Out in Yonkers: A Conversation with Elizabeth de Bethune

In recognition of Pride Month, HRM Trustee Angelique Piwinski interviews artist Elizabeth de Bethune about Out in Yonkers, Portraits from the Yonkers LGBTQ+ Community, her 2023 series of 14 formal portraits of queer people who live in Yonkers. The project celebrates this community’s richness and diversity, recording it for posterity through the use of oil paint and the conventions of formal portraiture. Participants in de Bethune’s project, of whom Piwinski is one, are invited to contribute to the conversation by sharing their stories.

Elizabeth de Bethune is a Yonkers resident of 29 years and long-time member of the Yonkers arts community. She has exhibited locally and regionally. Her most recent exhibits have been Out in Yonkers, Portraits from the Yonkers LGBTQ Community at the White Plains Public Library Museum Gallery and Intimate and Ordinary at the Rye Art Center (on view through June 8). 

Angelique Piwinski, who lived in Yonkers for over 40 years, is a sought-after speaker and content writer with a focus on LGBTQIA+ inclusion and other DEI topics. She has served as Co-Chair of the City of Yonkers Mayor Spano’s LGBTQ Advsory Board, a founder of Yonkers’ Pride Festival, and 2019 WorldPride Ambassador for New York State. A congressionally recognized historian and preservationist, she has been a member of the Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board and co-curated an exhibition at the Blue Door Art Center in Yonkers.

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