8/17 @ 7PM - Healing Without Compromise

A conversation & community alter honoring the revolutionary survival teachings of the disabled, queer of color community. With Shayda Kafai and Pablo Alvarez.

Shayda Kafai (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies in the Ethnic and Women’s Studies department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. As a queer, disabled, Mad Iranian American femme, she commits to practicing the many ways we can reclaim our bodyminds from systems of oppression.

Shayda’s writing and speaking presentations focus on intersectional body politics, particularly on how bodies are constructed and how they hold the capacity for rebellion. She is the author of Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice and Art Activism of Sins Invalid (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021).

Pablo Alvarez is a first-generation Chicanx from Pico Rivera, California. His scholarship and research are grounded in activism and collaborations that unearth the legacies of Latinx and Chicanx AIDS queer ancestry through literature, photography, documentary, and film. He holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies and is an assistant professor in Women and Gender Studies and Queer Studies at California State University, Fullerton.

He is a participant of Writers at Work, Los Angeles and is committed to archiving the stories of the impact of AIDS in Los Angeles.