Celebrate Pride Month with Emersonians’ Films, Books, Poems, and More
In honor of Pride Month, we are highlighting the work of just a few of our many talented alums and faculty who identify as LGBTQ+.
Mari Walker ‘08
Walker’s work has been accepted into more than 125 film festivals. Her short film, Swim (2017), about a young trans girl who goes for a midnight swim, won the LGBT Advocacy Award at the Angaelica Film Festival, Best Director for the Long Beach Q Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
Alexis Clements ‘02
Clements is a writer and filmmaker who directed and wrote the documentary All We’ve Got. The documentary is “a personal exploration of LGBTQ women’s communities, cultures, and social justice work through the lens of the physical spaces they create, from bars to bookstores to arts and political hubs,” (IMDB). Clements also serves on the Coordinating Committee at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and in 2017 she co-founded the monthly queer children’s program Little Rainbows: Story Time at the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Listen to Clements on the Emerson Alumni Association Making It Big in 30 Minutes podcast.
Margot Wood ‘08
Released in 2021, Wood’s debut novel, Fresh, is a coming-of-age comedic romance about a bisexual character named Elliot, set at Emerson College.
Wood also says on her website that her claim to fame is being an extra in the movie Love, Simon.
Wood did a takeover of Emerson’s Alumni Association Instagram.
Writing, Literature & Publishing Associate Professor Benoit Denizet-Lewis is a magazine journalist and a New York Times-best selling author. Among the many articles he has written for The New York Times Magazine are pieces about contemporary LGBT conservatives, political persuasion, bisexual activism, LGBT middle-schoolers, the first wave of young gay married couples in Massachusetts, and more.
Richard Haney-Jardine, MFA ‘22
Haney-Jardine is a poet, essayist, and editor. He has won several awards for his writing, including the 2021 American Academy of Poets Award for his poem “thirteen ways of looking at the faggot”.
Learn More About The Emerson Pride Event Schedule and Emerson Pride Fund
Writing, Literature & Publishing Assistant Professor Rajiv Mohabir’s recent work includes Antiman, a nonfiction hybrid memoir about Mohabir’s experiences as an Indo-Guyanese queer poet and immigrant to the U.S, and his poetry collection, Cutlish. Both have been nominated for several awards.
Cavazos is a queer Chicano theater maker, and a founding member of the all-drag sketch comedy troupe Gender Offenders, and performed under the name of Chic Ana. They also wrote the play Gritos y Chismesitos and is the co-author of Chic and Sassy and Chic and Sassy: The Higher the Hair, the Closer to God. Cavazos is also a board member of the Crave Theatre Company in Portland, Oregon. Cavazos also did a takeover of Emerson’s Alumni Relations Instagram.
Sheldon Brown ’14
Brown co-wrote and starred in Cicada, for which he received a nomination for Best First Screenplay from the Film Independent Spirit Awards in 2022. IMDB.com described the movie as, “A New York love story that toes the line between narrative and doc with two actors reliving parts of their own experiences.” Brown spoke about Cicada during Emerson College’s 2021 Pride Week.
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