Please join us for for a panel on Trans Labor & Practices with incredible people!
WHEN: Saturday, March 2, 2024, 3:30 – 5:00pm
WHERE: Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco
FREE
This conversation will bring together a group of social justice activists and artists to talk about trans inclusion and best practices for transgender folks in the workplace. This panel is also an invitation for hiring managers, executives and professionals who want to learn and create a more inclusive workplace for transgender folks.
Join this conversation with Whit Guerrero, Star Amerasu and Kenya Boudreaux. This conversation will bring together a group of social justice activists and artists to talk about trans inclusion and best practices for transgender folks in the workplace. This panel is also an invitation for hiring managers, executives and professionals who want to learn and create a more inclusive workplace for transgender folks.
There will be merch for sale with some proceeds going to @transgenderdistrict.
So come early! See you there
#hiretransfolks #translabor
#clarionalley #publicprogram #minnesotastreetproject
Trans Labor & Practice Participants:
Marcel Pardo Ariza (moderator) is a trans visual artist, educator and curator who explores the relationship between queer and trans kinship through photographs, installations and public programming. Their practice celebrates collective care and intergenerational connection. In 2022, they curated Juanita: 30 Years of MORE! a retrospective exhibition at SFAC galleries about one of the most iconic drag performers and activists in San Francisco, Juanita MORE! Most recently, they presented the installation I am Very Lucky, Very Lucky to be Trans here at SFMOMA, as part of the SECA Art Award, which honors and celebrates thirty-three Bay Area trans, intersex, and gender-nonconforming activists and cultural leaders who are at the forefront of revolutionary advocacy nationally and internationally.
Their work has recently been exhibited at the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Palo Alto Art Center; San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Palm Springs Art Museum; and the Institute of Contemporary Art San José.
Whit (Joaquin) Guerrero is a facilitator, mediator, and housing justice advocate. Born in Mexico, Joaquin immigrated to Vancouver, BC before moving to San Francisco to work on TGNC housing justice initiatives. As the Inaugural Director of Our Trans Home SF- a BIPOC led trans housing program- he led the opening of the first Transgender Navigation Center in the US and helped to envision the “End Trans Homelessness” initiative- the first “functional zero” initiative of it’s kind for trans and gender non conforming people.
Joaquin previously served on the Trans Advisory Committee of the Office of Trans Initiatives and the City and County’s Shelter Monitoring Committee. He currently works as a Program Officer for the Arlene and Michael Rosen Foundation, and is a Capacity Coach for the Transgender Strategy Center with a focus on professional development for TGNC, BIPOC and formerly incarcerated people.
Photo by: Marcel Pardo Ariza
Star Amerasu is a writer, composer and director who releases music under the moniker Ah-Mer-Ah-Su. She began her professional career composing the score for Major! A documentary film, showcasing the life of transgender revolutionary and Stonewall rioter, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. Touching upon themes of freedom and self-compassion, her debut album “Star” was voted by Billboard critics as top 20 LGBT albums of 2018. She acted in various small roles in film from 2018 onward, and In spring of 2023, She was chosen for OUTFEST 2023’s artist-in-residence program. She collaborated with director Aimee Hoffman to create a visual poem titled “I guess” a semi autobiographical musing on life, the film screened at the festival, and debuted Star as a writer. She directed her first narrative short film titled “After Hours” in the winter of 2023, which she also starred in and will screen in Summer 2024. She lives in San Francisco, where she studies film.
Photo by Alexander Raborn
Kenya-Simone Boudreaux (She/Her) is an accomplished engineer at Apple and a dedicated activist for transgender and racial justice. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she played a significant role in the passage of the California Referendum on AB 1266, which supports transgender student participation in school activities based on gender identity. Kenya studied Mechanical Engineering at San Francisco State University, where she became the first openly transgender Chapter president of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).
In her professional career, Kenya joined Apple in 2018, working on the Environmental Technologies Metrics team, where she conducted lifecycle analysis of e-waste and analyzed the carbon footprint of PCB manufacturing. Today, she works as a Senior Software Test Engineer on GPU, Graphics, and Display Software. Her work includes contributions to frameworks, developer tools, and hardware drivers for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, impacting areas such as VR, AR, and GPU-accelerated machine learning.
Kenya’s activism extends beyond her professional work. She was a founding organizer of the Castro Youth Housing Initiative, creating the nation’s first transitional housing for homeless transgender youth. She has earned a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for her contributions to the community in 2019.
Kenya is the founder and Executive Director of the Transgender Education Foundation, which has provided academic scholarships to low-income transgender students across the US since 2020. As of 2024, TEF has awarded over 40 college scholarships to students across the US, Jamaica, and Brazil.
In 2021, she was invited to the Biden-Harris administration’s special task force on LGBTQI+ Education Equity and Economic Impacts and contributed to the first-ever Federal Evidence Agenda on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Equity Report.
Her advocacy and professional achievements demonstrate a commitment to leveraging technology for social good and advocating for inclusivity and justice. Kenya Boudreaux represents a dynamic integration of technological expertise and social activism, striving to create a more inclusive society through her work and advocacy.
Photo by Riva Ramos
Led by CAMP, Manifest Differently is a new project developed, curated, and led by Megan Wilson and Kim Shuck with support from independent curator Trisha Lagaso Goldberg, education curator Amy Berk, assistant curator Katayoun Bahrami, and Public Relations/Communications Specialist Veronica Torres. In 2023/24, we are working with 38 diverse, multigenerational visual/media artists and poets to interrogate the history of Manifest Destiny and its legacies of inherited and perpetuated violence, trauma, and addiction. The outgrowth of resistance and resilience – giving fire to movements for social/ culture change. The project will be presented in 2023/24 at seven locations – Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP), Artists’ Television Access (ATA), Minnesota Street Project, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), Book Castle, the Beat Museum, and the San Francisco Public Library.