Presenting the next installment of the Summer 2021 community workshops.
Blackness has room for inquisition and insight, specifically amongst black people who identify as gay, bisexual, trans, gender nonconforming and queer. The black community is in a state of flux regarding queerness, and more specifically, in a state of stagnancy when discovering how to have healthy conversations in approaching these intersections of identity. What is robbed from black queer people, is a sense of safety and home when feelings of homophobia and transphobia are typically the point of entry for discourse that is expressed in the media. Meaning that people who are black and queer often experience violence at the hands of the world, which upholds racist, homophobic, sexist and transphobic ideologies, but also at the hands of those within our own communities. The intention in creating Black.Queer.Alive is to facilitate positive and honest conversations surrounding the complexity of this identity through a variety of perspectives, first-hand accounts and insights.
In the summer of 2021, we will be expanding the capacity of Black.Queer.Alive. to provide four workshops led by community guests, speakers, and leaders. These workshops will provide free resources, information, panels, and conversations about living, creating, thinking, and expressing through some of our collective concerns and celebrations. Each workshop will be held on the last Sunday of the summer months, 1-3pm PST.
Olka Baldeh - is a queer storyteller, poet, yoga teacher, and nomad in the lineage of the Fulani griots. She has been an environmental justice advocate and anti-police brutality activist for nearly a decade, and currently serves as the Communications Manager for Essie Justice Group, a California-based nonprofit that serves women with incarcerated loved ones. Olka is the founder of the Black Moon Podcast, where she explores and interrogates the topic of Black death and holds space for collective healing that remediates the harm being done to our psyches from watching Black people die.
Registration is free, and open to BIPOC folks. Register here!