QTPoC

The Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPoC) page is to provide MIT students with the latest resources and programs throughout the year. This page will be updated regularly, so please take a look and browse through many of the QTPoC content.  

QTPOC Virtual Programming 

QTPoC is for queer and trans people of color to hang out with each other once a month, chat, watch movies, and have support. The first part of QTPoC is chilling online and talking and building community.  How have you been?  What have you been up to? Got anything you want to share?  The second part of QTPoC might be a game, program, event.  Feel free to join at any time and bring your friends!  QTPoC is a space for LBGTQ+ students of color in the MIT community.  

  • Date: April 7th, 2021 
    • Description: QTPOC Movie Night: On April 7th, 2021 from 2pm to 4pm EST. A movie day will be happening! Come watch Godzilla vs. Kong (Rated PG-13)! Bring popcorn, snacks, friends and enjoy this anticipated movie.
    • Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST
    • Zoom: https://mit.zoom.us/j/91630132061
  • ​Date: April 22nd, 2021 
    • Description: QTPOC Earth Day Raffle: For Earth Day which is April 22nd, 2021 there will be a raffle to win some great prizes that supports healthy sustainable living (water bottles, plants, and more). More details will be announced.
    • Time: All Day
    • Location: LBGTQ+ Services Social Media 

Click Here for the Crossword Puzzle! 

​​QTPoC Spotlight 

A Individual or group will be highlighted based on their accomplishments and care for the LBGTQ community.  

Check out LBGTQ+ Service's Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for more QTPOC Spotlights 

Name: Rev. Naomi Washington - Leapheart

Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

Biography: Reverend Washington-Leapheart is an adjunct professor at Villanova University in their Theology and Religious Studies department. She served as a Faith Work Director for the National LGBTQ Taskforce. She was also named an LGBTQ Faith Leader to watch in 2019 and as one of The Root 100. Click here to learn more 

 

 

 

Name: Alvin Ailey

Pronouns: He, Him, His

Biography: Ailey was a professional dancer, choreographer, and activist for the LBGTQ+ community. He trained under Lester Horton, who was the founder of one of the first integrated dance companies. Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (now The Ailey School) and the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble (now Ailey II). He was also an active member during the Civil Rights Movement. He also choreographed popular dance routines, which included Revelations! Click here to learn more 

 

Monthly Book Recommendations

QTPoC authors will be the highlight in this section. Make sure to learn about them and read their work.

Check out LBGTQ+ Services online library for more QTPoC Books

Title: When Brooklyn was Queer (2019) 

Author: Hugh Ryan

Pronouns: He, Him, His

Tags: Brooklyn, History, LBGTQ, People of Color

Author Description: A writer, historian, and curator in New York City. honored by the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Committee on LGBT History of the American Historical Association, and the Brooklyn Borough President for my work on the queer history of BK. (http://www.hughryan.org/about)

Brief Book Description: The never-before-told story of Brooklyn's vibrant and forgotten queer history, from the mid-1850s up to the present day. "A romantic, exquisite history of gay culture." --Kirkus Reviews, starred "A monumental achievement."--Ira Sachs, filmmaker Hugh Ryan's When Brooklyn Was Queer is a groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the queer women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. No other book, movie, or exhibition has ever told this sweeping story.

 

Title: Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home 

Author:  Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Pronouns: She/They

Tags: API, Fiction, Queer Disabilities, Queer South Asian, Queer Women, Women of Color 

Author Description: Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer disabled autistic nonbinary femme writer, educator and disability/transformative justice worker. (https://brownstargirl.org/about/) 

Brief Book Description: In 1996, poet Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, carrying only two backpacks, caught a Greyhound bus in America and ran away to Canada. She ended up in Toronto, where she was welcomed by a community of queer punks of colour offering promises of love and revolution, yet she remained haunted by the reasons she left home in the first place. This passionate, riveting memoir is a mixtape of dreams and nightmares, of immigration court lineups and queer South Asian dance nights; it is an intensely personal road map and an intersectional, tragicomic tale that reveals how a disabled queer woman of colour and abuse survivor navigates the dirty river of the not-so-distant past and, as the subtitle suggests, “dreams her way home.” 

 

Title: Another Country 

Author: James Baldwin

Pronouns: He, Him, His

Tags: Gay, Black Men, Jazz, African American 

Author Description: American essayist, novelist, and playwright whose eloquence and passion on the subject of race in America made him an important voice, particularly in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the United States and, later, through much of western Europe. (https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Baldwin) 

Brief Book Description: Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions—sexual, racial, political, artistic—that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.

 

Other QTPoC Resources or Programs 

External Resources

Please note: All links posted below are external websites and may become outdated or nonfunctional. We will do our best to update them once a semester. If you see any links out of date, please let us know: lbgt@mit.edu

Organization

Link

API Equality - LA

http://apiequalityla.org  

Desi LGBTQ+ Helpline for South Asians

 

http://deqh.org

Queer Women of Color Media Project

http://qwocmap.org

Muslims for Progressive Values

http://mpvusa.org

National Center for Black Equity

http://centerforblackequity.org

First Nations Two Spirit Collective

http://unya.bc.ca/programs/2-spirit-collective/

Somos Familia

https://www.somosfamiliabay.org/resources/

National Black Justice Coalition

https://nbjc.org/

Black Trans Advocacy Coalition

https://blacktrans.org/

Galaei

https://www.galaei.org/

TransLatin@ Coalition

https://www.translatinacoalition.org/about-tlc/

Unity Coalition

https://www.unitycoalition.org/

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement

https://familiatqlm.org/

NQAPIA (National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance)

http://www.nqapia.org/wpp/home/

The Visibility Project

http://www.visibilityproject.org/

Coming Home to Islam and to Self

https://www.hrc.org/resources/coming-home-to-islam-and-to-self

Immigration Equality

https://immigrationequality.org/

United We Dream

https://unitedwedream.org/

National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network

https://www.nqttcn.com/

Therapy for QPOC

https://therapyforqpoc.com/

Rest for Resistance

https://restforresistance.com/read

Human Resource Campaign

https://www.hrc.org/

Gaysi (The Gay Desi Blog)

https://gaysifamily.com/

 

QTPOC, LBGTQ+, and BIPOC Conference Opportunities 

Are you an MIT student group seeking funding for an LBGTQ+ centered project, event, or leadership opportunity through LGBTQ+ services? Use this form to apply for funds. The LBGTQ+ Services team will review all applications and then get back to you about funding and possible next steps. If you are a graduate student group and have questions, please email Nina Foushee nfoushee@mit.edu. If you are an undergraduate student group, please email Robert Hines at hinesr@mit.edu.  

  • NSLDC: Leading for Social Justice and Change Virtual Leadership Conference Conference Opportunity
    • ​NSLDC is providing diversity conferences and an affordable opportunity for student leaders to learn more about diversity and inclusion. The virtual conference is April 10, 2021. Learn more about it here: http://nsldc.org/virtual-leadership-conference/
  • ​Kenyon College: Kenyon Queer and Trans Studies Conference
  • Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing: National LBGTQ Health Conference 
    • The National LGBTQ Health Conference is an interdisciplinary forum that provides an opportunity for presentation and discussion of health research and programs for LGBTQ adults and adolescents with the overall goal of addressing health inequities. The virtual conference is May 20, 2021 to May 21, 2021. Learn more about it here: https://lgbtqhealthconference.org/2021-virtual-conference 
  • UW-Madison and Edgewood College: Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference
    • Planned and organized entirely by students—a tradition that proudly continues today—what would later become the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference emerged in the early 1990s as an answer to the question of how to connect, educate, and empower queer students throughout the region. The theme of the conference is From Protest and Beyond Pride The conference is October 8, 2021 to October 10, 2021. Learn more about it here: https://mblgtacc.org/2021 
  • NSLDC Pride: LGBTQA+ Student leadership Conference
    • ​NSLDC Pride is a national leadership experience dedicated to empowering and educating LGBTQA+ student leaders to create change on their campuses and in their communities. The virtual conference is October 23, 2021. Learn more about it here: http://nsldcpride.org/​ 
  • National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition: National Black Trans Advocacy Conference 
    • The National Black Trans Advocacy Conference & Awards Gala is a distinct educational and empowerment program event, home to nearly 300 plus trans and gender non-conforming individuals, our family, friends, community allies, and corporate partners from across the country who are focused on advancing black trans equality. The conference is April 26, 2022 to May 1, 2022. Learn more about it here: https://btac.blacktrans.org/ 
  • Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits: Two-Spirit Powwow

    • Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) exists to restore and recover the role of Two-Spirit people within the American Indian/First Nations community by creating a forum for the spiritual, cultural and artistic expression of Two-Spirit people. This conference has passed but it happens annually with future dates announced in 2022. Learn more about it here: https://www.baaits.org/ 

  • National LGBTQ Task Force: Creating Change 
    • The National LGBTQ Task Force has brought you Creating Change, the largest LGBTQ activist conference in the country. Every year, thousands of people from across the country come together to learn, connect, and resist. At Creating Change we sharpen our minds with skills and knowledge, fill our hearts with love and joy, and deepen our commitment to freedom, justice and equity for all LGBTQ people. This conference has passed but it happens annually with future dates announced in 2022. Learn more about it here: https://www.thetaskforce.org/creatingchange.html 
  • The University of Oklahoma Outreach: National Conference on Race and Ethnicity
    • The NCORE conference series constitutes the leading and most comprehensive national forum on issues of race and ethnicity in American higher education. The conference focuses on the complex task of creating and sustaining comprehensive institutional change designed to improve racial and ethnic relations on campus and to expand opportunities for educational access and success by culturally diverse, traditionally underrepresented populations. Future dates are to be announced. Learn more about it here: https://www.ncore.ou.edu/en 

Fire Lounge 

Sponsored by the MindHandHeart Innovation Fund is designed to support students who identify as Black/Brown, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPOC) by offering an affirming space via weekly yoga sessions with guided meditation to enhance connection, communion and resilience.  Fire Lounge is at no cost and includes free yoga supplies for any BIPOC MIT student regardless of shape or size.  No prior experience with yoga is needed.  Fire Lounge is about enhancing one’s spirit and strength with guided meditation focused upon themes suggested by students in collaboration with Down Under School of Yoga. Fire Lounge will be offered virtually during IAP and Spring Semester. For more info, please email:  ContactFireLounge@mit.edu​Fireside Lounge - Weekly Free Yoga for BIPOC Students 

 

Any Questions?

If there are any questions or if you would like to share any QTPoC resources and have them posted on this page, please email Graduate Assistant Robert Hines at hinesr@mit.edu. Also, sign up for the QTPoC listserv (Lazo@mit.edu) in Stay Connected Tab, so you do not miss out on great opportunities.