Grayson Eli's Projects

This website is the holding space for projects created by NYC-based transgender creator Grayson Eli (he/him), including archival scans, zines, and other self-published material. Materials featured and discussed here may be NSFW (including kink-forward NSFW) and may include themes persons may find troubling, such as racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, and other forms of bigotry and interpersonal abuse.

[grayson-eli]

Categorizing these as "LGBT people talking about stuff." c. 1996 flyers, likely all available for free at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York City. Scanned from the Johnny Science papers at NYU.

Featuring:

Identity House

Community Health Project (the precursor to Callen-Lorde)

I did attempt to find the origin of the "stop trans-bashing" poster -- the best guess on Instagram was that it's sourced to Transexual Menace but I can neither confirm nor deny.

[grayson-eli]

Lesbian Nightlife in New York City, mid-late 1990s. Scanned from the Johnny Science papers at NYU. Featuring the following nightlife sites:

Wonder Bar

Meow Mix

Caroline Clone's W.O.W., HerShe Bar, and Lovergirl parties

Mo B. Dick's Pussy! and Club Casanova parties

[grayson-eli]

Trying to find love at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, c. 1995-1997. Scanned from the Johnny Science papers at NYU. From what I can tell, all of these flyers were distributed at the Center during that time period. All annotations saved for the blacked-out phone numbers are his.

[grayson-eli]

Bisexual culture at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center 1995-1996, featuring BiRequest (a discussion group hosted by the New York Area Bisexual Network (NYABN)) & BiNet USA. List of bisexual groups comes from the May/June '96 "Center Happenings" flyer.

Scanned from the Johnny Science papers at NYU.

[grayson-eli]

Metro North Chapter of the National Leather Association rope bondage flyers, 1995-96. Created by Johnny Science, who was president of the chapter at the time. Scanned from his papers at NYU.

[grayson-eli]

Halloween party fliers from the Johnny Science papers, c. late-90s. Scanned at NYU Special Collections.

I know, given the context in his papers, that Johnny Science created the flyers for the Jovian Gentlemen (which was a group he founded for matching 21+ men interested in middle aged to old men) and the flyer for the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center Dance Committee (particularly interesting to me, as I had no knowledge he had ever worked with them.)

Less clear to me are the origins of famed lesbian party promoter Caroline Clone's Nightmare on 8th St or the Radical Faeries Xtravaganza. I believe he may have created the flyer for Clone's party due to the style but I scanned these quickly so I may be misremembering. I don't think he made the Radical Faeries Xtravaganza flyer.

[grayson-eli]

F2M Fraternity ephemera, late 1980s-early 1990s. Donated by Aaron Devor, author of FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society.

F2M Fraternity was a social group for transmasculine people in New York City that was created by Johnny Science. His papers, including his F2M Fraternity ephemera, are stored at NYU Special Collections.

[grayson-eli]

W.O.W. Bar flyers featuring drag kings, c. mid-late 1990s. Scanned from the Johnny Science papers at NYU.

W.O.W (World of Women) Bar was one of several parties run by English lesbian party promoter Caroline Clone. Her other parties included HerShe Bar and LoverGirl. More information on Clone's dominance as a party promoter in New York City can be found here. Additional information can be found about Clone in this excellent article about her time dominating the 1993 party scene in Miami.

[grayson-eli]

Linda/Les and Annie ephemera from Rites of Passage, Issue 2, published by Johnny Science in December 1989. Scanned by NYU Library Staff from the Johnny Science papers.

Watch the "docu-porn" film for free here.

[grayson-eli]

Gender Identity Project flyer distributed by the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center (now known as The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center), c. late 90s.

More on the Gender Identity Project at the Digital Transgender Archive.

Scanned from the Johnny Science papers at NYU.

[grayson-eli]

Excerpts from the October 13, 1995 issue of Next Magazine.

Scanned from the Johnny Science papers at NYU.

[grayson-eli]

Excerpts from the March 7, 1997 issue of Next Magazine.

Scanned from the Johnny Science papers at NYU.

[grayson-eli]

NYC American Boyz flyers, c. late-1990s. Scanned from the Johnny Science papers at NYU.

More information about Johnny Science.