‘Becoming Who We Are’ Artist Talk

‘BECOMING WHO WE ARE’
TRIX ROSEN, Project Director and INSIGHT OUT! PRIDE Workshop Participants
ARTIST TALK, Friday December 2, 2011
6 pm – 9 PM, Gallery 32

With a Special Performance by LADY JOI-ELLE
Hudson Pride Connections Center
32 Jones St., Jersey City, NJ 07306

Please join me and the participants in the INSIGHT OUT! PRIDE Digital Storytelling Workshop for an Artist Talk and Panel Discussion about our photographs currently on view in “BECOMING WHO WE ARE,” a photo/video group exhibition curated by Ricardo Francis at Gallery 32 in Jersey City, NJ.

The show features the work of Jasmin Brown, V. Michael Lazar, Natasha Phoenix Russell, Joi-Elle White, and Esteets Wright, students of the INSIGHT OUT! PRIDE Workshop along with guest international artists, Nadine Hutton (South Africa) and Fréd Koenig (France).

I will also present a short, historic retrospective of images that represent my GLBTQ social advocacy photography work from the ’70s and images depicting gender ambiguity and transformation. This visual memoir includes studio portraits of my female friends exploring erotic pleasure, role-playing and butch/femme identity.

Included will be pictures from recent photography exhibitions documenting my artistic collaboration with gender performance artist and videographer, Frederic Koenig.

The INSIGHT OUT! PRIDE Digital Storytelling Workshop recently completed an eight-week pilot program at the Hudson Pride Connections Center. The workshop is tailored to LGBTQ participants, gives a visual voice to participants affected by growing up in environments of uncertainty, discrimination, fear, and violence, and guides them to explore their creative vision. Each artist poignantly depicts images that mirror their personal views about masculinity, femininity, and their LGBTQ identity. As they learn to document their own lives through photography, they grow in confidence and leadership skills, empower themselves, and heal.

The workshops at the Hudson Pride Connections Center were developed and adapted from my experiences as a senior trainer, editor, and advisor to the international InSIGHT Out! Photography and Creative Exchange Project, based in Bangkok, Thailand.