THIS USED TO BE GAY / below 14th Street—Performance and Case Study

The performance THIS USED TO BE GAY / below 14th Street is a historic and personal sit-down walking tour via Google written and performed by Moe Angelos of The Five Lesbian Brothers and The Builders Association. 

Directed by Ain Gordon, this work traces a Lower Manhattan daisy chain from the 1960’s secretive twilight world of the “introvert” to the twenty-first century’s married-with-children legit queer lifestyle by examining places past and present that used to be gay. 

Angelos takes the audience on a shamelessly nostalgic journey visiting the sites of former discos, feminist healthcare providers, shabby apartments, theatres, bars, and bathhouses that once proliferated providing gay people and outsiders with an astonishing array of options for socializing, organizing, hooking up, finding themselves, and each other.

Following the performance is a case study on archiving the living interdisciplinary performing artist. This case study is the second session in the LGBTQ+ Artists Artists Archive Project. View the first case study, which livestreamed on HowlRound in November 2025. 

Presented by Dixon Place in New York City.

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