Queer Students of Color Conference 2015

Welcome to the official Tumblr for the 2015 Queer Students of Color Conference!

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Portland State University’s Queer Resource Center is pleased to announce the 6th Annual Queer Students of Color Conference (QSOCC) – Diasporic Futures, April 16 & 17, 2016. This is the 6th anniversary of QSOCC! This year, we invite you to imagine the world our Ancestors want us to live in, where there is: an end to racism and racist exploitation of the bodies and labor of people of color; the end to transphobia and transantagonism; an end to state sanctioned Black genocide; actualized equity and justice for all people and living things; land rights and sovereignty to the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island; safe, affordable, and accessible housing, health care, food, and education for all.

You can register for the conference NOW at: http://goo.gl/tfXU2e

Stay tuned for the call for Workshop Proposals in coming weeks!

For all questions, concerns, or to request accommodations, please contact Samantha Taylor at [email protected].

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QSoCC Soundtrack

 ‪ (Stream it on Spotify)

*****This playlist was created by “The Soundtrack to My Life” workshop attendees with love for everyone at QSoCC 2015*******

“Live Like A Warrior”-Matisyahu

“Flawless”- Beyoncé ft. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“Flawless (Remix)”-Beyoncé Ft. Nicki Minaj

“Weak”- SWV

“Someday”-Mariah Carey

“Boss Ass Bitch”-PTAF

“Little Game”-Benny

“Migraine”-21 Pilots

“Biddi Biddi Bom Bom”-Selena

“No Apologies”-Empire Cast

“Angel and Airwaves”-Angel Haze

“Nothing Compares 2 U”-Sinead O’Connor

“How Far We’ve Come”-Matchbox Twenty

“Sup”-Le1f

“Cold War”-Janelle Monae

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Good morning! Just a few things to note today for ‪#‎QSOCC2015‬: there's a marathon happening today that requires streets on campus to be blocked off and police and TriMet (our public transportation) are monitoring the streets; mostly they're just posted up at intersections.

If you're coming from the hotel to campus for the conference, consider traveling in groups.

Also, traffic downtown will be slow most of the morning. Give yourself extra time to get here and find parking.

Let Samantha know if there are any issues. See y'all real soon!!!

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Keynote speaker Fabian Romero will be performing at 2pm in SMSU 328!

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Children & Youth Welcome at QSOCC

QSOCC is a child and youth friendly event! Children and youth are welcome at any/all of the conference programming! See y'all super soon~~~

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Finally! The Conference Schedule is Available!

Here is the link to the QSOCC 2015 Conference Schedule --  including workshop times and descriptions!

*** E X C I T I N G S T U F F ***

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Conference schedule coming out soon -- stay tuned!

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Today’s QT-POSE spotlight is Angel!

Identity: African American

Pronouns: Angel

Where is Home?: “I grew up with my mother who is in the military so everywhere I go is home”

Major and Aspirations: Liberal Arts with  minors in community health, sociology, and criminal justice. I want to get a master’s in Education but I don’t have career plans.

On the Challenges QTPOC Face: “I think one of the biggest is figuring out where you belong”

On Fashion: “I dress how I do to disprove any stereotype. When a person looks at me they do not know if I’m a kid, a boy, or a girl, athlete, or nerd. I do this very intentionally”

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QT-POSE

The QT-POSE (Queer and Trans People Owning Self Expression) Photo Project will be ongoing during QSoCC. Any and all attendees are welcome to participate. Please message our FB or email [email protected] with questions or for more info or stayed tuned for reminders throughout the weekend. See you at QSoCC 2015 April 18th and 19th!

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Volunteers needed for QSOCC!

We're looking for 10-15 more people to volunteer for QSOCC! Various positions available, requiring various skill sets. Please contact Samantha via email at < [email protected] > if you're interested in contributing to the success of our wonderful conference!

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Hey all! We’re super excited to announce our keynote for Saturday, April 18th -- Fabian Romero!

Fabian Romero is a Queer Indigenous writer, performance artist and activist. They co-founded and participated in several writing and performance groups including Hijas de Su Madre, Las Mamalogues and Mixed Messages: Stories by People of Color. Their sincere writing stems from their intersections of privileges and marginalizations. You can read their work in several zines and publications including Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, Untangling the Knot: Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships & Identity, Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of our Lives and in the near future in To The Exclusion of All Others: Queers Questioning Gay Marriage which will be published in Australia. Fabian was born in Michoacán, Mexico and came to North America when they were seven years old. Since 2007 they have performed and facilitated workshops throughout North America. They have BA at Evergreen State College with a focus in writing, social justice and education.  

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Today’s QT-POSE spotlight is Ryannah! (she/her/hers)

My Identity: “Trans woman of color, pacific island background. survivor of abuse”

Home Is: “Being around my LGBTQ brothers and sisters, since I am in a homeless shelter.”

Aspirations: “For the last 3 years, I have specialized in youth advocacy work being a voice for youth who are homeless or facing lack of support. My dream career is a wedding planner.”

Style: “I am very diva but formal. My style expresses that I am a confident, beautiful trans woman of color and that my orientation is only a piece of me. I get my fashion ideas from Jennifer Hudson, Laverne Cox, JLO, and Zoey Saldana”

My Inner Voice is Saying: “To love myself and that self care is so important.”

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Hi folks! If you’re having trouble accessing the QSOCC registration, or even paying the registration fees, please send an email to Samantha at < [email protected] >

We have scholarships available!

You can also just show up to the conference and register day-of.

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Hey y'all we are excited to announce our Keynote presenter for Sunday, April 18th -- Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha !!!

Leah's bio: Winner of the 2012 Lambda Literary Award, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer disabled femme writer, teacher, performer and healer/organizer of Burgher/Tamil Sri Lankan, Roma and Irish ascent. She walks in the legacies of her Roma great grandmother who walked out of Galicia to the Black Sea with thirteen children while healing people at her kitchen table campfires along the way and her Sri Lankan bicycle riding school teacher grandmother and great aunties who kept managing to not be arrested while enjoying sex and cute clothes. The author of Love Cake and Consensual Genocide and the co-editor of The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence in Activist Communities, her writing on femme identity, transformative justice, healing justice and queer of color lives has been widely anthologized. She is the co-founder of the queer people of color arts incubator Mangos With Chili, a lead artist with Sins Invalid and co-founder of Toronto's Asian Arts Freedom School. In 2010 she was named one of the Feminist Press' 40 Feminists Under 40 Shaping the Future and she is an 2013 Autostraddle Alternative Hot 105 member. Her first memoir, Dirty River, is forthcoming from Arsenal Pulp Press in fall 2015.

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Hi folks! I've been getting lots of questions about registration fees for the conference. Please know that ***no one will be turned away for lack of funds*** we really don't want $$$ to be a barrier to people attending the conference.

If you have questions, or would like more information, please email me, Samantha, at < [email protected] >

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Today’s QT-POSE spotlight is Tessara!

On Identity: “I identify as a working poor fat Black queer femme poet and I am comfortable with any pronouns, or my name.”

Queer Icon: “Audre Lorde, I think. Being Black and queer and a poet, and grappling with issues of representation and racial justice and LGTBQ rights…even immigration and poverty and stuff. She did a lot of work that I really admire, and I feel like she made the space for me to do what I’m doing now, using my poetry to address complex, intersectional identities and ways of being.”

Fashion Icon: “Lucy Liu. Whoever does her wardrobe in Elementary is brilliant; she looks amazing in basically every scene, even when it’s not realistic. (Seriously, who wears heels to go look at crime scenes? Lucy Liu, apparently.) Other than the heels, though, her clothes look both comfortable and majorly classy, and when she’s in interviews or at events, she just looks so great. If only I had the money to look like that!”

Self Talk: “Take it easy. It’s okay to not be superhuman, to not get everything done all the time, to show emotion and vulnerability and frailty. Even when things get hectic, my health and wellbeing are important—it’s okay to prioritize them.”

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Today’s QT-POSE spotlight is Julian! (He/him/his)

On Identity: I identify as gay. As for my ethnic identity, I switch from Chicano, Latino, Hispanic, and Mexican-American.

On QTPOC in Academia: “I think it is very difficult to find community and chosen family when you are facing homo/transphobia in communities of color and then racism in the LGBTQ community. I believe that by creating connections between communities, the common goal of ending all types of oppression will be achieved a lot more quickly.”

On Fashion: “My mom always picked my clothes! :D Generally, I have always worn plain clothes but enjoy finding new colors of t-shirts. I’m rather self-conscious of my neck and so I really like wearing polos with the top button fastened so that I feel more secure. I really love how Tom Daley dresses. Because he is one of the few openly-gay people of my age group, I really look up to him and admire that he also dresses rather “normal” for being a celebrity.”

On Self Care:“I absolutely love watching dog videos on YouTube, especially pugs. Even though I might not require a service or therapy animal, being around animals is very therapeutic for me and dogs provide an unbelievable feeling of calmness and safety for me.”