Charzette_Torrence

Center Voices presents Charlie T's Just as We Are for a reception and an introduction of persons being portrayed at the LGBT Center, 208 West 13th Street, NY, NY, www.gaycenter.org. Charzette Torrence, also known as Charlie T, is a New York-based photographer whose work has been exhibited at the Detroit Museum of African American History, at the Detroit Repertory Theater, several galleries nationally and is collected by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Keith Boykin, renowned author of Beyond the Down Low, says of her work, "...In a world where positive images of members of the LGBT community are not easily recognizable in conventional media, it is important that we be profiled just as we are; human beings."

Attendees will include:
Nathan Williams, Actor, Entertainment Lawyer, Film Producer
Keith Boykin, Writer
Alberta Wakins, Interior Designer
Dr. Marjorie Hill, Executive Director of GMHC
Michelle Kristel, Vice President of In the Life TV
Mignon Moore, Professor of Social Studies, Columbia University
Nicole Wicks, GLADD Media
Chuck Allen, former Senator of Connecticut
June Washington, retired Activist
Bari Zahn, Living Beyond Belief Foundation
Tonya Smith, Realtor Lawyer
Brain Dean, President of In the Life TV
Michael Thomas, Dancer
Marybeth Bogers, Director of NJIT
Tod Roulette, Roulette Fine Arts and Headquarters Consulting
Ector Simpson, LGBT Community Center

Left, Robin White, Owner of King Crossing, publishers of Charlie T's new book: Just as We Are

Saturday, January 14, 2006, Panel Discussion

Please have Windows Media Player running to hear the panel discussion with the artist and people portrayed in Just As We Are on in the E. 96th St. library's auditorium.

GROUP SHOT: December 8, 2005, 96^th Street New York Public Library

Charzette Torrence with Michelle Kristel, Deputy Director, In the Life Media, December 8, 2005, 96^th Street New York Public Library

Charzette Torrence and Kati 'Jazzy' Gray-Sadler: December 8, 2005, 96^th Street New York Public Library

Charzette Torrence with David Martin, Membership Director, In the Life Media, December 8, 2005, 96^th Street New York Public Library

Roulette Fine Art presents Just As We Are, twenty fine portraits of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans by noted photographer Charzette Torrence. The exhibit opens Thursday, December 8, 2005 from 6-8 PM at the 96^th Street branch of the New York Public Library. The exhibit will close January 21, 2006.

Just As We Are does just that in an uncompromising manner. Shot in black and white, the photographer visually highlights the political, religious, or cultural views of her subjects. In this exhibit, LGBT persons such as former Connecticut State Senator, Chuck Allen, stands on the steps of City Hall in New Haven. June Washington, a retired mother who became a full time AIDS activist basks in the breeze on Martha’s Vineyard; her shawl and hair flowing. Lomont Barlow, who recently came out to his family is pictured playing his own composed Classical jazz piece. Not unlike Gordon Parks highly desirable aesthetic pictorials, Ms. Torrence is able to tell a story with the flick of a shutter and leave the viewer lingering in front of the subject for more.

Torrence shows gay and lesbian people in a wider context outside of a narrow and often blinding label; depicting a flowerbed of people’s ages, races and contributions to society. Just As We Are stylistically succeeds in making the souls of her subjects concretely beautiful and in bringing a discourse to viewers who might otherwise turn away from knowing about a gay or lesbian person.

Just As We Are, is a project of Charlie T. Photography and Tod Roulette Fine Art. Just As We Are T-shirts are for sale, plus a wonderful coffee table book will be available soon.

Sponsors of this exhibit are: GLAAD, Go NYC Magazine, Between the Lines Magazine, In The Life Media, Jack Levinthal, Pamela Peterson ESQ., PlanetOUT.com, Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, Harold and Alice Johnson, Daniel Johnson, and Imagination Photo Lab.