Presented for the first time in New York City on the heels of the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, The New Eagle Creek Saloon celebrates the history of queer Black space and resurrects its presence in a location in the city (Chelsea) where this legacy has been so instrumental to avant-garde art and performance. Established by the artist’s father, Rodney Barnette, founder of the Compton, CA, chapter of the Black Panther Party, The New Eagle Creek Saloon (operated by Barnette between 1990–1993) offered a safe space for the multiracial queer community who were marginalized in other social spaces throughout the city.Ī study published in 2019 by professor of sociology Greggor Mattson cites a continued decline of LGBTQ+ bars across the United States between 20, with a disparate impact on those serving female-identified people and people of color. The Studio Museum in Harlem, in collaboration with The Kitchen, presents Sadie Barnette’ s The New Eagle Creek Saloon, the first East Coast institutional presentation of the artist’s installation reimagining the first Black-owned gay bar in San Francisco.
