As part of an international workshop (10-11 October 2015) with the Center for Artistic Activism, 17 trans activists and artists from 13 European countries developed a creative campaign to mark some of the spaces in Berlin which have symbolic significance for trans people.
An oversized facsimile of Rush poppers, tipped over, pouring out its viscous contents: this example of underground gay iconography blown up to almost belligerent proportions perfectly represents the aims of Party Out of Bounds: Nightlife as Activism Since 1980, a new exhibition at La MaMa’s La Galleria. The group show, curated by Emily Colucci and Osman Can Yerebakan, gathers together works by a small yet distinct menagerie of queer artists.
A set of interactive experiences at the Sziget festival in Budapest, aimed at social change to improve every day life of trans and gender-nonconforming persons.
The exhibition "Unpacking the 21st Century: Artists Engaging the World" included work by five New York City area artists that examined a range of social and political issues and offered companion special events.
New Beijing, New Marriage is a documentary shot by Fan Popo, a Chinese gay rights activist in 2009. The film recorded that a gay couple and a lesbian couple, who were volunteers instead of real homosexual couples, were having their wedding photos taken at Qianmen Street on Valentine’s Day. Qianmen Street is a crowded and famous shopping street in Beijing.
Play Smart a series of yearly events where photographers and designers are gathered and designed cards to trade. It has lasted from 2010 to this year. Play Smart 2010 is the first in the series. In 2010, Play Smart featured photographers Aaron Cobbett, inkedKenny, Greg Mitchell and Slava Mogutin and was designed by John Chaich.
"A Night of Philosophy and Ideas is a thinker’s lollapalooza. The free, 12-hour weekend lyceum at the Brooklyn Public Library includes spirited debate, live music, theater, performance art pieces, and film screenings. At any given hour, five or six different events will be taking place simultaneously. Visitors are encouraged to come and go as the spirit moves them.
If you've been to a Bay Area protest or community event, you've probably seen -- or even met those nuns in whiteface -- The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Devoted to human rights globally and locally, AIDS education, and respect for diversity, this controversial Order of Queer Nuns has long been a staple of San Francisco's cultural fabric. They join host Joseph Pace for the hour.
Guests:
David Wojnarowicz was born on September 14, 1954, and died on July 22, 1992, at the age of 37 due to AIDS-related complications. Before he became an artist, he attended a Performing Arts high school from which he dropped out of in order to make a living as a farmer in Canada. This was up until he made a name for himself as an artist in New York’s cultural scene.
How a Dating App Helped a Generation of Chinese Come Out of the Closet
Blued, one of the biggest gay dating apps in the world, has succeeded because it plays by the ever-shifting rules for L.G.B.T.Q. China — bringing together a minority community without activism.
By Yi-Ling Liu
March 5, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET
The Vivienne Foundation exists to honour, protect and continue the legacy of Vivienne's creativity and activism.
Since the start of her career in the 1970s, Vivienne was renowned not only for her fashion design, but also her activism. Vivienne always utilised her platform of prestige to make the world a better place.
The public bathrooms at Penn Station in New York City are a dirty, depressing place. But now, there’s a bright spot: a poster that encourages women to donate menstrual products, like pads or tampon, to help the many homeless women who frequent the bathroom.
On Monday, May 22nd, trans children and teenagers from across the country threw a prom on the National Mall, a youth-led public celebration of trans joy at a time when more and more states are adopting viciously anti-trans legislation. The Meteor’s Mik Bean spoke to Daniel Trujillo, 15, one of the event’s organizers, about the power a little party can have.
Long before the red ribbon became an innocuous symbol of AIDS
“awareness” and celebrity philanthropy, there was the pink triangle and
there was ACT UP and there were thousands of people taking to the
streets for their lives. Once a symbol used to mark suspected queers for
death in the Holocaust, ACT UP appropriated the pink triangle for
‘In Her Shoes’ was a street exhibition of stories from women and men affected by the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution. These stories were selected from the ‘In Her Shoes’ project Facebook page. We hung copies of the stories on ribbon between trees and provided pens, paper and a seating area for people to sit down and write a response to the stories if they chose.
‘I’m an Egyptian, Muslim drag queen who aims to raise issues about Middle Eastern / LBGTQ issues within the Arab world and Muslim community. For too long it was drilled in my head that I was wrong, that I was going to Hell, and that’s simply not fair. No one speaks about the harsh mistreatment we go through as gay people in the Arab world. The internal torture and shame is more than enough.
Note before the post: This article is great in highlighting a specific case of creative activism in the streets of New York City, but also gives some contextual background to how this project manifested.
On a sidewalk in the Village in downtown Manhattan, an African-American woman leans on her elbows and knees, wearing only black underpants. Scrawled in black marker all over her body are the words "Ain't I a Woman?"
Counterspace is an independent curatorial platform functioning as the first decolonial thinktank mapping cultural activism worldwide. It shapes collectively decolonial toolkits with common tools and resources, and a global directory browsable by continent, praxis, and social construct, as a Beuys-inspired ‘social sculpture’ revisited, and an alternative map of the universe.
A small group of gay rights activists gathered outside the Russian Embassy in Beijing on Valentine’s Day to protest Russia’s antigay laws.
Behind a rainbow banner that read “To Russia with Love,” a dozen activists cheered as three couples puckered up and kissed in front of a countdown clock for the Sochi Winter Olympics outside the embassy’s tall walls.
MOTHA is please to participate in the “Bring Your Own Body: transgender between archives and aesthetics“ exhibition at the Glass Curtain gallery in Chicago. Swing by the space to pick up the latest MOTHA newsprint broadside poster and watch the accompanying video slideshow, both entitled “Transvestism in the News,” made especially for the exhibit.
Last night I attended an Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Assault
Speak Out, where people across campus from the LGBT community and
coalitions of color came together in one sacred space to share their
stories with strangers. For many, including me, it was the first time we
spoke out publicly. It was empowering. It was liberating. Rarely do I
let myself shed tears over my repressed memories, yet I cried over every
In 2016, photojournalist Gulnara Samoilova was running a successful wedding photography business. Her diverse portfolio of work spans two decades — with images in the permanent collections of The New York Public Library, 9/11 Memorial Museum and Houston Museum of Fine Arts — but weddings had become her staple business. By the year's end, she'd decided to pack it in.
Animal Collective, Mumford and Sons and Duran Duran among performers who have turned concerts in state into fundraisers as part of NC Needs You movement
Even as North Carolina’s governor, Pat McCrory, refused to comply with federal officials over his state’s so-called “bathroom bill”, experimental pop group Animal Collective went forward with its scheduled show in the state over the weekend.
In 2020, GLITS raised over one million dollars in less than a month through a grassroots organizing campaign with a clear objective, a call to action, and an open source toolkit. The objective was to raise one million dollars to purchase a building that would permanently house and provide services for transgender peoples of color in New York City. They created a toolkit with coordinated and captivating imagery and made it available to everyone.
In a private Tokyo dinner party artist Mao Sugiyama served his genitals to five of the events guests. Several months prior to the event he chose to have his genitals surgically removed. He released invitations to the event on social media, 70 paid attendees were present for the event.
Self-identifed as asexual, Sugiyama stated that he intended to raise awareness for "sexual minorities, x-gender, asexual people."