NOMA’s book club meets monthly to discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art in the museum’s collection and exhibitions.

This month’s book club selection is Call Me Larry: A Creole Man’s Triumph Over Racism and Homophobia by Larry Bagneris Jr. and Ryan Gomez , a bracing, uplifting, and sometimes laugh-out-loud memoir in which Larry Bagneris recalls his activist career as founder of Houston’s Pride Parade and then, following a return to his hometown, as political organizer and mainstay of the local gay community.

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About NOMA’s Book Club

NOMA’s book club is an informal group open to anyone on a month-to-month basis. You do not have to attend every meeting or read every book to participate. In addition to monthly book discussions, the book club meets periodically for curatorial programs related to the book selections. 

Books are selected in advance and planned according to the museum’s exhibition schedule. Participants are expected to procure their own copy of the titles. Selections are also available at the NOMA Museum Shop, where museum members receive a 10% discount.

Meetings are held in person or via Zoom. All meetings begin at 12 pm. For more information or questions, please email programs@noma.org.

About the Book

Call Me Larry: A Creole Man’s Triumph over Racism and Homophobia

Raised in a large, loving Creole family, Lawrence Bagneris Jr. knew from a young age that he liked boys. But New Orleans in the 1950s and early 1960s wasn’t an easy place to be out. In high school, he channeled his energies into the Civil Rights Movement. By college, he was exploring the gay bars of the French Quarter— and telling new acquaintances to ask for Larry, not Lawrence, when they phoned him at home. It wasn’t until his 1969 move to Houston that the many strands of his Creole identity—Black, white, Catholic—coalesced into a powerful political force for gay rights.

In this bracing, uplifting, and sometimes laugh-out-loud memoir, Larry Bagneris recalls his activist career: as founder of Houston’s Pride Parade and then, following a return to his hometown, as political organizer and mainstay of the local gay community. He invites us to join him on his travels, as well—from San Francisco to New York, Tel Aviv to Singapore—as he builds community, and finds family, in queer spaces around the world.

-description from Historic New Orleans Collection

About the Authors

Larry Bagneris is a social and political activist and Executive Director of the City of New Orleans Human Relations Commission. Ryan Gomez is a data analyst in the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.