Join Wangechi Mutu and Wanja Muguongo at 3pm on Saturday, February 7th for a lively discussion on gay and human rights in East Africa, the power of the arts, and what we can do to make a change.

Africa’s Out! is a campaign founded by artist and activist Wangechi Mutu, to support, celebrate and shout out for the rights, lives, and creative freedom of African LGBTQI individuals and to ensure that we can all exist with love, pride, and courage.

We believe that it is everyone’s right to live with dignity, to exist without fear, to choose whomever they please to love, and to speak powerfully and create meaningfully. Africans everywhere should have their rights protected no matter who they are, and the recent criminalization of gays in Africa is making it dangerous and impossible for many simply to exist. As a response to this injustice, Wangechi Mutu has decided to co-host the first ever Africa’s Out! celebration in June 2015. This event will not only be a massive show of solidarity for our African LGBTQI family, but it will be an important fundraiser for UHAI EASHRI, one of the most dynamic organizations working on behalf of sexuality and gender minorities in Africa. Over forty world-renowned visual artists have joined the mission and consolidated their efforts  to gather their cultural might and take a powerful stand in the quest for sexual equality within Africa.

UHAI EASHRI (The East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative) is Africa’s first indigenous activist fund to provide flexible and accessible resources to support civil society activism around issues of sexuality, health and human rights in the East African region, with a particular focus on the rights of sexual minorities. UHAI provides grants and capacity support to sex worker and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) organizations in the five East African countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. In its short tenure, UHAI EASHRI has become the largest funder of the Eastern African sex worker and LGBTI movements, having made nearly 300 grants amounting to $3 million to partners in the region. UHAI currently accounts for 1 in 6 LGBTI grants and is the 9th largest funder of sex worker rights globally. Led by Wanja Muguongo, their visionary and dynamic Executive Director, UHAI has earned widespread respect for their proactive, diverse and effective investments. UHAI EASHRI operates in a unique context, as both funder and movement leader.

Saturday, February 7th | 3PM
MoCADA (80 Hanson Place)
RSVP (50 Seat Capacity)