Workshops
Workshop Session #1 (April 15th @ 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PST)
Masculinities of Wholeness: Writing Testimonios & Theories of the Flesh Within Community
Sam Chavez-Perez
The aim of this workshop is to create new stories of masculinities that move beyond colonial & patriarchal categories. After a brief warm-up activity, the presenter will give their testimony and theory in their flesh of living within cisheteronormative patriarchal colonialist systems, animating the concepts of horizontal power, relationality, and love within their reclaimed narrative centered in a decolonial queer feminism. The second half of the session will serve as an individual and collective exercise in reclaiming our narratives through the creation and sharing of testimonios and theories in our fleshes.
Sam Chavez Perez (They/Them & He/Him) is a queer, Xicanx undergraduate student studying Philosophy and Liberal Studies with an emphasis on Chicanx-Latinx Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and Applied Linguistics. He works for the programming team of La Casa Latina and at 5th Avenue Cinema curating dope movies from outside the Occident. They are writing a thesis on non-Western surrealisms, aesthetic ontologies, and decolonial options pursued through the arts. In his free time, he enjoys reading, watching movies, writing poetry, exploring nature, and taking long walks.
Masc4Femme -- Analyzing solidarity between trans mascs and trans femmes of color through popular media stories
Joaquín Lopez (They/He) & Carmen Smith (She/Her)
This presentation/workshop will focus on building active solidarity relationships between trans mascs and trans femmes of color. We will examine examples of visual media paired alongside queer theory that analyzes power dynamics and the failures of intra-community making for people on the trans identity spectrum. This presentation/workshop aims to 1) highlight masculinity for trans men, mascs, and gender-diverse queer people of color. 2) Call out trans-misogyny enacted against trans women and femmes of color. 3) Build a functional praxis for trans men uplifting and protecting trans women of color.
Storytelling Workshop: Out Loud and Proud
Kay Gordon
We are all experts on our own journeys, and we are all storytellers. We will break down how to talk about our experiences in our own words as well as how to draw people in and make them feel connected to our joys and struggles. We’ll learn about ourselves and each other through glimpses into our lives. No writing or performance experience is necessary! There are many ways to record and share stories.
Kay Gordon (They/Them) is a Purépecha, Chicanx, Jewish, pansexual, genderqueer from Downey, California. They hold a degree in Society & Environment from UC Berkeley, though they unofficially majored in extracurricular activities. Their background includes community programming, education, and youth and family work. They have been telling their story as part of LGBTQ+ speakers bureaus since 2013, first in San Francisco, then in Boston. As someone who manages depression and executive dysfunction, Kay understands the need to make programs as welcoming, accessible, and engaging as possible. They love fostering inclusive community to promote belonging, resilience, and joy. Outside of work, Kay enjoys singing, dancing, ice cream, and nerding out about comedy and horror.
Workshop Session #2 (April 15th @ 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM PST)
Queer Worldmaking Through D&D
Madison Montgomery
This workshop will explore tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons as a tool for queer storytelling, worldmaking, and exploration. This workshop invites criticism of existing game systems that replicate and reinforce racist, sexist, queerphobic, and colonialist ideals and explores what queer-centric, anti-racist roleplaying experiences can look like.
Madison Montgomery (She/Her) is a third year student in PSU's School of Business and a returning member of the Queer Resource Center Staff. She is an outgoing and creative queer person of color who is passionate about art and creating. Madison couldn't be more excited to promote QSOCC as Marketing Coordinator. She also looks forward to aiding in creating space for QTBIPOC at PSU within the QRC and beyond. In her free time, Madison enjoys crocheting, reading, watching TV & movies, and all things music.
Creative Writing and Book Publishing/Your Story is Valuable! Breaking Barriers in Creative Writing and the Book Publishing Industry
Claire Curry & Theo Thompson
We often talk about diversity and representation in books and published stories, but what happens behind the scenes? What does the journey of a book look like when the author is a Queer Person of Color? Graduate students from the Creative Writing and Book Publishing Programs at Portland State University offer useful strategies and resources for navigating the toughest systemic barriers meant to stop you from telling your story. From trusting your authority in your experiences to recognizing when you deserve more. We'll explore real examples of Queer POC challenges and successes in writing, authorship, and publishing. Your story is valuable!
Theo Thompson (They/She/He) is a Queer, multiracial Korean American in the Creative Writing (2023) and Book Publishing (2024) Master’s programs at Portland State University.
Claire Curry (She/Her) is a Queer, Vietnamese adoptee in the Book Publishing (2024) Master’s program. She is also a project manager at Ooligan Press.
What's After LIKE? - A K-pop Dance Workshop
Aoi Tsuda
K-pop and its dances have increasingly gained popularity with QTBIPOC youth as a unique creative outlet that helps explore sexuality and defying gender norms. In collaboration with PDX K-pop Dance based at PSU, Aoi (an instructor at PDX K-pop) will be hosting a K-pop dance workshop for QSOCC 2023! People with all levels of dance experience are welcome.
Participants will be doing a warm up routine and learning the chorus of the 2022 hit song "After LIKE" by IVE. There will be moderate physical activity and water breaks in between.
To check out more K-pop dance classes, follow @pdxkpopdance on IG!
Aoi Tsuda (She/They) is a queer Japanese femme and a first-generation immigrant. She has been an instructor for the PDX K-pop Dance club at PSU for almost 2 years and enjoyed teaching a diverse group of queer individuals coming to learn dances together. They also work for Cascade AIDS Project, the oldest HIV advocacy/LGBTQ+ health organization in Portland/SW Washington area. In her free time, she hits the gym, plays video games, and films dance cover videos with their performance team, Katalyst PDX.
First Gender Magic: Crafting your Story with the Queens
Dharmakrishna “Dharma” Leria Mirza & Kobe Natachu
Our workshop explores how we use drag and gender/race/identity performance as a methodology for healing, telling our cultural stories, and as activist intervention as QTPOC students, drag performers, and First Gender Femmes. We will allow folks to engage with their own aesthetic practices and practice sharing about them if desired. We will tell stories about how we have used this methodology to tell our stories. We will offer opportunities for participants to co-create a physical archive of our stories through an aesthetic mannequin makeover activity that allows for folks to use their radical QTPOC imagination to use our provided materials, such as makeup, craft supplies, and magic, to create a collective of visual (dis)embodied stories. All materials will be provided at no cost to participants, and options are available.
Dharmakrishna “Dharma” Leria Mirza (She/Her) is an interdisciplinary scholar, activist, artist, and community health educator living in Corvallis, Oregon on stolen Kalapuyan Land. Dharma is pursuing an MA in Ethnic Studies and Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and is graduating this term. Dharma also holds a BS in Public Health, Queer Studies and Medical Humanities from OSU. Dharma will be entering her PhD in fall 2023 at OSU in WGSS with a minor in public health. Dharma is a drag mother/house mother of the Haus of Dharma a local drag family. Dharma primarily performs as Frisky the Transgender Reindeer and Hojabi, but uses drag as a methodology for community organizing and telling subaltern stories of reclaiming one’s self amidst seemingly contradictory identities.
Kobe Natachu (All pronouns) is a Łhamana Trans Femme Nonbinary poet, artist, and activist with their peoples being Shiwi (Zuni), Diné (Navajo), and Katishtya (San Felipe). Kobe grew up on their traditional homelands in what is currently known as New Mexico and are now based on the lands of the Ampinefu or Mary’s River Band of Kalapuya. Kobe will graduate with a Master’s in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a Minor in Queer Studies from Oregon State University in spring 2023. Kobe’s drag persona, Taylor Eena Hoe, came out of their desire to (re)member and (re)imagine the centrality of Łhamana:kwe and/or first-gender/pre-binary Pueblo Indigenous Two-Spirit people within Shiwi (Zuni Pueblo) lifeways.