Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative Launches MOBItalks

Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative (MOBI) is furthering it’s mission to amplify the voices of the queer communities of color with the release of MOBItalks – a new digital film series documenting the intersectionalities of LGBTQ life and culture. Framed through the lens of themes including sex, mental health and overall LGBTQ experience, the series consists of three, 15-20 minute long films that will be released Friday, May 1st, Friday, May 8th, and Friday, May 22nd.

For the first time, MOBI is moving its signature live MOBItalks event series to a digital platform to affect greater audiences. The MOBItalks digital film series is a reincarnation of MOBI’s namesake personal and professional development series launched in 2017. The series has seen LGBTQ advocates, influencers, esteemed professionals, and community members such as DeRay McKesson (American Civil Rights Activist), Karamo Brown (Netflix – Queer Eye), Kyle Hagler (President of NEXT Models), Ty Hunter (Celebrity Stylist) and Ben Cory Jones (Writer – Insecure & Creator / Executive Producer BET’s Boomerang) share their insights and stories as speakers.

Shot as an art film by NYC-based photographer and videographer LaQuann Dawson, each film is a unique blend of styles including documentary, musical performances, and skits. Scenes from the Sex episode are tied together with hues of red, also featuring submissions from TENz followers. Hints of green center the Mental Health episode and LGBTQ Experience is brought to life in hues of yellow.

EPISODE 1 – SEX

The first episode of MOBItalks explores the subtleties of sex, from defining healthy relationships to humanizing sex workers. Playwright and HIV advocate Donja Love sets the stage, reciting lines from his powerful production of One in Two, inspired by his 10th anniversary of being HIV positive. Other highlights include a day in the life with gay adult film actor Deangelo Jackson and a live reading from James Earl Hardy’s best-selling novel B-Boy Blues. Widely considered the first gay hip hop love story, B-Boy Blues explores and celebrates the beauty of being both Black and gay in a society that still holds both identities in contempt.

Episode 2 – “When You Seek Help”

https://youtu.be/fAZtzR1zKPI

Part 2 of MOBItalks explores and celebrates mental health as it relates specifically to queer communities of color and the issues we run into collectively. We sit with psychotherapists Keith Carter as he shares his experience as an adoptive parent. We also sit with Tyrone Caver, Luther Knanishu and James Robinson who help us unpack some of the reasons we might be struggling to take up space. Other highlights include: an expert from an essay by Myles E. Johnson, Anthony Duncan from Dead the Silence shares his mental health journey and Pastor Joty Allison speaks from the perspective of a gay black man leading a church.

Episode 3 – “I Am Wanting To Be”

https://youtu.be/lP4wlt5y95I

Episode 3 of MOBItalks explores identity and community as we sit with Picasso Moore, Regi Angelou, Mark Rayvon, Corwin Joseph, Kayden Coleman and more. Our community is filled with people from such diverse backgrounds, experiences and identities. How do you identify? Other highlights include music bits from Rayshawn Ware and Regi Angelou, a poem from Jermel Moody, dancing from Chalvar Monteiro and the MOBI team’s view on community. mobi-nyc.com/talk