Leilah Babirye in 'Worlds Reframed: Images and Voices of the Queer Diaspora'
A multimedia exhibition about queer displacement. Featuring works by Denver David Robinson, with Babirye Leilah, courtesy Gordon Robichaux, NY.
Worlds Apart | Worlds Reframed: Images and Voices of the Queer Diaspora is an exhibition of photographs, writings, video, and recorded interviews on the experiences of queer displacement. Begun in 2015, this project contrasts how the lives of LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers develop in their countries of resettlement. The principal objective in this work is to explore and understand how being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, &/or gender nonconforming (and, in most cases, a person of color) exacerbates the challenges faced by displaced individuals in the West. What is it like to be LGBTQ and a foreigner—the other within the other—in the progressive West, where even native LGBTQ persons must often still strive for acceptance and equality? This work seeks to reveal the full humanity of these individuals that is too often obscured by labels like refugee, asylum seeker, and victim. In Worlds Apart | Worlds Reframed collaborators are given voice and determine how their story and portraits are presented.
Participants who are creatives/artists are further invited to submit examples of their own work to complement project photography and narrative art pieces. An opening reception and related events will allow community members to meet with and ask questions of several local and visiting project participants.
This exhibition features stories of LGBTQ individuals from Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda, Russia, Congo, Malaysia, Cameroon, Iran, Tanzania, Syria, Liberia, and Bangladesh, who live in western cities like Copenhagen, Paris, Vienna, Portland, San Francisco, and New York. Worlds Apart | Worlds Reframed is a multi-discipline project that seeks to empower and amplify its participants. It aims to bring diverse communities together through the power of art and storytelling. Perhaps once we know ourselves and each other better, it will be harder to deny or limit the humanity of others—a crucial first step toward living in peace.
Worlds Apart | Worlds Reframed is funded in part by The Regional Arts & Culture Council, Pride Foundation, Eyes! on Broadway, & Dharma Rain Zen Center.
