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The Truth Will Not Be Whitewashed Fashion Show

  • xBk Live 1159 24th Street Des Moines, IA, 50311 United States (map)

BCI is a proud sponsor of this BIPOC fashion show celebrating Truthsgiving, Transgender Day of Remembrance and demanding an end to the ban on diversity training in Iowa.

About this event

This year on November 20th, to celebrate Truthsgiving (an alternative to Thanksgiving), Humanize My Hoodie and Great Plains Action Society have organized a fashion show and political engagement event focused on demanding an end to the ban on critical race theory in Iowa, aka, diversity training. November 20 is also Transgender Day of Remembrance and so we will also uplift Trans voices. Tickets can be purchased on a sliding scale at the door. The suggested price is $20.

If the truth about racist, sexist, and anti-LGBTQIA+ holidays, practices, and institutions is suppressed, then there is no way for oppressed folks to break free from the violence of white supremacy and the heteropatriarchy. The event will generate awareness of anti-racism work, uplift the voices of women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ folks, and bring together Iowa community members for an afternoon of arts and culture focused on political awareness. The fashion show will be punctuated by the words of powerful speakers empowering Iowans to get involved and act on ending white supremacy, the heteropatriarchy, and the ban on diversity training.

Taking place at xBk Live in Des Moines, from 1-3 PM, The Truth Will Not Be Whitewashed Fashion Show will feature:

  • Indigenous, Black, and Latina clothing and jewelry designers, Andre Wright, Sunrose Ironshell, Roneshia, Chica Dalia Custom Designs, Jess Lopez-Walker, and Alicia Velasquez

  • BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ speakers

  • Musical performance by Huron musician Geneviève Umęndaterih Salamone

For the past five years, Great Plains Action Society has been providing folks in Iowa with a better way to celebrate the harvest season by promoting Truthsgiving. Thanksgiving perpetuates white supremacy and romanticized notions about Indigenous Peoples. To celebrate the current Thanksgiving mythology is to celebrate the theft of land through ethnic cleansing and enslavement. The truth is that real history has been whitewashed and so GPAS celebrates Truthsgiving in order to reject colonial holidays and provide space for real Indigenous historical narratives and BIPOC voices.

Later Event: December 15
Book Group