Windy City Media Group
Chicago’s Legacy Walk LGBT History Museum to honor Sylvia Rivera, Vito Russo
Press Release
Sept. 19, 2016
Dedicated in 2012, Chicago’s Legacy Walk is the world’s only outdoor LGBT History Museum. This half-mile installation features bronze biographical memorials celebrating the lives of people like Leonard Bernstein, Audre Lorde, Sally Ride, James Baldwin, Jane Addams, Rudolf Nureyev, Frida Kahlo and Alan Turing.
The Legacy Walk’s markers serve as an “outdoor classroom” for bullied LGBTQ youth who come for guided tours in order to learn about historically significant positive LGBT role models whose contributions have made an incalculable difference in the world we share.
On October 15, 2016 they welcome two LGBT activist superstars to the Legacy Walk: transgender icon Sylvia Rivera from the Stonewall Era, and gay film activist/historian Vito Russo, who co-founded both ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). Their considerable legacies will soon be added to the 35 incredible stories of achievement which already line the only streetscape of its kind in existence.
This all-day tribute will feature legendary gay activist Cleve Jones, Chicago transgender spokesperson Myles Brady-Davis, Emmy Award-Winning writer-producer-actor Bruce Vilanch, and trans pioneer Judy Bowenwiener, a close personal friend of Sylvia and Marsha P. Johnson from the post-Stonewall Era. Judy will be talking about their involvement as three trans women in New York’s Gay Activist Alliance (GAA). She will be joined by Phillip Raia, who worked with both Vito and Sylvia in GAA in the 1970s. Never have all these people been brought together for a celebration quite like this.
The event will be in three parts:
1-3 p.m.: Opening Reception and Program, Center on Halsted
Transgender activist Myles Brady-Davis, Howard Brown Health, gay activist Cleve Jones, NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, “Reflecting on the Evolution of Activism across the Decades.”
3-4 p.m.: Legacy Walk Induction Ceremonies, Northalsted Streetscape, featuring the LGBTQ Youth from Lyons Township High School.
Sylvia Rivera Bronze Memorial Dedication, 3656 N. Halsted: Personal reflections of Judy Bowenwiener and Phillip Raia, Sylvia Rivera’s friends.
Vito Russo Bronze Memorial Dedication, 3411 N. Halsted, personal reflections of Bruce Vilanch, Emmy Award-winning writer-producer-actor.
4-6 p.m.: Celebration Party, Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted, “Building a New Legacy for the Future of Our Past.”
Tickets for this multi-part event are available for $30, $50, and $100 and include light appetizers and variable bar service. There will also be raffle prizes and door prizes. LGBT people from throughout the metropolitan area are expected to turn out to celebrate this unique Chicago cultural institution—built by our community, for our community—in this salute to the contributions of LGBT people.
TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED AT:
www.eventbrite.com/e/legacy-walk-dedication-v-tickets-27530936773 .
