Students in the Department of Performing Arts collaborate with the Elon University Gender & LGBTQIA Center for the annual fundraiser on Jan. 14.
The Elon University community is invited to the Elon Cares benefit cabaret on Jan. 14, an annual event in support of Broadway Equity Fight AIDS, a national nonprofit that helps secure health care, counseling, and financial assistance for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Elon Cares has been an annual tradition for almost two decades, celebrating queer art and supporting Broadway Equity Fights Aids, one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. The event is hosted by students in the Department of Performing Arts, in partnership with Elon’s Gender & LGBTQIACenter. Each year, event organizers aim to raise more than $2000 and typically exceed that amount.
“We are always singing and dancing, but now there is a reason that we are doing it. It’s something we are fighting for and a message we are sending too,” said Laird Sterns ‘28, an art administration and music theatre double major, who is one of the co-directors of this year’s performance. He participated in the benefit cabaret during his first year and saw it as a future opportunity to further his interest in art administration as well as be a leader in “something greater.”
The cabaret brings together those interested in performing arts, regardless of major, and allows many leadership opportunities within the creative team. This year’s performance will feature some selections from queer artists and Broadway hits like “Death Becomes Her” and “Cabaret.” The event will host tables from the GLC and the Triad Health Project, an organization that encourages sexual health and justice through radical care, love, and equity while working to fight against HIV. There will also be a canned food drive.
“It’s a great opportunity to come together as a community in the new year and it brings joy to people who may not have looked into the arts before at Elon. We all get to learn and grow with each other as performers and overall people in a safe space,” Sterns said.
Malia Horst ’26, the primary director for the event, recognizes the charity production as a safe environment to let students within the performing arts department “do what they love with no stress and for a great cause.”
“For me, it’s a super important space to let people create with queerness in mind,” Horst said, “This is not a show where you just come and sit and applaud nicely. This is a hooting and hollering celebration.”
The event takes place on Wednesday, Jan. 14, with two shows at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in Yeager Recital Hall, in the Center for the Arts. For more information about the event, visit www.elon.edu/glc/eloncares. Each donation comes with an entry into a raffle for various prizes. Prizes from previous years can also be viewed on the same website as event information.
Donations by cash or check will be collected at the performances. Online donations can be made by viewing the event homepage. Visit broadwaycares.org for more information about Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.