LECTURE | Zanele Muholi on Visual Activism 

South African artist Zanele Muholi works in photography, video, and installation, and is dedicated to increasing representation through her breathtakingly gorgeous black and white portraits of black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex people. Despite policy changes — South Africa legalized same-sex marriage in 2006, for example — discrimination and violence against LGBTQ people persist. Artists-as-activists play an undeniably important role in shifting culture.

Muholi will speak on Tuesday, November 14, about her work at the annual Two Icons Lecture, which focuses on the intersection of race and gender, and honors the legacy of social justice champions Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. She will discuss her series of portraits of lesbians, "Faces & Phases," and her ongoing self-portrait series, "Somnyama Ngonyama." The event is co-sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies and the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies.

The lecture takes place from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Humanities Center Conference Room D at Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester (755 Library Road), and will be followed by a reception. Muholi's books will be available for purchase. Free. 275-8318; events.rochester.edu.