A Message from Scott Turner Schofield

I'm having such a great time here in Houston!! Thanks to DiverseWorks' former intern Julia, I have been speaking over at the University of Houston every day.

Tuesday I spoke to the Arts majors about being a professional artist, and we did a workshop on making performance for social change. They inspired me with their sculpture and their visual approach to telling stories...I'm just so wordy. The coolest part about it was sharing my process: I educated them about the difference between sex, gender, and sexual orientation (and they educated me with the many unique words Houston has for those concepts...!), but the connection between the raw materials of my work (theory & experience) and theirs (materials) and how they all come together as art was clear and easy.

Wednesday I had the privilege of speaking to the first LGBT Studies class in Texas! Even cooler, two other professors brought their students to pack the classroom. I love teaching Trans 101 at colleges: students are so interested to learn about new concepts, especially when it's a real person and a real, everyday experience that they may have never encountered before. I guess that's what college is for.

Tonight I will be speaking with GLOBAL, U of H's LGBT and Allies student group. More on that to come.

Sixto and I talked last night about how my work has so much education in it, but still manages to be good art. I don't want you to think that you're going to hear a lecture at my show...far from it. There's better lighting and nudity...oh, and aerial acrobatics. The greatest accolades I have heard about this show from its audiences have been 1) that they feel connected to a transgender story through their own experience of being a man or a woman; and 2) that they could listen to the stories all night. Sorry, there are 127 stories, but you only get 8 or 10 in a night. Of course, you can come back a second time to hear even more....

I hope to see y'all very soon!

Scott Turner Schofield
http://www.undergroundtransit.com/