo: Cherry Grove Archives Collection.