Artist, Author C.D. Kirven To Unveil Black, Lesbian Super Hero In TAO Diaries

Link to article: http://lezgetreal.com/2010/10/artist-author-c-d-kirven-to-unveil-black-lesbian-super-hero-in-tao-diaries/

10/07/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire

She is a talented, dedicated fighter, Black, lesbian , and no, we are not just talking about the author C.D. Kirven. Rather, her creation, TAO (Pronounce TA as the ‘o’ is silent) will be the central character of the first comic book to center around a Black lesbian super hero. TAO is is the child of a Chinese-British billionaire dollar shoe company owner father and an Afro-American dancer mother from Brazil. TAO’s parents were killed when she was young and raised by Monks who trained her in Taoism and the art of Capoeira.

She will be fighting Corporeal, King of the Living Dead, who wants world domination. In order to achieve that goal, he will be using his evil army of spirits to inhabit human beings. These unwilling pawns will be used to do his bidding. TAO’s reason for hating Corporeal and his sidekick Mink is that the two murdered TOA’s love Bliss. TAO is not only on a mission to prevent the world from being overrun by the living dead, but to avenge the loss of the love of her life.

C.D. Kirven will be at Austin’s Comic-Con, which runs from 12 November to 14 November, to support her creation. She is also the co-founder of Get Equal Now, the Lambda Literary nominee for “What Goes Around Comes Back Around”, and the author of short stories she posts to Wattpad. She is also a weekly columnist on Cherrygrrl.comwhere she writes the column “RUNDOWN”. She is also a regular contributor to Bilerico, AMBIENTE magazine, Dallas Voice, Bay Windows, Dallas Post Tribune, San Diego Gay & Lesbian News, KVUE ABC, Telemundo and many others.

At the age of sixteen, Kirven wrote an article about corporal punishment that went over the AP wire. The publicity that it generated ultimately resulted in Texas public schools restricting the use of corporal punishment.

Kirven has done a lot of work with regards to the darker side of the LGBT Community including highlighting the tendency towards racism within the community and the issue of same-sex partner abuse, which she documented via cell phone. Her documentary “The Dark Side of the Rainbow” was featured in several film festivals.

Kirven is a nationally known artist as well with her work appearing at the 2009 Butch Voices Conference in Oakland, CA, and being featured on the December 2009 issue of Curve Magazine. She is also editing her online reality show about her life called SOULPRINT and is currently working on a screenplay and her second book called The Glass Closet.

LGR has been honored to work with Ms Kirven on combating injustice and prejudice both within and without the LGBT Community.

GET EQUAL NOW! TOMORROW IS NOT PROMISED...

I want to talk about the future of GET EQUAL NOW. Michael Robinson and I are giving workshops on racial injustice within the LGBT community as well as direct action in the 21st century. So, check out GET EQUAL NOW.ORG to find out how to bring the workshops to your university, organization or pride celebration.

Below is a list of events where we have given the workshops or plan to give:

• Equality Across America Texas Conference: Unite and Fight - May 22, 2010
• Butch Voices Regional Conference - Dallas, TX - June 5, 2010
• Allgo - People of Color Retreat & Conference - July 9 - 11, 2010
• Texas Tech University - TBD - October 2010

I would also like to share that we will soon hold fundraisers for Youth First Texas and you can donate to the very worthwhile organization at youthfirsttexas.org. We will also hold fundraisers for our LGBT Youth Summit: Empowerment Conference, Music & Arts Festival. You can donate to the event at GetEqualNow.org. We want to teach young activist to empower their voices by using their gift whether it’s writing, music, comedy, art or filmmaking as a tool to fight for LGBT rights. Then we will plan a direct action with the young activists putting what they've learned into action. There are many ways to skin a cat and we should use all ways to fight against oppression. So, we will recruit from college campuses and organizations across the country to help create this venue to "empower the future to GET EQUAL NOW!" Join my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/CD-Kirven-LGBT-Activist-Author-Artist-Filmmaker/125751870782302

Here is one of my favorite poems written by Audre Lorde:

"I see protest as a genuine means of encouraging someone to feel the inconsistencies, the horror of the lives we are living. Social protest is saying that we do not have to live this way. If you feel deeply, and we encourage ourselves and others to feel deeply, we will find the germ of our answers to bring about change. Because once we recognize we can feel deeply, love deeply, can feel joy, then we will demand that all parts of our lives produce that kind of joy. And when they do not, we will ask, "Why don't they?" And is the asking that will lead us inevitably toward change.

So the question of social protest and art is inseparable for me. I can't say it is an either-or proposition. Art for art's sake doesn't really exist for me. What I saw was wrong, and I had to speak up! I loved poetry, and I love words. But what was beautiful had to serve the purpose of changing my life or I would have died. If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That's the beginning of social protest."