Fostering cross-racial solidarity and communal solutions to hate violence.
Thursday, December 5, 2024 • 9am-5pm
⚲ Queens College Student Union: 65-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, NY, 11367
Join the Caribbean Equality Project for its annual Queeribbean Crossings conference themed “Solidarity as Resistance.”
Hosted and organized annually by the Caribbean Equality Project, in partnership with the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium, as a knowledge-sharing space in commemoration of 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights Day, the free one-day community conference centers critical reflections and collaborative discussions on transnational cross-racial solidarities and multicultural artistic expressions through a diasporic Caribbean LGBTQ+ lens.
The 2024 "Queeribbean Crossings: Solidarity as Resistance,” features the Queens premiere screening of the short film Caribbean Queen by GLAAD Media Award-winning director Sekiya Dorsett, hosted at Queens College, CUNY. Annually, the conference brings together queer and trans Caribbean immigrants, asylum seekers, and Caribbean-descended activists, community organizers, academics, college students, and artists from throughout the region and its diasporas to foster critical conversations on themes of social justice, immigration, trans equity, decriminalization, mental health, sexual health, and other pertinent issues impacting LGBTQ+ Black, Asian, Latinx, and Caribbean communities.
For the 2024 iteration of the conference, we think critically about “solidarity” as a significant political practice, a way to build collective futures and rehearse what living in an equitable world in the 21st century could mean. We think together about solidarity as a way of doing decolonization work and crafting coalitions across borders, race, gender, class, ability, citizenship, and religion, among other social factors and realities. The conference will feature international keynote speakers, panel discussions, workshops, a health and immigration resource fair, and a closing cultural & drag showcase.
Queeribbean Crossings takes a transnational approach to building solidarity. The term “transnational” here explores how queer and trans diasporic Caribbean struggle is not contained within one geography or history but forces us to contend with issues and struggles outside of the places we call home. A transnational framework to queer Caribbean liberation will think not only about the relationships between the queer Caribbean and the US diaspora, but also other adjacent political struggles and histories that we, as queer and trans Caribbean communities, may or may not experience. To truly seek collective liberation, we must think both within and outside ourselves, our histories, and our personal struggles. A transnational practice of solidarity allows us to connect queer and trans Caribbean emancipation efforts with various intersectional struggles. The name “Queeribbean Crossings” represents a commitment to a feminist and anti-colonial approach to thinking transnationally in our social justice work and solidarity movements. Our emphasis on the transnational here is largely indebted to the work of Trinidadian queer feminist scholar, M. Jacqui Alexander, who first gives us the language of “crossing” in her ground-breaking 2005 text Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory, and the Sacred.
Launched in 2022, Queeribbean Crossings focused on confronting gendered and racialized violence to foster cross-racial solidarity, healing, and community-driven solutions to hate violence. The conference is grounded in multiple expressions of queer and trans Caribbean ways of knowing that include, but are not limited to, community organizing, art, and aesthetic practices, among many others. Yearly, the conference brings together community members, academics, creatives, and students of all levels and backgrounds to engage in community conversations related to issues of im/migration, gender-based violence, human rights, contemporary issues LGBTQIA+ people of color through a culturally responsive and racial justice lens.
Conference Program Schedule
9:00—10:00am
Registration & Breakfast
10:00—10:30am
Opening Remarks, Conference Overview, Land Acknowledgment, and Queens College Welcome
10:30—11:00am
Keynote Speaker, Rajiv Mohabir
11:00—11:30am
Screening of “Caribbean Queen” Short Film
11:30am—12:45pm
Beyond Decriminalization: Storytelling as a Tool of Solidarity for Collective Future Building Panel
1:00—2:00pm
Lunch & Resource Fair
2:00—2:30pm
International Keynote Speaker, Daryl A. Phillip
2:30—3:30pm
Gender Liberation: Reproductive Justice and Legislative Reform Through Action and Education
2:30—3:30pm
Organizing as Resistance to Attacks on Marginalized Communities
2:30—3:30pm
Rooted Voices: Collective Journey of Storytelling and Affirmation
3:30—4:00pm
DJ and Social Networking
4:00—5:00pm
Artistic Expressions: Closing Cultural & Drag Showcase
Presenters & Participants:
Xoë Sazzle: Conference Co-Host
Artist • Activist & Asylum Seeker • Cultural Researcher & Professor • Communications and Digital Content Creator, CEP
Tifa Wine: Conference Co-Host
Cultural Researcher & Professor • Writer • Drag Artist • Organizer • Board Member, CEP
Rajiv Mohabir: Keynote Speaker
Poet • Memorialist & Translator • Assistant Professor of Poetry, University of Colorado
Daryl Phillip: Keynote Speaker
Co-founder & President, Minority Rights Dominica (Miridom)
Mohamed Q. Amin: Speaker
Founder & Executive Director, Caribbean Equality Project
Vanessa Arias-Martínez: Speaker
Senior Community Liaison, Gilead Sciences
Sekiya Dorsett: Panelist—Beyond Decriminalization: Storytelling as Solidarity for Collective Future
Director, Caribbean Queen • Assistant Professor, Hofstra University
Karl O’ Brian Williams: Panelist—Beyond Decriminalization: Storytelling as Solidarity for Collective Future
Writer & Actor, Caribbean Queen • Lecturer, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Ansi A. Rodriguez: Panelist—Beyond Decriminalization: Storytelling as Solidarity for Collective Future
Actor, Caribbean Queen
Murtada Elfadl: Panelist—Beyond Decriminalization: Storytelling as Solidarity for Collective Future
Culture Writer • Critic • Film Curator
Ace Sutherland: Moderator—Gender Liberation: Reproductive Justice and Legislative Reform Through Action and Education
Trans Rights Activist • Organizer & Policy Advocate • Board Secretary, CEP
Tiffany Jade Munroe: Panelist—Gender Liberation: Reproductive Justice and Legislative Reform Through Action and Education
Trans Justice Coordinator, CEP
Mateo Guerrero: Panelist—Gender Liberation: Reproductive Justice and Legislative Reform Through Action and Education
Trans Justice and Leadership Program Manager, Make the Road NY
Chanel J. Lopez: Panelist—Gender Liberation: Reproductive Justice and Legislative Reform Through Action and Education
Deputy Director of LGBTQ+ Affairs, Office of the NYS Governor Kathy Hochul
Shivana Jorawar: Panelist—Gender Liberation: Reproductive Justice and Legislative Reform Through Action and Education
Lawyer • Activist & Organizer • Co-Director, Jahajee
Yanery Cruz: Panelist—Gender Liberation: Reproductive Justice and Legislative Reform Through Action and Education
Director of Advocacy and Programs, New York Transgender Advocacy Group
Kadeem Robinson: Moderator—Building Community Safety: Organizing as Resistance to Attacks on Marginalized Communities
Board Treasurer, CEP
Carlyn Cowen: Panelist—Building Community Safety: Organizing as Resistance to Attacks on Marginalized Communities
Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer, Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC)
Jovante Anderson: Panelist—Building Community Safety: Organizing as Resistance to Attacks on Marginalized Communities
Scholar & Community Organizer
Nikita Boyce: Panelist—Building Community Safety: Organizing as Resistance to Attacks on Marginalized Communities
Budget Equity Coordinator Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)
Kishi Chad: Panelist—Building Community Safety: Organizing as Resistance to Attacks on Marginalized Communities
South Florida Organizer, CEP
Valeria Paz Reyes: Panelist—Building Community Safety: Organizing as Resistance to Attacks on Marginalized Communities
Manager of Organizing & Strategy, New York Immigration Coalition
Funky Reggae House Party: DJ & Vibes
Simone Devi Jhingoor: Performer
Writer • Organizer • Artist • Healer, & Cultural Worker
Sundari the Indian Goddess: Performer
Drag Entertainer & LGBTQ+ Rights Activist
Alicia Love: Performer
Trans Performer & Trans Rights Activist
Afrospehone Applegate: Performer
Drag Entertainer & Mental Health Advocate
Jawdan: Performer
Reggae & RnB Artist
As you prepare to share space with us at the Queeribbean Crossings conference, we invite you to reflect on the following questions:
What is solidarity for marginalized queer and trans Caribbean communities, and how do we build it for ourselves and our political comrades?
How does solidarity become an act of resistance? Why is such an act necessary in our contemporary LGBTQ+ liberation moment?
How does queer and trans solidarity center both our local communities and those who we may never come to meet or whose struggles we may never experience?
How do we transform coalition from a noun - or simply a word we use/say - to an everyday practice of solidarity as resistance?
Please join us on December 5, 2024, for an extraordinary one-day Queeribbean Crossings conference featuring conversations, performances, and community engagement!
Queeribbean Crossings Highlight Video



























































































































































Queeribbean Crossings 2022, 2023, 2024