Town Meeting I Tribute Celebrates Houston’s LGBTQ History and Inspires a New Future

The most iconic event in the history of Houston’s LGBTQ community is the 1978 Town Meeting I, which was held in the Astro Arena on June 25, 1978. Those who attended were astounded to see over 4,000 members of the community show up for a day of political organizing. 

In addition to inspiring the attendees, the meeting produced a list of community issues and priorities. As a result, such organizations as the Montrose Counseling Center (now the Montrose Center) and the Montrose Clinic (now Legacy Community Health) were formed.   

An Anniversary Call to Action

In recognition of the upcoming 50th anniversary in 2028, gay artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin have begun a three-year project to showcase highlights from Town Meeting I. The men, who are married and raising a son, have already made their mark with impressive exhibitions that honor LGBTQ history in other states and in Houston. 

From May 16 through July 11, Vaughan and Margolin will be presenting an exhibition of artwork inspired by Town Meeting I at Art League Houston. The exhibition includes a monumental 88-foot-long “wind drawing” based on archival images from the seminal Astro Arena meeting. A wind drawing is created by stenciling unfixed charcoal powder on paper and blowing it away, leaving a ghost image that is then sprayed with fixates. The resulting images highlight the ephemerality, beauty, and loss of queer histories.

Also on display will be a series of custom conference tables created out of the bar tops from Mary’s, Houston’s iconic gay bar that closed down in 2009 after serving as a center of Houston’s gay community for decades.

On June 7 and 8, the two artists have organized a symposium to bring together the art world and queer organizations. One of the panel discussions will feature experts remembering the contemporaneous movements that made Houston a hotbed of political activism in the late 1970s. Other panels will include community elders, scholars of queer visual culture, activists, and community stakeholders.

The symposium will also include community listening sessions and visual-art activities, including a subversive meme workshop and a choreographic “body scan.” The two are commissioning a group of queer artists to create manifestos for a queer future, as well as four queer poets who will document the whole symposium.

The poetry, manifestos, and other written outcomes will be compiled into a free chapbook given to all participants and various regional archives.

Among the presenters will be activists Larry Bagneris, Phyllis Frye, Deborah Bell, Harrison Guy, Phillip Pyle II, Roberto Tejada, Andy Campbell, and Dr. Rachel Afi Quinn.

Vaughan and Margolin hope the exhibition and symposium will inspire other cross-community collaborative exhibitions that honor the legacy of Town Meeting I. 

The symposium will be free and open to the public. Online registration will be required, beginning in early May.

The Rendezvous Center for Art

Vaughan and Margolin have recently launched a nonprofit, Rendezvous Center for Art, to support a wide range of interdisciplinary queer art. The first Rendezvous-supported project will be their Town Meeting I symposium.

Thanks to the generous sponsors of the Town Meeting I tribute, the two say they are very close to fully funding the ambitious exhibition and gathering, which involves paying artist fees to nearly 30 presenters, poet documentarians and technical crew, as well as the cost of flying presenters to Houston and hosting them, publishing a run of 500 chapbooks, and ensuring that the public events are completely free.

But donations are still needed to raise the $10,000 needed to get the project over the finish line. The funding will cover both the 2025 events and the followup gatherings to continue the project each year until the 2028 anniversary of Town Meeting I.

There are some wonderful perks for those who donate, including laser-cut stencils in walnut plywood depicting the microphones at Town Meeting I. The stencils can be used to create images on a variety of materials such as cloth tote bags. 

The men chose the name “Rendezvous” in honor of the first installment of their 50 States Project, which highlighted Wyoming. That installment dealt with an early 19th-century Scottish lord-turned-fur-trader who, along with his same-sex partner, led a group of 100 same-sex-attracted men to a remote lake in what is now Wyoming for a six-week drunken bacchanal nicknamed “Trappers’ Rendezvous.” They also think it sounds like the name of a gay bar. “But mostly, at its core, Rendezvous speaks to coming together, to gathering, to community, to a commitment to keep showing up and sharing space,” they explain.

Looking at the current political environment, the two are resolute: “We don’t need to tell you that we’re in precarious times. We live in a constant state of threat. The progress we’ve made over decades is slowly being clawed back. That fight will be won in legislatures, in voting booths, and in the street. In order to sustain that fight, we also need to fortify our humanity, our spirits, and our communities. Art has a unique capacity in that mission, and it is our deepest hope that Rendezvous can be part of making that possible.”

What: Town Meeting 1978–2028
When: May 16–July 11, 2025
Where: Art League Houston
Info: artleaguehouston.org and nickandjakestudio.com/home.html
Registration is available at rendezvouscenterforart.org/home.html