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"The Legend of the Underground" Film Screening
Monday, April 15, 2024
7:00 pm
Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Room C105
Join the Duke Human Rights Center@FHI and Duke Global Health Institute for a screening of "The Legend of the Underground," part of the Rights! Camera! Action! Film Series. Exposing the punitive laws in Nigeria that have put an already beleaguered community at increased risk of extortion and violence, this documentary follows a group of a young non-conforming Nigerians who have created safe houses in Lagos and Harlem. The film toggles between the two cities as daily threats endanger the health and safety of a community united across continents. Please join us for a post-screening discussion with Micheal Ighodaro, LGBTQI advocate and global human rights champion, who is featured in "The Legend of the Underground." He will be in conversation with Dr. Chris Beyrer, Director of the Duke Global Health Institute.
Post-Screening Panelists
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Micheal Ighodaro (he/him) is a thought leader, public speaker, and global human rights advocate. Micheal’s life of activism began nearly 20 years ago at 14 in his home country of Nigeria when he shared that he is gay with his parents and was subsequently kicked out of his home. Despite the challenges of being homeless, newly diagnosed with AIDS, engaging in survival sex and at great risk to his physical safety, Micheal organized services for other LGBTQI youth, found a close-knit underground community and began to speak out against Nigeria’s LGBTQI rights. Michael was the subject of a 2021 critically acclaimed documentary by HBO titled “The Legend of The Underground”. Micheal has been a featured speaker at the U.S White House, United Nations General Assembly, and the plenary speaker at the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. He was awarded “2015 Champion of Change” by U.S. President Barack Obama. |
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Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, an internationally recognized epidemiologist who has worked on the front lines of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 treatment and research, became director of the Duke Global Health Institute in August 2022. Before coming to Duke, Beyrer was the inaugural Desmond M. Tutu Professor of Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he served as associate director of the JHU Center for AIDS Research and the Center for Global Health. He was the founding director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights. He received his medical degree from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and holds a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |