Mascara, Mirth and Mayhem - Softcover

Kravitz says the Invasion has been important and meaningful to people fighting for their human rights and freedom of expression. In the book, she highlights the climate during the 1980s and 1990s -- the height of the AIDS epidemic -- saying it was a time of 'so much death' but 'the Invasion continued as a time to let go of illness.'--CNN

Mascara, 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 neighbouring LGBT community of Cherry Grove. Initially planned to shock their staid neighbours 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.