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COMING OUT BLACK & QUEER WITH KID FURY & CRISSLE WEST OF THE READ 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014

1:00PM TO 2:30PM @ HUB 355

Join media personalities from the The Read Kid Fury and Crissle West in conversation with professors Alisha Gaines, Assistant Professor of English at Florida State University and Dennis Tyler, Assistant Professor of English at Fordham University, for a discussion about what it means to “come out” black and queer.

Often, black communities have been considered to be the most homophobic and most in the way of the rights of the LGBTQ community. For example, with the passing of Prop 8 in California, 2008, The Advocate claimed unabashedly that “gay is the new black,” and that it wasblack people that upheld the proposition. Black people were blamed for the obstruction of justice for queer folks, in other words. In this roundtable discussion, participants will trouble such an easy distinction between black on the one hand and queer on the other. How does one exist as both black and queer, and how do we negotiate such varied identities?

Since first debuting in January 2013, The Read skyrocketed in popularity with a listenership boasting nearly 115,000 weekly subscribers. Now both a podcast and a touring live show, The Read is most often described as “brash” and “unapologetic,” a tone effortlessly cultivated through the unscripted chemistry between Crissle and Kid Fury. We invite them to the conversation with scholar-activists Alisha Gaines and Dennis Tyler to discuss the multiple negotiations black and queer require.

The panel will be moderated by Ashon Crawley, Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, UCR. Presented by Ethnic Studies, Queer Lab, & the LGBT Resource Center.

18th St Art Center in Santa Monica is a collection of art galleries, artist studios, plus Highways (a VERY important space for experimental theater, dance and performance), and the Santa Monica Museum of Art—a small, dynamic museum with its own pathfinding history. If you skip over to the west side this weekend, this opening is worth checking out! These kinds of projects, which consider Latin American migratory flows, are very much on the Angelino mind—always, but now for particular reasons: The Getty Center is sponsoring the development of a massive 2017 festival, "Latin America/Los Angeles" (LA/LA)—this is the subject of a Sunday afternoon SRC panel at MOCA. And yes, the Getty folks did name the festival "lala." (!) 

This series of dinners organized by artists and scholars in LA will be amazing — two will be held during the convention weekend. Clockshop is a great organization. Explore their website to learn more about the projects they support. 

November 1st & 2nd, 8th & 9th, 15th & 16th

elysian/clockshop

2806 Clearwater St.

Los Angeles, CA 90039

Kan Ya Ma Kan is three weekends featuring the culinary traditions, music and culture of the Arab-Jewish diaspora of Iraq, Syria, and North Africa. Each weekend will offer a Saturday night and Sunday afternoon program featuring chefs, writers and scholars. Saturday’s dinner will prepared by a guest chef, followed by live music. Sunday afternoon will feature tea, sweets and conversation with an invited writer, scholar or artist.

The phrase “Kan Ya Ma Kan” is usually translated as "once upon a time, there were..." In Arabic literature, these words are often the opening line of a story about the past. In Arab countries in the Middle East, there were once Jewish communities, and now there are almost none. Before the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, Jews played an integral role in social and cultural life throughout the Middle East and Iran. In places like Baghdad, Aleppo, Casablanca, Tehran, and Tunis, Jews were writers, musicians, merchants and scholars who lived with Muslims, Christians, Druze, Assyrians, and Turks. After 1948, the numbers in these communities dwindled, and cultural traditions and objects were packed away and carried elsewhere by foot, boat, and train. This rich history of the Jewish role within these ethnically diverse societies can be preserved. Kan Ya Ma Kan is an effort to do just that.

Curated by Julia Meltzer, Director of Clockshop in collaboration with Regine Basha of Basha Projects. Presented in collaboration with elysian.

Poetry, science, and history spiral out of control as a contemporary Phoenix realtor, her pool contractor husband, and the famed 17th C. poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz meet in a multi-layered dreamscape. Written by Theresa Chavez, Alan Pulner, and Rose Portillo. Directed by Theresa Chavez.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 7:30pm at ONE Archives