1:54pm | Forgive me for the late notice, but on Thursday night (that’s tonight!) Artful Thinking will present a screening of Tim Wolff’s documentary film The Sons of Tennessee Williams at the Art Theater.
According to a summary of the film found on Artful Thinking‘s website, The Sons of Tennessee Williams is the story of the gay men of New Orleans who created a vast and fantastic culture of “drag balls” starting in the late 1950s. These men worked with the traditions of Mardi Gras to bring gay culture into public settings in the early 1960s. By 1969, there were four gay Mardi Gras clubs legally chartered by the state of Louisiana, throwing yearly extravaganzas at civic venues around the city.
Society matrons are said to have begged for ball tickets from their hairdressers, according to the write-up.
They succeeded in bringing down the “Jim Crow” type laws that targeted gay people for offenses such as public assembly, same-sex dancing and cross-dressing. They staged a flamboyant, costumed revolution without politics and won freedoms during a time, as now, when laws and people fought against them.
The screening begins at 9 p.m. at the Art Theater, 2025 E. Fourth St.
Artful Thinking is a Long Beach-based nonprofit that engages in artful activities related to educating the public about HIV/AIDS and Breast Cancer as well as providing prevention program information on these two very important health issues through community based events.
Once a month at the Art Theater, the organization hosts OUT at the MOVIES, where for $11 at the box office or $10 in advance, you can screen films “made with a queer lens.”