This event has been postponed.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020, 7pm–9pm
Offsite at Navel 1611 South Hope St.
Hosted by MeUndies and Women’s Center for Creative Work
Free // Please RSVP

Member price accessed with discount code at checkout. Are you a member and don’t know your code? Email [email protected]! Not a member but interested in these perks? Join here!

Join us for a vibrant conversation between Curator Kimberly Drew, Influencer Ari Fitz, and WCCW Programming Director Mandy Harris Williams as they inspect the archetypes that we confront in creative careers and compare notes and ideate on how to flourish beyond embodied expectations.

There will be an open bar : )

Arielle Scott, professionally known as Ari Fitz (they/them), is a nonbinary American social media and TV personality, model, producer, actor and filmmaker. One look at their digital work, and you’ll understand Ari Fitz is on a relentless mission to shift the way we define gender and beauty. You’ll also notice it’s working. Read more about Ari Fitz here.

Today Ari divides their time between LA and NYC, and runs a new media company focused exclusively on data-driven, direct-to-consumer digital content. This company is called FITZ Media, Inc.

Kimberly Drew (a.k.a. @museummammy) is a writer, curator, and activist with a passion for innovation in art, fashion, and cultural studies. Drew received her B.A. from Smith College in Art History and African-American Studies, with a concentration in Museum Studies. An avid proponent of black spaces, Drew first experienced the art world as an intern in the Director’s Office of The Studio Museum in Harlem. Her time at the Studio Museum inspired her to start the Tumblr blog Black Contemporary Art, sparking her interest in social media.

Since starting her blog, Drew has worked for Hyperallergic, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Lehmann Maupin. She has delivered lectures and participated in panel discussions at the New Museum, Art Basel, Moogfest, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Brooklyn Museum. Her writing has appeared in Glamour, W, Teen Vogue, and Lenny Letter. She also serves as a board member for Recess Activities, Inc.

Drew is currently the Social Media Manager at The Met, was honored by AIR Gallery as the recipient of their inaugural Feminist Curator Award, was selected as one of the YBCA100 by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and selected as one of Brooklyn Magazine’s Brooklyn 100. You can follow her at @museummammy on Instagram and Twitter.

Mandy Harris Williams is a theorist, multimedia conceptual artist, writer, educator, radio host and internet/community academic. She is from New York City and currently lives in Los Angeles. Mandy’s work seeks to get everybody the love that they deserve.  She focuses on desirability privilege as a real and mythological market and political force. She graduated from Harvard, having studied the History of the African Diaspora, as well as the mass incarceration crisis, and other contemporary black issues. She received her MA in Urban Education and worked as a classroom teacher for 7 years in low income communities. She integrates a holistic and didactic style into her current creative practice.  Her creative work has been presented at Paula Cooper Gallery, Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Art + Practice, Navel, Knockdown Center and Women’s Center for Creative Work to name a few. She has a monthly radio show, the #BrownUpYourFeed Radio Hour, on NTS. She has contributed writing work to Dazed Magazine, MEL magazine, ForHarriet, and The Grio and is a frequent radio and podcast guest.

Accessibility information for this event: NAVEL’s main entrance is not wheelchair accessible, but their Hope Street entrance is. To access the elevator, call (213) 340-4213 or select NAVEL on the dial box. Navel restrooms are wheelchair accessible for average-sized wheelchairs only. All ages are welcome unless otherwise specified. Some events may feature flashing lights and loud music.

Childcare for this event: We do our best to provide low-cost, on-site childcare for our events when requested at least a week in advance. If you are interested in childcare for this event, please fill out this form.

This event is made possible through the support of MeUndies and their #MeUndiesGives campaign.