During Pride Month and all summer long, Hudson River Park’s 25th Anniversary programming season spotlights and celebrates LGBTQIA+ voices. Read on as we highlight some of this month’s outstanding artists and events and share resources where you can learn about the rich LGBTQIA+ history of our waterfront and surrounding neighborhoods. And be sure to check back throughout June as we share more ways to celebrate Pride in the Park.
Resistance Revival Chorus
Sunset on Hudson
Hudson River Park’s Pier 45
Friday, June 2 at 7:00 PM
Kick off Pride Month in Hudson River Park on Friday, June 2 at Sunset on the Hudson as The Resistance Revival Chorus returns to our riverfront stage at Pier 45. This collective of more than 60 women and non-binary singers join together to breathe joy and song into the resistance and to uplift and center women’s voices.
Members of the chorus hail from diverse professional backgrounds — touring musicians, film and television actors, Broadway performers, solo recording artists, gospel singers, political activists, educators, filmmakers, artists, and more — representing a multitude of identities, professions, creative backgrounds, and activist causes.
There’s no better way to jump start summer Fridays in NYC than with a rousing concert as the sun sets over historic Pier 45 — and we can’t think of a better way to welcome Pride month than to celebrate the power of community and raise our voices for a better world with The Resistance Revival Chorus.
Healthy on the Hudson
Monday, June 5 – Friday, June 9
Multiple locations; visit here for details
Healthy on the Hudson turns the Park’s most scenic spaces into riverfront gyms, offering a variety of fun, refreshing and free fitness classes for attendees of all skill levels led by lululemon Ambassadors. All week long, from Monday, June 5 to Friday, June 9, we’ll be celebrating Pride at this popular fitness series. Stay tuned to our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) to learn more about what’s in store. Healthy on the Hudson is presented by lululemon.
VIVA
Sunset on the Hudson
Hudson River Park’s Pier 45
Friday, June 9 at 7:00 PM
On Friday, June 9, NYC-based glam-rock guitarist, vocalist, and LGBTQIA+ activist Viva DeConcini will rock our Sunset on the Hudson stage. Viva’s influences include Jimi Hendrix, Dolly Parton, NYC, disco and jam bands. She’s played Bonnaroo and Monterey Jazz Fest, produced sell out shows in NYC and was featured in Guitar Player mag. In 2019, she produced I LOVE OLIVIA, a 10-episode queer tragicomedy podcast.
We look forward to Viva bringing her dynamic post-punk, psychedelic glam-rock to Pier 45 as our Pride Month celebrations continue.
Pride in HRPK
Hudson River Park’s Pier 45
Sunday, June 25
Our West Village esplanades, along with Piers 45 and 46, have long been a place of gathering on Pride Sunday, with thousands coming together to celebrate Pride. We look forward to welcoming everyone to our riverfront safely – check here for the most updated information.
Connect with the Park as a Place for Community and Creative Expression
Below we’re sharing resources where you can learn more about the Park’s LGBTQIA+ history through art, written records, tours and other learning tools. While this list is by no means exhaustive, we hope it points to helpful sources for those who want to learn more.
NYC LGBT Historic Site Project
The NYC LGBT Historic Site Project documents historic places connected to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in NYC, telling the often untold story of their influence on American history and culture. The Project’s interactive map features over 385 sites, including the Park’s Greenwich Village Waterfront, and can be sorted by cultural significance, neighborhood, era, LGBT category and type of site.
The Center Archives
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Center (“The Center”), located on W 13 St., maintains The LGBT Community Center National History Archive, a community-based archive that “collects, preserves, and makes available to the public the documentation of LGBTQ lives and organizations centered in and around New York.” With materials that date as early as 1878, this wealth of resources enables “stories and experiences of New York’s LGBTQ people to be told with historical depth and understanding.”
NYPL Gay and Lesbian Collections & AIDS/HIV Collections
New York Public Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division is home to over 100 collections pertaining to LGBT history and culture, and to the history of the AIDS/HIV epidemic, dating back to the 1890s. (A guide to the archive notes that, “Gay and lesbian history and AIDS history are not a single subject; however, because of their interrelationships, both types of collections are included.”)
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) Civil Rights & Social Justice Map
Launched by the GVSHP in 2017, this online resource marks more than 200 locations within Greenwich Village, NoHo and the East Village that are significant to the history of various civil rights and social justice movements. The interactive map, which includes a feature on the Park’s Pier 45, allows visitors to sort by movement and explore intersectional landmarks for community advocacy.
The Whitney Museum of American Art’s Queer History Walks
With dates throughout the summer, this free walking tour “explores the rich queer history of the neighborhood surrounding the Whitney Museum,” inviting visitors to “consider their connection to the changing landscape of the neighborhood that the Whitney now occupies, as well as to the history of the city.” We also encourage you to check out the Whitney’s Artists Among Us podcast, which uses Day’s End — © David Hammons (2014-2021), a gift from the Whitney to Hudson River Park — as a jumping off point to explore the history of the Meatpacking District, celebrating the communities that shaped the neighborhood.
National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) Greenwich Village LGBT History Tour
This map, put together by the NPCA and the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, details sites of historic importance located both within and near the Stonewall National Monument. It features a 45-minute, 17-stop self-guided tour, which includes a visit to the Park. Visit the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project resource hub for more.