Event Date

Tuesday, January 10 2012 : 6:30pm – 8:30pm

Location

The Center

Description

Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Reception 6:30PM, Program 7PM
Second Tuesday Lecture Series presents Michael Schiavi author of Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo

Michael Schiavi, author of the universally praised biography Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo, will speak and show archival footage at the Center. 

Full-price ticket buyers will receive a special $10 discount on purchases of Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo (list price $29.95)

Vito Russo was an activist, a founding member of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and a co-founder of ACT-UP. He also wrote The Celluloid Closet, the foundation of gay and lesbian film studies. Michael Schiavi will discuss his 2011 biography of this gay-rights giant, pioneering journalist, and author.

More About Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo
Russo lived at the center of the most important gay cultural turning points in the 1970s and 1980s. A frequent participant at “zaps” and a Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) organizer — which gave NY gays and lesbians their first social alternative to Mafia-owned bars — Russo made an enduring contribution with his marshaling of “Movie Nights.” These "Movie Nights" were forerunners to his worldwide Celluloid Closet lecture tours that gave gay audiences their first community forum for the dissection of gay imagery in mainstream film.

Vito Russo gave one of his Celluloid Closet lectures at The LGBT Center in May 1988, as part of this Second Tuesday Lecture Series.

Michael Schiavi unravels Vito Russo's fascinating life, from his childhood in East Harlem to his death from AIDS in 1990. Drawing on archival materials, unpublished letters, and more than two hundred interviews, including conversations with a range of Russo's friends and family (including comedian Lily Tomlin and fellow activist and playwright Larry Kramer), Celluloid Activist provides an unprecedented portrait of a man who defined gay-rights and AIDS activism.

Jeffrey Schwarz's new documentary "Vito," which includes Michael and his research, will be aired in June by HBO. The film had its world premiere in October at the NY Film Festival and has since played the Chicago, Seattle, Montreal, and DC LGBT film festivals. Some of this material will be included in Michael Schiavi's presentation.

More About Michael Schiavi
Michael Schiavi is a Professor of English and coordinator of English as a second language at the New York Institute of Technology’s Manhattan campus. His articles have appeared in Cinema Journal, Theatre Journal, Modern Drama, and College Literature.

Price

$10

Register

Tickets can be purchased at the door.

For More Information

Yojani Hernandez, yhernandez@gaycenter.org, 212-620-7310.

 

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