The Art of Self-Expression
Thursday, October 17 | Reception 6:00 p.m. | Talk 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Even when much seems against you, there’s an undeniable joy and freedom in living as the unique individual you are. More and more LGBTQIA+ South Carolinians and allies are focused on helping members of the state’s LGBTQIA+ community live openly, be celebrated, and contribute to the state’s success in ways that advance rights today and encourage acceptance for future generations.
Join the CMA and SC Pride for an evening exploring the importance of allyship. Julie Turner, SC Free Mom Hugs chapter founder, kicks us off and Sara Cunningham, founder of Free Mom Hugs, shares her experiences with the organization and the essential role that allies have in speaking up for LGBTQIA+ rights and communities. She then moderates a panel featuring writer Evelyn Berry, drag icon and educator Patti O’ Furniture, entrepreneur Baker Rogers of Queer Haven Books, and president and CEO of SC Black Pride Darius Jones.
Free admission. Cash bar. Gallery admission not included.
Reserve your spot!
Evelyn Berry is a trans, Southern writer, editor, and educator. In addition to Grief Slut, she has published Buggery (Bateau Press, 2020), winner of the BOOM Chapbook Prize. Berry is a recipient of a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, 2022 Dr. Linda Veldheer Memorial Prize, 2019 Broad River Prize for Prose, and 2018 Emrys Poetry Prize, among other honors. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, South Carolina Review, Gigantic Sequins, Raleigh Review, Taco Bell Quarterly, and elsewhere. Berry lives in Columbia, South Carolina, with her partner and their pets, working as a library communications strategist.
In support of her son and the Oklahoma City LGBTQIA+ community, Sara Cunningham created a button offering free mom hugs in 2015 and took it to a Pride event, where she offered hugs to anyone who wanted one. In 2018 after an affirming social media post she shared went viral, Cunningham launched into the national spotlight and established Free Mom Hugs as a nonprofit. Today, Free Mom Hugs has chapters in every state and an ever-growing force of more than 34,000 volunteers who celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community through visibility, education, and conversation.
Darius Jones is president and CEO of South Carolina Black Pride, a nonprofit founded in 2009 whose mission is to empower South Carolina’s LGBTQIA+ Black community through education, advocacy, and community building.
Julie Turner became a Free Mom Hugs volunteer in 2018 and now serves as a Midlands area group and state chapter leader and volunteers for national projects for the nonprofit, which now has more than 34,000 registered volunteers. Julie was recently awarded SC Pride’s Guardian of the Flame Award in recognition of her service to the state’s LGBTQIA+ community.