Recommended: Imani Rashid's bow ties
A Mary Oliver documentary at IFC, a lamp inspired by Vietnamese kites, why Toni Morrison wrote in Syracuse, and a pen pal program for lesbians.
The Lesbian Herstory Archives has been archiving lesbian culture since 1974 out of a brownstone in Park Slope, and their exhibition Black Lesbians in the Archive is on at Company Gallery, in Nolita, through Friday. I went yesterday and learned about Mabel Hampton, an activist and dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, and Imani Rashid, a founding member of Salsa Soul Sisters, the oldest Black lesbian organization in the United States. The show closes Friday, but you can make an appointment to visit the Archives in Brooklyn anytime.
There is a new documentary about Mary Oliver, one of the most read poets in America, directed by Sasha Waters. Oliver was from the rural Midwest, moved to New York by the late 1950s, then to Provincetown, Massachusetts in the 1960s with her partner, the photographer Molly Malone Cook. I have not seen it yet, but it is playing at IFC Center in the West Village through August 6.
Wallpaper published a piece on a new generation of American designers who came to the United States from places like India, Vietnam, Korea, China, and Poland. Design studios Kawabi and Vy Voi both live in NYC, and you can see their work in galleries and showrooms around the city. Kawabi’s new lighting collection is at the Assembly Line Annex showroom in SoHo. I walked through it last month. Vy Voi’s Kite-In Flight floor lamp, inspired by the whistling kites of Vietnam, is one we showed at Lyle Gallery last year. You can visit her studio in NoMad.
I learned this week that Syracuse, New York has been a haven for writers. Toni Morrison wrote most of The Bluest Eye there and Lillian Ross grew up there. Anna Kodé, my favorite journalist, wrote about why for the Times, and describes a "thriving indie literary community" there today. I am intrigued.
The American LGBTQ+ Museum, which is opening on the Upper West Side, is running an intergenerational pen pal program, Old Lesbians x Young Lesbians. The email serendipitously hit my inbox right after my yearly trip to Cherry Grove, America’s first gay and Lesbian Town, and the only place I have found where you can easily interact and learn from our elders. I applied immediately. You fill out a form, and they match you on interests and location. You can also choose between Zoom, email, and the superior option: letter. Applications are open until September 13.
Creative New York is published by Lyle Gallery.
Latest essay: Dim Sum Palace and an afternoon seeing Greater New York
Latest film: A Week in May: One Week Inside New York’s Design Scene