The Queer People of Color Conference (QPOCC) took place on CSUN campus beginning on the weekend of March 30 with a variety of speakers and workshops for everyone all over the world to see.
QPOCC gives people the opportunity to understand the diversity of being a person of color in the queer community. They help people focus on issues of injustice and oppressions which people face within communities.
Our theme is “four-way,” said Frankie Palacios, president, and the one who submitted the bid to bring QPOCC to CSUN. “We just want to make sure we are taking care of our whole bodies.”
“Four-way” is the intersection that people of color face which are; race, class, gender and sex (and sexuality) Palacios said. It is an intersection that all queer people of color face and each person has their own intersection to face.
According to Palacios this is the first international queer color of people conference in seven years with people coming from as far away as Australia and Canada with over 20 campuses and over 500 people attending.
One highlight of the events that Palacios thinks was a big hit was the keynote speaker Adelina Anthony. Anthony said the theme for QPOCC is something she feels very comfortable speaking about.
“I hope that people walk away with a real sense of awareness,” Anthony said. “I wouldn’t give a keynote speech unless I knew there was a community there to receive it.”
Anthony went on to say that she hopes what she has to say provokes dialogues long after she has left the campus amongst smaller groups and friends and hopes she helps people that have maybe been isolated before.
QPOCC had several workshops for people to attend through Saturday and Sunday usually starting with breakfast each day.
Laurie Bui, a student at Cal State Fullerton, attended a workshop she thought would be very interesting called The Open Hearts Project. This workshop focused on ways in which queer/trans people of color are relating to polyamory/open relationships.
“The main thing I took away from it was talking to other people about their experiences,” Bui said.
Bui wants to attend as many of the workshops that QPOCC has to offer.
Another workshop available was Super Queeroes, which asks the question “What is queer youth media?” This one focused on examining the power of sharing people’s stories and using the resources to create media.
Some students found the Police Misconduct workshop to be very informative. This workshop showed participants what their legal rights are when interacting with law enforcement, as well as tips on effective communication and legal resources.
There was a health and wellness area as well that offered a place to hang out and relax and get a massage.
QPOCC has been around since 2006 and has been hosted at several different colleges each with their own theme.
Palacios hopes all students learn something from any one of the workshops or from just talking to other people at QPOCC.
“I hope students take away that collectively we can move together and create change,” Palacios said. “Collectively if we learn how to work with one another we are able to be one voice and stand together in spite of our differences.”
