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CGS' Virtual Community Series

Get information on the CGS Virtual Community Series in collaboration with the Digital Gym and cosponsored by the Democracy Lab, the Black Studies Project and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion!

2021-2022

Critical Gender Studies, the Democracy Lab, the Digital Gym, and the Black Studies Project present

"Communicating Care:  Media Practice, Mutual Aid and Community Building"

Monday, November 15th - Podcast Platforms & Mutual Aid

Public Talk 5-6:15pm (PST) 

A roundtable discussion with podcast hosts and producers Tuck Woodstock ( Gender Reveal) , Diamond Stylz (Marsha’s Plate), and Xay Dé Fisher (Black to the Future). This event is focused on how their digital platforms produce global transgender communities and were essential hubs of resource redistribution during the height of the pandemic and continue to be as a response to the violence of capitalism. This conversation is moderated by civil rights and labor attorney Bryanna Jenkins (Girl Down & Box No. 512). Registration not required.

Masterclasses from 3-4pm (PST)

UCSD undergraduate and graduate students are invited to attend a masterclass of their choosing on podcast production, media platform management and community engagement with either Diamond Stylz or Tuck Woodstock. Spaces are limited so register soon!

Speaker Info:

Tuck Woodstock is a journalist, audio producer, and equity educator based in Portland, Oregon. A co-founder of Sylveon Consulting and host of the award-winning Gender Reveal podcast , Tuck has been featured as a gender educator by the New York Times, NPR, and the Washington Post, and at universities such as NYU, Northwestern, Reed College, and the New School. Twitter and IG: @gendereveal 

Diamond Stylz is a black, trans, Millennial activist; Executive Director of Black Trans Women Inc , a national non-profit that is led by Black trans women focused on social advocacy, positive visibility and building strong leadership among Black trans advocates, activists, and our allies; and producer and creator of Marsha’s Plate podcast . It’s a podcast that knows that everybody can’t come to the cookout. It is hosted by three Black trans people exploring pop culture current events and our problematic nemesis from a black trans feminist lens. @diamondstylz 

Xay Dé Fisher is the cohost of the Black to the Future Podcast with their friend Mikey, two social justice warriors dedicated to dismantling systems of oppression through a black, queer, feminist lens! They discuss a variety of topics ranging from politics to the latest bop topping the charts along with interviews with community members, family, and professionals in various fields of work and study. On "Black To The Future" education, entertainment, and empowerment are the philosophy! Twitter @blk_2thefuture

Bryanna Jenkins is the creator/host of Girl Down Podcast and the former co-host of Box No. 512 Podcast : Grown Black Trans Women Talk. A Baltimore native that currently resides in the Washington, D.C. area. Bryanna uses the podcasting medium to address a range of topics from a Black, fat, queer, trans-feminine perspective. Bryanna is also a licensed labor and employment attorney who represents the legal rights of workers. IG: @bryannajesq

This event is in collaboration with the Digital Gym and cosponsored by the Democracy Lab, and the Black Studies Project.

This program is supported in part by a co-sponsorship from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.  Any views or opinions expressed in this program are solely those of the speaker(s) and/or organizer(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Office of the Vice Chancellor.


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Thursday, March 31, 2022 -  Queer Indigenous Feminism and Indigenous Movements in Media

Please join us Thursday, March 31st from 5-6:15pm (PST) for a live taping of the Red Power Hour Podcast where Indigenous members of The Red Nation gather round the laptop to chat about the latest from Indian Country with merciless Indian humor. Join hosts Melanie Yazzie and Elena Ortiz in conversation with Tommy Pico and Chad Charlie, both writers for the hit FX series Reservation Dogs , on Indigenous representation in Hollywood, what it means to participate in an Indigenous lead and produced commercial television show and many other topics around the production of Native media. 

Undergrads and Grad students! Please join us Thursday March 31st from 3-4pm (PST) for a special one hour workshop on media production and community hosted by The Red Nation members Jennifer Marley and Uahikea Maile. This workshop will be conducted in a Zoom room in order to provide maximum participation and direct conversation with our workshop hosts. Seating is limited so please  sign up for a spot here (you must be logged into your UCSD email). You will receive the Zoom link upon registration. 

Honored Participants:

Melanie Yazzie is Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota (starting in the fall of 2022) and coauthor of Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation and The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save the Earth, both of which came out in 2021. She co-hosts and produces the podcast Red Power Hour with Elena Ortiz and serves as lead editor for the open access journal Decolonization. She organizes with The Red Nation, a grassroots Native-run organization committed to the liberation of Indigenous people from colonialism and capitalism.

Elena Ortiz is a member of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, currently residing in O’ga Poh’geh, otherwise known as occupied Santa Fe. She has an MA degree from the University of New Mexico. Elena was a founding board member of the Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies at UNM and currently serves on board of the Witter Banner Foundation for Poetry. She is also on the board of Red Media, an indigenous media project by and for Native people. She is currently the Area Director for the southwest region of Road Scholar.

Tommy “Teebs” Pico is a poet, podcaster, and tv writer. He is author of the books IRL, Nature Poem, Junk, Feed, and myriad keen tweets including “sittin on the cock of the gay.” Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now splits his time between Los Angeles and Brooklyn. He co-curates the reading series Poets with Attitude, co-hosts the podcast Food 4 Thot and Scream, Queen! is poetry editor at Catapult Magazine, writes on the TV shows Reservation Dogs and Resident Alien, and is a contributing editor at Literary Hub.

Chad Charlie is an Afro-Indigenous filmmaker from Ahousaht First Nation. Beginning his career in 2008 as a stand-up comedian and spoken word artist, he now extends the same passion for poetry and humor in his writing for TV and film. Chad has directed several short films. The most recent of which, Firecracker Bullets, will be set for 2022 festival season.

Jennifer Marley is Tewa, from the Pueblo of San Ildefonso, she has been a member of The Red Nation since 2015. In 2019 completed a B.A. with a double major in Native American Studies and American studies from the University of New Mexico, where she served as Kiva club president from 2018-2019. Jennifer is currently a Ph.D. student in the American Studies department at the University of New Mexico. Jennifer’s research interests include Queer Indigenous Studies, Indigenous feminisms, Third world feminisms, Indigenous Political Movements, Marxism, internationalism, Environmental Studies, Critical Indigenous studies, and settler colonialism.

Dr. David Uahikeaikaleiʻohu Maile is a Kanaka Maoli scholar, activist, and practitioner from Maunawili, Oʻahu. He is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, St. George. He’s also an Affiliate Faculty in the Centre for Indigenous Studies and Centre for the Study of the United States. Maile’s research interests include: history, law, and activism on Hawaiian sovereignty; Indigenous critical theory; settler colonialism; political economy; feminist and queer theories; and decolonization. His book manuscript, Nā Makana Ea: Settler Colonial Capitalism and the Gifts of  Sovereignty in Hawaiʻi, examines the historical development and contemporary formation of settler colonial capitalism in Hawai‘i and gifts of sovereignty that seek to overturn it by issuing responsibilities for balancing relationships with ‘āina, the land and that who feeds.

These programs are supported in part by a co-sponsorship from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.  Any views or opinions expressed in these programs are solely those of the speaker(s) and/or organizer(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Office of the Vice Chancellor.


Friday, April 22, 2022 - An Evening with McKenzie Wark in Conversation with Nicoletta Vangelisti

Register at  bit.ly/warkucsd

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What: McKenzie and Nicoletta chat about Wark’s recent books  Reverse CowgirlPhilosophy for Spiders and forthcoming  Raving; transgender cultural production; being trans women in the academy; and any questions the audience might have for us. 
 
When: Friday April 22, 2022  
            5:00 - 6:15pm (PST)

Where:  Zoom Webinar - Open to the Public
             Please register at:  bit.ly/warkucsd
 

McKenzie Wark is a Professor of Media and Culture at Eugene Lang College at The New School and author of several books, including  Sensoria: Thinkers for the Twenty-First CenturyReverse CowgirlCapital is Dead: Is This Something Worse?, and  Philosophy for Spiders: On the Low Theory of Kathy Acker. Her correspondence with Kathy Acker was published as  I’m Very Into You.

Nicoletta Vangelisti  is a media and film producer and graduate student in Communication and Critical Gender Studies at the University of California San Diego. She produces grant funded collaborative art practices and researches philanthropic funded cultural production. Her current public event series is focused on the role of media practice in community, caring and resistance. 

This program is supported in part by a co-sponsorship from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.  Any views or opinions expressed in this program are solely those of the speaker(s) and/or organizer(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Office of the Vice Chancellor.


June 2022 - Trans* Practice: Producing Communities of Care for Survivability

Roundtable with transgender and gender nonconforming filmmakers on the importance of film practice for producing trans culture and communities for survivabiltity.

This event is in collaboration with the Digital Gym and cosponsored by the Democracy Lab, and the Black Studies Project.

This program is supported in part by a co-sponsorship from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.  Any views or opinions expressed in this program are solely those of the speaker(s) and/or organizer(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Office of the Vice Chancellor.

2020-2021

The UCSD CGS Program proudly presents its Virtual Community Series in collaboration with the Digital Gym

 “Materializing Abolition: Queer & Feminist Strategies”

Virtually on a monthly basis during the 2020-2021 academic year. Save the dates for the events below!

November 19, 2020, 2pm, Why Abolition?: Scripting Stories for Collective ChangeA Conversation with Marlon Peterson & Donna Hylton

December 10, 2020, 6pm, California Abolition Groundwork with Curtis Howard of All of Us or None & Romarilyn Ralston of CA Coalition for Women Prisoners

January 21, 2021, 6pm, Prison as Gendering Technology; Queer as Abolitionist Tactic with Prof. Eric Stanley and Krys Shelley. Live Closed Captioning will be available.

February 11, 2021, 5pm, Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization & Prison Abolition with Prof. Liat Ben-Moshe. Live Closed Captioning will be available.

March 10, 2021, 3pm, Unknotting Transformative Justice: Race, Dis/Ability, and Care Work in collaboration with the Ethnic Studies Department. ASL interpretation and Live Closed Captioning will be available.

April 22, 2021, 6pm, #MeTooBehindBars: Sexual Violence & the Prison Industrial Complex with Rojas from the Young Women's Freedom Center and Prof. Alisa Bierria of UC Riverside. Live Closed Captioning will be available.

2019-2020

The UCSD CGS Program proudly presents its Community Series at the Digital Gym

Tuesdays or Thursdays on a monthly basis from 7-9pm at the Digital Gym in North Park.

January 23, 2020, Stitching Palestine: Film & Tatreez Workshop in collaboration with the Majdal Center

Sustainability, Storytelling and Survival. Come learn how textiles and embroidery serve as methods of storytelling and survival for the Palestinian community. We will open with Carol Mansour's film "Stitching Tatreez." The film will be followed by a tatreez workshop led by Nadia Hassoun, an activist working with the local Palestinian community.

February 13, 2020, In the Kitchen: Feeding Our Communities

Join us as we break bread and share stories about the food we prepare and the communities we feed. Our friends from Mama's Kitchen, City Height' Farmer's Market and the United Women of East Africa share their relationship with recipes, cooking and food accessiblity.

March 10, 2020, UNSETTLED: A Film Screening

UNSETTLED reveals the untold stories of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers who have fled intense persecution from their home countries and who are resettling in the United States. As new leadership in America continues to demonize immigrants and drastically restrict the flow of refugees and asylum seekers into the U.S., UNSETTLED follows the stories of Subhi, a gay Syrian refugee, Cheyenne and Mari, a lesbian couple from Angola, and Junior, a gender non-conforming gay man from the Congo.
 
UNSETTLED takes place largely in the San Francisco Bay Area, historically a beacon for dislocated LGBT people in the U.S. The film asks whether Northern California is even practical as a place to resettle LGBT refugees, especially given the enormous gentrification, increased costs of living, and scarcity of housing in recent years.

2018-2019

The UCSD CGS Program proudly presents its Community Series at the Digital Gym

Tuesdays or Thursdays on a monthly basis from 7-9pm at the Digital Gym in North Park.

March 5th, 2019, SAY HER NAME: Black Women & Women of Color Organizing Against Violence Featuring Andrea Ritchie

Andrea Ritchie is a Black lesbian immigrant and police misconduct attorney and organizer who has engaged in extensive research, writing, and advocacy around criminalization of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color over the past two decades. She recently published Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color now available from Beacon Press.

April 25, 2019, Who IS Madwoman, Etc.?

Please join the Editors of the Press and special guest writers for this exciting event and support the arts in San Diego! Reading is free.

May 16, 2019, Desire and Resistance: Unearthing Trans Legacies

In this 90-minute short film program, trans artists address the erasure of rich legacies of trans activism and art by creating artworks that revisit and re-imagine these stories. Mining existing archives and creating new ones, Unearthing Trans Legacies proposes alternative modes of retrieving and disseminating a trans past through an erotic gaze and experiments in form and narrative storytelling. Defiantly looking towards a future of pleasure, sincerity, and beauty; these works place trans sexual expression and resistance in conversation with a non-linear idea of history, that is both real and fabricated, to address how limited evidence of a past shapes our understandings of the present. This event is sponsored by the LGBT Resource Center, Visual Arts Department, Marshall College, and the Film Studies Program.

June 6, 2019, Reproductive Justice Town Hall

In recent weeks, legislative initiatives across the US have escalated ongoing efforts to limit access to reproductive health care and criminalize the exercise of reproductive autonomy. These draconian measures affect everyone, but they have a disproportionate impact on folx who are poor, immigrants, womxn of color, and trans or GNC. In response, the Critical Gender Studies Program is hosting a Town Hall on Reproductive Rights. Please join reproductive justice activists and scholars of reproductive politics from UCSD and SDSU to share thoughts, strategies, and information at this crucial moment.

2017-2018

The UCSD CGS Program proudly presents its Community Series at the Digital Gym

Wednesdays on a monthly basis from 7-9pm at the Digital Gym in North Park.

November 29, 2017, Living Like Lorde

Join us for a free community film screening of "A Litany for Survival."

February 14, 2018, #TrustBlackWomen: A Celebration of Women's Joy and Healing

In September 2017 women from all around the nation gathered in D.C for the first March For Black Women, to denounce the state violence, sexualized violences, murders and brutalization facing all Black women and additionally the disappearances of our girls from their homes and schools. This March, San Diego will have its first March for Black Women, hosted by Black Lives Matter San Diego. As a precursor to this upcoming event, CGS and Black Lives Matter San Diego invites you to an evening full of community, fun, and reflection as we collectively envision a world in which everyone trusts Black women. Since it will also be Valentine’s Day the latter half of the event will include fun interactive stations where we’ll get to show each other and ourselves some much needed love. This event centers the experiences of self-identified Black women, but is open to everyone.

March 7th, 2018, In Defense of ourselves: A Celebration of Trans Women Organizing

Trans women around the world are fighting urgent and visible battles to secure their rights. In the process, these activists have built a global movement that continues to redefine what liberation must look like. In honor of International Women's Month we will be bringing together trans activists from southern California to discuss trans women activism within this particular place and time.

April 25th, 2018, Education for Liberation: Queer Feminist POC Pedagogies

Join us and our panel of scholars and community educators to talk about their provocative approaches to creating spaces that uplift, inspire, and challenge systems of power both inside and outside of the classroom. This event is for any person who believes that education has the power to transform our world.

2016-2017

The UCSD CGS Program proudly presents its Community Series at the Digital Gym

Wednesdays on a monthly basis from 7-9pm at the Digital Gym in North Park.

November 30, 2016, An Urgent Post-Election Community Dialogue

The Intersectional, Feminist, Queer, Black, Migrant, Undocumented, Muslim, Indigenous Struggle for a Sustainable Future. We will facilitate a dialogue to dig through the most crutcial questions about where to go next with San Diego activists and organizers of color.

February 8th, 2017, Resistance to Anti-Black Racism, Police Violence and Mass Incarceration, Locally and Globally

These issues are of obvious national relevance, but they have particular relevance for San Diego, a site of various local, state and immigration detention facilities, has a recent history of police shootings of unarmed Black and immigrant men and remains characterized by stark economic inequality. While the local context is key to us, it is equally important to recognize that these issues are not U.S. specific. The discussion will address issues such as the intersections between economic and state violence, antiblack racism among political allies, and transmisogyny in Black and queer activism. This event is cosponsored by UCSD's African American Studies Program and the Black Studies Project.

March 8th, 2017, Womxn of Color Art & Activism: Intersectional Frameworks for a Just World

This panel will feature talented womxn of color artists, activists, and educators in San Diego. We invite panelists and participants to consider how intersectional womxn of color artivism can have a profound impact in various activist and organizing spaces.

April 12th, 2017, A Film Screening & Discussion of American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs

May 31st, 2017, Intersectional Resistance in the 9 to 5 Life: CGS Alumnx Speak Out!

This panel will feature UCSD CGS alumnx as the speak on what it means to carry their intersectional justice frameworks into their various fields of work: the non-profit, corporate, education, counseling and other settings. This event is cosponsored by SPACES and UC San Diego Alumni.

2015-2016

The UCSD CGS Program proudly presents its Community Series at the Digital Gym

Wednesdays on a monthly basis from 7-9pm at the Digital Gym in North Park.

November 20, 2015, From Water Wars to Alternative Futures, An Afrofuturistic Perspective

Featuring scenes from Wanuri Kahiu's Pumzi and Mick Jenkins' Jazz. Followed by a panel discussion with Peggy Pieche, Mohamed Abumaye and Osinachi Ajoku.

March 9, 2016, Mujer Mariposa: An Artistic Night in Honor of Migrant Mothers

Artist Spotlight on Diana Cervera. Screening and premier of Mujer Mariposa: a multimedia project honoring migrant and refugee women, empowering women of color through spoken word and acoustic music.

April 20, 2016, Transnational & Transcommunity Activism: San Diego in Joint-Struggle

A panel on transnational and transcommunity activism with Haneen Maikey and local San Diego grassroots activists and organizers. Haneen is a Palestinian queer community organizer, co-founder and the executive director of the national Palestinian LGBTQ organization "alQaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society."

May 18, 2016, Queer Love in Iran and Migrant Europe

Film screening of "Unveiled" and discussion with filmmaker Angelina Maccarone

June 8, 2016, July QTPOC Organizing: Community & Committees

Part I. Celebrate the end of this academic year's CGS Community Series at the DG with community members, organizers and activists. Mix and mingle with food and refreshments!

Part II. There is a coalition of QTPOC individuals who are autonomously organizing a series of progressive, racial, and fun QTPOC-centered events for July 2016. Come with yourself, your group, your family, and join/form a committee!