A vivid history of LGBTQ+ counterculture in 1980s New York

With the exhibition ‘Drag Show’, curator Paul Baker Prindle revisits this fabled chapter of LGBTQ+ history, celebrating the iconoclasts, radicals, and renegades who forged their own path during the height of the AIDS crisis.

In 1979, the Pyramid Club opened its doors to New York’s downtown avant-garde, ushering in a new era of art and activism that would come to define the East Village scene. Here a coterie of underground artists and performers like Lady Bunny, RuPaul, Tabboo!, and Sister Dimension reimagined drag as we know it today. It was a pantheon of larger-than-life personas that eschewed stale tropes of “female impersonation” to create new expressions of gender, style, identity — and any permutation therein.

With the exhibition Drag Show, curator Paul Baker Prindle revisits this fabled chapter of LGBTQ history, celebrating the iconoclasts, radicals, and renegades who forged their own path during the height of the AIDS crisis. The show brings together works by photographers including Nan Goldin and David Yarritu, as well as work by drag legend Linda Simpson, the mastermind behind the underground zine, My Comrade.

Top to bottom: Dotted Bunny, David Yarritu Lypsinka with Oscar, David Yarritu

“The exhibition explores how they came together in the face of exceptional trials by foregrounding their difference as a source of power,” says Prindle, who organized Drag Show as a response to the ongoing attack on LGBTQ rights across the United States today. Drawing inspiration ‘80s activists, Prindle shares insights from Tabboo!, who remembers the harrowing realities of AIDS at a time when the government, media, public health, and religious institutions left them for dead.

“A few times a week, someone you knew was dead, and you couldn’t even have a memorial because there was so much shame. It decimated a whole generation,” Tabboo! told Prindle. “Being gay was still illegal. It was considered a mental disease. The idea of doing something like Wigstock outside in the middle of the day was so fucking revolutionary…. To be outside and not be killed was wild.”

Drag Show pays homage to the innovators whose courage, creativity and community-building vision in the face of state-sanctioned violence transformed the landscape of politics and pop culture alike. “Gays have had long had an impact on the production of culture, but this moment is one where it was undeniable; the impact couldn’t be fully hidden behind coded images or words,” Prindle says.

Top to bottom: Billy, David Yarritu Egyptians (Billy & Will), David Yarritu Mona Foot as Wonder Woman, David Yarritu Zaldy & Mthu, David Yarritu

Photography played an integral role in making visible all that had been misrepresented or wholly erased, centring the stories and struggles of those marginalised by systemic oppression and opening new spaces for acts of joy and resistance.

“Photography places your world into the historical archive while also affirming one’s sense of self-worth, identity, connection with others,” says Prindle. He points to the rise of instamatic cameras during this time as a vital tool to advance the culture and the cause.

“Polaroid film was an incredible tool for creating colour images that didn’t require you to open yourself up to censorship or reliance on a homophobic printer,” he says. “You could make an image of anything—especially things that were not for everyone’s eyes. To control the means of production around queer images is extremely empowering.”

Top to bottom: Dudes, David Yarritu Page, David Yarritu

Drag Show was on view through December 15, 2023, at Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum of California State University, Long Beach in California.

Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on X and Instagram.

Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck.

Latest on Huck

Red shop frontage with "Open Out" branding and appointment-only signage.
Activism

Meet the trans-led hairdressers providing London with gender-affirming trims

Open Out — Since being founded in 2011, the Hoxton salon has become a crucial space the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Hannah Bentley caught up with co-founder Greygory Vass to hear about its growth, breaking down barbering binaries, and the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Written by: Hannah Bentley

Cyclists racing past Palestinian flag, yellow barriers, and spectators.
Sport

Gazan amputees secure Para-Cycling World Championships qualification

Gaza Sunbirds — Alaa al-Dali and Mohamed Asfour earned Palestine’s first-ever top-20 finish at the Para-Cycling World Cup in Belgium over the weekend.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Crowded festival site with tents, stalls and an illuminated red double-decker bus. Groups of people, including children, milling about on the muddy ground.
© Alan Tash Lodge
Music

New documentary revisits the radical history of UK free rave culture

Free Party: A Folk History — Directed by Aaron Trinder, it features first-hand stories from key crews including DiY, Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and Circus Warp, with public streaming available from May 30.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Weathered wooden building with a tall spire, person on horseback in foreground.
Culture

Rahim Fortune’s dreamlike vision of the Black American South

Reflections — In the Texas native’s debut solo show, he weaves familial history and documentary photography to challenge the region’s visual tropes.

Written by: Miss Rosen

A collage depicting a giant flup for mankind, with an image of the Earth surrounded by planets and people in sci-fi costumes.
Culture

Why Katy Perry’s space flight was one giant flop for mankind

Galactic girlbossing — In a widely-panned, 11-minute trip to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the ‘Women’s World’ singer joined an all-female space crew in an expensive vanity advert for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland explains its apocalypse indicating signs.

Written by: Emma Garland

Three orange book covers with the title "Foreign Fruit" against a dark background.
Culture

Katie Goh: “I want people to engage with the politics of oranges”

Foreign Fruit — In her new book, the Edinburgh-based writer traces her personal history through the citrus fruit’s global spread, from a village in China to Californian groves. Angela Hui caught up with her to find out more.

Written by: Katie Goh

Huck is supported by our readers, subscribers and Club Huck members. It is also made possible by sponsorship from:

Signup to our newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter to informed with the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture, featuring personal takes on the state of media and pop culture from Emma Garland, former Digital Editor of Huck, exclusive interviews, recommendations and more.

Please wait...

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.