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In the early hours of the morning on June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar located in New York City’s Greenwich Village, in one of the many state sponsored crackdowns on gay communities during the sixties. The Stonewall raid did not go as planned however, when patrons gathered outside the bar and began protesting. The spontaneous show of defiance became the now famous Stonewall riot, a defining event that gave rise to the LGBT rights movement in the US 43 years ago tomorrow.

While a number of popular books and films have chronicled the modern gay rights movement and notable activists, the lives and musings of gay figures from centuries ago are largely obscure to the general public. Performance artist and activist Ian MacKinnon and activist Wendell Jones sought to change that with their play, Gay Hist -Orgy, parts 1 and 2. In a solo performance MacKinnon takes the audience back in time to visit gay figures both famous and obscure, from Plato to Allen Ginsberg, to expose lesser known acts of defiance and musings on homosexuality. Delving deeper, the Gay Hist-Orgy asks the question, What Is Gay Love?, and MacKinnon looks for answers from great figures in philosophy, psychology, poetry and art. The dense material is made light with a racy script and campy performance. Gay hist-Orgy returns to LA for a month-long run starting July 6th at the Hyperion Arts Station in Silverlake.

Gay Hist-Orgy! Parts 1 and 2 are playing in Los Angeles every Friday night in July, at Moving Arts Hyperion Station, located at 1822 Hyperion Ave, 90027

GUESTS: Wendell Jones and Ian Mackinnon, co-writers of a Gay Hist-orgy, Ian is the solo performer

Tickets are $20 each, $15 for students. Click here to purchase tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/214106