David Wise's FIGHT BACK Returns March 19

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’m a sucker for nostalgia -- however grim. That’s probably why Fight Back, David Wise’s immersive ACT UP meeting, stayed with me long after I walked back out onto West 13th Street.

In August, I wrote about being there and what it felt like to be dropped into an ACT UP New York meeting on March 13, 1989. There are no actors, no script and no audience -- just a room full of people asked to live, breathe and organize as if lives quite literally depended on it. Because at the time they did. From the moment you arrive at the New York LGBT Community Center, the clock rewinds, and suddenly you’re talking about Robert Mapplethorpe, Madonna, Jerome Robbins and Ed Koch’s deadly inaction as if it’s all unfolding right now. It’s unsettling, moving, occasionally frustrating and, at least for me, affecting.

So here’s the update: Fight Back is happening again, with the first 2026 event taking place Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m. -- and you’re invited.

Remember: This is not theater in the traditional sense. It’s a carefully constructed experiment in empathy and collective memory. Every participant is assigned a real person who actually was -- or plausibly could have been -- at that 1989 ACT UP meeting. You decide, with guidance beforehand, how actively you want to participate. You don’t need to be an actor. You don’t need to speak at all. You just need to show up willing to step into the room and sit with the weight of that moment in history.

The meeting lasts about 2–3 hours and takes place at the Center, 208 W. 13th St., Manhattan. There’s a $19.89 required donation -- a thoughtful nod to the year at the heart of the experience -- with cost alternatives available when you sign up.

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth your time, I found it an effective way to put today’s reality into perspective and to remember how much of it was fought for.

If you’ve already done Fight Back, consider coming again. If you haven’t, this is the moment. And if you know someone who should experience it, spread the word.

THURSDAY, MARCH 19 @ 7pm

at the Center (208 West 13th Street, Manhattan)

Read more and sign up HERE. 

Acting Out: No Anachronisms, Please!

If you've ever wondered what it was like to attend an ACT UP meeting during the height of the AIDS epidemic, then David Wise's "Fight Back" is the immersive outing for you. 

There are no actors and no script. Instead, each attendee is assigned a real-life persona ahead of time, whose level of participation you work out with David in the days leading up to the event.

From the second you arrive at the New York LGBT Community Center in the West Village, everyone is asked to live and breathe in character as if it's March 13, 1989 -- and we're all getting together to organize the next big protest of Mayor Ed Koch's impotent policies outside City Hall. 

Even your small talk has to be time-specific (suggested topics): 

"Did you hear that Robert Mapplethorpe died this week?" 

"Do you think Pepsi will pull Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' commercial because conservative groups are calling it blasphemous?" 

"Are you going to go see Jerome Robbins' Broadway?"

Though I chose not to speak, I felt fortunate that I was assigned to "embody" Andy Velez, who happened to have been close to an actual pal of mine. With the information I gleaned, I felt like I was paying homage to Andy as I participated in the night's proceedings, wearing two strings of his signature beads. (Typically you would just read up on them or watch videos if they're available online.) 

The meeting, for better or worse, is much like any gathering of eclectic people; some are great -- one man moved me to tears announcing the news that a fellow ACT UP member had succumbed to AIDS since the last meeting -- while others drive you nuts by repeatedly asking irrelevant questions or being so pedantic you want to punch them. So while it would be impossible to recreate the sense of urgency and despair that was happening at the time -- thank you, modern medicine -- one thing's for sure: the exercise will give you a fresh perspective on a dark time in gay history. A big thank-you to David for inviting us. Learn more about "Fight Back" HERE. 

P.S. Damian and I attended with our friend Tim Teeman, whose writeup you can read HERE.

(Photos by Hong-An Tran)

Take the L(GB)*

 

I happened to (quickly) walk past the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in the West Village over the weekend, and only when I got home did I begin to wonder what I'd seen. (I was late meeting a friend at the Whitney, so it was all kind of a blur.) When I told Damian that I thought they'd removed the iconic Rainbow flag out front and replaced it with the trans pride one, he immediately assumed I meant that they'd swapped it with the "trans-inclusive" flag, the one where part of the trans flag is Frankensteined onto Gilbert Baker’s already all-inclusive design. No, I protested. I'm pretty sure it was just the trans pride flag. This afternoon I had my friend who lives near the Center -- as it's been rebranded in recent years -- take photos for me and sure enough, I was right.  

Now don't get me wrong. Yes I am a cranky old cisgender gay white man. But I get it -- and immediately assumed the Center had done it for, perhaps, some transgender awareness month or the like, so didn't really think much more about it. (There's no question that trans people are under attack in this country, so it made sense as a symbol of solidarity.)   

But then I remembered it's Black History Month. And the main transgender-themed event I could find -- Transgender Awareness Week -- was back in November. So it did strike me as tone-deaf that the one-time Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center had removed most mentions of lesbians and gays out front, especially at a time when governmental attacks (the Supreme Court eyeing same-sex marriage) and violence (another LGBT bar was just shot up) against them are also on the rise, so much so that even the president of the United States has addressed it in recent speeches, including a few weeks ago when he signed the gay marriage law calling it a "blow against hate." But what do I know? Maybe bullying and gay bashings have gone out of style and the suicide rate of gay and lesbian youth has plummeted in recent times and I just didn't get the memo. 

*Bonus points if you get my obscure Motels reference.

UPDATE: A rep for the Center says the flag has been flying solo since Transgender Awareness Week, and that it's their policy to rotate flags "from time to time." 

Gay Rights Landmarks, Beyond the Stonewall Inn

My former colleague David Dunlap takes a look at some of the iconic LGBT haunts in New York City that aren't quite as well-known as the Stonewall Inn HERE.

Cup a Mo

  Stopped by the new Think Coffee inside the lobby of the recently remodeled Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in the West Village and thought it was just fab. Info HERE.

You're Invited

Our Center Dinner event chairs, Timothy Y. Chow, Johann Shudlick and Greg Zaffiro, invite you to The Center’s longest running, exclusive fundraiser in celebration of the LGBT community and our work to support it. Each year, the crucial funds raised at Center Dinner allow us to maintain and create programs and services that empower people to lead healthy, successful lives. We invite you to join us this year in special celebration as we near completion on our capital improvement renovation, which will dramatically enhance the building and its functionality!

Thursday, 

April 2, 2015 

6:30 p.m. 

Cocktail Reception/Silent Auction 

7:30 p.m. Dinner and Awards 

Cipriani 

55 Wall Street 

Tickets and info HERE.

Charity Begins at Home

How much do LGBT organization leaders make?

The Washington Blade's list is somewhat outdated -- Herndon Graddick's been gone from GLAAD for quite some time, but 2013 must be the last year numbers were available for -- but it is an eye-opener. Given the mission statements of some of these organizations, I find a couple of these pretty excessive. That said, I find corporate salaries far more obscene -- and I understand the need for retention of talent -- so what can you do? Full list HERE.

Village People

The LGBT Center That Changed Our Lives 

Nice report by the Daily Beast's Justin Jones on New York City's LGBT Center, which is currently undergoing a massive renovation. Read HERE.

The Gay We Were

 

 Remember the good old days, when just being gay was in and of itself an adventure? You couldn't wait to leave the house to see what gay thing might happen next. A dance at the Gay and Lesbian Center? Sign me up ...