Actress Laverne Cox, widely known for her role in the Netflix original series “Orange Is the New Black,” will appear at the IU Auditorium on Wednesday as part of her lecture series, “Ain’t I a Woman? My Journey to Womanhood.”
Cox has accumulated a list of firsts as a transgender woman that include being the first trans woman of color to star in a mainstream television drama, the first to receive an Emmy nomination and the first trans woman to be featured on the cover of TIME Magazine.
Besides her acting career, Cox devotes a large amount of time speaking to schools across the nation such as Vanderbilt University and the University of Pennsylvania about her experiences, and now she will add IU to that list.
The Indiana Memorial Union Board, in association with the IU GLBT Alumni Association and GLBT Student Support Services , is responsible for bringing this event to the University. Laura Schulte, the 2014 Union Board Director of Current Topics, is in charge of organizing the event.
“I know there have been a lot of people requesting that Laverne Cox come to campus,” Schlute said. “I know there was a Facebook group that was started last year, and my adviser and I started looking into getting her to come during the summer.”
She said although they began speaking with Cox’s agent in June about dates for the actress to come to IU, her schedule was booked months in advance. Finally, however, they were able to find this date in January for the lecture.
Schulte has previously organized events about topics such as the Syrian Civil War and the hunger crisis in South Sudan. She said she has tried to use her position to bring discussions about current social issues such as these to IU students.
This event continues her goal of bringing issues of the outside world to IU. Schulte said Cox’s lecture will discuss such topics as how her transition to womanhood and being a trans woman have affected her career as an actress.
“Not only are we having this prominent name come to campus, you know, there’s that celebrity factor I guess, but it’s extremely informative,” she said.
She also said this event fits in well with the momentum that has been made by the GLBT movement recently.
“I think that just the chance to learn about something new and getting the chance to hear someone speak about their own life experiences is interesting,” Schulte said.
