News and Events

Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall

(Image: “My Vision is Small” by Felipe Baez.)

Press Release

Highlights

• Exhibition | August 19 through October 31 at the Phebe Conley Art Gallery
• Reception | 5 p.m., Thursday, September 9 at the Phebe Conley Art Gallery
• Satellite exhibit | Constellating Care Networks, Fresno City College and Center for Creativity and Arts co-sponsored , Sept. 2 through Oct. 8 at the Art Space Gallery, Fresno City College.
• Female Impersonator Show | 5 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Phebe Conley courtyard.
• CineCulture virtual screening | “Carlos Jáuregui: The Unforgettable Fag.” The event features an online screening October 18-22 and a Zoom discussion with director Lucas Santa Ana at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 22.
• Concert and Poetry Reading |  Featuring members of the LGBTQ+ community and led by Professor Benjamin Boone, details TBA.
• Panel Discussion | details TBA.

McClatchy Foundation grant brings renowned Stonewall art exhibit to Fresno State

(Image above: “Run Little White Girl” by David Antonio Cruz)

Press Release

It was a hot Friday night in New York City in 1969. Across from Christopher Park in Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn bar, a haven for drag queens and crossdressers, was packed with the usual crowd. Like many gay bars at that time in New York, the bar was operated illegally by the mob. Around 1 a.m. that Saturday morning, eight undercover officers entered intending to close the bar for good.

At the time, it was a crime to “masquerade” as a person of the opposite sex, so the officers immediately targeted drag queens and crossdressers for arrest as the police van pulled up. Outside the bar, according to reports, police were roughing up a lesbian person in handcuffs when the growing crowd had enough and began fighting back.

Throughout the Stonewall riot and the demonstrations during the following six days, a homeless, Black transgender woman, Marsha P. Johnson, began to emerge as the movement’s leader. Stonewall was the beginning of a new era for the LGBTQ+ community regarding civil rights and social advocacy.

Fifty years later, Johnson’s rallying cry, “nobody promised you tomorrow,” would become the title of a critically acclaimed 2019 art exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum commemorating the Stonewall uprising anniversary.

With the help of a $205,000 grant from The McClatchy Fresno Arts Endowment of The James B. McClatchy Foundation, the Center for Creativity and the Arts will present the “Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall” exhibition, Aug. 19 through Oct. 31, 2021, at the Phebe Conley Art Gallery at Fresno State. A public reception will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9 at the Phebe Conley Art Gallery. Read more...