T.M. Davy: Our first summer out here was in 2012, thanks to a nonprofit called Boffo, started by Faris Al-Shathir, which runs an artists’ residency I participated in.
A group of us have been coming to Fire Island ever since — we’ve become like family. Queer artists have spent time in the Pines for decades: The group PaJaMa — Paul Cadmus and Jared and Margaret French — were here in the 1930s, getting weird.
It’s just right for the light and for the ocean and for getting away from other people’s eyes. David Hockney was playing in the Pines in the 1970s, before AIDS devastated the creative community.
Privileged spaces by the beach tend to be rather white, and that’s a fair critique of the Pines. Still, I think in its spirit it has been a place.