2016 Program: LGBTQ Liberation

Black Trans people have been the targets of intimate partner, stranger-based, and state violence for a long time. There has been recent heightened exposure of this violence, as highlighted through the expansiveness of Black Lives Matter! Movements, through national trans liberation days, and even through mainstream media. The conversation however, rarely includes the resiliency of Black Trans people. The wealth of resilience strategies and healing tools of Black Trans people will be the focus of this session. Participants will leave with a "medicine bag" of tools. The workshop will include making a collective altar and tribute to our trancestors, a self-love selfies photo booth where people can post their pics on an Instagram account that we create, a short presentation about Atlanta's Pre-Arrest Diversion program, and creating a "medicine bag" of healing tools and resilience strategies that will be collected and emailed out later.

Join us in a compelling conversation, rooted in popular education, to share stories, lessons and best practices of intersectional organizing. We've been grinding for Black, Immigrant, Queer and Trans liberation through grassroots organizing campaigns and building strong coalitions. What are we seeing, what are we up against, and what is it really going to take to have liberation in our lifetime?

This session will be a narrative of a queer muslim refugee into the united states and the journey in combatting both Islamophobia and Queerphobia in the States while attempting to find "Home". It will open from a personal perspective and link to the current work of some Muslim LGBTQ organizations in the united states on these issues (such as the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity and Zcollective) and the communities resistance to such system of oppressions. We will continue and conclude with a dialogue with those who are in the room on challenging Islamophobia and understanding some of these ivtersectionalities across identities, borders, and movements.

This workshop will pull from lesson plans and activities from our new curriculum “What’s the REAL DEAL about Love and Solidarity?” which is a call to action and centers young Black femmes. Engaging, interactive, and rooted in social-emotional learning and youth facilitated discussion, this workshop will provide an opportunity for LGBTQ youth, POC, and those who work and support them, to discuss consent as it impacts them with educators. The workshop will begin with introductions, viewing of the youth-written Hollywood directed short film, “Veracity,” about two young Black queer femmes in high school, a discussion of the topics of consent that are represented in the film, and a variety of small group activities discussing consent. Participants will gain an understanding of what LGBTQ youth (especially BIPOC youth) wish to discuss around consent, resources regarding consent when engaging in various forms of activities, activities and lesson plans for continuing these conversations outside our space together, and understand how media literacy and media justice connect to the topic of consent for LGBTQ youth. Learning objectives include: Participants will be able to discuss various definitions for consent, both practical and legal; identify resources regarding consent specifically for LGBTQ youth esp. BIPOC youth; guide discussions with youth on how to identify the difference between asking for consent and being manipulative; give two examples of activities to implement with youth regarding consent.

As the visibility of queer & trans people of color in mainstream media becomes more common, it is crucial that we look critically at the ideological messages they contain. In this interactive queer & trans youth of color focused workshop, we’ll analyze historic and recent examples of how queer & trans people of color have been represented in mainstream/dominant media and discuss the impact this media has on us as individuals and our communities. When we work together to create our own media, we build our analysis, relationships, and vision through the creative process, and we strengthen the impact of our voices. Using the FYRE Media Justice Camp model, participants will learn media literacy skills that we can use to reframe reproductive, gender, and racial justice issues based on our analysis and lived experiences to create our own community-centered media. We’ll showcase examples of previously created media and lead participants on a journey of what it means to create larger narratives that speak to what queer & trans people of color need for our lives and communities to get better, to feel safer, to love freely and openly, to be liberated.