CANCELLED - Mama's Boy (One Year On) - Dustin Lance Black in Conversation with Ben Hunte

Dear All,

Following the UK Government official guidance, this event with Dustin Lance Black and Ben Hunte has been cancelled, and is not going ahead until further notice. After speaking to Lance and Ben they send their love to all of you and we do hope to re-schedule this event for later in 2020.

We are very sorry for the disruption and we will be issuing full refunds soon unless you wish to donate the ticket cost to the Cathedral which will go towards our ministry in the local community at this difficult time. 

Should this be the case please contact Jon at jon.dollin@southwark.anglican.org and let him know.

Thank you for your patience, please bear with us during this difficult time.  Additional information will soon be available from the Cathedral website and social media.

Best wishes and virtual hugs from all at Southwark Cathedral

To mark the paperback release of Mama's Boy one year after the Hardback edition, Southwark Cathedral are delighted to host an evening with Dustin Lance Black in conversation with BBC LGBT Correspondent Ben Hunte.

Mama's Boy is a heartfelt, deeply personal memoir which explores how one family built bridges across today’s great divides. And how our stories hold the power to heal.

Dustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California’s anti–gay marriage Proposition 8, but he grew up in a conservative Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas. His mother, Anne, was raised in rural Louisiana, and contracted polio when she was two years old. She endured brutal surgeries, as well as braces and crutches for life, and was told that she would never have children or a family. Willfully defying expectations, she found salvation in an unlikely faith, raised three sons, and escaped the abuse and violence of two questionably devised Mormon marriages before finding love and an improbable career in the U.S. civil service.

When Lance came out to his mother at twenty-one, he was already studying the arts instead of going on his Mormon mission. She derided his sexuality as a sinful choice and was terrified for his future. It may seem like theirs was a house destined to be divided, and at times it was. Mama’s Boy explores what it took to remain a family despite such division—a journey that stretched from the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to the woodsheds of East Texas. In the end, the rifts that have split a nation couldn’t end this relationship that defined and inspired their remarkable lives.

Mama’s Boy is their story. It’s a story of the noble quest for a plane higher than politics – one of family, foundations, turmoil, tragedy, elation, and love. It is a story needed now more than ever.

Copies of the paperback version of Mama’s Boy will be available to purchase on the evening at a special price and Dustin will also be signing copies after his talk.

Dustin Lance Black is a filmmaker and social activist, known for writing the Academy Award–winning screenplay of the Harvey Milk biopic Milk, and for his part in overturning California’s discriminatory Proposition 8. He divides his time between London and Texas.

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Ben Hunte is the BBC’s first LGBT correspondent, starting the role in March 2019. 

Since starting the role, Ben has uncovered racism at UK pride festivals, he’s revealed how black male victims of sexual abuse are ‘ignored’ by the government, he broke the news of HRH Prince William supporting a potential LGBT royal, and he fronted a season of coverage celebrating 50 years since the Stonewall Riots.

Prior to this, in 2018 Ben launched and presented BBC What’s New, the BBC’s first TV programme and digital service for children in Africa. BBC What's New went viral several times, with content from it becoming the most engaged posts of all time across BBC News Africa's social media pages.

After studying a Neuroscience degree on an all-expenses paid scholarship in Malaysia, where he also started a magazine and events agency, at 23 Ben became one of Google’s youngest strategy managers. Alongside consulting the world’s leading media organisations, Ben worked as a YouTuber - with over 100,000 subscribers and followers.

Following an MA in Journalism, studied on a scholarship, 2017 saw Ben hired by BBC London TV News. The majority of his original reports ran as the day's prestigious ’top story'. This lead to work as a national radio reporter for BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, where he also presented his first BBC visual documentary, as well as becoming a freelance national TV reporter for ITN's Channel 5 News & ITV News.