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Pizza and Pride
November 30th @ 5:30
With Guest Speaker
Jordan Maxwell Beutel,
Contemporary Visual Artist
Jordan was born in Indiana and grew up in a family that encouraged authenticity and embraced being weird. He was introduced to the arts at a very young age and discovered how to express himself through various mediums.
Even though he grew up in this environment, he allowed society to oppress his identity for most of his life. Feeling lost he embarked on a mental health journey in August 2020. At that time his goal was to understand himself and why he was struggling to find happiness.
Through this journey, he discovered that allowing society to oppress his true identity into hiding caused the discourse in his life. The inability to be authentic had spliced his identity and caused overwhelming depression, anxiety, and self-hatred. The only way to heal was to speak his truth.
In April of 2021, he said the words for the first time, “I am Trans”. These three words unlocked the euphoric happiness he had always heard of and never experienced for himself. Coming out and being visible has created a fire within him to vocalize the importance of Trans Visibility and Authenticity.
Jordan’s art and poetry became his expression of the emotions he was feeling during his fight for authenticity. He expresses fear, euphoria, distortion of perception, audacity, and his quest for self-actualization. When words cannot express the essence, he turns to art. When he is pondering he uses art to evoke his emotions through shapes and colors. He often brings the two together in a full visual immersion of his transition.
Jordan has now founded his brand Riptide Zen to share his vulnerability through visual arts and poetry. His art is created in the present and he hopes to evoke empowerment and confidence in his viewers. Riptide Zen is ever-evolving and Jordan plans to incorporate new mediums as well as publish his writing and poetry.
Jordan believes that every person has an internal struggle to find authenticity due to the societal constructs we are taught to believe. He is bringing visibility to the spectrum of human existence and reminding everyone that their expression is valid because it is theirs.
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