Gay Agenda: What To Do in New York in June

Summer has officially arrived and Out has tapped into the pulse of what's hot in NYC this June. The time has come to dust of your favorite booty shorts, throw on a tank top, and raise your rainbow flag high. Beyond all the Gay Pride events of the month, the city offers a variety of concerts, cultural events, street fairs, festivals, and art exhibits to quench your summer thirst.

MUSIC

Music lovers will find their calendars filling up quickly this June, with a variety of concerts to chose from featuring established icons and indie darlings. Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga will be thrown in the ring with Bette Midler in a battle for gayest concert of the season. On the heels of last year's collaborative jazz album Cheek To Cheek, the iconic duo will be joined by a full orchestra and guest musicians on the stage of Radio City Music Hall for a four-night engagement. As for the Divine Miss M, she returns to the city with her aptly named Divine Intervention Tour, celebrating the release of her new girl group album, It's The Girls, with two nights at Madison Square Gardens, and an evening at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn. If the early reviews are anything to go by, those golden pipes are only getting better with age.

Looking for something a little more upbeat? Harpist, singer-songwriter Pat Gross, aka Active Child, brings his distinct blend of cinematic chamber-pop, R&B, and electronic textures to The Bowery Ballroom and the Music Hall of Williamsburg. If music festivals are your thing, the annual Governors Ball on Randall's Island has a lineup that includes Lana Del Rey, The Black Keys, Marina and the Diamonds, Florence + The Machine, and Bjork, but its the guitar-wielding, sexually-ambiguous St. Vincent who will be crowdsurfing in heels over queer fans and into their hearts.

ART & EXHIBITIONS

Two exhibits are not to be missed. Brooklyn Museum's Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks, displaying 160 pages of poetry, sketches, word play, and personal observations from the visionary Downtown artist. The exhibit offers a glimpse into the artist's inner thought process, alongside 30 drawings, paintings, and mixed-media works from private collections and the artist's estate.
In the Bronx, the New York Botanical Garden has resurrected the surroundings of one of the art world's most iconic figures with Frida Kahlo: Art. Garden. Life. The exhibit reimagines the Mexican artist famed garden and studio at the Casa Azul, in a marriage of nature, history, and art.

PARTIES

The parties are plentiful during Pride Week, but Everybooty at Brooklyn Academy of Music is set to become the arty-queer event of the season. The multi-genre, multi-gender celebration of queer culture in Brooklyn is puts together art, music, and dance, with a roster of DJs, exhibitions, and performers, headlined by out hip-hop artist Will Sheridan.
When the air-conditioning becomes too icy or you just feel the need to breathe real air, head to Central Park for the MET Opera recitals at Central Park SummerStage, featuring singers Janai Brugger, Isabel Leonard, and Nathan Gunn. There's also free performances of Shakespeare's plays The Tempest and Cymbeline at The Delacorte Theater (it's the return of Shakespeare In The Park). Suddenly, there's a whole new world out there, aside from the countless shirtless joggers.