Happy Pride

In 2016, my friend Zach Packineau collaborated on hosting Brownch - a Fargo-Moorhead Pride event centering Queer and Transgender People of Color (QTPOC). Brownch was an informal social space specifically for queer and trans people of color’s intentional community building and support. While I’ve moved away from the F-M area, and the event has morphed into different iterations in the following years, I wanted to revisit some writing that Zach and I put out in the 2016 F-M Pride Guide on ideas on how to support QTPOC and provide an updated list for 2023 on ways to highlight and amplify the voices and experiences of queer Black, Indigenous and people of color in your communities. If you didn’t sign up for a lecture by a professor, feel free to jump ahead to the more typical sections of the newsletter for you creative inspiration. However, I invite you to think about how crafting spaces and communities that embrace our diversity is important for creative work And how all of us have a role to play in creating room for a better world where violence, hatred, and oppression no longer prevents these creative offerings from broader audiences.

Every June 12th, I honor those whose lives were taken by gun violence in the Orlando Pulse shooting, where mostly Latinx and Black LGBTQ folks were targeted in an act of hateful and deadly violence. Understanding how to best support queer and transgender people of color as allies is important to our shared liberation struggles. While we appreciate the important relationships we cultivate with allies of color and white allies in our community, QTPOC also hold dear the special moments when our communities can hold space for one another.

Part of the impetus for creating this list of suggestions came from the difficulties Zach and I faced in our predominately white communities where straight POC wanted to participate in our safe(r) space, and where some white queer folks felt excluded from the one event we asked them to not attend. While identitarian projects are under constant negotiation and are complex entry points for political projects, crafting spaces for queer Indigenous, brown and Black folks to come together was meaningful community organizing. To this day Brownch was the only time in my near ten years in the F-M area where I gathered with others who experience the lived realties of the intersections of racism, homophobia, and transphobia. While our experiences may differ based on a number of factors, colorism, gender presentation, gender identity and the specific flavor of white supremacy we endure based on our cultural backgrounds, exploring the possibilities of what sharing space with each other was (and remains) nourishing to my spirit.

At the time, we had a tight word limit to adhere to, I couldn’t have as much context as I wanted when Zach and I first crafted this list - so I’ll add today is that QTPOC is a broad umbrella term. That means we all have our own work to do to support each other as allies to one another from different cultural backgrounds. In other words, while we crafted this for mostly white folks in our predominately white communities in 2016, I recognize the work I also carry in being an ally to other QTPOC who come from different cultures than I do. As a mixed-race Chicanx femme, I experience racism differently than my Black queer femme neighbors for instance, and I have a duty to support their ability to be their fullest self in our communities as much as I am trying to etch my space here too. Allyship in this sense is for all of us to navigate regardless of our racial identifiers. Lastly, the original list included seven ideas for consideration and I’ve included one more here in 2023 related to accessibility in light of our ongoing COVID-19 pandemic we continue to navigate. If you’re open to supporting QTPOC in your community here are seven eight ways you might best enact your important allyship this Pride Month and ongoing! 

Seven Eight Ways to Support QTPOC (Revised 2023**)

1. Support our need to be with one another and don’t take it personally when we seek space that does not include you if you do not identify as QTPOC.
2. Respect our identities as complex by not making assumptions about our racial identities. Asking about our backgrounds with a simple “How do you identify?” is acceptable as long as you’re also sharing where you’re coming from. Please avoid the urge to demand receipts from us, “Where are you from?” expects us to prove our identities in demeaning ways.
3. Honor our cultures by challenging cultural appropriation. For instance, do not dress up as Indigenous/Native American/American Indian or other people of color for Halloween. Furthermore, profiting off our cultures by disconnecting them from their origins to be trendy anytime of the year is never good allyship.
4. Reach out to QTPOC when acts of racism, sexism and/or homophobia occur. Check in with your friends/family to see if they are doing okay, ask how you can best support them in light of having to navigate the intersections of oppression. This can be especially important for supporting QTPOC residing in mostly white communities.
5. Include us in the process before details/vision is set. For example, if you are planning an event and want QTPOC participation/attendance avoid setting the time/date/program for the event without checking in with the community most impacted. These organizing efforts may unintentionally re-center dominant perspectives instead of fostering inclusion. Likewise, avoid tokenizing our participation (are you including us for good optics or are we truly valued from the inception?) to ensure programming considers our needs.
6. Center our experiences and knowledges by reading, re-tweeting, linking to, promoting, and/or amplifying our voices and perspectives whenever you can. While there is a definite need for white folks to dismantle white supremacy through sharing their perspectives and knowledge, QTPOC are the experts on our lives. Sharing our expertise with your networks is one way you can challenge white supremacy.
7. Remember to think of ally as a verb, not a noun. Good allies make mistakes, learn from them, and never see their journey as over. Allyship is not about earning your ally sticker, but instead a constant process of learning and doing better when you may be called in by your QTPOC friends. And lastly,
8. Regard accessibility needs proactively by implementing universal design protocols for gatherings - in our current pandemic era this might look like safer practices for large group gatherings (like but not limited to: pre-testing for COVID-19, encouraging mask wearing, and/or contract tracing). Other considerations like ensuring meeting spaces are physically accessible for those using wheelchairs or other mobility devices, investing in translation or interpretation services, or limiting scents are useful baseline steps to ensure your event is as accessible as possible for disabled QTPOC. Remember, accessibility interventions improves everyone’s experience.

To my QTPOC fam, Happy Pride. To my white queer and trans friends, Happy Pride. To the rest of y’all who don’t fall into this fam, I'm sending love your way too. It is my deepest hope that love is coming back to your queer and trans friends and family in words and actions during this moment in time and onward. Act Up is not simply a historical movement, it’s a mandate for us all in our continued fight against homophobia and transphobia. Deep, deep love, and rainbows, and colorful, bright, shining beacons of possibility to all who push against normative boundaries. I’m with you, are you with me?

What I’m Seeing 

Attention Series, by Pao Hua Her at Nemeth Art Center, Park Rapids, MN through June 

I recently journeyed to Hubbard County where upstairs in the old, historic courthouse one can find the Nemeth Art Center. Up in their main gallery is a set of photographs by Pao Hua Her called Attention Series on view through June 25th, 2023. Each of the nine photographs displayed are archival pigment prints measuring 50 x 40 inches and are adorned with trim, gelded frames. Each in a horizontal orientation, the portraits all named Hmong Veteran, but feature different individuals, were captured in 2012. Given the Nemeth Art Center’s mission to exhibit “contemporary art from emerging and recognized artists…through thoughtful curatorial programming” Her’s photography fits the bill. As a recently named Guggenheim fellow, an artist with work in the most recent Whitney Biennial, and having also just happened upon her work at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, this MCAD and Yale MFA Minnesota artist is going places. The works you can see for one more week highlight Her’s subject matter of choice - a deep investigation of the Hmong experience in the US. Here, she chooses Veterans posed against velvety backdrops, playing with the “tropes of portraiture” drawn from her research at the National Portrait Gallery. In a video profile of the series produced by MIA Films Pao discusses how these photographs were inspired by her coming upon Hmong Veterans dressed in US military uniforms who had gathered at her great uncle’s funeral. When she asked them what branch of the military they served in they responded that they were part of the guerilla force supporting the US during the Vietnam War, and consequently were not actually recognized as veterans by the US Military. Their uniforms are informed by their personal research and learning and attempts to make legible their service to the US military. Of course as a painter I immediately saw the three quarter pose of many of these Veterans against the lush, rippled fabric backgrounds as a nod to painterly portraits of important men - whether they be military figures of the past of this nation or others - or of aristocracy. That she imbues dignity for those who the US military continues to not recognize as veterans creates opportunity for discussion through her artwork. The fact that one can see this work in Park Rapids, MN is an important recognition to the contributions Hmong folks have made to our state, and I’m grateful I had the chance to see this series up at the Nemeth through June 25th. I encourage you to check it out and see what you think too. 

Artist Offerings

• I love tributes to amazing scholar/artists like Amalia Mesa-Bains, AND may we continue to work so that no one has to ask, “What would **insert Chicana artist name here** have achieved, had she had the financial and institutional support to realize her most ambitious ideas” ever again
• You had me at “like an Indigenous-futurist version of Warhol’s Factory”
• A beautiful essay from one of my former students on his relationship to his mom after coming out - relatable content during and after Pride month
• Willa Cather is in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall and as many know the inspiration for the name of our goat Willa, curious how there’s no mention that Cather chose to spend her life with her editor Edith (ROMANTICALLY) but we don’t miss a beat to let folks know 
• Looking to learn a bit more about the queer visual artists in the Smithsonian collections, ask and ye shall receive 
• And on those pesky (dangerous) anti-drag and other anti-LGBTQIA measures popping up, know your history that all have regional flair and flavor like this story highlighting Kansas City’s long drag history hint- they weren't successful then, and won't be now either!

Creative Ritual

Halfway through June already?! Summer rages on, though I’m noting the weird fluctuations in temperatures we had July in May and now we’re having April temps in June, I’ve been logging a lot of hours an efforts in staining our deck surfaces which we hadn’t done since installing them for hermanita’s wedding a couple of fall equinoxes ago. It has been body breaking yet satisfying work and the deep purplish red we chose looks great against our light blue house exterior and the lush green of the mixed-grass prairie surrounding the house. Painters gonna paint I suppose. Which is good because the stain on the deck surfaces is the only paint like substance I’ve been moving lately. I’ve been deep in writing projects, like doing a studio visit with an artist who I hope to do good justice for in this next issue of the newsletter and working on some other freelance writing gigs that have been rather inspiring. I did officially receive a second rejection for a painting I’ve applied to have included in two different group exhibitions. Oh well, it will exhibit sometime. I received word that my Roots series will be exhibiting in St. Paul later this summer turns out my concerns on not hearing wasn’t a rejection after all. Don’t count the chickens (or rejections) before they’re hatched! More details on that to come. When I know more, I will let you know! I had the chance to help staff Springboard for the Arts' Rural Summit last week which was enriching (and the result of this missive arriving late). Instead of beating myself up for not hitting this on the 15th I'm going to pat myself on the back for not pushing myself beyond my breaking point. Lastly, this event in Matfield Green, KS featuring yours truly has finally been firmly scheduled, meet me at the bunkhouse on September 9th!

Questions to ponder

How are you celebrating Pride this year?
How are you supporting QTPOC in your communities? 
What does pushing against normative boundaries look like for you?
What lessons from past Pride celebrations are you carrying with you this year? 

Thanks for journeying with me. I hope, as always, that you take what you need and leave the rest for someone else, or for another time. 

-KCF

The Art of KCF Newsletter is a fiscal year 2023 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

PS: Want to materially support a QTPOC member of your community? Consider joining the eight other amazing folks supporting this creative life I lead through becoming a sustaining member, providing a one-time donation, or purchasing artwork by yours truly online or through Calendula Gallery to keep this work coming your way.