'Where have we been? Where are we going? An exploration of money, power, health and history in the LGBTQ community.'

On Sunday, September 28, at Seattle University's Student Center (901 12th Ave.), LGBTQ Allyship kicks off their first LGBTQ Intergenerational Conference. Registration begins at 9 a.m., and the first workshops start at 9:30 a.m. The cost of attending the conference is FREE. Allyship is requesting a $5 to $25 donation to help them cover costs of the conference; however, no one will be turned away for lack of a donation. The keynote speeches are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and a celebratory performance/art show will be held at 5 p.m. This is event is open to all LGBTQ and allied individuals in the community.

During the conference, Allyship volunteers will be interviewing conference participants to collect their 'coming out' stories. These stories will be made into a short intergenerational documentary representing one of the most important and universal moments of an LGBTQ person's life.

Attendees will also be encouraged to participate in an interactive Northwest LGBTQ social justice timeline honoring all of our histories in the fight for Queer and Trans* justice. This conference is wheelchair accessible and all ages are welcome. All attendees are asked to refrain from wearing scents so this conference can be relatively accessible to scent sensitive people.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

OPENING ROUND OF WORKSHOPS at 9:30 a.m. The workshop topics and presenters are:

1) Talking Across Generations - Presented by Jack Barker, Jo 'Paradigm' Roberts, Katie Scheier, and Symone Ashley.

2) Immigrant Rights, Racial Justice and LGBTQ Equality Timeline - Presented by Emma Moreno and Justine Winnie.

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES at 11:30 a.m. The keynote speakers are:

JEWELLE GOMEZ
Jewelle Gomez is a writer and activist and the author of the double Lambda Award-winning novel, The Gilda Stories, from Firebrand Books. Her adaptation of the book for the stage, Bones & Ash: a Gilda Story, was performed by the Urban Bush Women company in 13 U.S. cities. The script was published as a Triangle Classic by the Paperback Book Club.

She is the recipient of a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; two California Arts Council fellowships and an Individual Artist Commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Her fiction, essays, criticism and poetry have appeared in numerous periodicals. Among them: The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, The Village Voice; Ms Magazine, ESSENCE Magazine, The Advocate, Callaloo and Black Scholar. Her work has appeared in such anthologies as Home Girls, Reading Black Reading Feminist, Dark Matter and the Oxford World Treasury of Love Stories.

She has served on literature panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council and the California Arts Council.

She was on the original staffs of 'Say Brother,' one of the first weekly, Black television shows in the U.S. (WGBH-TV, Boston) and 'The Electric Company' (Children's Television Workshop, NYC) as well as on the founding board of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). She was an original member of the boards of the Astraea Foundation and the Open Meadows Foundation.

Her first novel, The Gilda Stories, celebrated its 20th year in print in 2011 with readings at the Museum of the African Diaspora and at the Queer Arts Festival. Her other publications include three collections of poetry: The Lipstick Papers (1980) and Flamingoes and Bears (1986), both self-published, and Oral Tradition from Firebrand Books (1995). She edited (with Eric Garber) a fantasy fiction anthology entitled Swords of the Rainbow (Alyson Publications (1996) and selected the fiction for The Best Lesbian Erotica of 1997 (Cleis).

She is also the author of a book of personal and political essays entitled Forty-Three Septembers (Firebrand Books, 1993) and a collection of short fiction, Don't Explain (Firebrand Books, 1997).

She has presented lectures and taught at numerous institutions of higher learning including San Francisco State University, Hunter College, Rutgers University, New College of California, Grinnell College, San Diego City College, The Ohio State University and the University of Washington (Seattle).

Formerly the executive director of the Poetry Center and the American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University she has also worked in philanthropy for many years. She is the former director of the literature program at the New York State Council on the Arts and the director of Cultural Equity Grants for the San Francisco Arts Commission. She is currently the director of Grants and Community Initiatives for the Horizons Foundation and the President of the San Francisco Library Commission.

Her new projects include a comic novel about black activists of the 1960s as they face middle age entitled Televised. Her new play, written in collaboration with Harry Waters Jr. is called Waiting for Giovanni. A dream play exploring the inner life of author James Baldwin, it had its world premiere at the New Conservatory Theatre Center in the Fall of 2011.

NIC MASANGKAY
Nic Masangkay is a genderqueer, Filipin@ American, chronically ill, disabled trauma survivor, award-winning poet, Aquarius Pisces rising, boy band enthusiast, and dog person (with lots of respect for cats). In Seattle, communities regularly invite Nic to perform and speak at venues including GenderFierce, Rain City Slam, Bumbershoot, and Pride Asia 2014 as keynote. They have also featured in cities such as La Verne, CA, Los Angeles, Portland, OR and New York. While at UW they were in the 2013 The Blank Monologues cast, served as the ASUW Queer Student Commission Director from 2012-2014, and competed nationally on the 2012 and 2013 poetry slam teams. On the Internet, they have been featured on websites that include Autostraddle, Tumblr, and BuzzFeed.

SECOND ROUND OF WORKSHOPS at 1 p.m. The workshop topics and presenters are:

3) From Education to Advocacy - Incorporating an Intergenerational Approach to LGBTQ Justice - Presented by Luis Viquez and Kimberly Hudson

4) Polyamory and Non-Monogamy - Presented by Kristen Knapick

THIRD ROUND OF WORKSHOPS at 3 p.m. The workshop topics and presenters are:

5) Money Can't Buy You Freedom: Or Can It? - An Exploration of Money and Power in Local LGBTQ Politics - Presented by Debbie Carlsen, Marcos Martinez and Pride Foundation

6) Healing Through Art: The Importance of Poetry and Other Forms of Artistic Expression of LGBTQ Generations - Presented by Paradigm and Symone Ashley

7) Ten More Good Years - a film screening - Presented by City Employees for Equality

CELEBRATORY PERFORMANCE/ART SHOW at 5 p.m.

WHAT IS THE LGBTQ INTERGENERATIONAL PROJECT?
The LGBTQ Intergenerational Project will build community amongst generations through story sharing, create space to talk about ageism and adultism and the impact social isolation from age has on youth/young adults and seniors/elders, strengthen a sense of shared LGBTQ history and provide avenues for LGBTQ communities to advocate around adultism and ageism in the broader community.

For more information, visit www.LGBTQAllyship.org and on Facebook.

Courtesy of LGBTQ Allyship

 Share on Facebook

Share on MySpace!

    Share on Delicious

Share on StumbleUpon!