The Fahari Arts Institute announced that it has teamed up with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to “mark the month of April as hate crimes awareness month, bringing attention to individuals who are or have been harassed, attacked, or even killed because of their actual or perceived ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender expression.” The arts organization will program events throughout the month related to victims of hate crimes. As part of their programming, they will screen The Sakia Gunn Film Project. It follows the trial of the murder of a New Jersey 15 year-old lesbian.
The following is from the press release:
“We, as black people, as humans, cannot hold to the idea that all life is precious, while discounting the lives of gay people,” says Harold Steward, artistic director of Fahari. “Verbal and physical violence as a means of disapproval or disagreement in general has wrecked [the black] community internally for far too long, and we must recognize that the violence against sexual minorities in the black community because they are queer is just as real and just as wrong as violence against us because we are black.”
Several organizations and individuals are joining with Fahari in this month-long commemoration including Southwest Regional Marketing Director for Lambda Legal, Dennis Coleman, the South Dallas Cultural Center, Black Cinematheque Dallas, the DFW Senators (an social organization for black lesbians), “HeART and Soul” (a Houston performing arts collective led by Kevin Anderson that will be in performance on Saturday, April 17th in Dallas), and University of North Texas’ gay student organization, GLAD.
