Queeribbean Crossings: Solidarity as Resistance
Date and Time: Thursday, December 5, 2024, from 9 am - 5 pm
Location: Queens College (Student Union Building) - 65-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, NY 11367
Volunteering Opportunity Available: Sign up Now!
On Thursday, December 5, Caribbean Equality Project will host its 3rd Annual Queeribbean Crossings conference, "Solidarity as Resistance," in recognition of 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights Day, a partnership with the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium. The FREE one-day community conference is a knowledge-sharing space that centers on critical reflections and collaborative discussions on transnational cross-racial solidarities and multicultural artistic expressions through a diasporic Afro and Indo-Caribbean LGBTQ+ lens. Queeribbean Crossings will feature international keynote speakers, panel discussions, workshops, a health and immigration resource fair, and a closing cultural & drag showcase.
Panel: Building Community Safety: Organizing as Resistance to Attacks on Marginalized Communities
Carlyn Cowen (they/them), Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer, Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC)
Jovante Anderson (he/him), Scholar and Community Organizer
Nikita Boyce (she/they), Budget Equity Coordinator, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)
Kishi Chad (he/him), South Florida Organizer, Caribbean Equality Project
Valeria Paz Reyes (she/her), Manager of Organizing and Strategy, The New York Immigration Coalition
Kadeem Robinson, Board Treasurer, Caribbean Equality Project
Panel Overview
Marginalized communities, particularly immigrant and trans communities, continue to face significant challenges related to safety and security, particularly in the context of increasing anti-immigrant violence, transphobia, and national policies that target the most vulnerable. Organizing at both local and national levels has emerged as a crucial strategy for these communities to resist attacks and advocate for human rights. In this panel, speakers will examine the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ marginalized communities in both the United States and Caribbean asylum seekers in the struggle for immigration services, gender-affirming health care, mental health, and food insecurity.
President-elect Trump's blueprint for "Mass Deportation" underscores a growing trend of policies that threaten the health, safety, and livelihood of marginalized communities by criminalizing Black, Caribbean, Latinx, and gender-diverse migrants. With his cruel plans for mass deportations set to begin on Day 1 of his presidency, we're gearing up to protect our community. Similarly, in the Caribbean, outdated values and legal remnants of colonial-era discrimination continue to impact the LGBTQ+ communities and their access to employment, human rights, and public safety, forcing displacement. Panelists will discuss how these systemic barriers affect queer and trans Caribbean diasporic communities and share strategies for ongoing organizing and advocacy into the future. Through cross-border solidarity, community-led movements are fighting to dismantle policies that restrict immigration reform, access to housing, and family separation, ensuring safety and arrival sovereignty for all.
Conference Program Schedule:
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM: Registration & Breakfast
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM: Opening Remarks, Conference Overview, Land Acknowledgment, and Queens College Welcome
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM: Keynote Speaker, Rajiv Mohabir
11:00 AM - 11:30 AM: Screening of “Caribbean Queen” Short Film
11:30 AM - 12:45 PM: Beyond Decriminalization: Storytelling as a Tool of Solidarity for Collective Future Building Panel
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Lunch & Resource Fair
2:00 PM - 2:30 pm: International Keynote Speaker, Daryl A. Phillip
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM: Breakout Workshops & Panels
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM: DJ and Social Networking
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM: Drag & Cultural Showcase
Queeribbean Crossings takes a transnational approach to building solidarity. The term “transnational” here explores how queer and trans diasporic Caribbean struggle is not contained within one geography or history but forces us to contend with issues and struggles outside of the places we call home. A transnational framework to queer Caribbean liberation will think not only about the relationships between the queer Caribbean and the US diaspora, but also other adjacent political struggles and histories that we, as queer and trans Caribbean communities, may or may not experience. To truly seek collective liberation, we must think both within and outside ourselves, our histories, and our personal struggles. A transnational practice of solidarity allows us to connect queer and trans Caribbean emancipation efforts with various intersectional struggles. The name “Queeribbean Crossings” represents a commitment to a feminist and anti-colonial approach to thinking transnationally in our social justice work and solidarity movements. Our emphasis on the transnational here is largely indebted to the work of Trinidadian queer feminist scholar, M. Jacqui Alexander, who first gives us the language of “crossing” in her ground-breaking 2005 text Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory, and the Sacred.
Launched in 2022, Queeribbean Crossings focused on confronting gendered and racialized violence to foster cross-racial solidarity, healing, and community-driven solutions to hate violence. The conference is grounded in multiple expressions of queer and trans Caribbean ways of knowing that include, but are not limited to, community organizing, art, and aesthetic practices, among many others. Yearly, the conference brings together community members, academics, creatives, and students of all levels and backgrounds to engage in community conversations related to issues of im/migration, gender-based violence, human rights, contemporary issues LGBTQIA+ people of color through a culturally responsive and racial justice lens.
As you prepare to share space with us at the Queeribbean Crossings conference, we invite you to reflect on the following questions:
What is solidarity for marginalized queer and trans Caribbean communities, and how do we build it for ourselves and our political comrades?
How does solidarity become an act of resistance? Why is such an act necessary in our contemporary LGBTQ+ liberation moment?
How does queer and trans solidarity center both our local communities and those who we may never come to meet or whose struggles we may never experience?
How do we transform coalition from a noun - or simply a word we use/say - to an everyday practice of solidarity as resistance?
Please join us on December 5, 2024, for an extraordinary one-day Queeribbean Crossings conference featuring conversations, performances, and community engagement!
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 with any questions.
This event is made possible through the generous support of Queens College, LaGuardia Community College, and the New York City Council LGBT and Queer Caucus.
Host and Presenters
Sponsors and Community Partners
