Rise up: new monument to honour Stonewall heroines Marsha and Sylvia
The Art Newspaper, May 31, 2019
During the early hours of 28 June 1969, police stopped by the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, checking apparently for alcohol law violations. But the employees and patrons of the gay bar resisted what had become regular harassment by the authorities, sparking six days of protests—and changing the course of LGBTQ+ history. The late African-American transgender performer Marsha P. Johnson was a prominent figure in the Stonewall revolution, fighting back against police brutality on the night. Along with her transgender activist comrade, Sylvia Rivera, the pair founded S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). Their achievements and fighting spirit will be remembered with a monument proposed for Ruth Wittenberg Triangle in Greenwich Village.