By Mabel Pais

Our LGBTQ+ elders were trailblazers for equal rights and now they’re forging a difficult road through aging. A lifetime of discrimination combined with a lack of legal and financial protections in their younger years push many seniors into living their golden years in isolation, poverty and poor health.

Join NJPAC’s in its virtual ‘Standing in Solidarity’ conversation series on structural and societal barriers to healthy aging. This PSEG True Diversity Film is Gen Silent (Stu Maddux, 2010), a documentary about the difficult decisions LGBTQ+ elders are forced to make when navigating long-term care.

PARTICIPATION

How to participate:

Register at njpac.org/event/aging-with-pride-challenges-for-the-lgbtq-community-pseg-true-diversity-film-series/#register.

Watch Gen Silent  for free at home.

Join the panel for a virtual panel discussion on Mon, Apr 15, at 7PM.

PANELISTS

Peter Oates

Peter Oates has spent 52 years of his career in healthcare which has given him the opportunity to experience and serve diverse communities in the U.K., the Netherlands and the U.S. He has been a member of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) for 28 years and is currently on the ANAC National Board of Directors. He also serves as a Board Commissioner for the City of Newark’s Department of Health Mary Eliza Maloney Health Center.

Beatrice Simpkins

Beatrice Simpkins has served as Executive Director of the Newark LGBTQ Community Center since 2019. She is a former board member of the Freedom Center for Social Justice in Charlotte, NC, and the Newark Community Health Centers in New Jersey. In 2016, Simpkins became a Rutgers 250 Fellow— receiving a medal at “A Day of Revolutionary Thinking,” the culminating event of Rutgers University’s yearlong 250th birthday celebration. Simpkins is a cisgender African American lesbian, mother of two daughters (Evita and Cicely), and Granny B to Darius, Demetrius and Vivienne. She is also a deacon in the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, serving as part of the UFC Newark congregation. 

Jahmila Smith

Jahmila Smith is a Project Manager and Trainer at Garden State Equality where she oversees Health & Wellness and Older Adults Initiatives. Smith has a background working with youth and young adults with adverse experiences, supporting them with their educational and vocational goals and providing emotional support so that they grow into happy, thriving adults. She was a student advocate and program coordinator at Phipps Neighborhoods in the Bronx where she focused on the daily activities and functioning of an after-school program. She also worked with young adults at Graham Windham. Smith is passionate about mental health and wellness, women empowerment, social-emotional learning, literacy, nutrition and community activism.

Gary Paul Wright

Gary Paul Wright is the Founder and Executive Director of the African American Office of Gay Concerns. The organization provides HIV prevention services to gay and bisexual men of color and runs T.G.I.F, the only state-funded program specifically designed to recruit and retain transgender women of color in HIV prevention. He was appointed to the Essex County Executive’s LGBTQ Advisory Board in 2011. Wright also served as a Charter Board Member of the newly established Newark LGBTQ Community Center. He is a member of the New Jersey Governor’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and Other Blood-borne Pathogens and of the Board of Trustees for Broadway House for Continuing Care in Newark.

MODERATOR

Terri L. Wilder

Terri L. Wilder, MSW manages the HIV/aging policy advocacy portfolio at SAGE where she implements the organization’s federal and state HIV/aging policy priorities. Wilder served on the New York governor’s “Ending the Epidemic” task force. She is currently a member of the New York State (NYS) Department of Health AIDS Advisory Council Subcommittee and The Minnesota Council for HIV/AIDS Care and Prevention. She has been recognized for her work in the POZ 100: Celebrating Women (2017) and received awards from the NYS Department of Health AIDS Institute, AIDS Survival Project and Bridging Access to Care, Inc. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia University teaching Human Sexuality, Gender and Sexuality, Queer Theory and healthcare policy.

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UNDERSTANDING NEWARK THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION WITH TOM KINGDON

By Mabel Pais

As president of the former Dana College, Dr. Frank Kingdon was instrumental in the creation of the University of Newark, a predecessor to Rutgers University–Newark. He was active in many progressive causes in Newark and later served as the founding chair of the Emergency Rescue Committee, which saved nearly 2,000 people from their deaths during the Holocaust. Kingdon’s career provides an important window into understanding Newark during the Great Depression.

The presenter is Tom Kingdon, Professor Emeritus of Emerson College, TV/film producer and son of Frank Kingdon.

RSVP

RSVP is required 

Join NJPAC, VIRTUALLY at njpac.tfaforms.net/145?id=a2FUc0000003tb3MAA 

Join NJPAC, IN-PERSON at njpac.tfaforms.net/145?id=a2FUc00000041iHMAQ

(at the Newark Public Library) at 5 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102

Phone: 973 773 7779

(Mabel Pais writes on Social Issues, The Arts and Entertainment, Health & Wellness, Spirituality, Education, Cuisine, and Business)