D'Lo Lecture

NYU Liberal Studies, in collaboration with the NYU LGBTQ+ Center, is thrilled to welcome NYU students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, the public and other members of the NYU community to the latest installment of the Global Lecture Series, which each year brings an internationally renowned speaker to Washington Square Campus. 

This year’s lecture is part of NYU’s Trans Awareness Week (Monday, November 15 - Friday, November 19), a week-long series of events that celebrates the lives and experiences of transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive communities, and educates the NYU community about the how to better serve as allies to these communities.

Actor, writer, and comic D’Lo will speak on The Transformative Power of Comedy: Storytelling as Healing Praxis. The lecture will be introduced by NYU Liberal Studies Professor Dean Julie Mostov and Assistant Director, NYU LGBTQ+ Center, Christopher Griffin, in discussion with NYU Liberal Studies Professor Sean Eve.

In this combined comedic performance and talk, D’Lo will demonstrate the power of storytelling as healing praxis for all communities and allies. The impulse to speak our truth(s) is a perpetual want, but its cultivation is halted by the silencings of marginalization. Therefore, telling our stories is an act of resistance—a way to combat overwhelming forces of racism, sexism, homophobia, and other isms. Further, because of the fraught spaces between what is said/unsaid, for BIPOC and QT/BIPOC, storytelling allows the unsaid to be said on our terms. In asserting and giving voice to our tangled experiences and identities, we can begin to find healing. D’Lo, who has performed/lectured in the US, Canada, India, Sri Lanka, the UK, and Germany, will reveal how this work can be realized transnationally through the use of comedy as a tool for both individual and collective agency and the transformations of trauma into resilience.

D’Lo (he/they) is an award-winning queer/transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American actor/writer/comic and cultural worker/activist whose work ranges from stand-up comedy, solo theater, plays, films, short stories and poetry. His solo shows Ramble-Ations, D’FunQT, D’FaQTo Life and To T, or not To T have toured theaters and festivals nationally, and he is a regular performer/speaker on the college/university circuit as well.

His acting credits include: LOOKING, TRANSPARENT, SENSE 8, Mr. ROBOT and Issa Rae-produced MINIMUM WAGE. He is playing the role of Tom in Billy Eichner’s new movie BROS to be released in 2022. Most recently, D’Lo was awarded the Artist Disruptor Fellowship through the Center for Cultural Performance & 5050x2020 an initiative started by Joey Soloway, he is also a Civic Media Fellow through USC’s Annenberg School of Innovation funded by the MacArthur Foundation, and he is this year’s recipient of CTG’s Sherwood Award in Theater.

As a writer he has been published in various literary anthologies and academic journals, and he is the creator of the “Coming Out, Coming Home” writing workshop series which have taken place with South Asian and/or Immigrant LGBTQ Organizations nationally, which provide a transformative space for workshop participants to write through their personal narratives and share their truths through a public reading.

Follow him on Instagram @dlocokid

This event is free and open to the public. Participants will receive a Zoom link upon registration.

Note on Accessibility: This virtual event requires an internet connection and computer or smartphone. All audio will be Closed Captioned. It is a priority to make our events INCLUSIVE & ACCESSIBLE. For any questions or to notify us of additional accommodation requests, please email: lsdeansoffice@nyu.edu 2 weeks prior to the event.