The glamour of the 1960s and 1970s New York will be back this March 31 when Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER) presents, Superstar!: A Tribute to Mario Montez.

The inaugural event of a new series titled “Artists at the Center,” Superstar! is a one-day conference to celebrate and foster discussion about the career of one of the most gifted performers of New York’s underground film and theater scene of the 1960s and 1970s, Mario Montez.

For the first time in 30 years, Montez will return to New York to talk about his work and his life. “The Center is thrilled to be the site of this historic conference,” notes CSER’s director Frances Negrón-Muntaner. “Not only is the conference a long overdue tribute to Mr. Montez, it will also engage with the questions of how the cultural practices of this period still offer possibilities to us in the present and how Latinos significantly contributed to shaping New York’s theater and film scene during this extraordinarily rich cultural moment.”

Born in Puerto Rico in 1935, Montez moved to New York when he was eight. As a performer, he first appeared in director Jack Smith’s underground queer classic Flaming Creatures in 1962 and later became Andy Warhol’s first drag superstar, starring in twelve of Warhol’s films. Montez was also a favorite of the queer theater underground, appearing in plays by Charles Ludlam and John Vaccaro of the Playhouse of the Ridiculous.

Program highlights include opening remarks by Negrón-Muntaner; roundtables with scholars Callie Angell, Douglas Crimp, Arnaldo Cruz Malavé, Ronald Gregg, Branden Joseph, and Ricardo Montez; screenings of films by Andy Warhol and José Rodríguez Soltero; a live performance featuring performance art legend Carmelita Tropicana; and an unprecedented conversation with Mario Montez, Agosto Machado, and Marc Siegel.

The event will take place at Columbia University’s Davis Auditorium, Shapiro Center, located at 538 West 120th Street, New York, New York 10027.

For further information, please contact the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race’s website, www.columbia.edu/cu/cser or call 212-854-0507