News
BLSU organizes Hamilton’s first annual Queer People of Color Week
By Emily Eisler ’17
April 13, 2017
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From Monday, April 3, to Friday, April 7, Hamilton’s Black and Latinx Student Union presented the College’s first ever Queer People of Color Week, a week of events and programming highlighting the experience of queer people of color on campus and beyond. The week was hosted by BLSU in collaboration with other student organizations such as La Vanguardia, Rainbow Alliance, the African Continentals, the Asian Students Association and the Feminists of Color Collective. It was also sponsored by the Days-Massolo Center, First Year Experience, Residential Life and Student Assembly.
Andres Aguilar ’19 discussed the idea to create this week; “The inspiration to have a Queer POC week was to increase the campus awareness of Queer POC here. While we know we have some diversity on the Hill, we know that not everyone gets visibility. Our approach was to celebrate our peers, as well as ourselves, for having intersectional identities and allowing those to flourish and have agency within visibility on this campus.”
The week began with a screening of Viva, a film about the life of a queer Cuban. Tuesday then saw two talks by Mikael Owunna, a Nigerian-Swedish American photographer, speaker and writer. The first was titled “The LGBTQ+ African Immigrant Experience” and the second later that night focused on “Queer Media: Representation, Love & Community.” On Wednesday students could sign up to join the Student Advisory Committee to Trans* Advocate Team as well as join a discussion at the DMC that night titled “Queer Asians and Experiences.” Thursday saw the return of the FCC’s annual Speakeasy to widespread acclaim and the week concluded on Friday with a screening of the 2017 Best Picture Academy Award winner, Moonlight.
Aguilar hopes that people can extend the mission of the week through the rest of the year by respecting the identities of others within the campus community. “Not to sound harsh, but that is what BLSU wants to promote. It’s no longer the idea of tolerance of these communities, rather it is about respecting these communities and giving them agency for their identities. As people continuously learn of these identities, I suggest people to continue going to cultural organizations’ meetings and taking a friend along. There’s absolutely no harm in trying to learn more. Some may feel a discomfort, but how else is one supposed to know the ‘right’ way if one isn’t putting themselves in the situation? We are all learners along the way.”