1991, video, B&W
Curated by Jamillah James

Peter Rabbit's (former site)
396 West 10th Street
2PM-6PM, continuous loop

Marlon Riggs' experimental music video politicizes the homoeroticism of African-American men. With images–sensual, sexual and defiant– and words intended to provoke, Anthem reasserts the "self-evident right" to life and liberty in an era of pervasive anti-gay, anti-Black backlash and hysterical cultural repression. Some of the footage was pulled from outtakes from Riggs' essential video, Tongues Untied.

Marlon Riggs was a gay African-American filmmaker, educator, poet and activist. He produced, wrote and directed several television confronting racism and homophobia. His first major work, Ethnic Notions (1987), received a National Emmy Award. Tongues Untied (1989) generated a political firestorm, but also garnered international acclaim, winning prominent awards from the Berlin International Film Festival, the American Film Institute and the San Francisco International Film Festival. The posthumously released Black Is … Black Ain't won the Filmmakers Trophy for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and the Golden Gate Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival. Riggs died of complications due to AIDS in 1994.

A former waterfront hotel, Peter Rabbit's would become popular with young black gays in the late Seventies. Peter Rabbit's was famous for its tea dances on Sundays from 4pm onwards. Many of the clientele would arrive after cruising the abandoned piers across the West Side Highway. Peter Rabbit's was across the street from the leather bar, Ramrod and a few blocks from the Anvil.