Lesbian icon and author Leslie Cohen passed away in Miami, Florida on March 16, 2022.
Cohen was the author of the memoir The Audacity of a Kiss. She grew up in Queens, New York, and attended Buffalo State College, then Queens College. Cohen received her Master’s degree in Art History. She worked at Artforum magazine and was the curator of The New York Cultural Center in Manhattan.
In 1976, Cohen, Barbara Russo, Michele Florea, and Linda Goldfarb opened a women’s bar/club, Sahara in New York City (a male relative was required to sign, in order to get a liquor license). Sahara hosted the likes of Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, Jane Fonda, Adrienne Rich, and Patti Smith. After Sahara closed, she became a nightclub promoter and then went to New York University School of Law in 1989.
The Audacity of a Kiss: Love, Art & Liberation chronicles her life and her 45-year-plus relationship with her partner and wife Beth Suskin. Cohen and Suskin were the models for the iconic bronze sculpture “Gay Liberation” by George Segal that resides famously in Christopher Park in Greenwich Village, across from the legendary Stonewall Inn.
Photo from defunct website.
