THU. FEB. 10
Erotica’s Best
The powerHouse Gallery, 6×6.com, and Anthem Magazine host a Valentine’s Day exhibition, book signing, and reception for “Best of Erotica” by Tony Ward, at 7 p.m. at the powerHouse Gallery, 68 Charlton St.(Two blocks north of Houston, between Varick and Hudson Sts.) This exhibition continues through February 12. Also, join the after party at 10 p.m. at Lotus, 409 West 14th St.
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Bailey House Benefit
The “Open Your Heart” auction features exclusive photographs by celebrities of “The Look of Love,” and a vast array of items, including fine art and photography, couture, home furnishings, and travel and entertainment packages. Todd Oldham is spearheading the photography project, sponsored by Hewlett Packard, which will include 40 photographic images, by such talents as Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Missy Elliott, Chloe Sevigny, and Amy Sedaris showcasing their meaning of love. 6:30 p.m. The Puck Building, 295 Lafayette Street. Tickets are $135-$2,500. Call 212-219-2953 or visit baileyhouse.org for more information.
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“The Cherry Orchard”
Earl Hyman plays Firs and Wendell Pierce plays Lopakhin in this new staging of the Chekhov classic running through Feb. 27 at the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Thu. – Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 3 p.m. at the Harlem School of the Arts Theater, 645 St. Nicholas Ave. near 141st St. (Take the A, B, C, or D trains to 145th St.) Call 212-539-8828 for tickets.
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I Remember Harlem
In the first of four weekly programs on Friday nights in February, Bill Miles’ documentary film on the early years of America’s most famous African-American community (1600-1930) is screened. Miles makes use of extensive archival material and personal interviews to tell his story. The filmmaker will be on hand to discuss his work in an event sponsored by the Freedom Socialist Party. Freedom Hall, 113 W. 128th St., btwn. Malcolm X Blvd. And Seventh Ave., 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 212-222-0633.
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FRI. FEB. 11
“Texas Homos”
Jan Buttram’s “Texas Homos,” a play about Lone Star gay folk, starts previews tonight at the Abingdon Theatre Company with Tony Award-Winner Melvin Bernhardt directing. The play opens tonight at the June Havoc Theatre, Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, 312 W. 36th St., first floor. Call 212-868-4444 for times and tickets. $25.
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New Gay Voices
“Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction,” stories selected by Edmund White and edited by Donald Weise, is presented tonight by Will Farro, Rob Williams, Robert Hughes and Vestal McIntyre. Free. 6 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers, 50 Prince St. (btwn. Lafayette and Mulberry).
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Keep Feeling Fascination
Don’t you want them? The Human League. Tonight Pyramid shows every Human League video ever made (19!) —plus rare British TV appearances. Cheap drinks before midnight! Doors open at 10 p.m. 1984 at Pyramid, 101 Avenue A.
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Rare Photographs
Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942), was an author, photographer and cult figure much celebrated in Europe who worked within the relatively new genre of photojournalism in the 1920s and 30s. In the U.S., her work has rarely been seen. The Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College opens an exhibition of 100 Schwarzenbach photographs—images that document the Nazi uprising in Austria, dire social conditions in America after the Great Depression, and travels through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey during the 1930s. Schwarzenbach, a lesbian, had a promising career but turbulent life, marked by drug addiction and various love affairs. She died at the age of 34. This exhibit runs through June. For directions and times, visit www.qc.edu/directions/ or call 718 997-4747.
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SAT. FEB. 12
Sweat and Lust
M8 continues its Euro-style, ubermacho fest—skinhead, biker, army, rubber, punk, sports kit, leather—with a celebration of hot man-on-man-on-mat action as the Metro Wrestling Alliance returns. This time around Greccogear.Com will arm the boys for battle in sexy, vintage fight wear. Raffle winners take home hoodies, T-shirts, DVDs and other cool stuff. Barber and bootblack give good head-to-toe. Guinness draft, hourly drink specials, submission wrestling videos and lots of hot men ensure for a night of sexy mayhem. Pussycat Lounge, 96 Greenwich St. at Rector St. 1-9-4-5 trains all within the block. Dress hard. $10. More info at M8NY.com.
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SUN. FEB. 13
African-American Theater
New York’s historic Town Hall will be the setting for an extraordinary salute to the endurance and influence of Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre (NFT), for 35 years a seminal force in the Black Arts Movement, co-hosted by Ossie Davis and Lynn Whitfield. In addition to celebrating the NFT’s vital contribution to the arts internationally, the gala will feature a special “roast and toast” to Negro Ensemble Company co-founder award winning actor/director/writer, Douglas Turner Ward and an awards presentation honoring significant contributors to the development of the theatre. The gala celebrations will kick off at 3 p.m. at Town Hall followed by a dinner with the honorees, performers and national committee members. Tickets for the 35th Anniversary Gala Benefit are $75, $175, and $300 (includes dinner) and can be purchased by calling Lorelei Enterprises at 212-838-2660.
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“Broadway Sings The Jews”
Tony-Award winning performer Betty Buckley salutes Jewish identity in music, lyrics and composers with a concert presented by Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, an LGBT congregation. The concert is followed by an open reception. 5 p.m. at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, 7 West 83rd St. Tickets are $36. For more information, call 212-929-9498 or visit cbst.org.
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PFLAG
The New York City chapter of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays will hold its free monthly support group meeting at St. Bartholomew’s Church Community House, 109 East 50th Street between Park and Lexington Aves. at 3 p.m. This month’s featured speaker is Patrick Murphy, who will discuss challenges to the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. For more information, call 212- 463-0629.
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MON. FEB. 14
God, The Devil & Flannery O’Conner
This Lenten series, at St. Luke’s in Greenwich Village, is a reading and discussion of religious themes in the stories of Flannery O’Connor, will focus each week on a different short story. This week it is: “A Temple of the Holy Ghost.” The edition used is the paperback “Flannery O’Connor, The Complete Stories.” (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.) O’Connor’s letters, many of a religious nature, have been collected in “The Habit of Being,” edited by Sally Fitzgerald. Reading the weekly story is not required for participation. Brad Gooch, currently a Guggenheim Fellow in Biography, completing a biography of O’Connor for Little, Brown, will lead the series. A professor of English at William Paterson University in New Jersey, Gooch is the author of the acclaimed “City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara” and other books and articles. Every Monday at 7 p.m. through March 21. Laughlin Hall, 487 Hudson St. 212-924-0562
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Verbatim Verboten
David Drake, Jonny McGovern, Shequida, Susan O’Connor and Jenn Harris bring Michael Martin’s longtime Chicago and New Orleans hit, “Verbatim Verboten,” a tale of words you were never meant to hear from the rich, powerful, famous and infamous to the New York stage at Fez through Feb. 28. John Pinckard directs this smorgasbord of transcripts, the playlist updated nightly, of comments by Rudy Giuliani, Spike Lee, Madonna, Michael Alig, Enron and Texaco executives, Prince Harry, Orson Welles, Jim Morrison and others. Every Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Fez, inside the Time Café, 380 Lafayette St. below Cooper Sq. Tickets are $10 at 212.533.2680.
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TUE. FEB. 15
Serialized Novel
Every Tuesday, a new installment of “The Ghosts of Partition Street,” by Robert Joseph Levy, is available online at partitionstreet.com. “It is said there is a book capable of opening the gates between the living and the deceased. It is called the Libromuralis or Book of the Wall. At 210 Partition Street, six neighbors prepare to meet its author…”
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WED. FEB. 16
“Bless Me Father”
This new play by Patrick Suraci, a psychologist and actor, explores the crisis of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in a two-act play that presents psychological portraits of a teenage boy and his family in the 1950s and the dedicated parish priest who attempts to help them. Directed by Jeffrey Stocker, the artistic director of the Film Acting Studio. 8 p.m. at The National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South. Meet the playwright, director and cast, a reception in the parlor will follow. Free.
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FRI. FEB. 18
Housing Works Concert
Mike Doughty, Damon and Naomi & Emiliana Torrini to play “Live From Home,” in the “Acoustic Music Series” at Housing Works Used Book Café tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25, available at: housingworksubc.com. (A limited number of tickets will also be available for purchase in the bookstore during regular store hours.) 126 Crosby Street, one block east of Broadway, between Houston and Prince Sts. Take the W, R trains to Prince; 6 to Bleecker; B, D, F, V to Broadway/Lafayette.
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SAT. FEB. 19
“Change, Not Charity”
The Funding Exchange (FEX), a national network of social justice foundations, celebrates the organization’s 25th anniversary by dancing the night away to music with a message, and honoring those that have been particularly influential in social justice movements with special guest Harry Belafonte. 7:30 p.m. – midnight at Strata Nightclub, 915 Broadway at East 21st St. $50 per person. Sponsorships start at $250. For more information, please contact 212-529-5356, x315.
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SAT. FEB. 26
Center Dance
DJ Carlos Pedraza returns for another flagging dance, this year in conjunction with Flagging & Fanning Symposium (to be held at the LGBT Center on 2/26/04, more info. at www.nycflaggers.com). Join Carlos as he mixes his special blend of joyful house music and vocals with a classic thrown in here and there for accent! $6 all nite for flaggers (w/flags). 9 p.m. at 208 West 13 St., LGBT Community Center.
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