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Sept. 30, 2026

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HoMA CELEBRATES PRIDE IN OCTOBER STARTING WITH OCT. 3 TALK STORY WITH 1970s LEGENDS OF THE GLADE NIGHTCLUB  

Rainbow of events continues with Community Sunday and art talk Oct. 18 and Halloween screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show

HONOLULU, HAWAI‘I—The Honolulu Museum of Art celebrates Honolulu Pride throughout October with four events, kicking things off with HoMA x Lei Live!: Stories from the Glade.

HoMA x Lei Live!: Stories from the Glade
Oct. 3, 2-3:30 p.m., included with museum general admission ($25, $15 residents, free for members and children 18 and under)
On Oct. 3, Honolulu drag legends Cocoa Chandelier and Brandy Lee take the stage for HoMA x Lei Live!: Stories from the Glade. At this collaboration between the museum and the NMG Network magazine Lei, the two icons will talk about their experiences and the Chinatown bar that was a safe haven and community refuge for Hawai‘i’s māhū and transgender performers in the 1960s and 70s, an era of intense discrimination.  

Located on Hotel Street in Honolulu’s so-called “red light district,” The Glade was famous for its “Boys Will Be Girls Revue,” a glamorous female impersonation show that Lee fashioned after similar variety revues in San Francisco and New York City. Her hopes were to create a local stage that would restore dignity to māhū like herself, who she felt society then regarded as “the lowest of the low.”

On the heels of their 2025 reunion for the cover of Lei magazine, The Glade personalities come together again for this special talk story at Doris Duke Theatre, shining a light on a transformative chapter of Hawai‘i’s queer history. They will be joined by Mitchell Kuga, editor of Lei. The program also features a screening of never-before-seen footage from Hawai‘i filmmaker Connie Florez’s work-in-progress documentary on The Glade.

Community Sunday: Honolulu Pride at HoMA
Oct. 18, activities 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; general admission $25, free for Hawai‘i residents with ID, activities 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
On Oct. 18, Community Sunday, presented by the Hawaiian Airlines® Bank of Hawaii World Elite Mastercard®, celebrates Honolulu Pride with performances by Miss Tara Way and Melody Lucas, storytime, and an art activity. It is a day of engaging experiences that champion self-identity, belonging, and acceptance.

Warhol’s Women: Trans Visibility in Film and Art of the 1970s
Oct. 18, 2-3:30 p.m.; included with general admission, free for Hawai‘i residents with ID
David Getsy, the Eleanor Shea professor of art history at the University of Virginia, will talk about queer and transgender visibility in contemporary art and film in the 1970s. He will focus on the underground films Flesh, Trash, and Women in Revolt, directed by Paul Morrissey but associated with Andy Warhol. Getsy will discuss the films in the context of the American film industry’s fascination with trans topics in the early 1970s, the critical response they received in Off-Off-Broadway theater, and their contributions to one of Warhol’s largest commissions—Ladies and Gentlemen, his series of portraits of trans women of color.

Getsy is working on a project for HoMA, doing research and writing about Trophy V (for Jasper Johns), a highlight of the museum’s collection, and will share insights about this work.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Oct. 31, 7-9 p.m., $25
HoMA invites the public to spend Halloween interacting with the cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Starring Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the “sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvia,” the film is a madcap romp of a musical comedy. A young couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) are stranded when their car breaks down. They seek help at a nearby castle, where Dr. Frank-N-Furter resides over a kooky cast of characters, including his creation—the hunky, golden-haired Rocky.

Ticket includes a bag of props for audience participation. Outside props are not permitted in the theater.

About the Honolulu Museum of Art

www.honolulumuseum.org

Communications: 808-532-8712

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