A group of organizations and individuals are coming together to create a stronger network of support for LGBTQIA+ youth and their families in the Roaring Fork Valley. Developed through the Love Notes project, this coalition of community partners will present a valleywide, virtual education event on Monday entitled, “Affirming Voices: Supporting LGBTQIA+ Youth in the Roaring Fork Valley.”
Beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom, the educational program is free and accessible to anyone and everyone, providing viewers with information, insights and resources in a safe space. There will be a live Spanish translation option offered.
Lead artist and organizer of the Love Notes project Brijetta Waller spearheaded “Affirming Voices,” determined to better equip the entire valley with accurate information and greater education surrounding the LGBTQIA+ community.
“This event is for everyone, whether you’re a teacher working with youth on a daily basis and you want to be more informed, or you’re a parent seeking support from other families or just a general community member wanting to understand more,” Waller said. “We really made this for a broad group of people, and anyone can come into this with little to zero prior knowledge.”
Waller, who is an interdisciplinary artist focused on community and participatory art, started the Love Notes project in November as a way to create supportive conversations between the community and LGBTQIA+ youth.
The valleywide art project collected over 900 notes, and 163 of these affirming messages are to be featured in the final mosaic design — which will be printed and displayed in nine area schools from Aspen to New Castle, as well as showcased in all of the libraries throughout the valley and Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village from March 14-25.
In order to share the notes that did not make it into the mosaic, the Love Notes Instagram page will post a message a day, starting Monday and running throughout the rest of 2022, Waller said.
“As an artist, I focus on using love as a bridge and connector for community,” Waller said. “And an amazing outcome of the Love Notes project has been linking the LGBTQIA+ organizations throughout the valley that maybe weren’t connected before.”
The initiative for a wide-reaching educational event originally came out of conversations with local libraries when collaborating on the Love Notes Project, Waller explained. During a collective call with all of the library partners, the artist said she could sense that these institutions felt a need to incorporate an educational element into the project.
“By connecting all of the libraries, it became this really unprecedented event,” Waller said. “And there’s been education events in support of the LGBTQIA+ community, but nothing, I’ve been told, of this scope and size with all of the valley involved.”
Coinciding with the public display launch of the Love Notes mosaics, “Affirming Voices” is presented by the Pitkin County, Basalt, Carbondale, Garfield County and Glenwood Springs libraries, as well as Aspen Family Connections, Roaring Fork Schools Family Resource Center and the Love Notes Project.
Sponsored by Aspen Out, the event will feature speaker Lilly Rivera, a national expert who has over two decades of experience working with LGBTQIA+ youth and their families. As a Latinx lesbian, Rivera has dedicated much of her expertise and practice toward youth belonging to communities of color. She currently serves as the director of family programming at Gender Spectrum, which is a national organization recognized for its work supporting gender diverse youth and their families.
“My focus is ensuring that parents understand transgender kids and LGBTQIA+ kids come out, because this is something that’s really important to their identity and they need to share it with their families,” Rivera said. “It’s not a trend — it’s quite difficult for young people to share this with anyone and it’s important for families to receive this information in a loving way.”
Rivera will be joined by a diverse panel made up of five local leaders and youth members for an open discussion moderated by Steven Moreno, youth program coordinator for Stepping Stones in Carbondale.
“I think the way this event has been developed illustrates exactly what a young person needs,” Rivera said. “And hopefully, folks from different segments of the community can tap into their networks and participate in this conversation. And hopefully, that will initiate momentum around engaging other people who may not have thought this was important.”
Panelist Janet Gordon, who is a local therapist based in Carbondale working with LGBTQIA+ youth, emphasized the importance of the “Affirming Voices” event.
“What we know about supporting LGBTQIA+ youth is that it’s life changing when they have one person in their family or close community who believes in them or who affirms them — it’s a massively positive impact,” Gordon said. “ If this panel helps one person become more affirming to the one LGBTQIA+ person in their life, that is life changing.”
Gordon said she’s noticed that the geography of the Roaring Fork Valley presents challenges in building community and support systems, explaining how this panel is a strong step in “connecting the dots” for a greater network of support.
“What I see is that it’s hard to build community because of the geography of our valley, and I think a lot of LGBTQIA+ folks can feel very isolated,” Gordon said. “We are one valley, but we are a lot of separate little towns. And so it can be challenging to get enough people together in one place to hold support groups or events.”
Living in a dispersed valley with low population levels, explains Gordon, “we just don’t have the numbers” of support systems nor the number of events compared to bigger cities when it comes to collectively uplifting the LGBTQIA+ community.
Regardless, the valley is rich in educational resources, cultural institutions and progressive individuals, and still, “We are not as affirming of a community as we could be,” Gordon said.
“I think that while, you know, it’s wonderful to see the rainbow flags and hear the positive affirmations said in support during Gay Ski Week and the annual pride parade in Carbondale, those are only two events,” she continued. “And there’s a whole bunch of other days and weeks in the year where we are not as affirming and open to the LGBTQIA+ community, outwardly.”
The heroes, Gordon said, are the students and youth members stepping up to build their own community and support networks.
Student panelist Cas, who identifies as nonbinary and is the president of the Gender & Sexuality Alliance Club (GSA) at Roaring Fork Valley High School, said they hope this conversation starts people on a path of consciousness.
Based on their experience, Cas said that there is generally a lack of knowledge when it comes to the queer community.
They brought up an instance during lunch one day in which a group of younger high school students were making the “I sexually identify as an attack helicopter” joke — which is a transphobic internet meme typically used to mock the evolving gender spectrum.
“If you’re not part of the community and saying that, it’s a lot more harmful, and I think that connection hasn’t been made by a lot of people,” Cas said.
Since stepping into their leadership role with GSA, Cas and the club’s vice president, Lucy, have been working to grow the club, hosting weekly meetings and reaching out to other GSAs within the valley to collaborate on bigger community projects — one being a valleywide pride parade in the first week of May.
“For me, a lot of this is about awareness and starting on that path of making people more conscious,” Cas said. “I’m not expecting people to change over the night in terms of pronouns and respect, but when you have that start of, ‘Oh, I should be more aware of this,’ it helps in getting a lot better at recognizing and educating yourself.”
The Affirming Voices virtual event will commence Monday at 6:30 p.m. The panel is free and webinar registration can be accessed at gcpld.org. The Pitkin County Library, Basalt Regional Library and Glenwood Springs Branch Library will be hosting in-person viewings of the livestream.
"love" - Google News
March 11, 2022 at 05:00PM
https://ift.tt/yzVXvu3
Love Notes project expands message with ‘Affirming Voices’ - Aspen Daily News
"love" - Google News
https://ift.tt/IM1ESq5
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Love Notes project expands message with ‘Affirming Voices’ - Aspen Daily News"
Post a Comment