PRIDE MONTH IS HERE!

It’s June 1, which is the start of Pride Month.
To celebrate in style, We Are the Youth needs your help!

Spanning the month of June, We Are the Youth is launching a Postcard Campaign and we’d love to have your participation! We’re looking for people around the world to be on our “street team” and help spread the word about We Are the Youth. We want people to share their PRIDE photos with us through Facebook and Twitter, and when they do they’ll be automatically entered to win a $50 gift card and other sweet prizes!

To be part of our street team, email hello@wearetheyouth.org, and be sure to check our 2012 PRIDE PAGE (under Current Events) for all updates!

Exciting News!

If you haven’t been to the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art to check out the Window Gallery, man, do we have GOOD news for you! Leslie-Lohman has extended our stay and the eight We Are the Youth portraits and accompanying quotes will now be on view until June 22, 2012!

So hop on the subway, board the Metro North, jump on your bike, take a stroll (the weather is getting nicer, no excuses for taking cabs, New Yorkers), and go check out the Window Gallery! If you do make it over to Wooster Street, be sure to check out The Piers exhibit, on view inside Leslie-Lohman until July 7, 2012.

*Above photo by Stanley Stellar

 

Leslie-Lohman Reception A Smashing Success!

Thanks to everyone who came and supported We Are the Youth on Friday at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art (special thanks to DJ Dani DeLuna for spinning dope tunes and to Sarah and Mars for manning the raffle station, helping set up and break down and being generally rad!). It was great to see both familiar and new faces at the reception and we couldn’t have been happier with the way the night turned out. We Are the Youth work will be on view until May 12, 2012, so if you missed the reception, you can still check out the work. In addition, The Piers exhibit (THE PIERS: Art and Sex along the New York Waterfront), is on view until July 7, 2012, and as Diana so eloquently mentioned at the reception, where the Piers exhibit looks to the queer past, We Are the Youth looks to the queer present and future, and it’s an honor for us to be showing next to such an amazing body of work.

Again, thanks to the staff at Leslie-Lohman for all their support, it’s been a pleasure being part of the Window Gallery Project and we’re excited about future collaborations.

Check out more photos from the opening reception here.

You’re Invited!!

The Big Day is Almost Here! Come one, come all (seriously — parents, friends, strangers, youth, senior citizens, you get it…) to the opening reception of We Are the Youth’s Window Gallery display at the Leslie/Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Friday April 13, 2012. 6-8pm. Drinks, snacks, raffles, art, good company, sweet tunes will abound! Check our our upcoming events page for more information. Thanks to everyone involved. Hope to see you there.

We Are the Youth work will be on view at Leslie/Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art until May 12, 2012.

Our First Official, Fancy, Newsletter!

If you’re not on our mailing list, you should be. You’ll receive exciting newsletters like the one below! Promises not to bombard you with a million emails, in fact, this is our first official newsletter since the project began in June 2010! Just enter in your email above and hit “Subscribe,” it’s that easy.

Something New Presents: Dress Up//Get Down

Something New Presents: Dress up//Get Down, Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Drom, Ave A between 5th and 6th, Manhattan
Hosted by The Lowbrow Society of the Arts + Something New
by Sarah Nakano

Before entering the doors of Something New’s “Dress up //Get down,” I had little to no idea what to expect. I had been told that it was “more than an art show, more than a party,” and “not a fashion show, a show about fashion.” What does that even mean? I don’t know. I guess in my head I pictured some kind of art-music-fashion-queer culture-dance-glitter fusion; people would be running around and things would be flying around in the air above me and there would be models drinking champagne + painting at the same time, etc. etc. (more…)

Our Intern, Sarah, Reports on the Original Plumbing Issue 9 Release Party

Original Plumbing Issue 9 Release Party, Saturday March 24th, 2012
Public Assembly, Brooklyn, New York
Photos and write-up by Sarah Nakano

Unfortunately, there is only a handful of magazines and periodicals out there that focus on transgender culture and/or are written by trans men and women. But GOOD NEWS: photographer Amos Mac and rapper Rocco Kayiatos (Rocco Katastrophe) come bearing “Original Plumbing,” their glossy, informative, and beautifully designed quarterly zine focused on trans male culture. Now on their ninth issue, each issue of Original Plumbing is centered around a different aspect of FTM culture: work, school, family, hair, fashion, health + sex, the bedroom, the environment, and the latest issue: entertainment. (more…)

We Are the Youth’s New Intern Reports on the Victory Prom!

Victory Prom, Friday, March 23rd, 2012
The Center, New York, New York
Photos and write-up by Sarah Nakano

On March 23rd 2012, The New School + The LGBT Center (on 13th Street) partnered to host an event which granted me the opportunity to:

– support the end of world-wide sexual and gendered violence
– re-live the glory of my high school awkwardness
– dance // make uncoordinated, jagged movements in the corner by myself
– eat delicious cookies
– wear jeans to the prom for the second time (I wore jeans + a leather sleeveless jacket to my senior prom, judge me)

(more…)

In Waiting

 

In February, half of We Are the Youth (Laurel) had the pleasure of attending the Jacob Burns Film Center screening of In Waiting, a short film created by students in the SWBOCES Incarcerated Youth Program at the Westchester County Jail.

The Jacob Burns Film Center spent six months teaching six inmates how to film and edit digital video and then helped them to produce a narrative film, an adaptation of Israel Horovitz’s play, The Indian Wants The Bronx. The result is compelling and truly inspired. The students maturity in handling issues of masculinity and sexuality and their willingness to explore these issues should be celebrated as well as commended.

Check out In Waiting, above, and let us know what you think.

The project was made possible with support from Westchester County Department of Corrections.

The Work Is Up!

You’ll have to visit The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art to see the full show, but here’s a taste of what’s in store when you do! Be sure to check out our Upcoming Events page for all Leslie-Lohman updates and hope to see you at the reception on April 13!

Leslie-Lohman Show!

We’re thrilled to announce that We Are the Youth will be showing work in the Leslie-Lohman Window Gallery from March 12 until May 12. The reception will be held on April 13, 6-8pm and all updates on the L-L show will be posted on our Upcoming Events page.

The Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, established in 1990, morphed into the the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in 2011. Its mission is to provide an outlet for art work that is unambiguously gay and which is frequently denied access to mainstream venues. The Foundation’s Leslie-Lohman Gallery mounts exhibitions of work in all media by gay and lesbian artists with an emphasis on subject matter that speaks directly to gay and lesbian sensibilities, including, erotic, political, romantic, and social imagery and providing special support for emerging and underrepresented artists.

Special thanks to Leslie-Lohman and curator, Julia Haas!

Print Giveaway!!

Help us reach 600 Facebook followers this week by sharing our posts or liking We Are the Youth on Facebook and you could win a free 8×10 print of Ryan, an inspiring We Are the Youth participant! Ryan is a New York-based musician, transgender activist and all around rad dude. Read his story here and help spread the word!