Queeribbean Crossings: Confronting Gendered and Racialized Violence

Hosted and organized by the Caribbean Equality Project, in partnership with the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium and Medgar Evers College, Queeribbean Crossings: Confronting Gendered and Racialized Violence is a community-centered conference fostering conversation surrounding queer and trans Caribbean histories and contemporary lived realities of marginalization, struggle, resistance, and liberation. Building upon previous annual educational and cultural programming that Caribbean Equality Project has organized, including L.O.V.E. Living Our Values Equally, Live Pridefully, and In Conversation, this community conference forefronts the labor, voices, and organizing initiatives of LGBTQ+ Caribbean knowledge-making as our primary mode of intervention, and analysis. Thinking through the anti-colonial, feminist, intersectional, and intergenerational lessons of the queer and trans Caribbean provides us with ongoing important tools for building more equitable, safe, and generative Caribbean futures.

The mission of this one-day conference is to generate momentum around the queer and gender liberatory projects in the Caribbean and throughout the Caribbean diasporas by fostering deeper connections across generations, nationalities, ethnicities, and gender and sexual practices and identities, as well as across the academic, artistic, and activist communities that center LGBTQ+ Caribbean people’s experiences in their respective work. Following critical conversations during these initiatives, Queeribbean Crossings will center the intersections of cross-racial solidarity and intimate partner violence on themes of liberation, social justice, immigration, trans equity, decriminalization, mental health, HIV care, and other pertinent issues impacting LGBTQ+ Caribbean communities. Importantly, Queeribbean Crossings coincides with International Human Rights Day, held on December 10th, and 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence. This year's Queeribbean Crossings is built upon three key subject areas:

• Cross-Racial Solidarities: Confronting Anti-Blackness and Anti-Asian Hate Violence
• Queer and Trans Caribbean Healing: Centering Artistic Practice as and for Resilience
• Reproductive Justice, Gendered Violence and Human Rights in the Caribbean Region and Diasporas

Queeribbean Crossings is grounded in multiple expressions of queer and trans Caribbean knowledge-making that include mainstream and dominant forms of communications, as well as art and aesthetic practice, story-telling, and other forms of alternative knowledge production. The conference will include keynote speakers, panel discussions, and cultural performances, and features the NY premiere screening of short film “Gyal” (2022) by Ryan Persadie.

Queeribbean Crossings Conference Schedule:

9:00 AM: Registration and Breakfast Reception

10:00 AM: Opening Remarks

10:30 AM: Keynote Address

10:50 AM: Cultural Performance

Confronting Gendered Violence Panel

11:15 PM – 12:15 PM: Reproductive Justice, Gendered Violence and Human Rights in the Caribbean Region and Diasporas

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: Networking Lunch

Confronting Racialized Violence Panel

1:45 PM - 2:45 PM: Cross-Racial Solidarities: Confronting Anti-Blackness and Anti-Asian Hate Violence

Multicultural Arts Showcase & Closing

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Queer and Trans Caribbean Healing: Centering Artistic Practice as and for Resilience

To learn more about Queeribbean Crossings, visit https://www.caribbeanequalityproject.org/queeribbean-crossings

To learn more about the Caribbean Equality Project & for regular updates on our work, connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at @CaribbeanEqualityProject, and Twitter at @CaribEquality.