Events: The Kimmel Center’s It Gets Better Residency Week

The first It Gets Better video was uploaded by Dan Savage to YouTube in September 2010 to inspire hope for LGBTQ facing harassment. Since then, the It Gets Better Project has inspired more than 50,000 user-created videos viewed more than 50 million times.

Next week, the Kimmel Center is presenting a one-week residency around the theme “It Gets Better” to discuss the bullying issues in our community and give LGBTQ youth a voice. The week includes a youth led panel, a spoken word series, in-school assemblies, and public service announcements.

On November 4, the Kimmel Center will hold a free Youth-Led evening at the Merck Gallery Space at the Kimmel Center. The evening will include a Youth-Led panel discussion hosted by Pennsylvania Student Equality Coalition at 6 p.m., covering issues facing young people in the LGBTQ community. At 7 p.m., the youth-led evening will continue with a Spoken Word Series presented by Out @ UArts.

Then on Wednesday November 5, the Kimmel Center will host an Open House at 6 p.m. in the Kimmel Center’s SEI Innovation Studio, where they will share information, resources and much more in a welcoming and safe environment. Local organizations, health services, LGBTQ health services, mental health providers, parent-teacher organizations, meet-up groups, anti-bullying organizations, and more will be in attendance.

The millennial-led Spruce Foundation, a partner of the It Gets Better Philly Project, will host a variety show to raise funds for its future LGBTQ grantees on November 6, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., at Tabu. The event will feature sketch comedy, spoken word and burlesque, and the theme, “When I Was Young,” is intended to reflect the mission of the It Gets Better Project and the Foundation’s support for the LGBTQ community. Read more about it in Generocity.org’s previous story here.

The week long residency culminates in the It Gets Better Project – Live Concert Experience on November 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Perelman Theater (tickets — which are $21, — are available here). The performance, created under the direction of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, integrates a community choir from Philadelphia with video and text projections from the archives of the It Gets Better Project.

View a complete list of events here.