'I have a lot to do': a community tribute to Saint Sylvia Rivera
$10 suggested donation upon arrival to directly support Sylvia's Place & the Sylvia Rivera Memorial Food Pantry!
featuring: a storytelling panel with trans elders & activists, live performances, lgbtq+ vendors, art, zine making, open mic, MCCNY community archive exhibits, & more!
pre-register for the open mic at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-6fuQl0Eevsl9mNVnVZxQiCMGET_riAeoyRLmX4sg8k2png/viewform
accessibility info:
~ The tribute event will take place on the second and third floors of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York. This location does not have an elevator. To get to the second floor, there are 19 steps with a railing. There are an additional 17 steps with a railing to get to the third floor.
~ ASL Interpreting provided by Flamingo Interpreting
~ Masks are required when you are not eating or drinking. Masks will be provided at the door if you forget yours!
~ Name tags will be provided and encouraged throughout the event.
~ Virtual option provided via Facebook Live.
~ This event will be recorded and photographed by a professional.
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From her hospital bed at St. Vincent’s Manhattan in February of 2002, Sylvia Rivera-Murray, a Puerto Rican trans woman and drag queen, Stonewall veteran, gay liberation activist, and co-founder of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), used one of her last conversations with Reverend Pat Bumgardner, the senior pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church of New York (MCCNY), to demand space on the first floor of MCCNY’s building be made for a trans and queer youth shelter. Rev Pat recalls Sylvia questioning, “Are you gonna do it or not?” with her nails dug into Rev Pat’s arm as they sat side-by-hospital bed. Later that same year, when Saint Sylvia, as the community she served at MCCNY beatified her, passed over, Sylvia’s Place was born.
Sylvia’s Place continues today alongside the Sylvia Rivera Memorial Food Pantry to shelter, support, and provide sustenance for homeless trans and queer youth. Today, this sacred work is sustained by the livingness of the history of the mutual aid-based ministries and trans and queer communal care methods created by and in the spirit of Saint Sylvia’s liberationist practices.