An Evening with micha cárdenas and Art AIDS America

TACOMA, Wash. – Join artist and theorist Micha Cárdenas for a special evening as she shares ideas about the prevalence of HIV among trans women of color and the efforts to end violence against this community.

University of Puget Sound’s Art + Science Salons and Tacoma Art Museum present the free event as part of the landmark Art AIDS America exhibit. The artist talk and reception will start at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, at Tacoma Art Museum. The evening will include:

5:30 p.m. –6:30 p.m.:  Explore the Art AIDS America exhibition
6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.:  Artist talk featuring Micha Cárdenas
7:30 p.m.–8 p.m.:  Reception

Artist, theorist and author Micha Cárdenas will discuss the work of Jelani Ade-Lam/Ravyn Wngz, an African, Mohawk, two-spirit, trans, and HIV-positive, queer dance artist in Toronto, who works with the Ill NANA/DiverseCity Dance Company.

Micha Cárdenas will discuss how trans women of color are both the fastest-growing population of HIV-positive people in the United States and the number one victims of murder among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people today. Some argue that this indicates a failure of the LGBT movement to address the violence against trans women and emphasizes the need for activism on the issue.

Cárdenas, assistant professor of interactive media design at the University of Washington Bothell, has exhibited her work in museums, galleries, and public spaces worldwide. She has served as a visiting scholar or fellow at the University of Toronto, University of Southern California, and Leuphana University in Germany. In 2015 she was a MacArthur Foundation HASTAC Scholar.

The artist and scholar create and study works focused on the unifying idea that she describes as “trans of color movement in digital media.” In her forthcoming book, Shifting Poetics: Trans of Color Movement in Digital Media, she describes the art movement as an attempt to provide visions of possibility beyond the present moment's violence. The book addresses the question: “How can the interaction between speculative media and social justice be understood, specifically in the context of the struggle for justice for trans women of color in the Americas?” cárdenas considers strategies for social change, as envisaged by science fiction, speculative art, and design.

The Art AIDS America exhibition at Tacoma Art Museum is the first to reveal how the AIDS epidemic changed American art, beginning in the 1980s. The exhibition of 127 works honors those who have died, reminds us that the crisis continues, and explains how this legacy still influences artists. The Tacoma Art Museum exhibition continues until Jan. 10, 2016.

Press photos of Micha Cárdenas can be downloaded from pugetsound.edu/pressphotos.
Photos on page: From top: the Jelani Ade-Lam/Ravyn Wngz dance artist group; a portrait of Micha cárdenas; poster from the Art AIDS America exhibit.

For directions to Tacoma Art Museum, visit tacomaartmuseum.org/visit/plan-visit.

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