The program series for March 2021 sponsored by the GLBT Historical Society will highlight a new young-adult lesbian novel, a conversation with architectural historian and preservation consultant Shayne Watson, a new book of photographs documenting the sexual world of San Francisco’s South of Market district and a celebration of the GLBT Historical Society Museum’s 10th anniversary.
All events take place online; registration is required for access to the streaming link. For more information, visit www.glbthistory.org.
Author Talk
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Saturday, March 6
4:00 p.m. –5:30 p.m.
Online program
Admission: free; $5 suggested donation
Award-winning young-adult author Malinda Lo will read selections from and discuss her new novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Dutton Books, 2021), a queer coming-of-age story set in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950s. The story traces the blossoming of love between seventeen year-old Lily Hu and Kathleen Miller in a Chinatown beset by Red-Scare paranoia and deportation threats. Lo will share details from her research into the midcentury LGBTQ community at the GLBT Historical Society’s archives, and discuss the novel and its historical inspirations with historian Amy Sueyoshi, a professor at San Francisco State University whose research specialises in Asian American and sexuality studies. More information is available at http://bit.ly/3a1IrK6. Registration is available at glbthistory.ticketing.veevartapp.com.
Queer Culture Club
Catching Up With Shayne Watson
Thursday, March 11
7:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Online program
Admission: free; $5 suggested donation
GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick will interview architectural historian and historic-preservation planning consultant Shayne Watson, the owner of Watson Heritage Consulting. Watson coauthored the Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco (2016) and, with Beswick, was the cochair of the San Francisco LGBTQ Cultural Heritage Strategy (2020). This is the March instalment of «Queer Culture Club», our monthly series each second Thursday that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Each month, Beswick interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams. More information is available at glbthistory.org. Registration is available at glbthistory.ticketing.veevartapp.com.
Author Talk
Documenting a Sexual Underground: Street Sex Photos
Friday, March 19
6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Online program
Admission: $10; no one turned away for lack of funds
San Francisco gay “radical sex” photographer Mark I. Chester will present a live slideshow presentation and discuss his recently published book of contemporary photography, Street Sex Photos (2021). The book documents gay men’s sexual lives in the South of Market (SoMa) district of San Francisco in an era when the neighbourhood was, in Chester’s words, “like a giant supermarket of the sexual underground.” The book also is an elegy to the changing social world of SoMa since the 1980s, as the darkened alleyways give rise to new development that threatens to extinguish what is left of a queer subculture that flourished for decades. The book is available for purchase in two sizes; contact the author directly by text at (415) 613-0939, or by email at sfphotou@yahoo.com. More information is available at glbthistory.org. Registration is available at glbthistory.ticketing.veevartapp.com.
Community Event
Anniversary Party & LGBTQ History Trivia Night
6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Online program
Admission: $10; $5 for members
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the opening of the GLBT Historical Society Museum and the 36th anniversary of the GLBT Historical Society’s foundation, the society is hosting a virtual LGBTQ history trivia evening! Participants will mix and mingle with other queer history buffs and show off their knowledge of our vast queer past. The top-scoring teams will win fabulous prizes, including a private museum tour, complimentary memberships and limited-edition merchandise. All ticket sales go directly to supporting our archives, museum and public-history programs, furthering the society’s mission to preserve and share LGBTQ history. More information is available at glbthistory.org. Registration is available at glbthistory.ticketing.veevartapp.com.
