Masks and vaccinations are recommended. Plan your visit
After Dark: Trans Day of Visibility
Thursday, March 31, 2022 • 6:00–10:00 p.m. PT
Not a member yet? Join us and get free admission all year long!
Adults Only (18+)
Note: Free with museum admission—and it's always free for After Dark members and donors. Just bring your membership card and ID. The Tactile Dome is currently closed.
Celebrated on March 31, Transgender Day of Visibility is an international day of awareness that highlights transgender achievements and greatness in response to intentional exclusion of transgender people, voices, and actions in the current societal culture and discourse. Transgender people exist in all corners of the world so it is important to emphasize their value. In this program, we feature transgender individuals in STEAM fields, offer cultural and scientific context for transgender experiences, and celebrate the diversity of human expression.
This program is presented by STARS—Striving for Trans Inclusion and Anti-Racism in Science Learning—through the generous support of General Motors.
Custom Pronoun Button Making
With the Visitor Experience Facilitators
6:00–8:30 p.m.
Crossroads
Create your own button showcasing your amazing pronouns! Use a template or blank slate to design, color, and embellish a free button. Then wear it proudly to let everyone know about you and to help normalize introducing your full self to everyone you meet. Our fabulous Visitor Experience Facilitator team will be there to help you get your beautiful buttons made.
The Visitor Experience Facilitators are a cohort of informal educators who help guests understand, question, and experience the museum on a deeper level.
Gender Euphoria Wall
With the Visitor Experience Facilitators
6:00–9:00 p.m.
Bechtel Gallery 3
Show us what makes you feel comfortable in your skin! Take a picture of your fresh haircut, new shoes, fancy earrings, stunning arms, or whatever else makes you, you. Show the world what you love about yourself! Let’s take this moment to embrace what we love about ourselves, instead of picking at what we don’t. The Visitor Experience Facilitators will help showcase your best you!
The Visitor Experience Facilitators are a cohort of informal educators who help guests understand, question, and experience the museum on a deeper level.
Putting the T in STEAM
With Gwen Payne, Posters by the High School Explainers
6:00–10:00 p.m.
Osher Gallery 1, Black Box
Trans people, past and present, have had major impacts on STEAM. Step inside Putting the T in STEAM to learn more about the lives and careers of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people. A collaboration between the Exploratorium’s High School Explainer program and Gwen Payne, this program is the culmination of six weeks of workshops, which resulted in a series of biographical posters highlighting the lives and achievements of transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people in STEAM.
Gwen Payne (she/her or they/them) is an agitator, science communciator, and a non-binary transgender woman. She works as part of the Striving for Trans Inclusion and Anti-Racism in Science Learning (STARS) team, and is the Project Lead for the STARS/High School Explainer Workshop series.
Under the Moon
With Tory and the Teasers
7:00 and 8:30 p.m.
Bechtel Gallery 3
Come and listen to Tory Teasley and her band, Tory and the Teasers! From classic hits to unreleased songs, this musical performance will have you dancing, swaying, and swooning to jazz, soul, funk, and pop.
Tory Teasley describes her sound as “eclectic with jazz roots.” Her songs represent a broad range of genres from neo-soul, funk, and R&B to blues, classical, and gospel. An Oakland native, Tory regularly sang at her church during adolescence, which eventually led her to the Berkeley Jazz School where she studied classical music. Alongside a list of accolades, Tory often performs at UC Berkeley with Oakadelic and carries an artist residency with the Queer Arts Center and has opened for both San Francisco Mayor London Breed at City Hall and Grammy-winning artist Fantastic Negrito.
Lenses on Transgender, Non-Binary, and Two Spirit Experience: Short Films and Panel
With QWOCMAP
7:30 p.m.
Osher Gallery 1, Kanbar Forum
Enjoy a curated set of short films that share the wide range of transgender, non-binary, and Two Spirit experiences. Drawn from the collection and work of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP), the films celebrate and illuminate the intersectionality of trans individuals and how they navigate the world. The screening will be followed by a conversation featuring select filmmakers whose work will be shown at the screening.
QWOCMAP creates, exhibits, and distributes high-impact new films that authentically reflect the lives of queer women of color both cisgender and transgender, and non-binary, gender-nonconforming, and transgender people of color of any orientation, and addresses the vital, intersecting social justice issues that concern our multiple communities.
Bathroom Boundaries
6:00–10:00 p.m.
Crossroads Restrooms
Experience an everyday practice in a new way.
Food and drinks will be available to purchase and enjoy in our Seaglass Restaurant during After Dark. Please note that there is no drinking or eating allowed elsewhere in the museum at this time.
Curious about what to expect during your visit? Check out our current safety protocols and guidelines.
Transgender Day of Visibility at the Exploratorium is made possible with the generous support of General Motors.
