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Join us with Black Pride Colorado and Vivent Health as we celebrate the month of Pride at MCA Denver! Enjoy an extended happy hour June 13 from 5-9PM with specialty cocktails & mocktails, music by DJ Big Styles, and get your black and white portrait with photographer MaryV!
The galleries will be open for you to check out our exhibitions, Critical Landscapes: Selected Works from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection and Gala Porras-Kim: A Hand in Nature.
This event is 21+.
**A portion of ticket sales will benefit Youth Seen**
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About the Hosts:
Black Pride Colorado, a program through YouthSeen, was created to celebrate, liberate and engage our Black LGBTQIA2+ community by building resilience, honor and preserving our history and culture.
It is through our fellowship and gatherings that we provide aid, dismantle the oppressive ideals behind mental health and wellness, community engagement, and to showcase where we thrive and create in arts and culture.
For more than 40 years, Vivent Health has been relentless in the fight against HIV, from advocating for policy change to protecting communities through prevention efforts to welcoming and caring for all who come through our doors. We offer people living with HIV the highest-quality care, including wraparound social services designed to support the whole person. And perhaps most of all, we provide a safe, judgment-free zone for everyone we serve, regardless of whom they love, the color of their skin, where they live, or how much money they have. All so we can help people living with HIV live long, healthy lives, and work toward ending the HIV epidemic.
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About the DJ:
DJ Big Styles is an international talent. He has logged spins of his mixes and original productions in Germany, London, Paris Australia and of course, his native USA. The DJ behind the Dillah Jones (J Dilla and Norah Jones) mash up series and one half of the production team TekStyles, he is also a veteran music journalist and producer. Styles’ over 20 years of DJing started when he was a teenager and his passion for constantly finding the best new music has never waned. He is equally comfortable in the VIP room or a basement sweatbox and has rocked stages with countless huge names from J Rocc to The Roots. Styles is a part of the Nationwide collective known as MOM DJs and hosts the Denver edition of Motown on Mondays. DJ Styles is also a devoted writer and pop culture critic and contributes to Chrome Music, Village Voice Media’s Pass & Jop poll and Denver Westword as Shawn C. White.
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About the Photographer:
MaryV (she/her, b. 1998) is a queer Guatemalan American photographer. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, MaryV attended Parsons The New School in New York. With a uniquely sensitive approach to her subjects, MaryV focuses on documentary, portraiture, and self-portraiture photography. She explores love, vulnerability, intimacy, self-identity, sexuality, gender, sex, disability, relationships, bodies, and emotions.
MaryV had her first solo show at the age of 19 at Space 776 in Brooklyn, New York, displaying her Gold Series and Gold Performance. Loving You, MaryV’s second solo exhibition, was the first in her hometown of Denver at Union Hall. She has shot campaigns for clients such as Calvin Klein and Google, remaining true to her mission to connect with and to honor her subjects. She has collaborated with brands such as Polaroid, For Them, Marc Jacobs, and publications such as Vogue, The Advocate, Interview Magazine, Document Journal and Them.
