Ray Hill at HCP

Renowned political and LGBT activist and former host of The Prison Show on KPFT 90.1FM, Ray Hill will give a talk and Q&A at Houston Center for Photography about his life and experience with the Texas Prison System.

The discussion is presented in conjunction with HCP’s current exhibition, Amy Elkins: Black is the Day, Black is the Night and Parting Words which addresses incarceration, solitary confinement and the death penalty in Texas.

Ray Hill is native Houstonian and co-founder of LGBT-related institutions including the Promethean Society, Houston Human Rights League, Houston Lesbian and Gay Pride Week, Kaposi’s Sarcoma Foundation (now AIDS Foundation Houston), as well as former General Manager of Pacifica Radio KPFT 90.1FM where he hosted The Prison Show for over 30 years – the longest-running such radio program in the nation.

A former convict, Hill has spent a lifetime fighting for equal rights for both the LGBT community and the prison population, garnering awards including the First Amendment Award by Houston Trial Lawyers Foundation, the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Unity Committee, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Stonewall Lawyers Association, The Lifetime Achievement Awards from the ACLU, Texas, the Trailblazer Award from SCALE, The John P. McGovern Award by the UT School of Public Health, the Heritage Award from Houston Pride, and the 2014 FACE Gay Male Activist of the Year and Community Hero of the Year award.

In addition, Hill has been the subject of three documentaries including Citizen Provocateur. Ray Hill’s Texas Prison Show, The Trouble with Ray, and The Guy with The Knife.