School of Fine Art Friday Event and Race, Rights and Sovereignty present:
Bisi Alimi: On Becoming a Black Gay Man in the UK
22 March 2019, 11:00
Glasgow Film Theatre
Free, Booking Essential
Bisi Alimi is an "Angelic Troublemaker Incarnate" - PASSIONATE and ENERGETIC public speaker, storyteller, television pundit, campaigner, actor and Vlogger.
His expertise on Social Justice ranges from Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity to Race and Race Relations, Feminism, Education and Poverty Alleviation. He has done a lot of work around "Intersexuality" and is currently on a global Intersectionality tour.
In 2004, Alimi came out as gay on national television in Nigeria making him the first ever Nigeria LGBT person to do so.
He has written many controversial opinion pieces including; “Men cant be Feminist”, “I am no longer talking to Black Africans about Race”, “Why It’s So Dangerous To Pretend That Racism Doesn’t Exist” and many others. “The Development Cost of Homophobia” is his most successful article that was translated into over 15 languages globally. Finally, His article for the Guardian: “If you say being gay is not African, you don’t know your history” has gone on to great review and cited in many news articles and journals globally. His collection of poems includes: “a note to my father”, “The answer is always there”, and his published poem “I told them a tale”.
Harvey Dimond (visual artist, programmer, co-founder of the GSA POC Collective and third year Fine Art Photography student) programmes this lecture as part of the Race, Rights and Sovereignty series for the School of Fine Art Friday Event.
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Bisi Alimi was a visiting lecturer to both Freie University and Humboldt University both in Berlin where he was teaching “Pre and Post Colonial Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Africa”
He also serves on the board of Stonewall Housing, AllOut and None On Record.
He has appeared on international TV stations as a social and political pundit, including, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and CCTV, and outlets like NPR and the Washington Post has profiled him.
His TEDx talk, “There should never be another Ibrahim” has been listed as one of the 14 most inspiring QUEER TEDtalk of all time. Alimi gave the closing speech at the Daily Beast event hosted at the New York Public Library titled, “I am Bisi Alimi and I am not a victim.”
He is currently working on his memoir “The Boy from Mushin” with a full length film launching next year.
He consulted for World Bank on Economic impact of Homophobia and served on the Bank advisory board on SOGI. He is a fellow of Salzburg Global LGBT Forum and New Voices at the Aspen Institute.
He was second runner-up for Campaigner of the Year at the European Diversity Award 2016, a shortlist for Diversity Role Model- LGBT for the National Diversity awards in 2015 and 2017 and a shortlist for Roberta Cowell Gay Times Honour.
Listed 19 most important LGBT person in UK 2015 and was number 68 on the World Pride Power List 2017.
He is the founder and Director of Bisi Alimi Foundation. In 2005, he founded The Initiative for Equal Rights and in 2012, was a founding member of Kaleidoscope Trust in the UK.
He lives in London with his husband.
