Book Description
* Community will come together on 4 July 2016 to honor the Orlando victims and celebrate each other, at the annual "Invasion of the Pines" on Fire Island* The annual Fourth of July Invasion of the Pines attracts hundreds of drag queens and thousands of spectators each year* Mascara, Mirth and Mayhem is a photographic celebration of four decades of diversity and freedom by members of the Cherry Grove LGBT communityMascara, Mirth and Mayhem: Independence Day on Fire Island is a rollicking photographic document that celebrates four decades of an event known as "the Invasion of the Pines" by members of the neighboring LGBT community of Cherry Grove. Initially planned to shock their staid neighbors and protest their snobbery, this queenly invasion on every July 4th, is a moment on Fire Island equal to Stonewall in Greenwich Village. It has grown in size and extravagance each year to become an earthquake of creative cross-dressing and a true independence day party.The history of the original protest invasion, along with selected interviews of participants, then and now, augment Susan Kravitz's photographs of this flamboyant event taken over a period of 30 years.