LECTURES
This is not an exhaustive list of my lectures. It is a representation of the most requested ones. All lectures provide an approximate run time that does not include discussion or Q&A, but they can be customized to fit most audiences. All presentations use Microsoft PowerPoint. Audio can be omitted. Content is continually updated to provide the most recent information on each subject. If you want to request a talk, CONTACT ME. As a courtesy for participants with physical disabilities, only venues with disability access will be accepted.
NOTE: Most of the organizations who value animal rights theory from a queer black perspective are limited in financial access. As such, I provide most of these lectures for a very low honorarium and sometimes only for the cost of travel. If you have the ability, please support me on Patreon in order to enable the continuation of this education.
RACE, CLASS, SPECIES
This is the most requested and most comprehensive talk. The title is an homage to the seminal book by Angela Y. Davis Women, Race, Class. The content provides an overview for the material covered in the graduate course POP: Power, Oppression and Privilege for the Department of Social Work at Columbia University. Participants examine current and historical connections between Black liberation and animal liberation in U.S. American culture and throughout the global west. A 20-minute introduction to this lecture is available on YouTube courtesy of Vevolution 2016. Approximate time: 120 minutes.
MEDIA LITERACY FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS
This experience is more of an interactive workshop than a lecture. First, participants will learn how our modern culture that emphasizes animal exploitation was shaped by innovations in propaganda only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then, utilizing my 10+ years of experience in print media, I make observations about the successes and limitations of the present-day animal rights media apparatus. Participants also will discern how to navigate the mainstream media in order to avoid reproducing racist and sexist content and anti-animal biases in our own analyses.
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Additionally, participants will also learn the role of social media in helping and hurting the cause of animal rights; how to strategically create, distribute, and consume social media content across different platforms; and how best to curate their online spaces for mental and emotional health.
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This lecture also exposes readers to the presentation of animal rights in popular culture and classic literature. Approximate time: 90 minutes.
ANIMAL WHITES: THE PREVALENCE OF WHITE SAVIOR COMPLEX IN ANIMAL RIGHTS AND WHY BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY REQUIRES MORE THAN JUST LIP SERVICE
This lecture introduces participants to the concepts of the white savior industrial complex, white fragility, and the politics of respectability as they occur in the mainstream community.
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Participants will learn how racism and bigotry pervade our activism and are unconsciously embraced despite our efforts to build meaningful inclusion.
Participants will also learn why single-issue veganism will not lead to animal liberation, what comprehensive anti-speciesism looks like, and the dangers of performative allyship to animals and other marginalized communities. Approximate time: 65 minutes.
THE POLITICAL ANIMAL
People who declare animal rights apolitical are shockingly prevalent in the community. This talk provides a brief education about the historical roots of animal rights as a political movement and explains the urgent need for political mobilization in our movement today with several pressing examples of how anti-animal entities promote their agenda by manipulating the levers of government. Approximate time: 60 minutes.
QUEERING ANIMAL LIBERATION
This lecture was inspired by a Left Forum panel coordinated by longtime human and animal rights educator pattrice jones. This talk introduces participants to the basics of queer theory and explains how it is applied to animal rights. Participants will also learn about the diversity of sexuality and gender presentation expressed throughout the animal kingdom, how our modern concepts of gender and sexuality are shaped by white capitalist patriarchy (as described by black feminiist theorists), and how our widespread acceptance of both single-issue veganism and homo-antagonism is in direct opposition to justice for animals. A variation of this lecture is available on YouTube courtesy of VegFestUK 2016. Approximate time: 60 minutes.