This is a very special and rare opportunity to hear about the lives and trailblazing work of longtime community heroes Cecilia and Tita Aida — hosted by Anand Jay Kalra (Executive Director, Queer Cultural Center).
This loving, intimate event will take place on Thursday, May 9 from 7:00-8:30pm at Z Below (the theater downstairs from Z Space, where our annual FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL takes place). This event will be ASL interpreted, the venue is wheelchair accessible, has all-gender bathrooms, and KN95 masks will be provided & required for audiences.
FRESH WORKS! supports the creation of new work by BlPOC transgender, gender-nonconforming, non-binary and queer artists. Our other commissions will be performance premieres at the 2024 FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL of trans and queer performance (June 21-23 at Z Space, SF) AND at satellite performances throughout the year!
Nicky “Tita Aida” Calma is a familiar name to the Bay Area communities for the past thirty years. Her grassroots activism started in the 90’s. Since then, she became a tireless and proud transgender community leader in the Asian & Pacific islander LGBTQI community and in the greater LGBTQI of the Bay Area. She is currently a Managing Director for the San Francisco Community Health Center (formerly API Wellness) overseeing prevention programs for vulnerable communities. She is also one of the co- chairs of Trans March, the largest trans event that happens during the last Friday of June at Dolores Park.
Cecilia Chung, Senior Advisor at Transgender Law Center, is an internationally recognized leader who advocates for HIV/AIDS awareness and access to care, LGBT equality and equity, and human rights. Cecilia has been a vocal advocate for transgender women and people living with HIV. Currently, Cecilia is a member of the PCB NGO delegation at UNAIDS, and chair of the Finance and Planning committee of San Francisco Health Commission. Cecilia is also a member of the Advisory Council of Women Living with HIV of WHO.
Cecilia has served many roles in the HIV movement including, the Board of the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center, being a founding producer of Trans March, she organized one of the world’s largest annual transgender events which has since been replicated in cities across the U.S. and s member of Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. In 2015, Cecilia launched Positively Trans, a national, constituents-led project that focus on policy advocacy and leadership development of transgender people living with HIV, especially transgender women of color. Her story was featured in ABC’s docudrama, “When We Rise”. Currently, Cecilia is on the NGO delegation of UNAIDS Program Coordinating Board on which she and her colleagues successfully championing more trans-inclusive language in the HIV response.
Anand Jay Kalra (he/they) is the Executive Director at Queer Cultural Center, which promotes social justice through arts and culture. He brings a passion for community arts and more than twenty years’ experience in organized peace and justice work. Anand is also the founding Artistic & Managing Director of Uncaged Library Arts & Information. Since 2016, Uncaged Library’s flagship program has been Octavia of Earth, a collaborative docu-musical inspired by the lived experience of author Octavia E. Butler. Anand earned a master’s degree in Library & Information Science from the University of Michigan 2010 and is proud to be a transgender man.