Latest news with #culturalinstitutions
CBS News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Trump fires director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
President Trump is terminating the head of the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, continuing his aggressive moves to reshape the federal government's cultural institutions. Mr. Trump announced Friday on his Truth Social platform that he was ousting Director Kim Sajet, calling her a "highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position." Sajet, a Dutch citizen raised in Australia, was appointed to the post in 2013 by former President Barack Obama. She had previously served as president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Director of Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery Kim Sajet speaks on stage during the unveiling of Oprah Winfrey's portrait at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery on December 13, 2023 in Washington, Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized the national network of museums and cultural centers as leftist and anti-American. In March, the president signed an executive order targeting funding for programs at the Smithsonian Institution that contain what he characterized as "divisive, race-centered ideology." That order tasked Vice President JD Vance, who serves on the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents, with overseeing efforts to "remove improper ideology" from all areas of the institution, including its museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo. In February, he also ousted the leadership of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution, dismissing the chairman and president and replacing most of the board with loyalists, who then voted Mr. Trump the new chairman.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How to Build a Culture
Earlier this week, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, originally expected to open in 2023, announced another delay until 2026 and confirmed it had already cut a significant portion of its full-time team. Likewise, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art recently laid off 29 staff amid a projected $5 million deficit. Theaters in Berkeley and Los Angeles have, in recent years, suspended seasons or warned of closure. Even the Philadelphia Orchestra has experienced ongoing difficulties since merging with its performing arts center to remain solvent in 2021. Across the country, cultural institutions are shrinking, consolidating, or disappearing. Amid this physical disappearing is also a philosophical one: Many institutions have lost clarity about whom they serve or why they exist. The League of American Orchestras offers a clear example. Over the past decade, the League has received nearly $1.2 million from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), much of it in support of initiatives centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through programs like the Catalyst Fund, Inclusive Stages, and the League's Equity Resource Center, the League has framed DEI not as one priority among others, but as the defining lens for how orchestras should understand their purpose, their audiences, and their internal structures. Increasingly, the work of cultural institutions justifies itself through language and policy frameworks that are largely internal to the field. The link between funding and the public has frayed. Federal programs have mirrored that drift. The NEA's grant language in recent years emphasized 'capacity building,' 'access strategies,' and 'administrative equity plans.' ArtsHERE, launched in 2023, directed over $12 million toward 'equity-centered frameworks,' focused more on internal processes than public-facing work. The long-term cultural impact of these efforts remains unclear. But that approach is now being reassessed. Whether or not the Trump administration succeeds in eliminating the NEA and other cultural agencies, the programs funded via these agencies are no longer assumed to reflect the public interest. For the first time in years, there is an opening to reconsider how public funding in the arts should be used and what it should be used for. Some ventures already point the way. The Lamp, founded in 2020, is a journal of Catholic arts and letters supported by a small team and the Catholic University of America. It has built a national readership through editorial seriousness and clarity of purpose. Wiseblood Books, founded in 2013, is a small Southern press publishing fiction, poetry, and monographs grounded in craft and moral imagination. Both have earned attention through focus and substance, despite working with limited resources. They show what becomes possible when good work is pursued steadily and with conviction. Yet efforts like these remain rare. One way to replicate these efforts would be for the NEA to create its own cultural accelerator—a short-term program focused on helping serious new institutions take root. The model exists in other fields. Y Combinator, one of the best-known startup incubators, has launched companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe by offering early-stage ventures structure, mentorship, and a public debut. The goal is to help founders establish the conditions for something lasting. Such a model could serve the arts. Each year, a small cohort of groups could be selected based on artistic merit, public purpose, and clarity of vision. These might include a regional theater company, a music ensemble, a press, or a journal of letters and criticism. Participants would receive direct support for legal incorporation, fiscal sponsorship, board development, and strategic planning. They would also receive modest seed funding to design their first season, publication cycle, or exhibition. Finally, each group would be formally launched in partnership with a national institution, giving them public validation and immediate reach. These public partnerships would be particularly critical, as they would give new ventures a clear point of entry into cultural life. A chamber ensemble might debut at the Kennedy Center. A press could collaborate with the Library of Congress to republish forgotten works. A community archive might curate an exhibition with the American Folklife Center. These affiliations would not guarantee success, but they would offer visibility, legitimacy, and an audience. Most early-stage institutions never get that chance. Making their work visible from the start would raise expectations and the stakes. This kind of support would fill a gap in the NEA's current structure. Most of its funding supports specific projects—performances, exhibitions, research, or short-term community engagements—not the formation of institutions. Rather than steering artistic content or reinforcing messaging, the NEA would identify promising founders, coordinate institutional partners, and provide structural tools for early success. The goal would equip serious efforts to begin well—and let the venture do the work of growing well. Such a program would raise familiar questions. What happens if a group draws criticism? What if leadership changes shift priorities? Those are valid questions, but those risks are already part of every public arts program. What matters is whether judgment is applied with seriousness and tied to some shared understanding of the public good. This kind of work has a foundation. The English philosopher and critic Roger Scruton wrote that beauty is a value to be pursued for its own sake. It draws us out of ourselves and teaches us to care for what we inherit and what we make. Beauty invites memory, responsibility, and the desire to preserve. Public arts funding should support work shaped with that kind of intention—not because it looks a certain way, but because it reaches toward permanence. This vision is not theoretical. By the end of the decade, new institutions could be thriving across the country. A sacred music ensemble in Ohio might perform monthly in historic churches. A regional press could republish forgotten authors and release new fiction set in or inspired by local towns. A theater company might stage both contemporary and classic works for local audiences and schools. These groups would be independent and public-serving. We know this is possible. In Los Angeles, choreographer Lincoln Jones built American Contemporary Ballet from the ground up. Without public funding or institutional backing, he created a company defined by musical integrity, formal precision, and belief in the continuing relevance of classical ballet. Today, it performs both original and canonical works to full houses. His success is not common, but it is instructive. A cultural accelerator would not replace such work. It would give more artists the tools to follow through on what they are already building. The point of such a proposal is to build institutions that carry meaning and serve the public. It is to restore the idea that art is not just for the moment, but for memory. And it is to remind us that culture is not something we inherit intact or outsource. It is something we build—deliberately, carefully—with the courage to create what deserves to endure.
Arab News
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
International Museum Day 2025: Abu Dhabi shapes future through culture and connection
Abu Dhabi has always been a meeting point of worlds where East and West, past and future, tradition and ambition converge. This is not just a matter of geography. It reflects who we are: a society shaped by the exchange of ideas, driven by curiosity, and united by a deep belief in the power of culture to move people and ideas forward. That belief takes center stage as we mark International Museum Day on May 18. This year's theme, The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities, could not be timelier. In an age defined by technological acceleration, climate disruption, and global uncertainty, museums are no longer just guardians of the past. They are engines of progress where creativity, inclusion, and innovation come together to shape more resilient and connected societies. These values guide the mission of Saadiyat Cultural District Abu Dhabi, one of the greatest concentrations of global institutions. Its shared narrative is a celebration of cultural dialogue, creative exploration, and the human story that binds us across time and geography. The district is more than a center of global cultural and creative excellence; it is a lasting commitment to a society where knowledge and creativity is nurtured, offering pathways to inspiration, empowerment, and transformation. Each of Saadiyat Cultural District's institutions plays a distinct role. When Louvre Abu Dhabi presents a Bactrian 'princess' from 2,000 BCE beside a Tang Dynasty ceramic and a Mondrian masterpiece, it affirms that creative brilliance transcends borders and eras. When the newly-opened teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi explores the fusion of art, science, and technology, it places the UAE at the center of tomorrow's narratives. And when Zayed National Museum tells the story of our transformation from a nation of pearl divers, farmers and traders, to a knowledge-driven economy, it offers a living model of resilience and reinvention. Yet the ambition of our cultural strategy reaches far beyond Saadiyat Cultural District. Across the emirate, a rich network of museums and cultural centers ensures that culture is deeply rooted in the identity and daily life of our communities. Qasr Al-Hosn, the oldest standing structure in Abu Dhabi, has been transformed into a living museum that tells the story of the capital's evolution from a fortified watchtower to a vibrant global city. In Al-Ain, the birthplace of our Founding Father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, both the Al-Ain Museum, established by Sheikh Zayed in 1971, and his former home, Al-Ain Palace Museum, stand as enduring symbols of our national identity. Together with Qasr Al-Muwaiji, which has played an important role in the history of the UAE, they reflect the values, vision, and leadership that continue to shape the nation's path forward. The newly-restored Al-Maqta Museum, housed in a historic watchtower, explores the defensive and maritime heritage of the region. Meanwhile, Delma Museum, located on one of the oldest continuously inhabited islands in the UAE, offers deep insights into the country's seafaring and pearling traditions. Each of these institutions is tailored to its community and context, enriching local pride while reinforcing a broader national narrative. They embody our belief that cultural heritage in Abu Dhabi should be celebrated everywhere, so that every visitor, from schoolchildren to scholars, can see themselves reflected in the stories they preserve and share. This approach continues the legacy of Sheikh Zayed who recognized long before the nation's formation that culture was essential to building a cohesive and forward-looking society. Not only to preserve the past, but to inspire future generations. That vision is more relevant today than ever before. We saw it take another step forward this year with the launch of the Abu Dhabi Collection. Curated over many years by DCT-Abu Dhabi, the Abu Dhabi Collection brings together thousands of works that reflect the depth and diversity of our shared heritage. Spanning continents, centuries, and civilizations, the collection affirms that culture is not fixed or finite. It moves across borders. It connects people. And it belongs to us all. As we navigate the complex terrain of the 21st century, from demographic shifts to climate challenges, from exponential technologies to multipolar geopolitics, culture offers something unique: the ability to convert uncertainty into possibility. It reminds us that every leap forward begins with imagination, and that every solution is rooted in human experience. On the occasion of this International Museum Day, Abu Dhabi reaffirms its belief in a future shaped not only by data or infrastructure, but by ideas, heritage, and human connection. Through investment in cultural institutions, creative industries, and community engagement, we not only preserve the past, we also empower the present and inspire the future. Because culture remains humanity's oldest survival strategy, as well as its most enduring source of hope.
CNA
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
Exploring Berlin, Germany: Where to eat, what to see, where to stay
Berlin is home to bureaucrats and hedonists, lobbyists and artists, lovers of techno and devotees of classical music. The city's turbulent 20th-century history is visible in the bullet holes on facades, the graffitied remains of the Berlin Wall and the monotonous residential blocks erected during the post-World War II reconstruction. But Berlin's younger generations are forward-looking, and its restaurants, bars and clubs are focused on the newest trends. A sprawling city, Berlin is decentralised, with dozens of kieze, or neighbourhoods, each with its own character and heart: From Prenzlauer Berg, with pretty prewar apartment blocks and tchotchke-filled antique shops, to Kreuzberg, with leather-clad denizens and brightly lit spatis, convenience stores that stay open late and sometimes offer outdoor seating. The best time to visit Berlin begins in spring, when the city's outdoor spaces are bustling with activity into the wee hours. This year, the Museum Island's 200th anniversary shines a light on some of Berlin's oldest cultural institutions, while new restaurants and bars offer plenty of fresh opportunities to explore. FRIDAY 4pm | Learn about modern art At the Neue Nationalgalerie, or New National Gallery, the main exhibition, on view indefinitely, showcases art from 1945 to 2000. Short essays provide context on cultural, economic and political shifts during those periods. Lucio Fontana's slashed canvas hangs next to a text about the 1950s economic boom and a throwaway society, and a video of Marina Abramovic's 1975 performance Freeing the Body plays alongside an essay on oppression, objectification and liberation. The Gerhard Richter exhibition, on view until September 2026, includes one of the artist's most famous works, Birkenau, a meditation on the Holocaust. The museum leans into interactive activities. In the main exhibition, a machine with a hand crank pops out postcards with assignments — for example, to find a human-shaped sculpture and sketch its point of view. Grab a pencil and get going! Entry to all exhibitions, 20 euros (US$22; S$29) 6.30pm | Decompress with drinks and music Take a mental bath at Unkompress, a listening bar in a quiet residential section of the trendy Kreuzberg neighbourhood. In this minimalist space, the focus is on music. An entire wall is dominated by a unit featuring an audiophile's dream setup: Two turntables, massive Cornwall speakers and a collection of 300-plus records. Settle back and let jazz, funk, disco, '90s downtempo or other soothing tunes wash over you as you sip natural wine, craft beer or mezcal (7.50 euro for a glass of house wine). A handy chart on the menu plots drinks according to fruitiness, minerality, fanciness and eccentricity. As in many newer bars in Berlin, there are plenty of non-alcoholic wines and beers. Check the bar's Instagram for its event schedule, which includes DJ gigs, artsy workshops and bring-your-own-vinyl evenings. 8.30pm | Dine on elevated German cuisine Given its dark wood panelling, stately bar and red candles, Marktlokal appears to be an upscale, tradition-bound restaurant. But this is Kreuzberg, and the friendly waitstaff with pink-dyed hair and chokers immediately dispel any fears of snobbishness. The food, too, rides the wave between old and new, with beloved German ingredients refreshed through the chef's imagination. White asparagus, a popular seasonal vegetable, is enlivened by hazelnut and fermented wild garlic, while beef tartare is deepened with smoked oyster mushroom mayo and Sichuan pepper. The wine list offers mostly natural options. Don't miss dessert, which rotates like the rest of the menu and recently included caramelised bananas with vanilla ice cream, walnuts and caramel sauce (dinner for two, around 120 euros). 11pm | Bop the night away Berlin's club scene is world-renowned, but it can be intimidating. If you've got the dancing bug, check the Resident Advisor website for DJ lineups at clubs around the city. Buy tickets if possible — this will help if there's a long line. Test your luck at Berghain, a world-famous club inside a former power station, notorious for its exclusivity. To increase your chances of entry, come alone or in a small group, speak quietly while in line, and wear an all-black outfit that looks fit for a dance floor. Friday nights at Berghain's Panorama Bar are chiller, with a friendlier vibe at the door. Cash-only inside. For an easier entry, head to Sameheads, where the bar upstairs is decorated in raunchy neons and the downstairs dance area is in a graffiti-covered room. The music ranges widely and might include Italo disco, trance, house and dark techno. For a grungy experience, consider Renate, inside an abandoned building. The club, a Berlin institution since 2007, will close at the end of 2025 because of rising costs. WHERE TO STAY Hotel de Rome, a 145-room, five-star hotel that was a bank in the 1880s, has one of the best locations in Berlin: Its windows look directly onto the pink-hued Berlin State Opera. An open-air roof bar also provides city views, and an Italian restaurant, Chiaro, offers inventive Italian dishes and a leafy garden terrace. The basement — formerly used as the vault — is home to a spa with saunas and a pool. Rooms start at 450 euros, or US$512. Ginn City & Lounge Yorck-Berlin sits at the intersection of two neighbourhoods worth exploring: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, full of trendy restaurants, bars and boutiques, and Tempelhof-SchOneberg, home to several popular parks, including Tempelhofer Feld and Natur Park Schoneberger Sudgelande. From the hotel, attractions like the New National Gallery and the Museum Island are a short ride on public transit. A bar offers standard cocktails and there's a rooftop terrace. Rooms start at 114 euros. The newly opened Bellman Hotel is a short walk from the many cafes, bars and restaurants of the Neukolln neighborhood. The rooms are stylish and comfortable and there's a satisfying breakfast buffet offering cheeses, fruits, and vegan and non-vegan sweet treats. The hotel has a gym as well as a restaurant. Rooms start at 75 euros. Collapse Start the day with a flaky, chewy chocolate croissant and a coffee at Symple, a cafe with spacious outdoor seating shaded by a large tree in the charming Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood. Afterward, stroll around the Kollwitzplatz Weekly Market, where toddlers zoom by on scooters and friends in black leather gather for a quick bite. The goods on sale blend tradition — organic honey, oversize wool blankets, woven basket bags — with unexpected finds like vulva-shaped soaps and genderless jewellery. The surrounding area is known for its antique shops and boutiques. For a quirky souvenir, visit kunst-a-bunt, where you'll find prints, colourful egg cups and treasures like a 1924 silver tea strainer. Pop over to abricot coco, a clothing shop, for sustainable basics in comfortable, airy cuts produced in Latvia and Portugal. 10.30am | Pay a visit to East Germany Dive into the history of East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic, at the state-funded Museum in der Kulturbrauerei, where entry is free. There are 800 objects in the Everyday Life in the GDR exhibition, with a large section dedicated to the connections among factory work, personal life and the state. A rhyming public service announcement warns about the risks of drinking on the job and a small alcove is filled with remnants from a nursery inside an enormous factory complex. The exhibition also reveals how people spent their money, where they went on vacation, which newspapers and magazines they read, and the kinds of clothes they wore. Furniture and decorations interspersed throughout the space — doilies, laminated wood cabinets and plastic chairs — evoke the sensation of traveling back in time. 12pm | Pit stop for kebab As you leave the Kulturbrauerei, you might see a line on the block and hear reggaeton and rap. Follow the music to its source, Ruyam Gemuse Kebab 2, one of the fast-food shop's two locations, to taste a famous Berlin dish: Vegetable kebab. Graffiti is scrawled on the walls and the friendly staff — who shout their thanks every time a visitor leaves a tip — give the entire operation the feeling of a party. The sandwiches are filling and tasty: Fluffy bread is stuffed to the brim with sliced chicken — a vegetarian option skips the meat — along with fried potatoes, onions, carrots, lettuce, fresh herbs, lemon juice and garlic sauce (6.90 euros, cash only). 2.30pm | Discover thousands of years of art history Museum Island, a UNESCO-protected site celebrating its 200th birthday with five years of events starting at the end of May, is home to six buildings showcasing art and artifacts. In an area that's less than half a square mile, discover a 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti attributed to Thutmose, paintings by Monet and Renoir, and a collection of Etruscan objects. The Panorama, a temporary exhibition in place while the Pergamon Museum, one of the six buildings on the island, undergoes renovation, immerses visitors in an enormous artwork that depicts the ancient city of Pergamon in 129 AD. At the Altes Museum, the first museum built on the island, find funerary sculptures, bronze cauldrons, mummy portraits and other remains of classical antiquity. The Garden of Delights exhibition has a Berlin flavour with ancient depictions of people engaging in erotic Not Safe for Work activities (ticket for the island and the Panorama, 24 euros). 5pm | Have dinner before the opera Set on a bustling block, JOMO Restaurant offers spacious outdoor seating, ideal for people-watching on a weekend evening. Inside, the space is airy and chic, with rustic wooden floors, a smattering of plants and red rugs, and a glass-enclosed kitchen in the centre. The menu runs the gamut with dishes like carbonara udon with French ham, smoked trout tartare with cauliflower, and Sicilian-style tuna and salmon crudo. The sweet-cheese croquettes with dulce de leche mousse and berry sauce are reminiscent of a beloved Slavic dish called syrniki and are a nod to two of the owners' Ukrainian roots. The milk punch, made with clarified coconut milk, pineapple juice and rum, tastes like a tropical vacation. On the non-alcoholic front, the 'condensed lime' drink is tart and refreshing (dinner for two, 80 euros). 7pm | Catch a classical performance Since opening nearly 300 years ago, the Berlin State Opera has hosted some of history's best-known conductors, including Felix Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss and Wilhelm Furtwangler. The opera has been rebuilt several times; its most recent renovation was completed in 2017. With a neo-Classical exterior, three-tiered auditorium and red velvet seats, the opera is — to put it simply — grand. The current season includes Sacre, a ballet with music by three composers, Cassandra, a contemporary opera about the climate crisis by Bernard Foccroulle, and Verdi's 1853 opera La Traviata (tickets start at 12 euros). SUNDAY 10am | Load up on a nutritious brunch The sisters Xenia and Sophie von Oswald mix and match Persian, German and Australian influences at rocket + basil, an easygoing, no-reservations eatery near the busy Potsdamer Platz, with exposed brick walls painted mint green inside. This is the place to load up on fibre, with a weekend menu that includes an omelette filled with butternut squash and leeks, then topped with a kale and sesame salad, or a thick sourdough toast piled high with cannellini beans, roasted radicchio and hazelnuts, with dill sprinkled on top. For a sweet option, try the mascarpone pancakes, served with caramelized bananas, maple syrup, pistachio butter and barberries. If you have space left, grab a baked good at the counter; the moist pistachio-rosewater cake and the tahini-halva brownie are equally delightful (brunch for two, 40 euros). 12pm | Catch your breath by a lake The secret to enjoying the warmer months of the year in Berlin is to head for the city's lakes. The cool waters and lush greenery encircling the city — about one-fifth of Berlin is forested — are nearby and free. With 3,000 lakes in Berlin and its adjacent state, Brandenburg, choosing one can be difficult. Fortunately, the city's tourism agency provides a useful map showing 32 options and how to reach them. Wannsee, Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke, in the city's southwest, are 40 minutes to 60 minutes away from the centre and offer plenty of opportunities for swimming, sunbathing (clothed or nude), taking nature walks, playing volleyball and table tennis, and renting paddle boards and boats. If you're in the mood for art, the Haus am Waldsee, a museum in an English countryside-style villa, is a 15-minute walk from Schlachtensee and showcases contemporary works (entry, 9 euros). By
Vogue
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
From the East Village Scene to the Frieze Art Fair—Tabboo! Is a New York Voice Worth Listening to, Now More Than Ever
It's been a huge week for cultural institutions in New York. Following Monday's Met Gala, Frieze New York kicked off yesterday at The Shed with a showcase featuring some 65 of the world's It-galleries from over 20 countries. That's one impressive factoid, though it's the deep cuts, I find, that matter most. Elusive Moon, a piece by the New York legend and jack of all (mostly gay) trades Tabboo! is one of these deep cuts. It's on display as part of Karma gallery's showcase at the art fair. 'I've been painting the moon my whole life, really,' the artist, illustrator, puppeteer, and former performer says over the phone in the weeks leading up to Frieze, his voice tinged with a touch of melancholy. 'It's a moon peaking out behind some clouds, abstract but with bold, bright colors,' he explains. 'People like blue paintings, they can live with blue.' Tabboo!, Portrait by Clayton Patterson, 1986 Courtesy of Karma and Gordon Robichaux Tabboo!, Door of Pyramid Club, New York, NY, Arabian Nights, 1985 Courtesy of Karma and Gordon Robichaux Although he was talking about interior design, Tabboo! has always had a knack for capturing the collective mood in simple terms. It's a topsy-turvy world, and most of us can't help but feel the blues from time to time. But we learn to live with them, as has Tabboo! Born Stephen Tashjian, Tabboo! has used this stage name since he broke into the drag scene in the '80s. He's now known mostly for his beautifully emotive site-scapes, which aptly and eloquently depict New York through its many seasons and stages. But it's his illustration work, which appeared in influential indie magazines like Interview and illustrated album covers for artists like Deee-Lite through the '80s and '90s, that made him a queer icon. That and his performances as a go-go boy and in drag at legendary venues like Palladium and Pyramid Club. In late February, I spent the weekend at a friend's home in Hudson, New York, which has become something of a gay enclave north of the city. One evening, the 'gaggle of gays' that we coined ourselves turned on Wigstock: The Movie. The 1995 film documents the previous year's edition of Wigstock, the now-extinct annual drag festival that was held in Tompkins Square Park through much of the '80s and '90s. The film spotlights performances by RuPaul, Deee-Lite, Debbie Harry, Leigh Bowery, Joey Arias, and Tabboo!, among others. It's older than I am, ever so slightly, which means most of the folks in my group had never seen it. We decided to turn the evening into a teaching moment—gays my age tend to have a nebulous understanding of the lives the Tabboo!s and RuPauls lived back then, and this film juxtaposes both the joys and struggles of queerness. AIDS had decimated the community by then. Now, we now have PrEP and are seemingly not angry—or motivated—enough to react to the ways our rights are being threatened. Tabboo! Wigstock Backdrop, 1990 Courtesy of Karma and Gordon Robichaux
