I apologize for posting this reflection so late, the last few days have been hectic on top of the intensity of my trip to the Power of One Conference.
In brief words, I set up over the last week to start working at the Trans and Queer Center as a volunteer/intern which I began on Monday. I have been reading out of a collection of Queer monologues as a kind of research and training by example for the fictional writing I want to be doing.
The last week was balanced very heavily in terms of hours toward the Power of One trip, as there were hours spent planning, as well as traveling, being in the community, and going to the events. The three day conference began Thursday evening with a short film viewing. Friday was a full day of sessions, workshops, and speakers, as was Saturday.
I learned a lot from going to the conference, both in terms of the things discussed in sessions, and in terms of what to keep in mind when planning and running such an event.
Some of the sessions I attended were on lobbying for changes at the state or local level, a discussion o the history of queer comics, a discussion of intersectionality, a presentation on promoting thought about mental health, and a workshop on writing and comedy.
It was awesome to see all the different topics that came to the conference as being part of LGBTQIA+ experience, or related to the experience or how to better include the community. It was a little frustrating that some of the sessions weren’t as thought out or prepared or as well as I would have hoped, but there were still useful things to be learned.
Some of the biggest takeaways from the events were around how to be more accessible, and more prepared for the community the event seeks to serve. I don’t want to speak specifically about what happened at the conference to prompt these teachable moments, mainly because I heard most of the information second hand. And because I also want to take a moment to note how my identity and my privilege made my conference experience very different than many of the other participants. I was not as personally or closing affected by the issues of the conference. The accessibility problems that I noted were minor compared to the conversations being had by other students. The issues that were brought up during certain events do not immediately affect me, so the conference didn’t feel as unsafe for me as I know it did to my classmates.
Some accessibility and inclusion lessons learned, in no particular order, and each is not always applicable to smaller events, but all to conferences, I believe. Have a calm space for people to unwind and decompress already set up, rather than having to react to participants needing one. It is the conference’s responsibility to make sure accommodations such as interpreters, physical access, etcetera, are in place, not individual presenters. Additionally, these accommodations must be what individuals actually need, not a random accommodation that does not meet the need of the individual. When having affinity groups, or identity caucuses, be incredibly intentional about the groups chosen or placed together to be represented. Facilitators can be helpful, but they should belong to that affinity group themselves. Mayonnaise does not belong in a vegan meal. Neither do regular chocolate chip cookies. Further, food labels should include all ingredients with as great of detail as possible. Labeling a dish “roasted seasonal vegetables” is not sufficient by any means.
Training in de-escalation of tense situations always seems like a really good idea, no matter what your role in an event is.
One of the very interesting and cool things to see happen at the conference was to see students step up into positions of leadership and authority when they felt that things needed said and done that weren’t being taken care of. It shouldn’t be a role that is required of participants in such a conference certainly, and it shouldn’t be necessary to take on that kind of role. But it’s wonderful to be around people who are strong and intelligent and who will stand up for their ideas. There is always something to be learned from such people, and I’m very glad I was on a trip with several of them.
When we all got back from the conference, there was definitely some intentional downtime needed, which is also an interesting takeaway. In my mind, the way I’ve used intentional downtime over the conference and over the few days of decompression after the conference is both reflective, and creating a space for your mind to think about things that aren’t the intensely and powerful things that are happening around your and with yourself. Both reflection and purposefully taking breaks from thinking about certain things are very useful in different circumstances and situations.
I’m sure I will come back to the ideas and experiences I’ve had through the Power of One conference trip in my future weekly reflections, and I think for this last week these notes should be sufficient to draw on for my writing, my research, and my practical application.