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Still Here
In honor of World AIDS Day, the will be a screening of the Cannes award-winning documentary film Still Here by Alex Camilleri '10. This 20-minute filim profiles New York City native Randy Baron, who has been living with HIV for 30 years, and through a rare genetic mutation, has had the gift of continued health, making him an inadvertent witness to the AIDS epidemic.
A discussion with Messrs. Camilleri and Baron will follow
5:30 p.m.
December 1, 2010
The Rosenwald Theater
Volgelstein Center for Drama and Film
This event is free and open to the public
Sponsored by:
the Office of Health Education, Counseling Service, Heath Services, Pro-Health, the Department of Film, Alumnae/i Affairs and Development, and the Campus Life Office
Gay is the new Black?
Since the passage of Prop 8, the idea that Gay Is The New Black has become a new slogan used by same-sex marriage advocates. But has sexual orientation replaced race as the new barometer of social justice in America? Kenyon Farrow will trace the roots of this rhetoric and chart a new course for an LGBT agenda that includes racial and economic justice.
Kenyon is the Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice, an organization dedicated to organizing, research, and advocacy for and with low-income and working-class lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Kenyon previously served as the National Public Education Director. He is the co-editor of “Letters From Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out” (Nation Books 2005) and the upcoming “A New Queer Agenda” and Stand Up! The Politics of Racial Uplift (South End Press).
This lecture is free and open to the public
Intersex at Intersection of Queer and Disability Theory
Emi Koyama is a multi-issue social justice activist and author synthesizing feminist, Asian, survivor, dyke, queer, sex worker, intersex, genderqueer, and crip politics, as these factors, while not a complete descriptor of who she is, all impacted her life. Emi is currently the director of Intersex Initiative based in Portland, Oregon.
Bringing Out Tropic Spells
The English Department Lecture Committee Presents
Bringing Out Tropic Spells:
Performing Queer Encounters in the Asias
A Colloquium with Eng-Beng Lim
Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, Brown University
Friday, November 12 at Noon, Rockefeller Hall 200
Sponsored by Africana Studies, Asian Studies, and CampusLife LGBTQ Programs
Queer Soup
ACT OUT!, in collaboration with Idlewild, FWA and Campus Life LGBTQ Programs, is bringing Queer Soup to Vassar! Queer Soup is a queer theater organization and will be doing their show called "We All Will Be Received" as well as facilitating a discussion after the show.November 12th at 7:00pm
Students' Building, 2nd Floor
“In We All Will Be Received Queer Soup expertly weaves together three unique stories about coming to know and understand ones sex and gender as defiantly, differently, deliberately queer. The splendor of outrageously performed gender found at Graceland and Dollywood provides the perfect back drop for Malvis, Frankie Cocktail and Kathy to each explore, inhabit and perform gender. This important theater piece resonates with me and perhaps with so many of us because it tells the repeatedly omitted story of queerly gendered identities, and expressions there of, that are never easily come by. Bravo/a!!”
- Jessica Flaherty, Director of Programs, The Boston Alliance of GLBT Youth
“In We All Will Be Received Queer Soup expertly weaves together three unique stories about coming to know and understand ones sex and gender as defiantly, differently, deliberately queer. The splendor of outrageously performed gender found at Graceland and Dollywood provides the perfect back drop for Malvis, Frankie Cocktail and Kathy to each explore, inhabit and perform gender. This important theater piece resonates with me and perhaps with so many of us because it tells the repeatedly omitted story of queerly gendered identities, and expressions there of, that are never easily come by. Bravo/a!!”
- Jessica Flaherty, Director of Programs, The Boston Alliance of GLBT Youth
Meet Our New Student Staff
Please welcome our Fall2010 student staff. The student staff members are integral to the work of CampusLife LGBTQ Programs. In addition to assisting with program development, they hold open office hours in the LGBTQ Center (CC235) during the evenings and on weekends so that the center and its resources are available to the campus community when the administrative staff are not present. I encourage everyone to take advantage of the center during these extended hours.
STUDENT STAFF HOURS
Sunday, 6:00pm-11:00pm
Monday, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Tuesday, 6:00pm-10:00pm
Wednesday, 10:00am-1:00pm; 3:00pm-7:00pm
Thursday, 2:00pm-8:00pm; 10:00pm-12:00am
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Gays of Our Lives
HIV Testing
Free HIV Rapid Testing
Thursday, April 29 from 12:00pm to 4:00pm
Baldwin Building, Second Floor
Each of us has an HIV status. It is vital that you know yours. Testing will be available tomorrow afternoon -- results in 20 minutes with no needles.
Testing services provided by Planned Parenthood of the Mid-Hudson Valley
Sponsored by Campus Life LGBTQ Programs and the Office of Health Services
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Gender-Free Orgasm
Could it really be possible to have an orgasm with your clothes on, without touching yourself or being touched by anyone else? Can you really reach ecstasy simply by breathing? Barbara Carralles, renowned sex educator and author, will lead a workshop exploring the unlimited possibilities of orgasm, particularly the vast range of orgasms that lie beyond those achieved by genital stimulation. Although this is a participatory workshop, here will be NO nudity and you will NOT be asked to work with a partner. Barbara is the author of Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century and Luxurious Loving: Tantric Inspirations for Passion and Pleasure. Her work is centered on a holistic, metaphysical, practical, humorous, entertaining and gender-fluid approach to conscious sexuality. Barbara currently lives in New York with her partner Kate Bornstein.
Maggots and Men
Tuesday, April 20, 7:00pm, Spitzer Auditorium, Sanders 212
Filmmaker Cary Cronenwett will present a screening of "Maggots and Men," an experimental historical narrative, set in a mythologized, post-revolutionary Russia that re-imagines the story of the 1921 uprising of the Kronstadt sailors with a subtext of gender anarchy. In addition to being a thoughtful homage to Soviet silent era directors and artists of the Russian avant-garde, the film explores themes of re-invention, revolution, community, and corruption. A discussion with the filmmaker will follow. Maggots and Men was made possible by The Film Arts Foundation.
This event is free and open to the public. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations at Vassar should contact the Office of Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available.
Living within the Borderlands of Gender
Monday, April 19, 5:30pm, Taylor 203
"From M/F boxes on identity forms, to sex segregated facilities, to everyday social interactions, the premise that there are only two immutable genders shapes virtually every aspect of our social world." Reese Kelly, doctoral candidate from the Sociology department at SUNY Albany, and recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in Women’s Studies, will give a lecture on the ways trans people are relegated to the borderlands of gender, and obliged to create physical embodiments that cohere to normative standards of “maleness” and “femaleness” in order to fully participate in society. Reese's work seeks to expand queer theories of sex, gender and sexuality by providing a more nuanced analysis of gender performativity and gender policing.
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FIGHT! Annual Breast Cancer Walk
To participate in the walk we are asking for a donation of $5.00 or more, which comes with a pink wristband and a T-shirt. (Wristbands and T-shirts are limited to the first 75 to give donations.) Participants can also sign up under their house and the house that has the most participants will receive an Ice Cream Party.
Sign-up for the walk doesn’t have to be done ahead of time, but please consider signing up in advance. To pre-register for the walk, the Women’s Center and Strong House will table in the College Center the week of April 5. Cash or checks are acceptable. Checks should be made out to: Susan G. Komen for the Cure. If you’d like to make a contribution, but are unable to attend the walk, donations and sponsorships are welcomed. 100% of your donation will be sent to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and local organizations such as Sisters Network and Miles of Hope.
You can also pre-register yourself and/or parents by emailing Sarah Muenzinger ’10 and Jaleesa Johnston ‘11, Campus Life/Women’s Center Interns, at womenscenter@vassar.edu. Please include the number of people you are registering, the names of the walkers, and specify the donation amount for each walker. For more information contact the Campus Life Office at 845-437-5426.
Registration and distribution of T-shirts and wristbands will be held the day of the walk in the lobby of Strong House, beginning at 10:00am.
The Women’s Center is a resource center of the Campus Life Office.
Sunny Days
Plus! We have made some exciting changes here in the LGBTQ Center to make the space more inviting and spacious. It will also allow our extensive lending library to be moved to the center -- down from the 3rd floor of Main -- making it more accessible to browsing and casual reading.
Welcome Back
And so starts the spring semester 2010. By the looks of things, however, spring is hardly upon us. Nevertheless, we here in the LGBTQ Center are springing forward with plans for a most exciting semester. Expect to see each of our recurring event series returning this semester, with a couple of additions, such as a semester-long series of faculty led symposiums as well as a set of events later in the semester that will give students an opportunity to present their scholarship to the community. This semester will also bring the next event in the LGBTQ history series that we launched last year, to great success, with "Interrogating Mythologies." We are also very excited to announce that the LGBTQ Center will be producing a publication this semester. So if you or anyone you know would be interested in being involved, please send us an email (curious@vassar.edu). There will also be performance events throughout the semester -- not to be missed.
Spring at Vassar would not be complete without All College Day -- now in its 10th year! This year the theme is "Bridging the Gaps: knowing the past, living the present, shaping the future." I'm so excited, and I'm not the only one. Campus response has been incredible; we already have dozens of organizations signed-up to be a part. Of course every All College Day since its inception has been met with campus-wide enthusiasm -- after all, its not called All College Day for nothing -- but I think this one is going to be really big! Now I know you are eager to know more, and posters will be going up soon, but if you are like me and simply cannot wait, then point your browser to the Campus Life Office website (campuslife.vassar.edu), or call 845-437-5462 to learn more.
Now if that is not enough to get you jumping up and down, I have one more BIG item to announce. The LGBTQ Center is getting new furniture! Thats right, a new sofa plus a new big comfy chair -- all in hot pink. Just kidding. Actually they were out of hot pink, so we went with red instead. It's all coming next week. So stop on by and check it out. And in case you still don't know where we are, the center is located in the College Center, room 235, which is, as QCVC puts so well, "in Main, right above the Retreat, in a lovely little corner."
Looking forward to seeing you.
-Steve
Special Guest Reading “Within the Clouds”
The Drama Department presents: A Special Guest Reading. “Within the Clouds.” Based on the novel, "Sea of Tranquillity." Written by Paul Russell, Professor of English at Vassar College. Directed by Jonathan Tilley. "Within the Clouds" is a stage adaption of the first part of Paul Russell's third novel "Sea of Tranquillity." In 1970, astronaut Allen Cloud is about to begin training for an Apollo moon mission when his personal life crumbles. He separates from his wife, Joan, and discovers that his son Jonathan is gay. Joan and Jonathan depart Houston for Tennessee, where Joan slips deeper into alcoholism and Jonathan meets Stayton Voegli, a shy preacher's son who becomes his lover. The play follows these four characters through what critics have called "a compelling chronicle of the fracturing of an American family" which is likely to "leave indelible tracks on the surface of your mind."
February 6, 2010. Martel Theater. 7pm.
No Reservations Required. Seating is first come first serve.
Contact the box office at (845) 437-5599 for more information.
Queer Music at Cubbyhole
New York musician sean desiree will be performing at the Cubbyhole (Poughkeepsie) on Friday, February 12th. Her music talks about issues affecting LGTBQ community, communities of color, and women. sean's solo project, bell's roar is a project of love, resistance, dedication and against homophobia, sexism and racism. bell's roar features melodic guitars, lusty beats, intense vocal stylings and a desire for some brass. The tone of the project is best described by the source of its name, feminist writer bell hooks.
If you would like more information, or would like to hear samples of Sean's music, visit www.myspace.com/bellsroar
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