The Human Rights Watch Chicago 2017 Film Series, in partnership with Black Cinema House, presents the film Kiki on Mar. 10, followed by a panel.
Through a strikingly intimate and visually daring lens, Kiki offers a riveting, complex insight into a safe space created and governed by LGBTQ youths of color, who demand happiness and political power. The film is an exciting coming-of-age story that celebrates agency, resilience, and the transformative art form of voguing.
This event is free and reserved seating is limited for HRW Chicago Committee members and a guest who can RSVP to Rachel Shrock by Friday, March 3. Other seating is offered on a first-come, first-seated basis the night of Friday, March 10. All are encouraged to arrive early.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m .Friday, March 10, for the 7 p.m. program at Stony Island Arts Bank
6760 S. Stony Island Avenue, Chicago. More info at FF.HRW.org/CHICAGO.
PANELISTS
Twiggy Pucci Garcon
Subject and Co-writer, KIKI
As an activist, advocate, and healer, Twiggy has collaborated with artists, filmmakers, academics and policymakers to increase visibility of both creative and sociopolitical agendas. In her current role as Associate Program Director at the True Colors Fund, Twiggy leads their Youth Collaboration programs, aimed at not only elevating youth voices but also creating space for partnerships with young adults to lead the movement to end youth homelessness. In addition to her activism and advocacy work, Twiggy has worked as a model & runway trainer, performance artist and special events & talent management coordinator. She and her work have been featured in major media publications like OUT Magazine, PAPER Magazine, NY Mag, The Huffington Post, The METRO Weekly, and The Advocate among others. She was also a featured subject in Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' and HBO's documentary feature film, The OUT List. Twiggy is the co-writer and one of seven subjects in the Sundance-selected, award-winning documentary, KIKI, which paints an intimate portrait of the underground kiki ballroom community in NYC.
Tico Almeida
Interim Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch
Tico Almeida is Human Rights Watch Interim Advocacy Director. Before coming to Human Rights Watch, Tico launched Freedom to Work in the fall of 2011. He has extensive experience advocating for workplace fairness as a civil rights litigator in private practice and a legislative attorney in the U.S. Congress. From 2007 to 2010, Almeida served as lead counsel on the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act ( ENDA ) for the Committee on Education and Labor of the U.S. House of Representatives. He drafted several portions of the bill, organized Committee hearings in support of ENDA, and built a thorough Congressional record necessary to apply ENDA to State government employers. He has provided media commentary on ENDA to publications including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Congressional Quarterly, the Hill, Huffington Post, the Washington Blade, MetroWeekly, Bilerico, among others.
Zach Stafford
Editor-at-Large, OUT Magazine
Zach Stafford is editor at large of Out Magazine and a contributing writer for The Guardian where he covers justice, violence and social issues in both his column and long-form features. He regularly provides commentary on radio, podcasts and has appeared on the BBC, CNN and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Zach is also the co-editor of the bestselling book Boys, An Anthology, and is currently touring his photo-essay project, When Dogs Heal, which explores the lives of HIV+ people and the pets that saved their lives.
Julian K. Glover
Academic, Activist, Performer
Julian Kevon Glover is an academic, activist and performer who graduated with honors from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and holds an MPA from Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs . He has been published in the Harvard Kennedy School's LGBTQ Policy Journal and recently published an article in Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society about the representation of transgender women of color in media. He is currently pursuing a PhD in African American Studies from Northwestern University where his dissertation project examines the experiences of transgender women of color in Chicago's ballroom scene. He has also worked for several national progressive organizations including the National LGBTQ Task Force, the National Center for Transgender Equality and the Center for American Progress in Washington DC.