JCC Presents Author Lecture With Jo Ivester

The Denver Jewish Community Center (JCC) is soon to host a lecture from author Jo Ivester on her award-winning memoir Once a Girl, Always a Boy as a part of their year-round event series JAAMM (Jewish Arts, Author, Movies, and Music).

Ivester will be speaking on her experiences as a mother of a transgender man. Her son, Jeremy Ivester, is now 30 and has documented his transition in video diaries throughout his life. Using these videos and conversations with her son and other family members, Jo Ivester created a memoir that sheds light onto the roles a family can play in a transgender child’s life. 

“This is not only Jeremy’s story but also that of his family, told from multiple perspectives—those of the siblings who struggled to understand the brother they once saw as a sister, and of the parents who ultimately joined him in the battle against discrimination. This is a story of acceptance in a world not quite ready to accept,” Jo Ivester wrote of Once a Girl, Always a Boy.

The book, first released in April 2020, has received high praise. It was a finalist in the LGBTQ Non-Fiction and Parenting & Family category of the 2020 International Book Awards. USA Today featured the memoir on its “LGBTQ Books to Read During Pride Month” list. And it won the Annual Indie Excellence Juror’s Choice Awards in the LGBTQIA Non-Fiction category. 

The lecture, and all other JAAMM events, will be livestreamed to a virtual audience. It will premiere at 7 p.m. MT on Thursday, June 17. Tickets are $12 per household and available for preorder now. 

Also coming up from the JAAMM festival is an author lecture from Amy Fish on her self-help book I Wanted Fries With That.

Read more about the festival and other events on the JCC Mizel Arts and Culture website.