The Academy Legends Awards has just announced Dr. Tim Seelig as the 2021 Legends Archive inductee. He will be inducted into the Archive, which is housed at The Academy in the Castro, on November 12. The awards event will take place at the Swedish American Hall, near The Academy on Market Street, as the capstone to the annual celebration honoring members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Dr. Tim Seelig, 2021 Legends Archive Inductee
Only the third person to be inducted into the Legends Archive, Dr. Seelig is the longtime Artistic Director and Conductor of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and the National LGBTQ Center for the Arts. While serving as the Conductor Emeritus of the Turtle Creek Chorale, Dr. Seelig made his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall and has conducted there annually as well as at Lincoln Center for nearly three decades. His European operatic debut was at the Staatsoper in St. Gallen, Switzerland. His recordings have been on the Billboard Top Ten and iTunes Top Ten classical charts. His choruses have been the topic of three documentaries, including Gay Chorus Deep South (2019), which won the Audience Favorite award at its premiere at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival. He carried the Olympic torch as a community Hero in 1996, and now we have the opportunity to hold a torch for him. http://www.timseelig.com/
Past inductees to the archive, Sister Roma and Juanita MORE!, will be key participants in the celebration as they welcome Dr. Seelig to the Archive, with other special guests, and honor this year’s Community Awards recipients.
The Community Awards, presented by local icons including Ali Mafi, Mercedes Munro, and Miss Rahni, are in three categories:
Diane Jones Solidarity Award
This year’s Diane Jones Solidarity Award,named in honor of Jones’ early role in treating gay men with HIV/AIDS and awarded to those who are instrumental in bridging divides between one or more demographic groups within the LGBTQ+ community, will be presented to Leo Herrera for his work on The FATHERS Project, celebrating the men of our lost generation and imagining a world where their creativity, power, and passion had not been lost. https://www.iftheylived.org/
The Exemplar Award
The Exemplar Award celebrates recipients not just because of what they have done, but also because of how they inspire others to do better, and to be better versions of themselves. No one embodies that ideal better than this years’ recipient, Tita Aida, whose ongoing commitment to raising HIV/AIDS awareness is matched only by her dedication to the Trans and Asian/Pacific Islander community.
https://tinyurl.com/ukaawm4 (Profile of Tita Aida and interview with the Dragon Fruit Project)
The Architect Award
The Architect Award, awarded to people who are instrumental in creating something new that adds to the overall LGBTQ+ community, is being presented to Scott Peterson in recognition of his tireless work maintaining, transforming, and promoting the Powerhouse, a pillar of SOMA nightlife. https://www.powerhousebar.com/
The annual event was created by the signature Sponsor, The Academy, founded in 2017. This social club is one of the few, if not only, brick and mortar clubs of its kind catering to the LGBTQ+ community. Its mission, as described by Co-Owner Paul Miller, is “to be a place where various parts of the community can come together and celebrate the ways their goals and values overlap. It’s meant to be a place to revel in being yourself, without being closed off to meeting and enjoying those you might never get a chance to talk to otherwise.”
Miller hopes that The Academy “offers a way to preserve some of the rich cultural memory of the community and expose younger gays and lesbians to the incredible achievements of our community, but to have a lot of fun doing it.” This year’s Legends Awards promises to do both!
The Academy Legends Awards
November 12
6 pm–10 pm
The Swedish American Hall and The Academy
Tickets: $40–80 available at https://tinyurl.com/4ksuf3fx
Published on October 21, 2021
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