Out at CHM is beginning its 9th year with three innovative programs that delve into the contributions LGBT communities have made to Chicago and the nation. In January the Chicago History Museum will host a celebration and discussion on Chicago's leather community with Chicago in Leather, in February the Museum will look at the life and legacy of civil rights hero, and openly gay man, Bayard Rustin with Rustin at 100, and in March the Museum will celebrate the triumphant end of the Out in Chicago exhibition by taking a behind-the-scenes look at the exhibition from conception to execution with Curators Bare All.
Being home to the first dedicated leather bar in the United States, the first gay motorcycle club outside of Los Angeles and the first, and still running, BDSM club for gay men, the Windy City is rich with LGBT leather history.
On Thursday, January 19, 2012, the Chicago History Museum in collaboration with the Leather Archives Museum will host an expert panel, moderated by Dr. Jennifer Tyburczy, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University's Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, to discuss the importance of Chicago's leather subculture. Chicago in Leather will highlight how gender, sexual orientation, collaboration and separatism have co-existed throughout the past five decades.
Known as the "invisible man" of the civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin was a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Artfully bringing Gandhi's techniques of nonviolence from India to America, Rustin organized the 1963 march on Washington D.C., the largest demonstration to date in American history. Yet despite his pivotal contributions, Rustin was expunged from history for being openly gay.
On Thursday, February 9, 2012, filmmaker Bennett Singer, co-director of the acclaimed documentary Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, and Rustin's surviving life partner Walter Naegle will host a conversation about Rustin's life and legacy. The evening will explore how Rustin is being rediscovered by a new generation of Americans committed to social and economic justice. During the conversation, film clips from Brother Outsider will be shown to add context to the life of this unknown hero.
On Thursday, March 8, 2012, curators Jill Austin and Jennifer Brier share the thrills and chills of mounting an exhibition on Chicago's LGBT history, and confess to their own trials and tribulations. Participants will have a chance to see the exhibition before it closes, and gain a unique perspective on telling LGBT history in a public museum.
Each Out at CHM program starts with cocktails at 5:30 p.m. and programming at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $12 for the public and $10 for members and students. The Out in Chicago exhibition will be open for guests to view during the cocktail hour prior to each program. Come see this exhilarating exhibition before it closes its doors on March 26, 2012 for details, call 312.642.4600 or visit chicagohistory.org
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The Chicago History Museum, a major museum and research center for Chicago and American history, is located at 1601 N. Clark Street. The Museum can be reached by CTA buses 11, 22, 36, 72, 73, 151, and 156. Parking is conveniently located one block north of the Museum at Clark and LaSalle Streets (enter on Stockton Drive). Admission to the Museum is $14 adults with audio tour, $12 seniors/students with audio tour, free for children 12 years and younger. Please call 312.642.4600 or visit us at www.chicagohistory.org . The Chicago History Museum is affiliated with the Chicago Historical Society and acknowledges the Chicago Park District's generous support of all the Museum's activities.
