{"id":987,"date":"2026-10-06T15:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T15:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/?p=987"},"modified":"2026-10-06T15:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T15:24:12","slug":"the-empty-closet-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/2026\/10\/06\/the-empty-closet-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The Empty Closet: Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-bottom:2px;padding-bottom:2px;\"><strong>Date:<\/strong> October 15, 2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom:2px;padding-bottom:2px;\"><strong>Time:<\/strong> 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Location:<\/strong> Building 3, Room 130 (The Forum)<\/p>\n<p>Monroe Community College\u2019s Institute for the Humanities will celebrate the recent relaunch of <em>The Empty Closet<\/em>, Rochester\u2019s now-famed LGBTQ+ newspaper. Enjoying continuous monthly publication from 1971 to 2020, <em>The Empty Closet<\/em> is not only an impressive cultural achievement in the Rochester area, but the longest-running LGBTQ+ publication in New York State.<\/p>\n<p>The October 15 event, called \u201c<em>The Empty Closet:<\/em> Then and Now,\u201d consists of two guest speakers: Gerry Szymanski and Evan Bobrow. Szymanski will provide an overview of the publication\u2019s history. Bobrow will outline its current and future goals. (Their respective bios are available below.)<\/p>\n<p>This event is free and open to the entire College community, as well as members of the Rochester Community.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/files\/2026\/10\/Bobrow-and-Szymanski.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-989\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/files\/2026\/10\/Bobrow-and-Szymanski.jpg\" alt=\"Evan Bobrow (white male with short brown hair, close-trimmed beard, and glasses) and Gerry Szymanski (white male with short dark brown hair, thick beard, and glasses), speakers at \u201cThe Empty Closet: Then and Now\u201d\" width=\"363\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/files\/2026\/10\/Bobrow-and-Szymanski.jpg 363w, https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/files\/2026\/10\/Bobrow-and-Szymanski-300x207.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 363px) 100vw, 363px\" \/><\/a>Evan Bobrow<\/strong> (he\/they) is the founder Rathaus Press, a risograph print shop and community art space. Evan directed Queer Stories Now, an after-school program for queer teens, and <em>The Empty Closet<\/em> Relaunch Program. Currently, they are a part of <em>The Empty Closet<\/em> editing team in collaboration with the Rochester Rainbow Union.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gerry Szymanski<\/strong> is Senior Librarian for Public Services at the Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. He is an award-winning filmmaker, composer, photographer, and a noted collector. For over twenty years, Gerry has been the Librarian of the now Lilac Library, the largest circulating collection of LGBTQ+ books and materials in New York State, which houses the complete 60+ year run of <em>The Empty Closet<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date: October 15, 2026 Time: 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Location: Building 3, Room 130 (The Forum) Monroe Community College\u2019s Institute for the Humanities will celebrate the recent relaunch of The Empty Closet, Rochester\u2019s now-famed LGBTQ+ newspaper. Enjoying continuous monthly publication from 1971 to 2020, The Empty Closet is not only an impressive cultural achievement [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upcoming-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.monroecc.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}