Friends Select School Revs Up LGBT Outreach With Martha Graham Cracker, Brian Sims and a Queer Art Exhibit


Photo by Joseph Glodek

Photo by Joseph Glodek

Philly Quaker day school Friends Select School (FSS) is gearing up for a season of programming to build community among its LGBT youth and students of LGBT-headed families.

First up, the school’s LGBT Affinity Group of the Parent Association of FSS is hosting an LGBT-themed Quizzo Cabaret with none other than Philly drag cabaret diva Martha Graham Cracker. Taking place at William Way tonight, January 9th, from 7 to 9 p.m., the evening will find Miss Cracker “testing guests knowledge of pop-culture trivia related to gender and sexuality.” And because no gay soiree is complete without beverages, there will be sips from Moore Brothers Wine Company and New Jersey craft brewery Flying Fish Brewery, who is underwriting the event. Show up at 6 p.m. for a Moore Brothers tasting.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Attic Youth Center and its efforts to provide safe-space and community-building opportunities for local LGBT youth. Additionally, some money will go toward beefing up FSS’s David A. Wood Scholarship, which provides financial aid to lower and middle school students from LGBT-headed households.

On Monday, January 12th, Friends Select will also mount a photographic exhibit titled “Portraits Inside/Out,” which black-and-white portraits of LGBT folks that “aims to reflect the wide range of LGBT people who have inspired our wonderfully diverse and unique community.” The images include everyone from Frank Ocean to Oscar Wilde and local out folks, like Yannick Nezet-Seguin and Edie Windsor. 
Philly State Representative Brian Sims will stop by the school next Thursday to officially kickoff the exhibit. In a scheduled assembly, he will chat with students about some of his personal LGBT heroes before heading in to see the photographs for himself.