<p>Model, Actress, Author, Advocate and Activist Dominique Jackson is best known for her leading role of Elektra Abundance on the FX television series <i>Pose</i>.</p><p>From fleeing persecution as a transgender woman in her home country of Trinidad and Tobago to starring in television hits, Dominique Jackson has seen it all. After experiencing homelessness and rejection from her own family, Jackson has used her success to shed light on the challenges transgender women like herself too often face.</p><p>Jackson stars in <i>Pose, </i>an FX television series about the African American and Latinx LGBTQ+ gender-nonconforming ballroom culture scene in the 1980s and 1990s. For Jackson, her character is more than just someone she plays in front of the cameras. She is a representation of what Jackson and many transgender women go through when they lose their families after coming out.</p><p>A leader in her community, Jackson has been awarded several accolades and was also inducted into the House and Ballroom Hall of Fame and deemed Iconic on February 27, 2016 at the NYC Ball Awards. In 2017, Jackson received the Legacy of Pride Award presented by Harlem Pride and received the first Bronx LGBT Leadership Award presented by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz JR and Allies LGBT Pride Celebration. That same year, she was honored with the New York State Assembly Citation issued by Mark Gjonaj.</p><p>A fashion model since 2000, Jackson began her career at Brooklyn Fashion Week before moving onto Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. In 2011, she served as Mistress of Ceremonies in Solomon Harris’ take on the ballroom scene Newark Is Burning at NJPAC (Newark, NJ). Jackson is one of the resident models to Adrian Alicea Couture, Manuel Pelferes Couture and Angel Ayala Couture. She added Gypsy Sport by Rio Uribe and Stevie Boi to her runway accomplishments during 2016 Fall/Winter Fashion Week.</p><p>In 2014, Jackson released her autobiographical memoir The Transsexual from Tobago (Revised). Later that year, she starred in Carla Pridgen’s Incongruence produced by Ivy Theatre. In 2016, she starred in Oxygen Network’s GLAAD Award winning reality docu-series Strut, executive produced by Whoopi Goldberg and Tom Leonardis, and the short film T Times by Gabriel Torres. </p><p>Jackson has served on the Community Health Program Board at the Montefiore South Bronx Healthcare Clinic for the last two years.</p>
Star of FX TV’s <em>Pose</em> and Starz TV's <em>American Gods</em>
<ul><li><strong>An Evening with Dominique Jackson</strong></li><li>We know Dominique as the star of <em>Pose</em>, but for Jackson, her character is more than just someone she plays in front of the cameras. She is a representation of what Jackson and many transgender women go through when they lose their families after coming out. Through her interactive conversation, she hopes to inform audiences and to bring awareness to the injustices within the transgender community, while inspiring all of us to become stronger activists and allies.</li><li><strong>Turning Trauma into Triumph</strong></li><li>By the time she was 15, actress and model Dominique Jackson had experienced more trauma than most experience in a lifetime. As Elektra on the hit series Pose, Dominique’s role echoed some of her own struggles as a trans-gender woman rejected by her family, homeless and struggling to find acceptance in a world that seemed to believe she had no right even to exist. While everyone’s journey through trauma is unique, beginning is often the hardest part. Dominique came to realize that there are specific steps that can help anyone start the process of healing. As she shows audiences, to become the ‘you’ that you desire, you must teach the ‘you’ of today how to get there. Dominique shares the steps and habits of thinking that helped her turn trauma into triumph, and in this presentation her goal is to help you take your next step—whether that’s just knowing what to do to get started or facing the next hurdle. </li><li>Dominique’s keynote focuses on the specific skills that will help anyone struggling to process trauma and adversity and come out on the other side, including:<ul><li>How to find the courage to start when you know that the journey means having to re-live the trauma</li><li>How to maintain the momentum once you’ve begun</li><li>Why discipline and hard work are the qualities you must cultivate to succeed and how to jump-start your willingness to embrace them</li><li>How to cultivate patience on your journey through trauma to triumph (which looks different for everyone)</li></ul></li></ul>