Queeribbean Crossings: Confronting Gendered and Racialized Violence CONFERENCE
Friday, December 9, 2022, from 9 am - 4 pm at Medgar Evers College- 1638 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225
In recognition of 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights Day, join us for "Queeribbean Crossings: Confronting Gendered and Racialized Violence" at Medgar Evers College in Little Caribbean, Brooklyn.
Queeribbean Crossings is a community-centered conference fostering conversation surrounding queer and trans Caribbean histories and contemporary lived realities of marginalization, struggle, resistance, and liberation. In particular, we think about the multi-layered flows, mobilities, and crossings of queer Caribbeanness across time, space, and history that cultivate what we now understand as the queer and trans Caribbean diaspora. Building upon previous annual educational and cultural programming that Caribbean Equality Project has organized, including L.O.V.E. Living Our Values Equally, Live Pridefully, and In Conversation, this community event forefronts the labor, voices, and organizing initiatives of LGBTQ+ Caribbean knowledge-making as our primary mode of intervention, and analysis. Thinking through the anti-colonial, feminist, intersectional, and intergenerational lessons of the queer and trans Caribbean provides us with ongoing important tools for building more equitable, safe, and generative Caribbean futures.
The mission of this one-day conference is to generate momentum around the queer and gender liberatory projects in the Caribbean and throughout the Caribbean diaspora by fostering deeper connections across generations, nationalities, ethnicities, and gender and sexual practices and identities, as well as across the academic, artistic, and activist communities that center LGBTQ+ Caribbean people's experiences in their respective work. Following critical conversations during these initiatives, Queeribbean Crossings will center the intersections of cross-racial solidarity and intimate partner violence on themes of liberation, social justice, immigration, trans equity, decriminalization, mental health, HIV care, and other pertinent issues impacting Black, Asian, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ Caribbean communities.
Hosted and organized by the Caribbean Equality Project, in partnership with the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium and Medgar Evers College, the conference will focus on confronting gendered and racialized violence to foster critical conversations and community-driven solutions. As we are caught in a difficult and precarious time of ongoing and colliding pandemics, we bring queer and trans Caribbean communities across the region and its diasporas to think collaboratively about what wellness, safety, healing, and care can feel and look like, particularly as we are caught up in the colliding forces, or crossings of violence. Queeribbean Crossings will provide critical and safe spaces to discuss, reflect, engage, and question our relationships as queer and trans Caribbean folks to our history, place, community values, and politics. In particular, our conference this year is built upon three key subject areas:
Cross-Racial Solidarities: Confronting Anti-Blackness and Anti-Asian Hate Violence
Reproductive Justice, Gendered Violence and Human Rights in the Caribbean Region and Diasporas
Queer and Trans Caribbean Healing: Centering Artistic Practice as and for Resilience
Queeribbean Crossings is grounded in multiple expressions of queer and trans Caribbean knowledge-making that include mainstream and dominant forms of communications, as well as art and aesthetic practice, story-telling, and other forms of alternative knowledge production. The conference will include keynote speakers, panel discussions, and cultural performances and features the NY premiere screening of the short film Gyal (2022) by Ryan Persadie.
Opening and closing remarks by:
Speakers and Performers
Queeribbean Crossings Conference Schedule:
Volunteer at Queeribbean Crossings!
We are looking for volunteers to support the conference. Please complete the Volunteer form, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
This event is made possible through the generous support of LaGuardia Community College and the New York City Council LGBT and Queer Caucus.