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Making art from the heart – Celebrating Gay Pride month with Wolfgang Busch
Alina Oswald
This Pride Month, let's look at a few artists, activists, and individuals who paved the way for us. Although the fight for full equality continues, we have come a long way because of them.
One of these individuals lending his artistic and activist voice to empower the LGBT community is Wolfgang Busch. A German native, Busch moved to the States in 1981, with dreams to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. But his contributions extend far beyond the entertainment industry, reaching the LGBT community, the AIDS community, and artists community, in general. Throughout his work, creating art from the heart, he touches hearts in the most unusual and unique ways, always informing, educating, entertaining, and also enlightening, opening eyes, and minds.
Maybe first thing that comes to mind when speaking about Busch's work is How Do I Look (2006), a film documenting the ballroom scene. Several years later, Busch documented the art of floguing (vouging and flagging) in an effort to keep it alive for generations to come, in A Flow Affair. The opening night took place in Manhattan's West Village, and attracted audiences from both sides of the Hudson River.
In 2014, Wolf Busch produced and organized the First International Ballroom Convention, a week-long event taking place at Chashama Gallery, in Harlem, New York, and ending with the 35th Anniversary Ball of the House of Omni. (Busch, himself, is a member of the House of Omni.)
Wolfgang Busch also runs a gay table tennis group, Pink Pong, every Monday, Thursday, and Friday, in New York City. "Any level player can join us," he says.
Most recently, at the beginning of this year, Busch received the Keep the Dream Alive Humanitarian Award for his contributions to the Black community. He continues making art from the heart. Presently, he's working on a new documentary, My 90's, about the New York City rock scene during the 1990s.
So, this June, as we celebrate Pride, we also celebrate, commemorate or remember those that came before us, and those alive today, continuing the fight. They may be our mentors, artists and activists who help us reach that full equality in rights, liberties, and love.
To learn more please visit www.artfromtheheartnyc.org, http://my90snyc.blogspot.com, www.PinkPongFoundation.org.
artist community
How do I Look
Wolfgang Busch
https://alinaoswald.com/
Alina Oswald, Out In Jersey Magazine Arts Editor, is a writer and photographer living and teaching in the New York City area. Published nationally and internationally, she is the author of "Journeys Through Darkness: A Biography of award-winning photographer Kurt Weston," a member of the Undetectable flash collective, and also A&U Magazine Arts Editor.
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