9 April 2021 • Alums "Live. Work. POSE!" With Screenwriter, Producer Steven Canals

This month, HWS will host a conversation with Steven Canals, co-creator and co-executive producer of the FX drama series Pose.

Steven Canals, a screenwriter and co-creator and co-executive producer of the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed FX series Pose, will join the Hobart and William Smith community for a virtual discussion, titled “Live. Work. POSE!” on Monday, April 26.

Pose — which was co-created by award-winning writer, director and producer Brad Falchuk ’93, L.H.D. ’14 — explores drag ball culture in 1980s and early 1990s New York City. The show explores, among other themes, impact of the peak of the AIDS crisis on LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming communities, particularly communities of color.

“Live. Work. POSE!” will begin at 7 p.m.

Hailing from The Bronx, Canals began his journey as a storyteller in high school, producing the documentary short Turf Violence: What’s It All About? co-funded by HBO Family. Canals went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Cinema, and a master’s degree in Student Affairs & Diversity from Binghamton University.

After a nine-year career in higher education, he moved to Los Angeles and earned his MFA from UCLA’s Screenwriting program in 2015. While attending UCLA, he served as a research assistant at Hungry Jackal Productions for Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. In 2016, he was a staff writer on Freeform’s Dead of Summer, the same year his short film, Afuera, premiered at the LA Film Festival. Variety named Canals a TV Writer to Watch in 2018.

Canals’ appearance is sponsored by the Office of Campus Life and the LGBTQ+ Resource Center.