“I was Freddie’s chief cook and bottle washer, waiter, butler, secretary, cleaner and agony aunt. I was with him during the highs and came through the lows. I acted as his bodyguard and in the end, of course, I was one of his nurses.” – Peter Freestone
On April 29, Peter Freestone will come to NYU Prague to talk about his friendship with Freddie Mercury, for whom he worked as a personal assistant from 1979 until the singer died in 1991. For the past 18 years Freestone has lived in the Czech Republic teaching English. A few years ago, he co-founded a project in Mercury’s honor to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS among young people.
The Life of Freddie Mercury according to Peter Freestone is being held as part of NYU’s university-wide Stonewall Riots Commemoration events. Fifty years ago the NY city police raided a neighborhood gay bar called the Stonewall Inn which was located in Greenwich Village a few blocks away from NYU’s Washington Square campus. This sparked six days of riots and protests by the gay community who claimed that the raid was a result of rampant homophobia in the police and city institutions. The protests galvanized the fight for equal rights for homosexuals and are seen as a turning point in the LGBTQ+ movement.
NYU is organizing talks, film screenings, conferences and exhibitions to reflect on the social, political, cultural, medical, and legal transformations that have occurred since Stonewall and which continue to shape New York – and NYU – today. Author and academic Marc Stein will come to the Washington Square campus to discuss his newly-published book called The Stonewall Riots, Pulitzer-prize winning Jeffrey Eugenides will speak about gender roles in families, and playwrights Larry Kramer and Terrence McNally discussed how their plays have dealt with stories about the lives of LGBT people. NYU Tisch students will perform four 30-minute original operas at the Stonewall Inn, which is still in operation as a gay bar and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000.
In addition to Freestone’s visit, NYU Prague is organizing a number of programs that are related to the Stonewall Commemoration. We launched the Diversity University and the Human Library, two events that introduced our students to Prague locals who are minorities, including 2 members of the LGBTQ community. Students went to the Filip 20 Queer Meet Up which commemorated the suicide of a 14-year old boy who felt rejected for being gay. His death motivated young Czechs to set up an online counselling program to help others who are struggling with their identity.