In honor of Pride Month, join us for a conversation about how artists might create monuments to queer community and history. In a discussion moderated by Charlie Tatum, Director of Marketing and Communications, historian Robert Fieseler and artists Ryan Leitner and Ryan “phlegm” Gilbert will share their own practices and reflect upon how they consider celebration, remembrance, and the past in their work.

The program will also consider other works, including Jim Hodges’s Craig’s closet, first created for the New York City AIDS Memorial Park and installed in front of NOMA in June 2024, and Skylar Fein’s Remember the UpStairs Lounge, which commemorates the arson of a popular gay bar in New Orleans on June 24, 1973.

This program is free and open to the public. Louisiana residents receive free admission every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative.

About the Panelists

Ryan “phlegm” Gilbert

Ryan “phlegm” Gilbert, a New Orleans-born and -based multidisciplinary artist, uses mixed-media self-portraiture in works called “ritual dramas” that serve as affirmations of their personal Black universe. phlegm says, “My work aims to more firmly connect my Black spiritual concept of time, connecting the past to the present and the present to the future. It’s communally sacred, personally precious. It attempts to tie all the loose ends of Black ethos, Black influence, and Black inspiration into one braid. It is at its core, an affirmation of life: my life, the life of my ancestors, and the life of my community. My work (and by extension my life) makes a production about the necessity and value of Black spiritual presence.” They also penned the mantra “Everything You Love About New Orleans Is Because of Black People.”

Ryan Leitner

Ryan Leitner (b. 1986, South Carolina) is an artist and writer who lives and works in New Orleans. He received his M.F.A. From The Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in 2016, holds a B.F.A. From Regents College of London, and was a participant at the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture in 2023. He is currently a resident at Joan Mitchell Foundation and a collective member at Antenna Gallery.

Robert W. Fieseler

Robert W. Fieseler is a National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association “Journalist of the Year” and the author of Tinderbox—winner of the Edgar Award and the Louisiana Literary Award, shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Writing. As a Tulane PhD History candidate and Mellon Fellow, Fieseler is currently working on his second queer history book, a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. He lives with his husband and kittens in New Orleans.