Plenty of outdoor and distanced events are worth joining this, week. But you'll pardon our recusal from 4/20, the marijuana party. Now that's legal, it's not so radical, and more like Muffin Monday. Going to bars feels more speakeasy-esque these days.

Written by Mark Harris, the husband of gay playwright Tony Kushner, the new Mike Nichols biography profiles a prickly genius who was a virtuoso observer of others, yet a stranger to himself.

It was the poem that defined a generation. "Howl," Allen Ginsberg's defiantly gay manifesto, and other poems, will be released on audio by Omnivore Recordings on CD, LP, and in multiple streaming and download formats.

Taking his art outdoors and on video, the always-innovative Sean Dorsey discussed his new dance works as part of the company's 2021 At-Home Season (April 16-18), and the new series "The Lost Art of Dreaming."

The queer, Black classic that everyone in the LGBTQ community deserves is here. 'The United States v. Billie Holiday,' as a film, is an indictment, instructional guide and spiritual love letter rolled into one.

On April 22, SF Gay Men's Chorus will present their 15th annual "Crescendo: Voices Rising," an online gala with guest-stars LeeAnn Rimes, Jake Shears, Shangela, Rita Moreno and others.

The Covered Wagon bar hosted the 1972 Mr. Cowboy contest, but things didn't go well, as reported in the B.A.R.'s May 17 issue. Many in attendance were "stirred into a frenzy of accusations, charges and counter-charges of fraud, fake fix and cheat."

SFFilm is making big changes to accommodate the pandemic for its 64th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival to be held from April 9-18 that will include primarily online streaming and in-person events at the Fort Mason Flix drive-in theater.

Spring has quite sprung and many arts, nightlife and community organizers and producers have emerged from their Zoom caves. Chirp, chirp.

It is hard to narrow the discourse to just a handful of TV shows over so many years and hundreds of columns, but here are some of the LGBTQ stories that spurred controversy or altered the landscape.

As we continue to celebrate the Bay Area Reporter's 50th anniversary, each week we'll take a nostalgic look at a highlight from each year's issues. In May 1, 1971 , a plumaged party seemed like a lot of fun.

As the 1990s approached, films began to offer more positive portrayals of LGBTQ people, often as the loyal best friend, with characters beginning to be more fleshed out, having lives rooted in their sexuality but not necessarily ruled only by it.

Our veteran erotica reviewer reminisces about the early glory days of gay porn on film, vintage B.A.R. coverage, and porn's rise, (ahem) in popularity before changes made into VHS and online formats.

It wasn't until the third issue of the Bay Area Reporter in 1971 that the rationale for having a film section was revealed by its first critic. 100s of film reviews since then have catalogued the rise of indie and mainstream cinematic LGBT depiction.

As we continue to celebrate the Bay Area Reporter's 50th anniversary, let's look to arts nightlife and community groups that share our collective history. Long-running theater companies and even new online forums span the decades.

With more than 900 articles penned for the Bay Area Reporter, I feel a strong connection as the newspaper celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. I thought to share some behind the scenes tales as well.

In honor of the B.A.R.'s 50th anniversary, let's look back on the past five decades of local leather seen through the lens of the paper, which is admittedly but a smidgen of the entirety of local leather history.

If you search the word "theater" in the archives of the Bay Area Reporter, you'll discover plenty of features and reviews. A few productions with LGBT themes stand out.

From the beginning, the Bay Area Reporter has covered celebrities, both Broadway and Hollywood stars. many have indeed sat down with us for a chat. There are many such examples in the B.A.R. archives.

The Bay Area Reporter first published on April 1, 1971, two years after the New York Stonewall Riots. But the paper's emergence grew not out of activism, but from San Francisco's growing gay bar scene.