If you’re already in New York, or heading there this year, there are so many events and activities to celebrate WorldPride. Here are the top ones you don’t want to miss…

New York City is a thriving city packed full of so much to give, and one such occasion you can’t miss when in the city is WorldPride 2019. New York City will be hosting WorldPride 2019 and it is the first time the global celebration will be held in the US. The march will be taking place on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on the 30th June, with a whole host of events all round the city to celebrate.

This year’s WorldPride also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising – which marks the rioting in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village on the 28th June 1969. This is a widely recognised moment in the LGBTQ history as the start of the gay rights movement, and Stonewall Inn is now the US’ first national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights. There are a whole host of multifarious LGBTQ activities taking place throughout the year in the five boroughs, meaning NYC & Company have declared 2019 as the Year of Pride. Here are our top suggestions of things you can’t miss… 

PRIDE (6 June – November)
Museum of the City of New York, Manhattan

Examine NYC through the lens of photographer Fred W. McDarrah, who created an encyclopedic archive of culture and politics for ‘The Village Voice’; from the Beats of the 1950s to the counterculture of the ’60s to the Stonewall Uprising and major political events of the early 1970s. The exhibition features images of cultural icons such as Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan, with attention to gay liberation, anti–Vietnam War marches and the women’s movement.

Walt Whitman: Bard of Democracy (7 June – 15 September)
The Morgan Library & Museum

Experience Whitman’s writing that earned him a global audience, including ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ Additionally, view documents from Oscar Wilde, Hart Crane, Federico García Lorca and Allen Ginsberg, which trace the writer’s influence on the 20th century.

Camp: Notes on Fashion (until 8 September)
The Met Fifth Avenue, Manhattan

The Costume Institute’s spring 2019 exhibition will explore the origins of the camp aesthetic featuring nearly 200 objects, including womenswear and menswear, as well as sculptures, paintings and drawings dating from the 17th century to the present. The exhibition is inspired by writer Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay ‘Notes on Camp’.

Stonewall 50 Exhibitions (until September 22)
New-York Historical Society, Manhattan

‘Letting Loose and Fighting Back: LGBTQ Nightlife Before and After Stonewall’, will explore the history of LGBTQ bars, clubs and nightlife in NYC during the second half of the 20th century. ‘By the Force of Our Presence: Highlights from the Lesbian Herstory Archives’, will examine lesbian lives both pre- and post-Stonewall. Special graphic installation, ‘Say It Loud, Out and Proud: Fifty Years of Pride’, will feature imagery from five decades of NYC Pride marches.

Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall (until 8 December)
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn

Borrowing its title from the rallying words of transgender artist and activist Marsha P. Johnson, Nobody Promised You Tomorrow aims to expand understanding of the Stonewall Uprising beyond the image of protesters in the streets to consider the everyday acts that reinforce such public activism.

Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now  (until 5 January 2020)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

This multiphase retrospective features Robert Mapplethorpe’s collages and photographs, as well as the work of contemporary artists who reference the artist.

Alice Austen House Museum  (year-round)
Staten Island

Take the free Staten Island ferry to visit the Alice Austen House, named by the National Register of Historic Places as the ‘national site of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) history’. Austen was a turn-of-the-century lesbian photographer who lived with her female companion for many years in her home that boasts views of the Manhattan skyline.

Guests to the city can also visit New York City’s historic LGBTQ landmarks, including: Bethesda Fountain; Christopher Park; Julius; The Langston Hughes House; The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center; The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art; New York City AIDS Memorial; Stonewall Inn.  For more information on NYC’s Year of Pride celebrations, please visit:  nycgo.com/year-of-pride