Alan Cumming To Host A Night of A Thousand Genders

The Ackerman Institute’s Gender & Family Project will present its third annual benefit, A Night of A Thousand Genders, an evening of cocktails followed by a very special one-night-only cabaret evening celebrating the beauty and resilience of gender expansive youth and their families on Monday, April 11, 2016 from 6:00-8:30pm at City Winery (155 Varick Street, New York, NY)

The third annual Night of a Thousand Genders will be hosted by Emmy and Golden Globe nominee, actor and activist, Alan Cumming (“The Good Wife”) and will feature performances by mezzo soprano vocalist and violinist Tona Brown, Broadway performer Javier Muñoz (Hamilton), Tony nominee Sydney Lucas (Fun Home), and with Music Direction by Emmy Award-winning composer Lance Horne. Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The second annual Ackerman Institute’s Gender & Family Project Family Award will be given to Nick Teich and his family. Teich founded Camp Aranu’tiq, a summer camp that provides a safe and fun environment for youth who feel like they might not fit in at other camps because of their gender and/or who wanted to be with others like them. Camp Aranu’tiq launched its first season in 2010 with 41 campers and has since grown into a summer camp organization that serves over 400 campers a year. Besides working year-round to prepare for and run Aranu’tiq’s programs, Nick is also a PhD candidate at Brandeis University and authored Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue. He has a deep personal interest in helping transgender youth to be themselves. He lives in the Boston area with his wife, Erika, and their two dogs, and spends the summer at camp.

The second annual Ackerman Institute’s Gender & Family Project Community Award will be given to siblings Reina and Che Gosset for their advocacy, community organizing and archiving in the trans communities. Reina Gossett is an activist, writer, and artist and the 2014-2016 Activist-In-Residence at Barnard College’s Center for Research on Women. As the membership director at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project from 2010 to 2014, Reina worked to lift the voice and power of trans and gender non-conforming people and took part in the successful campaign to end healthcare discrimination to low income trans and gender non-conforming New Yorkers. Che Gosset is a Black genderqueer independent scholar and activist who works to excavate queer of color AIDS activist and trans archives. They hold an MA in history from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in education from Brown. They have received a research grant from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University for their project on legacies of queer Black solidarity with Palestinian struggle, have been selected as a Martin Duberman Visiting Scholar with the New York Public Library, and recently received the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies from the Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies at the City University of New York.

The event is sponsored by the Ackerman Institute for the Family and by Honorary Chairs, Andrew Solomon and Geena Rocero. Solomon is a writer and lecturer on psychology, politics, and the arts; winner of the National Book Award; and an activist in LGBT rights, mental health, and the arts. Rocero is a model, TED speaker, and activist. She is the founder of Gender Proud, an advocacy and aid organization that stands up for the right of transgender people worldwide to “self-identify with the fewest possible barriers”.

A Night of a Thousand Genders begins with cocktails and buffet dinner at 6:00PM followed by the benefit performance beginning at approximately 7:00PM. Following the event there will be an After Party at City Winery with music by DJ Lina Bradford. All proceeds from this annual event will support The Ackerman Institute’s Gender & Family Project’s mission to raise awareness about the critical need for more services supporting families of gender expansive youth, at home and in schools, as well as expanding its staff and scope of services in the greater New York area and beyond.

The Benefit Committee for the event includes: Eva Fehren, Alan Koenigsberg, Jeremy Matz, Ross Meyerson, Jodie Patterson, Jessie Randall & Brian Murphy, Jane Miller Rennert & Elliot Rennert, Christopher Scott, and Steven Sousa.

To learn more about the Gender & Family project or to purchase tickets to A Night of a Thousand Genders please visit www.nightofathousandgenders.com.