Picturing Freedom
The Art Museum of the Americas offers a timely look at LGBT rights
By Mariette Pathy Allen
Even with the recent uptick in stories about life in modern-day Cuba — a result of President Obama’s decision to lift some restrictions against the communist Caribbean country — it’s still rare to glimpse the struggles of LGBT Cubans. But the Art Museum of the Americas (AMA) is offering just that as part of an exhibit that couldn’t be timelier.
“It presents transgender — now women — with tremendous dignity and warmth and power at the same time,” the AMA’s Andres Navia says of photographer Marie Pathy Allen’s series “TransCuba.” “It is technically very, very beautiful, and the fact that this happens in Cuba is quite important to us. It connects with what’s going on right now.”
Allen’s series factors into the museum’s current photography exhibition What We Have Within, focused on freedom of expression.. Besides Egyptian-American Allen, other photographers in the exhibit include Susan Barnett, Meg Birnbaum, David Lykes Keenan, Daniel Handal and Dominique Paul. Assembled by AMA exhibit coordinator Fabian Goncalves, the exhibition touches on the concept of free expression in various forms, but a majority of the photographs focus on issues or ideas related to LGBT rights.
Which is, of course, a rather provocative stance to take for a museum that is part of the United Nations-like Organization of American States (OAS), whose membership includes countries, particularly in the Caribbean, where being openly gay is illegal. However, Navia says there’s been no controversy or pushback about the exhibit. AMA has even partnered with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the exhibit, helping to advance its work in promoting the LGBT cause.
“It’s very important to send this message,” Navia says. “I can only hope that in the future this will be discussed more formally in terms of how LGBT rights are moving forward in the English-speaking Caribbean.” — Doug Rule
What We Have Within runs through Jan. 9 at the Art Museum of the Americas, Organization of American States, 1889 F St. NW. Call 202-370-0149 or visit AMAmuseum.org to schedule an appointment.
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