How to take up space when you’ve only been given the margin reminds us of the ongoing relevance of LGBTQ activist and icon Sylvia Rivera, who co-founded with Marsha P. Johnson the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organization that provided shelter and support for homeless queer youth. Video footage of Rivera’s speech “Y’all Better Quiet Down Now” at the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally in NYC plays more or less steadily, based on Twitter-enabled software scanning the frequency of the #LGBTQ hashtag. You can tweet with the hashtag #LGBTQ to increase the video’s legibility. 

Above, the neon sculpture recalls ACT UP’s pink triangle, created during the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States, with its pressing reminder that SILENCE = DEATH.

To engage with this work virtually, watch the video and scroll through the photographs of acierto’s artwork. 

Experience How to take up space when you’ve only been given the margin in person in the windows of YBCA’s 701 Mission Plaza.

You can tweet with the hashtag #LGBTQ to increase the video’s legibility at YBCA.