#daniel albanese

[thedustyrebel]

Out In The Streets: Dusty Rebel’s Mural To Celebrate Pride During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Process shots of me working on my Pride mural on 2nd Avenue. It’s not an easy time to make art in public, but it was so nice to have so many East Villagers come by and tell me how happy they were to see this go up. Many of the photos featured were taken in the neighborhood.

A few months ago, I was again offered the 2nd Avenue wall for Pride. Like last year, I wanted to bring in a queer artist, but then we got hit with this horrible pandemic, and all our plans fell through. As the weeks went by, the death toll rose, and most Pride events were cancelled, I knew I wanted to celebrate the queer community and our long history of using the street for performance and protest.

Talking with my friend Katherine ‘Luna Park’ Lorimer about what I should do, she suggested I fill the space with my photos. It never occurred to me—I've documented more murals then I can remember, but never done one myself. And with social distancing, I'd have to do it without help from any of the many mural experts I know.

As went through my archive, I got excited to create something that celebrates historic moments I felt honored to capture: NYC Drag March, kiss-ins, Gays Against Guns, Queer Liberation March, The Dyke March. As I pasted these photos of queer icons, mentors, activists, and friends, I felt you all with me out in the streets.

Thank you Steve Stoppert for the wall and all your support, and to City Kitty for sponsoring, my husband Jason for being my amazing assistant!

More photos: Dusty Rebel, Queer Street Art

[thedustyrebel]

Out In The Streets: Dusty Rebel’s Mural To Celebrate Pride During The COVID-19 Pandemic

A few months ago, I was again offered the 2nd Avenue wall for Pride. Like last year, I wanted to bring in a queer artist, but then we got hit with this horrible pandemic, and all our plans fell through. As the weeks went by, the death toll rose, and most Pride events were cancelled, I knew I wanted to celebrate the queer community and our long history of using the street for performance and protest.

Talking with my friend Katherine ‘Luna Park’ Lorimer about what I should do, she suggested I fill the space with my photos. It never occurred to me—I've documented more murals then I can remember, but never done one myself. And with social distancing, I'd have to do it without help from any of the many mural experts I know.

As went through my archive, I got excited to create something that celebrates historic moments I felt honored to capture: NYC Drag March, kiss-ins, Gays Against Guns, Queer Liberation March, The Dyke March. As I pasted these photos of queer icons, mentors, activists, and friends, I felt you all with me out in the streets.

Thank you Steve Stoppert for the wall and all your support, and to City Kitty for sponsoring, my husband Jason for being my amazing assistant!

More photos: Dusty Rebel, Queer Street Art

[thedustyrebel]

Women of Resistance & The Dusty Rebel | Artbook MoMA PS1

Join the coeditors of Women of Resistance, Danielle Barnhart & Iris Mahan in conversation with photographer, Daniel Albanese aka TheDustyRebel (whose photos of street art and protest are featured as the section breaks of the anthology) and special guest, street artist, Jilly Ballistic.

The conversation will focus on poetry & art as protest; why women/femme/queer artists take to the streets, and how this resistance shapes art and literary worlds (and the artists themselves). Panelists will explore how we reach our audiences despite issues of gender and myriad intersecting identities that define us as "other," and the beauty & communities created from resistance.

This will be a multimedia event, with projections of the photographer's work, and performances by contributing poets. This event is free and open to the public from 3 to 5pm.

MoMA PS1 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101

More photos: Poetry, Resistance, Books, Jilly Ballistic,

[thedustyrebel]

Documenting Queer Street Art

About a year ago, we officially began production on this crazy idea I had for a global documentary about Queer Street Art. This week we finished filming in New Orleans — so far documenting over a dozen artists in 7 cities and 6 countries, and more to go!

Director Daniel ‘Dusty’ Albanese and Cinematographer Vince Rappa documenting street artist Jeremy Novy in New Orleans.

More photos: Jeremy Novy, Documentaries, Queer Street Art, Street Art

[thedustyrebel]

Women Of Resistance

Proud to have contributed photography to Women of Resistance — an anthology of poetry taking a feminist stance against the Trump administration. Tonight, OR Books will be hosting the official launch at The Strand Bookstore at 7pm in NYC.

More photos: Poetry, Resistance, Books

[thedustyrebel]

Sip-In 52nd Year Celebration

For the 52nd anniversary of the historic Sip-In, NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project honors Dick Leitsch — one of the four homosexuals who went in search of a drink to challenge discrimination and changed history.

Here's what my pals at LGBT_History wrote about the Sip-In:

In 1960, David Carter explains, the NYPD “began a systematic campaign…to close all gay bars.” While no law specifically prohibited homosexuals from gathering or being served in bars, a post-Prohibition regulation prohibited bars from becoming “disorderly,” and that was interpreted as not allowing bars to serve homosexuals. In an effort to clarify the regulations—and to challenge the attack on queer spaces—members of Mattachine Society New York (MSNY) devised a plan that “revealed the extent to which they modeled their activism on the black civil rights movement…They determined that several members of the Society would enter a bar, announce themselves as homosexuals, and ask to be served. If they were refused service…, they would make a complaint against both the bar and the [state] for violating their constitutional rights to free assembly and equal accommodation.” On April 21, 1966, 52 years ago today, Dick Leitsch, John Timmins, Craig Rodwell, and Randy Wicker tried to put the plan in motion, though it proved difficult.

The targeted bar—which displayed a sign reading, “If You Are Gay, Please Go Away”—seemed an easy choice. Before they arrived, however, the manager learned of the plan and closed for the day. From there, the men went to two bars on 6th Avenue, both of which served them.

Finally, the group went to Julius’, a gay bar at West 10th Street & Waverly Place, where the bartender was willing to serve them until Leitsch convinced him to play along; refusing the group service, he announced, “I think it’s the law.”

The Sip-In, as The New York Times dubbed it, got a great deal of press relative to previous homophile efforts, and MSNY had the ammunition to challenge the unequal application of the “disorderly” regulation.

Julius, Bar, for its part, is still in business; a monthly Mattachine party marks the bar’s monumental role in queer history.

Partying like its 1966!

More photos: LGBT History, LGBT, Gay Rights

[thedustyrebel]

Nobody Knows I’m A Lesbian

First in my series of ad takeovers for NYC Pride. This one features Edie Windsor leading last year's Dyke March. Windsor’s 2013 Supreme Court case struck down DOMA, helping to bring marriage equality to all 50 states (Greenwich Village, NYC)

More photos: Dusty Rebel, Queer Street Art, Street Art, Ad Takeover

[thedustyrebel]

Resistance Is Queer

Part of my series of ad takeovers for NYC Pride, a spinoff from Resistance Is Female: a photo from the 2016 NYC Drag March. Tattooed on his back is a quote—“Hope Will Never Be Silent”—from Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. Milk was assassinated just under 11 months in office. (Greenwich Village, NYC)

More photos: Dusty Rebel, Queer Street Art, Street Art, Ad Takeover