I spend a lot of my fall, winter and spring on tour to colleges and youth conferences around the US. Mostly, I’ve been talking about sex and gender and sex and gender and sex and gender, but now I get to talk about how exploring yer sex and gender can make life more worth living.
I’m touring with a new workshop now. I haven’t settled on a title for it yet but so far it’s called “An Outlaw’s Guide to Survival” -- or something like that. The very first place I tried it out was in Charlotte, North Carolina at a Southern regional conference of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth and their allies. The conference crossed age, race, class and spiritual beliefs and I learned something from everyone I met there. Amazing stuff. If you’ve got a conference like that coming up, and you’d like me to attend, let me know and let’s see what we can work out.
After the Time Out Youth conference, I went to dinner with a bunch of some of the organizers and volunteers -- this is their picture outside the restaurant, where I ate barbecue and fried pickles. I highly recommend the sponsoring organization, Time Out Youth to any youth in the area who’s looking for a safe space to explore their desires. If you see her or speak with her, give my very best to the spitfire coordinator there, Nicole Hoagland.
Another great queer-and-questioning youth support group I visited recently is Generation Q in Northampton, MA, serving parts of Western Massachusetts. Gen Q recently re-opened its doors after having been closed for quite some time. You can find out more about Gen Q by emailing the gallant and handsome coordinator, Alexander Pangborn. And while you’re in Northampton, be sure to visit and support Pride’n’Joy bookstore.
Do you have a sex positive and gender pro-active youth support group in your area? My publisher, Seven Stories Press, wants to give you “substantial discounts” on bulk orders of my book, Hello, Cruel World. You can pass the discount on to group members, or sell books to raise money, or collect donations to get copies into local schools or public libraries. Please email the perfectly lovely people at Seven Stories Press and let ‘em know you’re out there and kickin’, and they’ll be so glad to get in touch with you.
That’s it for today’s entry. It’s my very first, and I’ll do my best to keep adding posts and features to this website. If you like the idea of me starting to blog, you can thank and support Susie Bright for getting me off my butt to actually write this thing. Okay then, kiss kiss until next time.
Kate
Monday, August 14, 2006
