KINGSTON, R.I. – Feb. 16, 2022 – Trans and Jewish writer, educator, performer and social justice activist, T. Wise will be the keynote presenter at the University of Rhode Island’s 27th Annual LGBTQ+ Symposium.
The presentation will be part of programs sponsored by URI Hillel and the Gender and Sexuality Center on March 23 and 24.
On Wednesday, March 23, at 6 p.m, Christoph Green’s acclaimed documentary short film, “Flux.1: T. Wise,” will be screened in the Hope Room in the Higgins Welcome Center. Access will also be available on Zoom. Wise, Green, and Wise’s parents, Rabbi Irvin and Kathy Wise, will attend the screening and will answer questions following the screening. Registration is required for in-person and Zoom attendance. Visit events.uri.edu and search March 23 events or register here. (URI LGBTQ+ Symposium Keynote Event: “Flux .1: T Wise” – University of Rhode Island)
The 37-minute film is an intimate portrait of Wise, a Hebrew teacher living in Brooklyn, who quits his job and gives up his apartment to follow his dream of pursuing a career in comedy just one year after beginning his transition from female to male. The film follows Wise through the ups and downs of comedy as he performs at open mics in unfriendly dive bars; at parties for friends; and at comedy clubs in New York City. We spend time with Wise’s loving, supportive parents, a rabbi and an educator, as well as his sisters, friends and girlfriend. He is open about his sexuality, his emotional life and every other aspect of life as a trans man.
The following day, March 24, Wise will conduct two workshops–one in a Gender and Women’s Studies class at 9:30 a.m., and the other at the Gender and Sexuality Center at 12:30 p.m. Green will work with URI Film Media students to film portions of these workshops for footage in part of an extended series of short films he is creating about trans experiences.
For more information about the workshops, please contact Amy Olson at amyolson@uri.edu.
“One of the goals of this program,” says Manuela Vadis, interim coordinator at the URI Gender and Sexuality Center and chair of the Trans Inclusion Events, Programs, and Services Subcommittee, “is to provide engaging events that move the campus toward greater inclusion and understanding of trans and nonbinary folks and their stories.”
T. Wise is a writer, educator and performer based in Brooklyn. He works as a tutor and mentor to teens becoming b’nei mitzvah (Jewish coming of age ceremony). He also works in curriculum design and group facilitation, specifically aimed at engaging white people in racial justice education and action. As a performer, Wise weaves together poetry, storytelling, drag, and comedy to cover a range of topics from God to RuPaul, Jim Crow to juvenile jails, hurting to healing, and everything in-between.
Christoph Green has been working in Washington, D.C., for over 20 years in the world of television design and filmmaking. For the past three years, Green has been developing a TV series about trans identity and gender. In addition to his narrative documentary film work, he has produced many nationally recognized and awarded commercials, public service campaigns and corporate and non-profit branding campaigns. His clients include Planned Parenthood, AARP, Nando’s, Audible, The Gates Foundation, Olympus, TV Land, Merck and Waymo.
Additional support for this program is provided by Hillel International, the College of Arts and Sciences, URI Center for the Humanities, the Office of Community, Equity and Diversity, the College of Health Sciences, Student Affairs, the Harrington School of Communication and Media, Health Services, the Honors Program, and the Gender and Women’s Studies Department.