Queer Voices

For the past month, QEJ and Brooklyn-based writer, Sassafras Lowery, have teamed up in leading Queer Writing Workshops. Intended for anyone interested in our work–volunteers, shelter residents, stakeholders and more–to come together and write their stories. These classes have been informative, powerful and loads of fun for everyone involved.

Our writers have written some amazing work ranging from stories to poetry to non-fiction. Join us this Friday, August 12th at the QEJ office at 6pm for QUEER VOICES: A Performance by QEJ’s Writers’ Group. We will be listening and supporting each others’ spoken word and talent and we hope you can be there to join!

Food will be provided, metro cards are available to those who need them.

Sit back and relax as we turn the QEJ office into a hip writers’ cafe! We’ll see you there!

A quick glance at our Summer events!

Summer is still poppin’ at QEJ with out awesome August events. Check it out!

1. Jay’s Walking Tour on Saturday, July 30th. The famous Jay Toole, QEJ’s shelter organizer, will be leading a tour of her life through the 60′s as a homeless butch lesbian. The tour will begin at 12:00pm in Washington Square Park and last about 2 1/2 hours.
2. Queer Writing Workshops on August 3rd and August 10th–both from 6:30-8:30pm. Lead by Brooklyn-based writer, Sassafras Lowrey, these workshops are for shelter residents and friends to explore their creative side and share with a queer-friendly group. Food and metro cards will be provided. Our writers will have a Queer Performance on Friday August 12th at 6pm where they will read their work. This event is open to the public.
3. Are you interested in being a shelter facilitator? QEJ works in several shelters around NYC organizing queer shelter residents; if you want to learn more join us for Shelter Facilitator Orientation on August 5th (6-7:30pm) and August 6th (1-2:30pm). You only have to come to one! At this orientation Jay and Carlos will lead the group in learning how to facilitate shelter sessions.
4. Come to QEJ’s 2nd Leadership School on Saturday August 13th from 12-5pm. This 4-5 hour workshop is intended for activists and shelter residents and will discuss queer history, defining racial/economic justice, and learning about the systems of economy. Food and metro cards will be available.
5. Sunday August 15th is QEJ’s August Game Night! From 6-8pm we will be relaxing with some snacks and fun games. Scrabble? Monopoly? Spades? What’s your favorite game? Come school us (or watch us school you) as we enjoy a relaxing Sunday night together.
6. Saturday August 20th is the 2nd Monthly Resident’s Movie Night. Join QEJ and friends from 6-9pm as we watch The Aggressives, a hard-hitting documentary about masculine butch lesbians. A discussion will follow the movie showing. Food and metro cards available.
7. Monday, August 29th, QEJ’s Board Chair Terry Boggis will lead a Know Your Rights Training at 6pm. This event is for anyone interested in understanding their legal rights family issues and family law.

All events unless otherwise noted are held at the QEJ office. Metro cards are available to those who need it. We are located at 147 W. 24th St., 4th Floor New York, NY 10011

Support us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Queers-For-Economic-Justice/18201778500

QEJ Pride March

Do you want to march in the Pride March on Sunday June 26th but don’t have anyone to march with?

Well look no further friend, come join QEJ as we proudly show New York that poor queers are just as important to the movement as anyone else. QEJ staff, volunteers, shelter residents and more will be struttin’ our stuff down 5th ave, and we would absolutely love it if you joined

Meet PROMPTLY 12pm on 39th St btwn. 5th and Madison Ave…look for the QEJ Van

RSVP with Jay at 917 939 2511 or jay@q4ej.org

2011 Amazingly Queer Race Date Announced

AMAZINGLY QUEER RACE 2011

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for…  Yes, the 5^th Annual Amazingly Queer Race for Economic Justice is happening Saturday, May 14, 2011! We’ll have more of the same—queer racing, queer challenges, queer prizes, and of course… LOTS OF QUEERS! We’ll be setting up to register teams soon, so start asking your friends! We’re also looking for some fabulous people to help organize the race, so if you can volunteer a few hours or a few days, please email volunteer@q4ej.org. In the meantime, email all questions about the race to race@q4ej.org.

See you all at the Amazingly Queer Race!

Jay, Rebecca, Dan, Marita, and Tyler

Kenyon Farrow Named Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice

December 8, 2009

Contact: Miriam Yeung, 917.306.4404, miriamwyeung@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kenyon Farrow Named Executive Director

of Queers for Economic Justice

“Visionary Leadership for the Queer Left”

New York, NY – The Board of Directors of Queers for Economic Justice is pleased to announce the unanimous selection of Kenyon Farrow as the next Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ). QEJ is a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation.

“The QEJ family is thrilled to continue to have the dynamic leadership of Kenyon,” said Emily Davison, chair of the Board of QEJ. “His longstanding commitment to economic justice for poor lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people is a keystone to our growing organization.”

“Kenyon’s work on building a national progressive queer left movement that includes the lived experiences and expressed needs of queer people living in poverty is the exact tool we need to lift true queer liberation out of the usual back and forth of the mainstream gay culture war,” said Amber Hollibaugh, board member and a founder of QEJ.

Kenyon has served as the interim Executive Director of QEJ since the departure of Joseph DeFilippis in July of 2009, after joining the staff in 2008 as the National Public Education Director. Originally from Cleveland, OH, Kenyon has spent the last ten years working as an organizer, public education specialist, and communications expert around HIV/AIDS, prisons, policing, anti-queer violence, and racial and economic justice.

“I am thrilled to be working with QEJ as we move in new and exciting directions, says Farrow. “The current economic crisis has shifted the attention of the nation, and QEJ will continue organize low-income and working class queers who have been left out of the mainstream movement for a long time.” Farrow is no stranger to racial and economic justice work. Prior to joining the staff of QEJ, Kenyon worked at Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), the New York State Black Gay Network and as the Southern Region Coordinator with Critical Resistance. He was one of the drafters of QEJ’s Beyond Marriage statement in 2006.

“It has been my great privilege to work with Kenyon for the past several years.  He is a smart, progressive, articulate and strategic leader in our community already, and he is exactly the leadership that QEJ needs now to continue to grow.  I am delighted that he is my successor” said Joseph N. DeFilippis, QEJ’s founding Executive Director.

Kenyon is also the co-editor of “Letters From Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out”  (Nation Books 2005) and the forthcoming “A New Queer Agenda (NYU Press).”  His work has appeared in publications such as Bilerico.com, theGrio.com, AfterElton.com, Black Commentator, Left Turn, POZ, The Indypendent, City Limits, and in the anthology, “Spirited: Affirming the Soul of Black Lesbian and Gay Identity (Red Bone Press 2006).” He has been honored as one of the “Movers and Shakers” in HIV/AIDS Activism in the African-American Community by The Body.com, and was named as one of Out Magazine’s Out 100 for 2008.

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Nov 20: Queen with Benefits! Kenyon’s 35th B-day and QEJ Fundraiser!

Queen with Benefits! Kenyon’s 35th B-day and QEJ Fundraiser!

QEJ on YouTube

QEJ’s mission demands involvement in all media, so it should be no surprise that they’re all over youtube. Here’s Kenyon Farrow speaking at the plenary session “HIV/AIDS Crisis: This Is What We’re Doing About it!”, part of the 21st National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change.

Jay Toole facilitating a mock hearing, The People vs. Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The clip discusses Bloomburg’s broken shelter system and its very real impact on the lives of New Yorkers.

Reina Gossett talking about welfare and social reform as a panelist on Activism at the Intersections, hosted by Sager Symposium

And Kenyon Farrow again, discussing the importance of reproductive justice to gay black men at the Civil Liberties and Public Policy program.

3/8: QEJ Speaks on Homophobic Violence at Riverside Church

Given the recent cases of violence against queers in NYC, this event at Riverside Church is going to be very timely, and important. It’s also exciting because there will be an analysis of violence that homeless LGBT folks face in the shelter system and on the streets, which is often missing from conversations around bias violence. Download a .pdf of the flyer here.

Gay City News: Young Professionals Honor Queers for Economic justice

QEJ was the recent recipient of a $7500 grant from Quarter Share, a program for young LGBT professionals in NYC at Stonewall Community Foundation, which chooses an organization to give 25% of the money they raised the previous year. Gay City News reported on it.

The group now has 115 members, each of whom pays dues of $300 a year to participate in social gatherings every other month, learn about New York’s gay philanthropic world, and decide on the recipient of an annual Quarter Share grant. Three-quarters of the money raised goes to the Stonewall Institute, the parent foundation’s training program that offers educational and capacity-building assistance to small LGBTQ organizations in the city. The other quarter goes to a grantee chosen by Quarter Share members.

This year, in choosing its grantee, Quarter Share focused on groups committed to community organizing, and selected Queers for Economic Justice. QEJ is a non-profit that tackles issues of poverty and economic injustice as part of the battle for “sexual and gender liberation,” as the group’s website frames it. It is explicitly and unapologetically progressive, tracing its origins to concerns during the late 1990s about the impact of welfare reform legislation enacted under President Bill Clinton. QEJ puts a focus on racial and class issues absent from the work of many LGBT organizations.

Kenyon Farrow, a longtime African-American writer, journalist, and activist who is now QEJ’s national public education director, was on hand to accept the grant, and addressed some of the group’s key current initiatives. Its Welfare Warriors project presses for inclusive policies in city, state, and federal public assistance programs, and is about to launch a survey of LGBT New Yorkers living in poverty. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE!