¡Presente! Conference

This is an archive of workshops presented at the 3rd ¡Presente! Conference. Click here to read the workshop schedule.

Anti-Blackness: It’s Not Only White People & Let’s Stop Pretending There’s Anything Micro About Micro-Aggressions

Shawn Vee [she/her]

The brilliant Dr. Keith Harris once said, “There is nothing ‘micro’ about ‘micro-aggressions’. So call them what they are.” Anti-Blackness: It’s Not Only White People & Let’s Stop Pretending There’s Anything Micro About Micro-Aggressions is a frank interactive workshop that unpacks the misconception that *only* white people can be anti-Black. And only white people can commit micro-aggressions. During the course of the workshop, we will examine the ways that Black and non-Black POC are complicit in perpetuating anti-Blackness, and subconsciously holding whiteness as a standard. We will dare participants to call “micro-aggressions” what they are—acts of symbolic violence. And explore how the passive language we use dismisses intentionality, and the significant damage “micro-aggressions” inflict.

Challenging Transphobia in Feminist Organizing

Abeni Jones [she/her]

As has become especially clear with the recent visibility of the "Women's Marches," for many feminists, trans women are not women and should be excluded (often violently) from feminist/women's/womxn's movement. How can cis allies to trans women push back against this exclusion, especially when they often accidentally sanction this exclusion in their own understandings of sex and gender? This workshop will challenge conventional understandings of sex and gender and provide specific strategies and resources to work toward building a trans-inclusive feminist/women's movement.

Collaborative Practice: Envisioning a non-discriminatory Art Praxis

Eve Xelestiál Moreno-Luz [they/them, she/her], Multimedia Artist

By exhibiting examples of personal projects, exploitative queer(stories), and group collaborations; Eve Xelestiál Moreno-Luz will provide participants with theory and practice base modules to engage in community art-work that is anti-oppressive. This workshop will be lecture and interactive style so participants may witness and produce work on site that is meaningful to their interpersonal experiences. Participants will engage with one another to formulate art blueprints that are liberation based.

Consent Matters: Everything I Know About Consent I Learned From BDSM

Shawn Vee [she/her], UC Riverside/Consent Matters

Misconceptions about BDSM are rampant. Unfortunately, depictions of BDSM in popular culture have not helped. When done right, BDSM and those in the “lifestyle” center consent and communication. What can BDSM teach us about consent? EVERYTHING. Ideally, BDSM dynamics, interactions and those who partake prioritize consent and understand it is needed for every human interaction—not just the sexy or kinky ones. Join Shawn Vee, a lifestyle kinkster and pro-dominant, for fun interactive workshop that covers intersectional topics as autonomy, the exchange and surrender of power, sexuality, gender, and race. Along with a frank discussion revolving around what BDSM is, what it is not, what consent is, what it is not and how to live a life invested in consent and communication as a “normal” way to maneuver.

Cruising Academia

Gabriel Guzmán [he/him, she/her, they/them], UC Riverside

Angela Olivares [she/her], UC Riverside

The experiences of seeking out faculty mentorship for queer POC’s is historically a daunting task. Our workshop aims to empower disenfranchised interdisciplinary scholars who are interested in conducting research in queer related topics. We will address the systems that impact the way that the university runs which have been traditionally exclusionary to queer and brown people. We plan to outline the steps and strategies to navigate these spaces. We will be discussing topics about sex work, healthcare access for gender non-conforming folks, and how your identity influences your work.

Decolonizing Gender

Rogue River Shasta [chi/kwa/her/hers]

What does gender have to do with colonization, capitalism, and imperialism? How can reframing gender be an act of liberation and reclamation of the spirit? How does our gendered ways of being impact the ground grow from and the communities we grow with? This workshop ring together folks to interact in diverse ways to begin or expand our relationships and unlearning of colonial ways of defining and creating our genders. Participants will engage with an indigenous way of knowing as juxtaposition with their own and the dominate culture.

Fat. Femme. Fashionable: Beyond Body Positivity

Kat Zoque [they/them], UC Riverside

Ale Alfaro [they/them, she/her], UC Riverside

This workshop is to provide a space for queer femmes who navigate the world in a larger body to discuss ways that they have experienced size-based discrimination that has been intensified due to their queer/lgbt identity and racial identity. In addition to discussing our experiences, we will be leading a healing circle in which we engage with tips on how to advocate for yourself and others when you notice a fatphobic transgression taking place. This space is meant to promote a positive self-image and self-esteem in people who are fat and to destigmatize what it means to be fat and carve the space that we deserve out for ourselves to enjoy the world as everyone else does. This is a closed space for people who are Fat, Femme, QTPOC.

Identity Document Support Workshop

Esperanz Aguilera Fuentes (They/She), Gender Health Center Lead Advocate

Description: This workshop will provide community with knowledge and resources regarding the current name/gender change laws in the state of California. We will cover SB 179 legislation updates, the process for identity document changes through the California Superior Court system, as well as navigation through social security administration, California Office of Vital Records (birth certificate), the DMV, amending/applying for your passport. In addition to this workshop, there will be an identity document support clinic running throughout the conference that will provide space to support community in filling out court paperwork for name/gender amendments.

Issues and Solutions for the Salton Sea

Lorraine Salas [she/her/hers], Ecomedia Compass
California faces the largest environmental disaster in the next ten to twenty years if the Salton Sea is left unmitigated. Rural and farmworking communities near the Salton Sea have already experienced the adverse side effects of pesticide exposure and playa becoming exposed. There are solutions to this crisis and information on long term plans can empower local communities.

Latina Punks in Higher Education

Jessica Delgado [she/her], Claremont Graduate University

Taking the spirit of punk into the classroom, this workshop is designed to observe how to incorporate the underground into higher education. Adapting the grungy attitudes of activism and strive for social justice, punks have been more and more inclined to delve within the system to alter eurocentric sentiments. In this workshop, we will ask how to combine punk and knowledge, and how educators have shifted from kids attending grungy backyard shows to community leaders striving to provides more inclusivity in the education system.

LGBTQI+ Latinx Survivors Healing from Child Sexual Abuse Praxis

Ducky Jones [they/them], Mirror Memoirs

Lilac Maldonado [they/them, she/her], Mirror Memoirs

In this workshop, cofacilitators Ducky and Lilac will present Mirror Memoirs, a storytelling and organizing project they both participated in, along with 58 other QTIBIPOC survivors of child sexual abuse across the United States. They will also engage participants in dialogue about the epidemic nature of this violence, strategies for intervention, healing and prevention, and share an audio clip featuring Latinx participants in the project. All participants will learn about local and national resources for survivors. This is a closed space for Latinx LGBTQI+people.

QTIPOC Magic

Aayden [they/them], UC Irvine

Deka Spears [they/them], CSU Fullerton
This will be an educational space for QTIPOC folx to get a better understanding of different forms of magic. By magic we mean indigenous POC magic practices (ex. Shamanism, Brujería, Santeria, etc.) as well as the practice of being spiritual or religious, and simply existing as a person of color being a magical experience. We will start with going over the history, for those who may not know it, or may have a skewed version of different histories of magic and will let that lead into a discussion about ways to practice magic and presenters and others’ own experiences with magic. This is a closed space for Queer, Trans and/or Intersex People of Color.

The Revolution Starts at Home: Outreaching to Latino Parents of LGBTQ+ individuals

La Familia Orange County

La Familia is a parent support and educational group for parents, friends, and family members of individuals that identify as Latinx and LGBTQ+ from Orange County, CA. The group was started in 2010 by a small group of young LGBTQ+ Latinx individuals that came together in the most conservative county in California to make a space for their parents, families, and loved ones, to learn about family acceptance, and what it means to be LGBTQ+ & Latinx. This workshop will show you how we went about "starting the revolution at home". The group runs off a peer education model, and encourage our participants to become not only allies, but leader within our group and community.

Tequio: Planting Seeds Across Generations

Xarlie Facio [they/them pronouns], CSU Northridge

The workshop will highlight and center the intersectional complexities within student activism in higher education. Our space will provide activities and discussions on how to explore and practice sustainable forms of activism in personal and professional settings for LGBTQIA+ individuals. Come thru to have a better understanding and self awareness of what activism means to further support your community(ies).

TU ME DICES NACA, OSEA SOY REINA DE LAS NACAS!

Phillip Hurt [they/them], NACA zine

Maria Juana [she/her]

This is for all performers, hostesses, drag performers and creators who frequently sacrifice a hot meal for a new shade of lipstick and fishnets. For all those who get Fuchi faces when riding the bus in full face and six inch heels. Together we will discuss how to survive as QTPOC artist who often live paycheck to paycheck and how to navigate as a Xhingonx and unapologetic artists!

VOGUE! THE OLD WAY! THE ONLY WAY! LOVE IS THE MESSAGE!

P. Dante Cuauhtémoc [He/She/Them/Prince], UC Riverside & House of Lauren

This dance workshop will be an introduction to the styles, techniques, forms and culture of PERFORMANCE, also known as Old Way Vogue, Pop’Dip’n’Spin, and Presentation. Currently vogue has been popularized by pop culture trends, but tends to only focus on the styles of the “vogue femme” form. This workshop diverts from that trend, and instead will follow the process that many black indigenous queer ancestors used to communicate with our shared queer, trans*, two-spirit ancestors, and with themselves, via: copying the poses of egyptian and mesoamerican artifacts, statues, hyroglifics and murals. As a physical movement workshop, we will dance who we are as people of many experience, genealogies, and histories. And, by werking the “5 Elements of Vogue”, and many of their variances, we will to put together dance sequences that offer a sense of who we are, and produce feelings and spirits of self love. From the art that we find and bring, we will glyph ourselves and the space to produce a performance that can carry the message of love in our work, and in our future dancing selves.

Where Does the Garbage Go?: On Cancel Culture and Disposability

Francisco Gaspar [they/them], Cal Poly SLO

Alvín Rios [they/them, he/him], Cal Poly SLO

This workshop will encourage folx to think critically about community healing and harm reduction. It will examine disposability politics and the ways they are used within marginalized groups. Questions we hope to consider in this dialogue include the following: How does gatekeeping knowledge production prevent us from growth? What does intracommunal cancel culture look like? How do we provide room for growth while maintaining accountability?

Written in the Stars: On Chosen Family and Platonic Love

BrendaSaldaña. [they/them, she/her], UC Riverside

AlejandraAlfaro. [she/her, they/them] UC Riverside

Chosen families/queer friendships are important and valuable because they have the ability to make us feel supported and affirmed -- additionally, they can be vital to our emotional health or growth. Many of us build these unconventional structures in response to conditional love and/or lack of emotional support from our biological families. This program will help break misconceptions about platonic love/friendships, offer a communal space for discussing self-awareness through astrology, and provide a chance to reflect on how to sustain warm, healthy, and nurturing friendships between queer and trans people of color. This is a closed space for QTPOC.

Cielo Oscuro will join the ¡Presente! Conference this Friday, March 1 to share her story. She will screen the short film Kiki and the MXfits at 8:30pm, following a talk by Bitter Brown Femmes, This event is free and open to the public, and will be held in HUB 302 on the UC Riverside campus.

Cielo Oscuro is a Non Binary Trans Femme from South Central Los Angeles. She is the lead actress in the short film "Kiki and the MXfits," where she stars as Kiki. The story follows a group of Queer and Trans Latinx high school students from LA and their fight for justice after Kiki (a Trans Femme) gets detention for using the women's restroom.

Cielo is also a model, photographer, and creative artist overall! Her fashion style is unapologetic and authentic. She is intentional in creating a more inclusive space for QTPOC from low socioeconomic backgrounds within popular fashion. Her grassroots organizing is centered on representation, safe visibility and opportunities for QTPOC (Queer Trans People of Color). Cielo is also a ¡Presente! Alumni from 2017, we are proud to have her join us Friday evening to highlight her journey where she reminds us to always stay presente for our community. ¡Gracias Cielo!

Friday's Opening Schedule

6pm - doors open to HUB 302, check out artivismo, art gallery, and vendors.
7pm - Bitter Brown Femmes podcast conversation
8pm - Bitter Brown Femmes Q&A
8:30pm - Cielo Oscuro talk
9pm - Open Mic for Poesía Peligrosa