Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Home with our “What You Need to Know” series, starting with this primer on our keynote speaker Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Her lecture, titled “Body/ Land/ Home: Disability Justice, Healing Justice and Femme of Color Brilliance,” will be held on Tuesday, October 25th at 6PM in the University Center Ballroom (event details here). 

Based out of Toronto and Oakland, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer, disabled femme of color poet, performer, healer, and activist of Burgher/Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/Roma ascent. Much of Leah’s work focuses on people and conversations that are often underrepresented, including disability justice, queer and trans people of color, and abuse survivors. In addition to her award-winning books of poetry, including Bodymap, Love Cake, and Consensual Genocide, she has alsowritten a memoir titled Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home. 

“Stories create the world. Seeing stories that look like your own, that you’ve never read written down before, or that are stories you’ve never thought of before that change your whole idea of what is possible, are a big revolutionary deal.” †

art by Shira Devorah

Leah is also a co-founder and former director of Mangos With Chili, the longest-running performance art tour featuring queer and trans individuals in North America. She performs pieces with the disability justice collective Sins Invalid and is a co-director of the Toronto disability justice collective Performance/ Disability/Art.

…“[I]t was so inculcated in me that disability is this shameful story. And you know, if there’s not queer people of color space, queer people of color won’t perform. If there’s not disability space that centers queer and trans people of color, sex workers, poor people, all of the above, elders, young people, we won’t know that there’s similar stories.” †

 For more on Leah, check out:

• Her blog, Brownstargirl
• This video of her performance in Sins Invalid
• Her interview with Bitch Magazine on disability, representation, and survivorhood

Critical Social Justice: Home will be held on October 24th through 28th, 2016. Follow the CSJ blog, Facebook, and Twitter for updates on scheduled events and other news. For more information about the Critical Social Justice initiative, or if you’re organizing a related event that week that might be included on the CSJ calendar, please email mosaic@umbc.edu or womens.center@umbc.edu.

“i have the word home tattooed on my breastbone, and friends remind me why I got it. the truth of it, that home is there. but this is also about land and gentrification, colonialism that has blown and continues to blow me and my family all over the planet and puts me on someone else’s land where they did not ask me to be, race and class, banks and profit, the desire to stay in a magic queer brown city and the reality of push-out when our narrow slices of survival.  it is about all the ways as disabled and chronically ill folks, as black and brown and broke folks, we find to try and find some stable sweet place to live where we can just live.” – Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (homeplace)

There’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. You can never go home again.

Home can be a place, a feeling, a concept. It can be comfortable or contentious, nurturing or toxic, constant or nonexistent. It can be somewhere we belong or somewhere we don’t.

As a global community, we see the connection between social justice and home during this critical time when issues of migration, nationalism, and xenophobia dominate the news cycle.  In Baltimore city, the legacy of redlining and racial inequity has created divergent realities for its citizens depending upon whether one makes their home in the “White L” or the “Black Butterfly.” As we consider what it means to be at home in our communities, our identities, and even our own bodies, we reflect on the familiar feminist slogan “the personal is political” and we’re reminded that social justice calls for us to look beyond solely what’s happening “out there.”

In honor of UMBC’s 50th Anniversary, this year’s CSJ theme of Home recognizes UMBC as a home to many of us.  As we celebrate and contemplate UMBC as a home for learning, activism, and social change, we embrace the opportunity to invest ourselves in creating meaningful change here on campus in addition to taking our newly gained insights and knowledge with us back home, wherever that may be.

It is in this spirit that the fourth annual Critical Social Justice aims to create space and learning opportunities to consider the ways we can challenge, explore, and redefine the concept of home based upon our individual and collective histories as well as our intersecting identities.

CSJ: Home keynote speaker Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.

We’re excited to announce that our keynote speaker will be Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, a queer disabled femme of color writer and performance artist whose work on disability, survivorhood, and transformative justice speaks to the many complexities inherent in navigating our way home. The keynote lecture and reception will be held on Tuesday, October 25^th at 6pm in the UC Ballroom.

Critical Social Justice: Home will be held on October 24th through 28th, 2016. Follow the CSJ blog, Facebook, and Twitter for updates on scheduled events and other news. For more information about the Critical Social Justice initiative, or if you’re organizing a related event that week that might be included on the CSJ calendar, please email womens.center@umbc.edu.

Google Travel and Conference Grants

WE16 is just a couple months away and we know you are making your plans to be there! We also know you may be interested in receiving some travel funds to help pay for your whole experience.

Well if you work or study in computer science, computer engineering, information technology, or related technical field, consider applying for a Google Travel and Conference Grant.

Google Travel and Conference Grant recipients receive:

• The cost of their conference registration covered
• A $500 pre-paid Visa gift card
• The special opportunity to interact with some current Googlers

The deadline to apply for a grant is August 5, 2016 and you can apply now. If you have any questions, please contact travel-grants@google.com.

Know someone who should apply for a Google Travel and Conference Grant? Pass this link on!

The Aspen Institute's Youth & Engagement team launched an application recruiting an inaugural cohort of Youth Commissioners to advise the Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. The work of the Youth Commission, alongside the National Commission, has the potential to transform education and create more equitable, holistic, and effective systems for students. 

 

Young people, ages 14 to 22 years old, residing in the Washington Metropolitan region, who work well in group settings, think outside the box, and are civic-minded & eager to engage with fellow youth around exploring complex issues are encouraged to apply.

 

The turnaround time is TIGHT, with the first round cycle closing this Thursday, July 21^st.

 

Online Application: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/youth-and-engagement/

 

The Youth Commission will be comprised of approximately 15 Commissioners, selected based on:

·         the strength of their application; 

·         one academic, extracurricular, or professional reference; 

·         their demonstrated interest in the field; 

·         and an in-person conversation to be conducted on Monday, July 25th, 2016 at the One Dupont Circle office. 

 

Over the course of the next two years, the Youth Commission will join the National Commission in exploring existing policy and practice relating to social, emotional, and academic development, while also taking active steps to improve upon the current state of social and emotional development in schools by recommending policies, programs, and strategies in a culminating report. Youth Commissioners will be compensated for their participation with a modest stipend. Travel expenses will also be covered.

 

If you have any questions, contact:

 

Haywood L. Perry III

Graduate Fellow

Youth & Engagement

The Aspen Institute

 

One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 700

Washington, DC 20036

(301) 266-7315 (cell)

Haywood.Perry@aspeninstitute.org

www.aspeninstitute.org

A final reflection written by Women’s Center student staff member and UMBC Class of 2016 alum,  Meagé Clements

Just weeks after graduation, I attended the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL), a conference I had been anticipating for months! I arrived promptly on June 1st, just in time for the Welcome Reception, led by various American Association of University Women (AAUW) National Student Advisory Council members. There, I met just a few of the hard working, inspirational women from across the nation who were attending the conference. There were other Women’s Center staff members, members of university and college SGAs, non-traditional women students, executive board members of student-led organizations, and more.Throughout the evening full of ice-breakers, I learned what many of the women were passionate about changing and accomplishing in the world.

Throughout the various conference sessions, workshops, and even during the informal ice-breaker and night-out activities, I found myself learning several things about myself and how to be a successful woman in a male-dominated society.

1. I have a voice that deserves to be heard. 

This is something I began to learn throughout my college experience and it is something that I am continuing to work on post-graduation as well. As I attended the opening sessions of the conference: Finding Your Voice and Sharing Your Voice, I learned that it was counterproductive to stifle my voice, especially in situations where I was surrounded by people who could learn from what I had to say. I reflect on the numerous classes I had where I was the only Black woman or woman of color and how I should have spoken up more. Although I have learned to channel my voice through my blog posts and other forums, it is also necessary to use my voice to advocate for myself and other women of color.

2. It’s never too early to network.

Until recently, networking has always been a concept that has been very distant to me. I assumed that it would happen when it happened and that I didn’t need to make a conscious effort to network. Little did I know, this was something that I had been doing subconsciously throughout college. Whether I was exchanging numbers with someone in my academic program, meeting with other students, staff, and faculty in the Women’s Center, or simply discussing my future endeavors with a friend, I was networking. I learned that many people gain necessary networks that helped them advance in their careers. Through the networking workshops at NCCWSL, I met several ambitious women with similar and different aspirations.

Some new NCCWSL friends!

3. It’s okay to have A LOT of aspirations.

During the conference, I met so many women who, believe it or not, started in career fields far from where they’ve ended up. I used to cringe at the thought of someone asking what I wanted to do in life because it always consisted of a long list of aspirations. While I learned that it isn’t always possible to accomplish several at once, each goal can serve as a step towards another.

4. The importance of mentorship.

Several times during the conference, the concept of mentorship came up. Aside from my mother, I had never really considered myself having a mentor, nonetheless mentoring someone else. I assumed that because I was still in school and because I wasn’t settled in my career, I couldn’t be a mentor. I later learned that many of our mentors are our peers. As I reflect on the numerous conversations I’ve had with my sorority sisters, I can recall instances where I’ve received mentorship from them, as well as many of my other women peers. I learned that many women found connections and rewarding opportunities through their mentors. In addition, the conference helped me appreciate solidarity amongst women even more.

5. Take risks

I seldom think of myself as someone who takes risks. During the last workshop session: The Art of Living Boldly: A Toolkit for Taking Risks, Handling Fear, and Building a Meaningful Life, a woman named Catie Whelan shared her story about leaving her secure job and taking a risk at another career choice. Despite not meeting the minimum requirements, she decided to take a risk and apply. Not only was she offered the job, but she was given the opportunity to learn another language so she was better qualified. Throughout the session, many women shared stories about aspirations they have but were too afraid to tackle. I reflected on a few risks I wanted to take and was capable of creating a plan to work towards these goals.

UMBC’s NCCWSL contingent meets keynote speaker, Franchesca Ramsey!

Although the conference has been over for some time now, I continue to reflect on all of the things I’ve learned and I will continue to work towards being an effective woman leader. I highly recommend that other women attend the conference and learn more about the efforts of AAUW and NCCWSL.

If you are a UMBC student interested in attending NCCWSL 2017, contact UMBC’s Women’s Center for more information. Also stay tuned for the Women + Leadership Class of 2016-17 experience – details coming soon (here’s information about the Class of 2015-16 experience)!