The best gay New York events of fall 2012

Fall 2012 will be a bumper three months for gay New York culture. Find out what your friends will be talking about all season long.

By Ethan LaCroix Tue Aug 21 2012

Photograph: Del LaGrace Volcano

Rachel Maddow at Home in my Studio, London, 1998, from “Del LaGrace Volcano: A Mid-Career Retrospective”
Photograph: Koitz

Will Wikle at the Dworld Underwear Party in Fire Island
1994 Straight To Hell poster by Dyke Action Machine! (DAM)
Photograph: Jean-Christophe Husson

Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth in Keep the Lights On
Photograph: Jason Rodgers

Ladyfag

Photograph: Del LaGrace Volcano

Rachel Maddow at Home in my Studio, London, 1998, from “Del LaGrace Volcano: A Mid-Career Retrospective”

Ready yourself for a season of challenging LGBT culture everyone will be talking about, including Del LaGrace Volcano’s confrontational retrospective, a survey of queer public-art project Dyke Action Machine! and more. Check out the best gay New York events this fall.

RECOMMENDED: Complete guide to Fall in New York

Mo B Dick, Half & Half, New York City, 1998

“Del LaGrace Volcano: A Mid-Career Retrospective”

Critics choice
Free

Sweden-based gender-subverting photographer Del LaGrace Volcano was born in the United States, yet the artist’s work is fairly unknown here. That will surely change thanks to this confrontational exhibit showcasing 30 years’ worth of images designed to challenge our understanding of class, race and sexuality. Volcano’s portraits of people living at various points on and outside of the gender spectrum—including a young Rachel Maddow—may be disturbing to some viewers, but few will be able to take their eyes off them.

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art 26 Wooster St, between Canal and Grand Sts
Sun Nov 17

More info

Will Wikle at the Dworld Underwear Party in Fire Island

DWorld: The World’s Largest Underwear Party

Price band: 2/4
Critics choice

Planning on getting fat for Thanksgiving? Take this last chance to show off the remnants of your beach bod. This epic panty party is a local version of the notorious Fire Island underwear shindigs thrown by Daniel Nardicio, who will team up with reality-show veteran and go-go hunk Will Wikle to count attendees in hopes of setting a Guinness World Record for “most guys in their underwear.”

Rebel 251 W 30th St, between Seventh and Eighth Aves
Until Wed Nov 21

More info

1994 Straight To Hell poster by Dyke Action Machine! (DAM)

“Straight to Hell: Twenty Years of Dyke Action Machine!”

Critics choice
Free

Queer antiassimilation voices have grown louder in the wake of last year’s marriage-equality victory in New York, but this show lets us know that agitated feelings from the LGBT left are hardly a new thing. Learn the history of Dyke Action Machine!, a public-art project founded by painter Carrie Moyer and photographer Sue Schaffner, which plastered the city with posters bearing slogans such as "Gay Marriage: Is It Worth Being Boring for a Blender?" (Archive hours vary; call ahead or check online for hours or to schedule a viewing appointment.)

Lesbian Herstory Archives 484 14th St, between Eighth Ave and Prospect Park West
Until Thu Jan 31

More info

Keep the Lights On

Critics choice

Ira Sachs’s moving and personal drama, starring Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth, opens this fall after especially buzzy Sundance and Tribeca Film Fest appearances. The story of a gay couple’s turbulent relationship over the course of ten years is already being hailed as the second coming of Brokeback Mountain (a film that, in hindsight, might not have been the great queer cultural touchstone it was originally made out to be). But even if it’s not a capital-I-important gay film, Keep the Lights On is sure to be the movie all your friends are talking about this fall, so don’t be left out of the conversation. (keepthelightsonfilm.com).

Opens Sept 7

Ladyfag, “Dayclub”

Critics choice

Queer antiassimilation voices have grown louder in the wake of last year’s marriage-equality victory in New York, but this show lets us know that agitated feelings from the LGBT left are hardly a new thing. Learn the history of Dyke Action Machine!, a public-art project founded by painter Carrie Moyer and photographer Sue Schaffner, which plastered the city with posters bearing slogans such as GAY MARRIAGE: IS IT WORTH BEING BORING FOR A BLENDER? • (718-768-3953, lesbianherstoryarchives.org). Hours vary, call or check website for details; free. Opening reception with Moyer and Schaffner Oct 7 3–6pm.