UIS Speakers Series to screen and discuss the documentary "Two Spirits"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series will screen and discuss the documentary Two Spirits. The discussion will be moderated by Kerry Poynter, director of the UIS LGBTQA Resource Office. This event is free and open to the public.

WHEN: Monday, June 9, 2014 at 6 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: Two Spirits tells the story of Fred Martinez, one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history, who was murdered at 16. The documentary explores the life and death of a boy who was also a girl, and the essentially spiritual nature of gender. Martinez was nádleehí, a male-bodied person with a feminine nature, a special gift according to ancient Navajo culture.

The film interweaves the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son with a revealing look at a time when the world wasn’t simply divided into male and female, and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of integrated genders.

Kerry Poynter has over fifteen years of experience working with LGBTQA students in higher education at a number of institutions including Duke University, Columbia University, New York University, and Western Michigan University. He has a master’s degree in Administration of College Student Affairs in Counselor Education & Counseling Psychology. He’s an adjunct instructor in the Women & Gender Studies Department at UIS and teaches a peer education course that trains LGBTQA & heterosexual allied students to facilitate interactive activities across campus on LGBTQA topics.

For more information on the ECCE Speakers Series event, contact Poynter at 217/206-8316 or kpoyn2@uis.edu.