NYC’s ‘vibrant’ LGBTQ community celebrated with the ‘Year of Pride’

New York City has so many Pride-centric exhibitions, events and celebrations this year that NYC & Company has declared 2019 the "Year of Pride." Photo Credit: John Roca

New York City will celebrate the "Year of Pride," 50 years after the Stonewall Inn riot that helped spark the modern gay rights movement.

The declaration is a symbolic gesture made by NYC & Company, the city’s official marketing organization, that’s meant to highlight the many ways the city recognizes the LGBTQ community.

“We have declared 2019 the Year of Pride, to not only celebrate WorldPride and Stonewall 50 but to acknowledge the perpetual spirit of New York City’s vibrant LGBTQ community,” said Fred Dixon, the president and CEO of NYC & Company.

There is an influx of LGBTQ-centric celebrations, events and exhibitions this year, including those celebrating the Stonewall uprising and New York City’s first-ever hosting of WorldPride in June, when there will be more than 50 rallies, lectures, parties, film screenings, conferences, panels and concerts.

"Art After Stonewall" will highlight the impact of the LGBTQ civil rights movement on the art world with more than 150 works of art from Nan Goldin, Holly Hughes, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tim Miller, Catherine Opie, Andy Warhol and more. Photo Credit: Gift of the Peter Hujar Archive, LLC. Collection of Leslie-Lohma

"I think it’s amazing that the entire city and its cultural institutions, corporations, schools and universities all want to come together to mark this important milestone, not just for the city but for the global LGBTQ community," Stacy Lentz, the co-owner of Stonewall Inn, told amNewYork. "We are marking this milestone to celebrate how far we have come and to show the community and younger generations that the fight is not over and we need to make sure we are still fighting. There are still places here in the U.S. and around the globe where being LGBTQ can still get you killed and is criminalized. It is incredible that this year we can watch all the world gather to celebrate where Pride began."

Here’s a rundown of just some of the LGBTQ-centric events going on in the city, according to NYC & Company:

Culture:

‘Andy Warhol — From A to B and Back Again‘
Whitney Museum of American Art, through March 31

‘Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50‘
New York Public Library, Bryant Park, through July 14

‘Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now‘
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, through Jan. 5, 2020

‘On the (Queer) Waterfront‘
Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, through Aug. 4

Lincoln Kirstein’s ‘Modern‘
Museum of Modern Art & PS1, Manhattan and Queens, March 17 through June 15

Art After Stonewall, 1969–1989
NYU’s Grey Art Gallery, Manhattan – April 24 through July 20
Leslie-Lohman Museum, Manhattan – April 24 through July 21

‘Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall‘
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, May 3 through Dec. 8

‘Camp: Notes on Fashion‘
The Met Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, May 9 through Sept. 8

Stonewall 50 Exhibitions
New-York Historical Society, Manhattan, May 24 through Sept. 22

Music of Conscience Series
New York Philharmonic, Manhattan, May 30 and June 1

PRIDE
Museum of the City of New York, Manhattan, June 6 through November

Walt Whitman: Bard of Democracy
The Morgan Library & Museum, June 7 through Sept. 15

Pride Auction
Swann Auction Galleries, June 20

NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
Citywide, year-round

Alice Austen House Museum
Staten Island, year-round

Lesbian Herstory Archives
Brooklyn, year-round

Parades:

Staten Island PrideFest – May 10–19

Harlem Pride – May 31 through June 29

Queens Pride – June 2

Brooklyn Twilight Pride Parade – June 8

1 Bronx Festival – June 23

Landmarks:

Bethesda Fountain; Christopher Park; Julius; The Langston Hughes House; The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center; The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art; New York City AIDS Memorial; Stonewall Inn.