This year’s Beyond Tolerance Conference for Youth is coming up on Friday, May 31st at Vanguard High School (317 E 67th St btwn 1st and 2nd Ave) from 4:30-8:30pm. It is an afternoon conference focused on issues of gender and sexuality. Participants will have an opportunity to attend workshops and meet with people from local organizations to find out more about the resources in our area. REGISTER HERE and please help us spread the word!
Session 1: 5:30 – 6:20
Freak of Nurture: What Doesn’t Kill Us Makes Us Funnier (youth and adults)
This is a participatory workshop that will help students tap into their creative powers and see more of the funny in their daily life difficulties. Participants will learn about the historic precedents for making comedy out of hardship both within the LGBT community and in the greater progressive activism movements, practice simple techniques for increasing their ability to use of laughter as a coping mechanism, and finally respond to writing prompts to help them embolden any art form with humor. Please note that this workshop is suitable for writers and performance artists, but is open to all. Expanding the capacity to laugh in addition to (not necessarily instead of) crying can make everyone’s life a little easier and richer.”
FIERCE Know Your Rights When Interacting with NYPD (youth)
This training is about teaching youth their rights when it comes to police encounters on the street.
New York Legal Assistance Group: Transitioning Your Identity Documents (adults)
People who identify as transgender must navigate a complicated combination of bureaucracy and legal standards in order to change the names and gender markers on their various identity documents. The legal standards for changing the gender marker on a passport, social security card, NY Drivers License and H.R.A. benefit card are all slightly different. Attorneys from New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) will help de-mystify this process. They will also talk about how the City Human Rights Law and various agency policies that mean trans folks should be able to be addressed by their preferred name and referred to with appropriate pronouns regardless of the change on identity documents
Scenarious USA: Love on Film (youth and adults)
Scenarios USA youth will screen two of our short films, written by youth and directed by Hollywood directors.
Man in the Mirror, written by high school junior Treviny Colon (NYC) and directed by Joel Schumaker, tells the story of a high school basketball player whose identity is questioned by his peers. He must make a decision about how far he will go to prove he’s just “”one of the boys.””
Who I Am, written by high school student Whitney Peters (Miami) and directed by Jesse Peretz, is a love story between two young women at the crossroads of race and class. The film addresses stereotypes, racism, and homophobia.
After the screenings, a Scenarios USA youth will host a Q and A and discussion of the themes in the film (societal definitions of gender, living on the down low, racial and sexual identity, etc.).
Hands-On, Pants-On Safer Sex Session (youth and adults)
Just as the title hints, participants in this session will be discussing how to keep themselves and their partners safe when exploring their sexuality. This session is designed to be an honest discussion, encouraging attendees to consider the various ways they can keep themselves both physically and emotionally healthy and safe.
Sharing the Silence (youth and adults)
As a Quaker school, our curriculum is centered around equality and the idea that each human being has something valuable to share. One of our school traditions is to sit together in silence while thinking about a particular question or query. If someone feels inspired to share their thoughts, they stand up and share. Others prefer to simply listen and consider the perspectives that their peers are sharing. It becomes a space for people to simply BE, but in a conscious way that connects us as a community. This tradition creates a space for togetherness, contemplation, and revelation.
Our proposed query is to sit with and respond to the phrase, “There is nothing more dangerous than a closed mind.” Participants will contemplate this query until they feel inspired to share their experiences and insight. This particular query aims to create a safe space for students and educators to come together and share in a meaningful way as we process the topics discussed at the conference, and spend time with our thoughts and the thoughts of others as we all do our small parts to make our world a kinder and more accepting place for LGBTQ people.”
GLSEN-NYC: Using Theater to Unpack Bullying (youth)
Vanguard High School GSA: Gaymes: Community Building (youth)
In these workshops we will play community building games to get to know each other and have fun.
Vanguard High School GSA: Coming Out: Let the Rainbow Shine (youth)
In this workshop, we will share our coming out stories and have an interactive discussion about what it means to come out. We will also invite workshops participants to share their own stories in a safe and accepting environment.”
Kit Yan’s Slam Poetry Writing & Performance (youth and adults)
Award-winning slam poet Kit Yan will lead a 1 hour workshop that is one part writing and one part performance. Participants will create their own original piece of writing and then engage in interactive performance exercises with other participants to work on both performing poetry and listening to performance.
Session 2: 6:30 – 7:20
Kit Yan’s Poetry/Arts Session (youth and adults)
Award-winning slam poet Kit Yan will lead a 1 hour workshop that is one part writing and one part performance. Participants will create their own original piece of writing and then engage in interactive performance exercises with other participants to work on both performing poetry and listening to performance.
Trevor Project: Lifeguard Workshop (youth)
The Lifeguard Workshop is a structured conversation with youth regarding mental health, suicide prevention and healthy ways to cope with stress and anxiety. The workshop informs youth of the various services offered by The Trevor Project and guides them in a conversation of how to recognize the warning signs of suicide and how to get help for themselves or a peer who may be feeling suicidal. The workshop ends by helping the participants identify ways that they will seek to deal with stress and anxiety in a healthy way and how to identify supportive adults in their own environment.
The Forum Project: Using Theater of the Oppressed (adults)
Anti Violence Project: Sexual Violence& Negotiating Consent in LGBTQ Communities (youth and adults)
We’ll discuss sexual violence, rape culture, consent, coercion, safety planning, and supporting a loved one who has experienced sexual violence. We’ll also creatively workshop consent and community support.”
Ali Forney Center: Best Practices Workshop (youth and adults)
This workshop will serve as a guideline on how to best effectively engage with homeless youth during street outreach. Topics covered will include: human tracking, gangs, survival sex, LGBTQ and the “gutter punk” scene.
LGBTQA Wellness Workshop (youth and adults)
Come sit back in a judgment free zone to talk about different ways that we can feel healthy and happy physically, emotionally, mentally, and sexually. This workshop is great for students and teachers who want to talking about feeling good and safe. All genders, sexualities, races, religions, and abilities are welcome! LGBTQA for life! All participants will receive free safer sex materials! Come through!”
Brooklyn Boihood: Breaking down the Boi (youth and adults)
bklyn boihood is a collective that champions healthy masculinity, intersectionality of identities and anti-misogyny for bois* of color all over the world. During this workshop bklyn boihood will challenge and explore issues of self care, ageism, and masculine privilege for queer and trans bois of color.
Vanguard High School GSA: Gay Gallery: Expressions of Freedom (youth and adults)
In this workshop, we will view, react and respond to images that represent the LGBT community and have a lively discussion about the images that make up our lives.
Vanguard High School GSA: Gaymes: Community Building (youth)
In these workshops we will play community building games to get to know each other and have fun.
ALSO, if you haven’t already seen it, you can check out our Beyond Tolerance Guide, an online collection of resources that features many of the organizations that will be with us on the 31st.