Above: You Don't Owe Anyone Pretty

About

Kimberly Dark is an award-winning writer and storyteller who shows us how to reclaim our power as social creators. Her engaging and interactive lectures offer tools for us to live our best lives, and build the culture in which we want to live.

Kimberly is also a sociologist, and popular author of Fat, Pretty and Soon to be Old, and Damaged Like Me, among others. She has been using humor and intimacy to bring complex ideas to campus audiences since the late 1990s. Lectures such as Gender, Race and Money help students understand the social causes of income and wealth disparities in America and what we can do. Lectures such as You Don’t Owe Anyone Pretty and Sex and Society offer students deep understanding of body and personal sovereignty, along with clear information about how to reclaim one’s time and resources from social expectations that keep us constantly seeking approval.

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Kimberly Dark is a superior story teller... She expertly blends teaching with entertaining and takes the audience into her story circle where we are welcomed and challenged!

William J. Doan, PhD, Penn State University

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Bestselling Author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty

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Click here to see Kim's new virtual programs tailored to our times.

popular PROGRAMS

Click the image below for a digital one-sheet with
more details about Kimberly's latest offering.
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Unconscious
Bias Training
Gender, Race, and Money
The gap between rich and poor in the United States has been widening and this is particularly pronounced in communities of color and for women. During this engaging and interactive lecture, Dark teaches participants about trends in the distribution of wealth in America and how those trends affect all Americans. We can no longer afford to ignore the history of privilege and poverty, if we hope to create a world in which that American dream of fairness and prosperity can become a reality.

In this hugely participatory event, Dark leads participants through exercises to help them understand their own wealth, how it is influenced by the privilege of birth and circumstances and how those who lack wealth may not be as personally deficient as some believe. The content of this lecture is applicable to each person who uses money - and participants will leave with the tools for making connections with others to work toward a more just economy.
YOU DON'T OWE ANYONE PRETTY
In this program, storyteller and sociologist Kimberly Dark explores how appearance privilege works in the U.S. and why focusing too often on our own appearance cannot lead us to personal peace, nor social equality.
 
Students will laugh as they learn:
  • How to listen for and see the social hierarchies that normally remain hidden because they’re so common.
  • How to disrupt everyday injustice and shame through witness, kindness, humor and straightforward common sense.
  • How to stand in their own “is-ness” – the power of being that transcends appearance (because our looks change through our lives, y’all).
  • How to practice love and pleasure – in our own bodies and as advocates for others’ well-being and dignity as well.
 
Appearance privilege includes being pretty or handsome, but also relates to racism, fat stigma, disability justice and more. This smart, funny program includes relatable stories and involves the audience in building strategies of resistance. The audience leaves empowered, and aware of their tools and brilliance as social creators.

sex and society—it's time to talk about it
Kimberly Dark’s book, The Daddies, is an American Library Association recommended book - both a love-letter to masculinity and an indictment of patriarchy.
 
In this program – including stories, insights and discussion – Kimberly explores the importance of discussing sex and sexuality – not just for the sake of interpersonal relationships, but for the political impact our personal choices hold.  We can absolutely love men and masculinity (in all its forms) and still dismantle the systems that harm women, children and everyone else too.  (Yes, of course we’ll discuss gender and gender identity too.)
 
For those interested in the politics of knowledge creation, Kimberly can also discuss why we don’t talk about sex and sexuality more readily in the social sciences, given that our erotic urges are part of who we are; they influence the relationships and the society we create.
custom Programs/Workshops
With a wealth of experience speaking and writing on the above topics and much more, Kimberly can tailor her presentations and workshops to your needs. Peruse her past publications to pick-and-choose the content that your audience seeks to learn about, or ask us about how we can best apply her lessons to your needs.
Above: Gender, Race, and Money
Past NACA Showcasing Act

Named one of the
Top 6 LGBT Speakers on College Campuses
by The Advocate

Named one of the
Top 25 LGBT “Best of the Best”
by Campus Pride

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