On behalf of the conference Steering Committee, I welcome you! Borders & Bridges will be a conference for exploring a deeper understanding of the gender/identity borders that separate and protect us and how we can build bridges across those borders to be allies to one another. We hope you'll join us. Borders & Bridges: A Queer Conference will take place all day on Saturday May 24th 2008, with a variety of workshops and seminars at the Resource Center of Dallas and will go into the evening with a social mixer and performance.

This conference is a long time coming for the Dallas area. We hope to inspire dialogue and activism that will continue well past the actual conference. Working together to make it happen has been an exciting experience Our Steering Committee is made up of different races, classes, ethnicities, sexualities, sizes, and backgrounds. We are working hard to lay the groundwork for what's going to be a challenging and amazing conference.

While our programming is still in process we do have information about our wonderful Keynote Speaker - Jessica Eve Humphrey. Please visit her page here to read more about this exciting and inspired speaker from Chicago. Also joining us from the Bay Area as a special guest speaker is the amazing performer/activist/producer Kentucky Fried Woman aka Krista Smith. For information about her please visit her page. Borders & Bridges is very proud to bring these two wonderful women to the Dallas area.

We want to be clear that we are about inclusivity and welcome many different identities, genders, bodies, sexualities, etc. We explicitly include bi folks, trans folks, and genderqueer folks. While you do not have to identify as "Queer" to participate, present, or attend, we do ask that folks who identify as straight to honor the fact that we're invested in creating a space that's explicitly Queer/LGBT/SGL focused. Submissions that engage with, examine, or think about the dialogue between all of our varied identities and genders are welcomed!

You might want to know more about who we are and why we're so invested in creating a space for dialogue about the issues that seperate us and where we find common ground. Please check out our bios, read our Mission Statement, if you're interested in volunteering sign up to be a volunteer here.

We have announced our conference schedule.  Please visit us at www.jewelrcd.com for more information.

Welcome! We can't wait to meet you, learn from you, and we'll see you in Dallas, TX May 24th, 2008!

~Christine De La Rosa
Conference Chair

J.E.W.E.L. is a program of the Resource Center of Dallas.