Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

A pictorial time capsule from the pivotal days of a budding gay rights movement.Baumann, coordinator of the New York Public Library's LGBT Initiative, presents a dramatic collection of images, drawn from the career archives of photo-documentarians Lahusen and Davies, charting the rise of grassroots gay activism from the mid-1960s to the mid-'70s. It was a time when LGBT activists took to the streets of New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New Jersey to creatively and defiantly demonstrate against intolerance and inequality and whose "vision and courage changed our world." Lahusen was active in early lesbian solidarity organizations while Davies was best known for chronicling the feminist, peace, and social justice activism movements of the era. Their photographs, accompanied by Baumann's commentary and descriptions, represent separate perspectives within a unified theme of LGBT equality throughout each of the book's four sections. "Visibility" displays images of a wide variety of gays and lesbians in the primes of their careers and endeavors; "Love" celebrates the power of community and affection in the face of societal hate; "Pride" memorializes the sacred queer spaces where activism, collaboration, and solidarity flourished; and "Protest" demarcates the demonstrations and rebellion against rampant gay oppression. Iconic activists like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Barbara Gittings, and Ernestine Eckstein share space with gay writers, artists, performers, and media founders. Haunting and arresting, the photos illustrate a historic American era when same-sex affection was forbidden in public and considered both a mental illness and an atrocity. A literary celebration commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the epic Stonewall riots, the book is elegiac yet also provides a reflective and hopeful reminder for future generations that change and promise can arise from struggle and sacrifice. Though the book is a reflection of a different age and struggle, it is also timely given that LGBT freedoms remain ever endangered within the current political climate.A moving queer tapestry honoring a beleaguered movement's legacy through art, veneration, and gravitas.

ALA Booklist (Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2019)

Honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and published as a companion to a commemorative exhibition at the New York Public Library, where curator Baumann oversees the LGBT Initiative, this book of photographs by lesbian activists and photojournalists Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies captures the people and activities that shaped East Coast queer activism in the 1960s and 70s. The pictures are divided into four thematic chapters isibility," "Love," "Pride," and "Protest" at together convey a diverse movement with competing ambitions. For example, a Davies photograph shows a united line of cops and patrons of the gay bar Christopher's End amidst a protest organized by gay activists who objected to the bar owner's connection to organized crime. Lahusen and Davies participated in different strands of LGBT activism, and together their pictures offer powerful portraits of brave leaders, radical intimacy, safe spaces, and public marches with descriptive captions that identify featured figures and provide a broad context for the images. Nearly every photograph brims with stories deserving their own book, thus making this volume but a rich beginning.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A pictorial time capsule from the pivotal days of a budding gay rights movement.Baumann, coordinator of the New York Public Library's LGBT Initiative, presents a dramatic collection of images, drawn from the career archives of photo-documentarians Lahusen and Davies, charting the rise of grassroots gay activism from the mid-1960s to the mid-'70s. It was a time when LGBT activists took to the streets of New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New Jersey to creatively and defiantly demonstrate against intolerance and inequality and whose "vision and courage changed our world." Lahusen was active in early lesbian solidarity organizations while Davies was best known for chronicling the feminist, peace, and social justice activism movements of the era. Their photographs, accompanied by Baumann's commentary and descriptions, represent separate perspectives within a unified theme of LGBT equality throughout each of the book's four sections. "Visibility" displays images of a wide variety of gays and lesbians in the primes of their careers and endeavors; "Love" celebrates the power of community and affection in the face of societal hate; "Pride" memorializes the sacred queer spaces where activism, collaboration, and solidarity flourished; and "Protest" demarcates the demonstrations and rebellion against rampant gay oppression. Iconic activists like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Barbara Gittings, and Ernestine Eckstein share space with gay writers, artists, performers, and media founders. Haunting and arresting, the photos illustrate a historic American era when same-sex affection was forbidden in public and considered both a mental illness and an atrocity. A literary celebration commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the epic Stonewall riots, the book is elegiac yet also provides a reflective and hopeful reminder for future generations that change and promise can arise from struggle and sacrifice. Though the book is a reflection of a different age and struggle, it is also timely given that LGBT freedoms remain ever endangered within the current political climate.A moving queer tapestry honoring a beleaguered movement's legacy through art, veneration, and gravitas.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Baumann, coordinator for the New York Public Library-s LGBT Initiative, brings together the photographs of two chroniclers of the 1960s and 1970s gay rights movement, Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies, in this moving collection that accompanies an upcoming exhibit at the New York Public Library. Baumann describes Lahusen-s photos as -working for rights-based inclusion- while Davies-s -called for the radical questioning of society as a whole.- The photos-candids taken in homes, at protests, at parties-document an evolution of activism (mostly in major cities on the East Coast), a burgeoning public pride, and a diverse group of figures: Barbara Gittings, Lahusen-s activist partner (and frequent subject) who participated in events including a 1965 march on the White House protesting federal bans on hiring gays and lesbians and a -Hug a Homosexual- booth at a 1971 American Library Association conference; Frank Kameny, the first openly gay candidate for Congress; and Martha P. Johnson, cofounder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR) and a protester at Stonewall. Baumann organizes the more than 100 photographs into four sections, each about a -mode of resistance-: visibility, love, pride, and protest. Baumann-s brief captions provide details about the actions and lives of the players that shaped history with their bravery. This collection provides important archival visuals to a still-underreported slice of history. (Mar.)