Fundraiser for women’s conference
The LGBTQ Womyn of Color Conference will host “A Winter Hot Chocolate” from 8 p. m.-2 a.m. Jan. 17 at Raven Lounge, 1718 Sansom St., to raise funds for the organization.
Tickets to the party are $7 and include complimentary hot chocolate and admission to exotic dancing on the upper floor.
Last year’s inaugural conference brought together women from throughout the nation to the William Way LGBT Community Center to discuss the issues facing the female sexual-minority communities.
Penn event to focus on out civil-rights leader
The University of Pennsylvania’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium on Social Change will focus this year on the legacy of Bayard Rustin, the late openly gay civil-rights activist and advisor to King. The event will run from 4-7 p.m. Jan. 19 at Penn Nursing School’s Claire M. Fagin Hall Auditorium, 418 Curie Blvd.
The symposium will feature a screening of “Brother Outsider,” an award-winning documentary about Rustin’s life, as well as a panel discussion with Heather Love, associate professor of English at Penn; Jesse Salazar, special assistant to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey; and Damon Freeman and Toorjo Ghose, Penn School of Social Policy and Practice assistant professors. The discussion will center on the advancement of LGBT rights in the Obama administration.
There will be a wine-and-cheese reception hosted by Penn’s Office of Alumni Relations and the Penn Alumni Club of Philadelphia after the program.
For more information or to register for the free event, visit www.sp2.upenn.edu/mlk.
Citywide hearings on school harassment
The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations will host a series of public hearings in the next few months to examine issues of intergroup violence at Philadelphia public schools. The hearings will allow students, parents, faculty, police, youth groups and community members to voice concerns to the commission about ongoing school violence motivated by students’ race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.
The first hearing will take place from 4-7 p.m. Jan. 28 at Guerin Recreation Center, 2201 S. 16th St. Future hearing dates will be posted on the commission’s Web site, www.phila.gov/humanrelations/.
Fins fundraise for LGBT youth
The Fins Aquatic Club, the city’s LGBT swim team, will host its annual Postal Swim fundraiser later this month, with proceeds benefiting The Attic Youth Center.
The competition will run from 9 a.m.-noon Jan. 31 at Friends Select School, 1651 Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The annual event challenges Fins swimmers to complete as many laps as they can during the competition, and the team’s statistics will then be sent — via the U.S. Post Office — to the United States Masters Swimming, which will compare the results to other teams who held Postal Swims and present awards accordingly.
Community members can sponsor individual Fins swimmers and also contribute via donation jars at the event.
For more information, visit www.philadelphia-fins.org.
— Jen Colletta