AFRITUDE Laboratorio Creativo Político is conceived as a space where the arts and activism are harmonized.
AFRITUDE Laboratorio Creativo Político (Creative Political Lab) is conceived as
a space where arts and activism are harmonized; a co-working safer
space/arts studio for interdisciplinary creation and community based
learning. We dream to become a space for art-led political discussion and
production rooted in struggle that informs and curates Afro-LBTQ messages
for social justice with a black feminist antiracist intersectional emphasis and
approach. AFRITUDE intends to use multiple art disciplines as tools to
produce social commentary through our testimonies and experiences as
black women, lesbians, bisexual, transgender and queer people of African
descent to challenge official-traditional narratives that invisibilize, silence and
oppress these identities in the Dominican Republic. Our artivism production
aimed to provoke conversation to fight and resist racism and colonialism
includes T-shirts, murals, photography, street art, graffiti, ad reclaiming-
intervention, canvas painting, poetry, street theater and audiovisual
installations.
Tourmaline (f.k.a. Reina Gossett) and Sasha Wortzel are currently directing Happy Birthday, Marsha! – a narrative short film about best friends and pioneering transgender rights activists, Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, in the hours before the 1969 Stonewall Riots.
Tourmaline (f.k.a. Reina Gossett) is an activist, writer, and artist and the 2014-2016 Activist-In-Residence at Barnard College’s Center for Research on Women. As the membership director at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project from 2010 to 2014, Tourmaline worked to lift the voice and power of trans and gender non-conforming people. Prior to joining the Sylvia Rivera Law Project Tourmaline worked at Queers for Economic Justice where she directed the Welfare Organizing Projected and produced A Fabulous Attitude, which documents low-income LGBT New Yorkers surviving inequality and thriving despite enormous obstacles.
Sasha Wortzel is a filmmaker, media artist, and educator working in video, installation, sound, and performance. Her work explores marginalized collective and personal histories in relation to space, gender, and desire. Her debut feature documentary, WE CAME TO SWEAT premiered at Newfest at the Lincoln Center in July 2014. She has presented work at the Berlin International Film Festival, Outfest LA, Newfest, Tribeca Interactive, Leslie Lohman Museum, A.I.R. Gallery, and the Guggenheim Lab. Her work has been supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and she was a 2012-2013 fellow of filmmaker Ira Sach’s Queer/Art/Mentorship. She received her MFA from Hunter College. With Reina Gossett, she is currently directing Happy Birthday, Marsha! – a narrative short film about best friends and pioneering transgender rights activists, Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, in the hours before the 1969 Stonewall Riots.
Black Transmen, Inc. (BTMI) takes great pride in its role as the first national nonprofit organization with a direct focus on an often voiceless, underserved, and extremely marginalized population segment: black transgender men and women.
Black Transmen, Inc. (BTMI) takes great pride in its role as the first national nonprofit organization with a direct focus on an often voiceless, underserved, and extremely marginalized population segment: black transgender men and women. Since its founding in March 2011, BTMI has focused on the empowerment of transgender communities around the country via local chapters and through the provisions of specialized peer-based programs and services rooted in a platform of social justice, advocacy, and self-reliance. BTMI offers resources for connecting people who both need and provide reliable opportunities for support. BTMI is proud of its most recent affiliation with the Anti-Violence Project (AVP), a New York based organization that works to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and supports survivors through counseling and advocacy.
This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.
The mission of the Montana Two Spirit Society is to advocate, educate and build community among Native and Indigenous peoples by sharing their two spirit histories.
The Montana Two Spirit Society has been working since 2007 and coordinating the Montana Two Spirit Gatherings for the past twenty years. The mission of the Montana Two Spirit Society is to advocate, educate and build community among Native and Indigenous peoples, including LGBTI and allied communities, by sharing their two spirit histories and cultural traditions. Their vision is to reclaim their two spirit traditions and heal past wounds as a way to create healthy Native and Indigenous two spirit communities. They are a volunteer grassroots organization working to build community and organize Native two spirits in Montana and the surrounding region (WA, ID, WY, ND, SD as well as parts of Canada, including Alberta, Manitoba and Saskachewan). Their accomplishments include: hosting International Two Spirit Gathering in 2004 and 2012; organizing a successful Montana Two Spirit Gathering for over 20 years and making it one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest; producing a short video about two-spirit culture and gatherings; conducting various presentations and workshops at national conferences and other Gatherings; attending and supporting similar Gatherings across the country and Canada; marching in Montana LGBT Pride events; and, raising awareness on Montana reservations and the Pacific Northwest Region about two-spirit issues. This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.
Naomi Jackson is the author of The Star Side of Bird Hill, published by Penguin Press in June 2015. She studied fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Jackson traveled to South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship, where she received an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. A graduate of Williams College, her work has appeared in literary journals and magazines in the United States and abroad. She is the recipient of residencies from the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House, Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and the Camargo Foundation. (Photo credit: Lola Flash)
Lisa Harewood is a Barbadian filmmaker and writer/director of Auntie, a short developed by the Commonwealth Foundation in 2013 and acquired by National Black Programming Consortium for its AfroPop series. The film has inspired an oral history project, Barrel Stories, which will document and share the experiences of Caribbean parents and children separated by migration. She previously produced a feature film which was nominated for Best First Feature at Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. She holds an M.A. from Warwick University and trained in Independent Producing at MetFilm School, both in the UK.
Aurora Guerrero was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area to immigrant Mexican parents. Guerrero wrote and directed Mosquita y Mari, her debut narrative feature. Since premiering at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Mosquita y Mari has traveled over 100 film festivals including San Francisco International, Melbourne, Guadalajara, Sao Paulo, and has garnered multiple awards including Best First Feature at Outfest while picking up a Spirit Award and GLAAD nomination for Best Film under 500k. Mosquita y Mari was theatrically released in New York City where the New York Times praised an “an unassuming indie jewel.” Prior to making her feature, Guerrero directed award-winning short films, including Pura Lengua (2005 Sundance Film Festival) and Viernes Girl (winner HBO/NYLIFF competition). Los Valientes (The Brave Ones), slated to be Guerrero’s second feature, has received development support from Sundance, San Francisco Film Society, and Tribeca. In 2012 Guerrero was named a Time Warner/Sundance Storytelling Fellow.
The feminist batucada La Tremenda Revoltosa is a collective composed of 20 feminist percussionists, most of them Afro-Colombian lesbians, who are committed to social transformation.
The feminist batucada La Tremenda Revoltosa is a collective composed of 20 feminist percussionists, most of them Afro-Colombian lesbians, who are committed to social transformation. They believe that the revolution will happen if people take it to the streets and believe that music inspires revolution. Through percussion and its activism in the streets, they advocate for dignity and against oppression, violence and silence.
*** En Español***
La batucada feminista La Tremenda Revoltosa es un colectivo compuesto por 20 percusionistas feministas, en su mayoría lesbianas afrocolombianas, que están comprometidas con la transformación social. Cree que la revolución se dará si la gente la saca a las calles y cree que la música inspira a la revolución. A través de la percusión y su activismo en las calles, aboga por la dignidad y en contra de la opresión, la violencia y el silencio.
The Estallido Feminista batucada is a collective of lesbians and feminists using art, theater, music, and performance to generate dissident political action.
The Estallido Feminista batucada is a collective of lesbians and feminists using art, theater, music, and performance to generate dissident political action against all forms of domination, oppression and exploitation based on sex, race, class, sexuality, and immigration status.
*** En Español***
La batucada Estallido Feminista es un colectivo de lesbianas y feministas que usan el arte, el teatro, la música y la representación del performance para generar acción política disidente contra todas las formas de dominación, opresión y explotación con base en el sexo, la raza, la clase social, la sexualidad y el estatus de inmigración.
Beldan Sezen is an artist who uses drawing, collage, and text. She has given workshops and master classes, participated in comic jams and exhibitions in Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Wiesbaden, New York, Beirut, Istanbul and Aleppo. Her previous graphic novels were Zakkum and #GeziPark. Her graphic memoir Snapshots of a Girl was listed in the 2016 ALA Over The Rainbow list. She has been awarded with the 2015 Astraea Global Arts Fund Award for her Turkey based project Butch It Up!. Her latest book To Separate The Body From The Machine is part of the New York Public Library and The Library of Congress special artbooks collections. Born in Germany to Turkish parents, she currently lives in Amsterdam.
Rosa Rabiosa is an LGBTIQ collective in Lima with the mission of promoting social justice, liberation and equal access to resources for the LGBTQI community.
Rosa Rabiosa is an LGBTIQ collective in Lima with the mission of promoting social justice, liberation and equal access to resources for the LGBTQI community. It is composed of a multidisciplinary team composed of artists, youth, activists and academic researchers. In the last three years Rosa Rabiosa through research (two publications), theater (three LGBTIQ testimonial works) and political advocacy has expanded its movement and bases, deeply rooted in the participatory and horizontal organization. Shaping the team, the lines of work, the base of young activists and using innovative tactics has led to the mobilization of impressive support throughout the country for its LGBTQI public policy goals, education and cultural change.
*** En Español***
Rosa Rabiosa es un colectivo LGBTIQ en Lima con la misión de promover la justicia social, la liberación y el acceso igualitario a recursos para la comunidad LGBTQI. Está integrado por un equipo multidisciplinario compuesto por artistas, jóvenes, activistas e investigadorxs académicxs. En los últimos tres años el Rosa Rabiosa a través de la investigación (dos publicaciones), el teatro (tres obras testimoniales LGBTIQ) y la incidencia política ha expandido su movimiento y bases, arraigadas profundamente en la organización participativa y horizontal. La conformación del equipo, la líneas de trabajo, la base de activistas jóvenes y usar tácticas innovadoras ha generado la movilización de un impresionante apoyo a lo largo del país por sus metas de políticas públicas LGBTQI, educación y cambio cultural.
