Tuesday, October 28, 2014

After Gaza

With Shimon Peres just leaving, I am brought back to the After Gaza event that happened weeks ago but still holds so much relevance.


On October 3rd, Colgate University students, staff and faculty joined Bayoumi Mustafa in discussing the troubled history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Mr. Mustafa began by taking the crowd back to this summer when operation Protective Edge executed by Israel took place. Unfortunately,  this operation killed mostly civilians including 505 children. Furthermore, subject to a inhumane blockade set up by both Egypt and Israel. This essentially makes Palestine( Gaza, west bank) operate more or less like a penal colony of 1.8 million people and 1.2 million refugees. Limited exports and imports are allowed into the country with an export happening Sept. 15 resulting in sweet potatoes. Sewage and powerstrips are damaged. For all these reasons, Gaza has been seen or known as the largest open-air prison in the world.
Much of the rhetoric surrounding Palestine is that the organization Hamas uses its people as a human shield and often violates ceasefire agreements, but is that the whole story? One specific piece of rhetoric refers to the unfortunate death of the young boys who were on the beach and were killed by Israeli attacks. The rhetoric in Israel and the continental U.S suggested that the boys were drawn to beach as if they were to blame for their own deaths. Rhetoric can often be misleading and requires heavy research. So get informed.

One way activists have been trying to combat the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is with #BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanction) rather than just a military option. Below are a few videos to educate yourself about this conflict. Often People in the U.S hear only one sides. Broadening your perspective by hearing both sides helps to form a more objective world view and more informed opinion.

The one question Bayoumi Mustafa had to ask Shimon Peres was "When is Israeli occupation of Palestine going to end?"







Wednesday, October 22, 2014

This Is Not a Play About Sex




Photo of TINAPAS cast

Tuesday’s Brown Bag, “This is Not a Play about Sex”, featured students who participated in this year’s performance of Christina Liu’s original play. The panel included Sofi Estay, Niall Henderson, Nick Grunden, Chantel Melendez, Carson Land, and Providence Ryan. The panel discussed their thoughts about the play and their experiences with acting out other identities other then their own. Some panelist, such as Sofi Estay, touched upon how they had a difficult time portraying their character during their performance. Sofi Estay was challenged while embodying her role as a heterosexual female who is a member of a sorority.  Though she herself identifies in this way, acting out this character made her realize that there were deeper differences she felt she had with this particular character. By trying to reconcile the differences between her character and herself, Sofi realized how affected the Colgate population is by issues surrounding sexuality. For Niall Henderson, he noted how the play allowed him to experience various intersections of race, class, and gender on Colgate’s campus, which he felt he had never had a chance to talk about until participating in TINAPAS. While the panelist all gave amazing and diverse accounts of their experience with TINAPAS, most of them seemed to agree that Liu’s play disrupted and critiqued Colgate students’ experiences with sex and sexuality on this campus.
            Another amazing part of this brown bag was the open discussion that audience members got to take apart in. The audience expressed their views on the play and spoke to aspects of the play that surprised them, that confused them, and that they thought were missing.  Some voiced how they wished that there were more trans identified identities in the play and a more diverse group of monologues. Emily Hawkins noted at the end of the brown bag how she plans on expanding on TINAPAS by interviewing more students in order to further Christina’s work.

-Sylvie Lauzon

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Kenyon Farrow at Colgate




On Wednesday October 8th , Advocates hosted organizer,communications strategist and writer on issues at the intersection of HIV/AIDS, prisons, and homophobia,  Kenyon Farrow as one of the speakers for the Coming Out Month in Women Studies. Farrow’s talk titled, “His talk is entitled "A Future Beyond Equality: Envisioning an LGBT Movement After Marriage,” challenged my understanding of the same sex marriage movement. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsHmxxhFA5s&feature=youtu.be

In his speech, Kenyon Farrow asked his audience who was composed of students, professors and faculty to be critical of the same sex marriage movement by deconstructing the politics surrounding it. He called us  to question who was benefitting from the movement (white gay men)  while calling attention to the untold story the lack of protection from job and housing discrimination against the LGBTQ community.  He challenged us to think about problems prevalent in the LGBTQ community and what bodies are often forgotten (people of color) in the same sex marriage movement.
Listening to Kenyon Farrow reminded me of the importance of questioning the motives of any movement, to question what is being replaced and at the expense of what and for whom. Secondly,  listening to Farrow made me realize that nothing will change until we begin to  educate ourselves on the stories that are being left out of the media. As a result, only by educating ourselves  can we begin to understand and see the bodies and voices that are not part of the conversation and this is only how true change will happen. Therefore, on campus, in our spaces we as students, faculty, professors can start educating ourselves and having dialogues about the missing bodies that our own campus, classrooms, and clubs render invisible only then can be began to comprehend and see one another.



-Noufo Nabine



Thursday, October 2, 2014

Love Liberates



This week’s brown bag, “ Remembering Dr. Maya Angelou”  hosted by panelists Professor Spring, Drea Finley and Che Hatter, paid respect to the work of Dr. Angelou. Each reflected on how she has affected them personally by altering their understanding of the world and themselves. They opened the Brown Bag by bringing Dr. Angelou’s voice into the space by playing one of her videos http://youtu.be/Yp6OisJkCrQ

Love liberates. It doesn't just hold—that's ego. Love liberates. It doesn't bind. Love says, 'I love you. I love you if you're in China. I love you if you're across town. I love you if you're in Harlem. I love you. I would like to be near you. I'd like to have your arms around me. I'd like to hear your voice in my ear. But that's not possible now, so I love you. Go.'"- Maya Angelou

Sitting in the dimmed light, I heard her, I watched her, captivated. I looked at her face, her wrinkles, her red lipstick,  the graying of her hair,  I watched. I listened to her speak of love and the way she described love made me feel something in me that said, “I too want this type of love.”
I could not help but be captivated by her voice and her eyes.  Dr. Angelou’s description of love resonated deeply with me. I understood her description of love as one that gives permission to the self and other people to be themselves. It is a love that knows no boundary in regards to race, gender, religion, class, sexuality and culture. It is a love for all. Listening to her words, I could not help but wonder how do I understand love? What is love and how do I love myself and the people in my life?

When I attempted to grasp Dr. Angelou’s understanding of love,  I could not help but think about the women in my life. My mother who always told me, “you will always be the head never the tail.” My grandmother who told me to be myself and to work for what I believe in. Finally, my aunt who always called me niece and always reminded me of how proud she is of me. These three women with their words have shown me a love that is liberating, a love that gives me permission to be myself, they freed me. Since coming to understand how Dr. Angelou’s concept of love exist in my life, I could not help but ask myself, how can I too use this concept to better understand myself and how can this alter the interactions I have with people, in the spaces I pass through at Colgate and in the World? How can I too use love to heal, to liberate? I start this journey today, to better understand myself, to love myself, to create the possibility to love others as Dr. Angelou has.  

- Noufo Nabine