After a brutal winter, made even more difficult by the pandemic and killer storms, the Spring Equinox has arrived and warmer weather days are in sight. The following new non-fiction books are a good way to welcome the new season.

Continuing the Bay Area Reporter's 50th anniversary celebrations, May 6 kicks off our B.A.R. Talks series, with veteran photojournalist Rick Gerharter, who will discuss his career and new project, curating the GLBT History Museum's B.A.R. online exhibit.

The 1906 play 'God of Vengeance' caused a sensation. When performed on Broadway in 1923, the cast was arrested on obscenity charges due to its lesbian kiss.Yiddish Theatre Ensemble's new online adaptation begins May 2.

In the new poetry collection 'Swallow' by Sam Rush (Sibling Rivalry Press), we're given a lot of content that wakes up the reader into identity, forms, breaking forms, and into freedoms that are part of our constant becoming.

Queer comic fans, rejoice. 'Alice In Leatherland,' the series by writer Iolanda Zanfardino and illustrator Elisa Romboli follows a young woman's journey to San Francisco and its sexy subcultures.

Plenty of outdoor and distanced events are worth joining this, week. But you'll pardon our recusal from 4/20, the marijuana party. Now that's legal, it's not so radical, and more like Muffin Monday. Going to bars feels more speakeasy-esque these days.

Taking his art outdoors and on video, the always-innovative Sean Dorsey discussed his new dance works as part of the company's 2021 At-Home Season (April 16-18), and the new series, 'The Lost Art of Dreaming.'

It was the poem that defined a generation. "Howl," Allen Ginsberg's defiantly gay manifesto, and other poems, will be released on audio by Omnivore Recordings on CD, LP, and in multiple streaming and download formats.

The Covered Wagon bar hosted the 1972 Mr. Cowboy contest, but things didn't go well, as reported in the B.A.R.'s May 17 issue. Many in attendance were "stirred into a frenzy of accusations, charges and counter-charges of fraud, fake fix and cheat."

Some of the Bay Area Reporter's production designers were, and are, not only accomplished computer whizzes, but also artists and nightlife stars, like DJ and musician Adriana Roberts, who, with Scott King, share a bit of the backstage B.A.R. scoop.

With more than 900 articles penned for the Bay Area Reporter, I feel a strong connection as the newspaper celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. I thought to share some behind the scenes tales as well.

Philip Campbell summates 50 years of the Bay Area Reporter's classical music and opera coverage, noting examples and adding personal remarks to recount his four decades of contribution.

A former assistant editor and current freelance writer, Mark Norby recalls his first days working at the B.A.R.'s 9th & Harrison office.

The Bay Area Reporter first published on April 1, 1971, two years after the New York Stonewall Riots. But the paper's emergence grew not out of activism, but from San Francisco's growing gay bar scene.