2024
COLLABORATORS
KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
charlie amáyá scott, Ph.D. (english pronouns: she / her and they/them)
Born and raised within the Navajo Nation, charlie amáyá scott, Ph.D. is dedicated to creating and sharing content that inspires joy and justice. She has worked with brands and organizations around climate justice, celebrating her culture and language, advocating and supporting movements that center or affect Black and Indigenous Queer and Trans Peoples, and sharing knowledge around Indigenous Peoples, gender and sexuality, decolonization, higher education, representation, and more.
They also speak across colleges and universities sharing her dreams, poetry, and insight on what it means to be Queer, Trans, and Indigenous while demanding for a more inclusive and intentional campus climate that supports, honors, and celebrates Black and Indigenous Queer and Trans Peoples.
charlie amáyá scott recently defended her home-making project (doctoral dissertation) and OFFICIALLY has a Ph.D. in Higher Education as of August 2024. Much of her scholarship and writings are imbued with a desire for a more just and liberating education that supports, inspires and celebrates the next generation of Queer, Trans, and Indigenous students.
workshop presenters:
Red Dirt Collective is working to create a movement in solidarity with poor and working-class folks through organizing, mutual aid, and policy. They believe a multi-faceted, coordinated approach is vital and that these components must work together in unison in order to achieve this goal.
The ACLU of Oklahoma is the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the country’s largest and oldest defenders of human rights. Devraat Awasthi (he/him) is a Legal Fellow at the ACLU of Oklahoma, where he helps protect the First Amendment rights of protesters and the Equal Protection rights of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
Oklahomans Against Occupation (OAO) is a community of passionate individuals bound by a shared commitment to justice, human rights, and the pursuit of peace. Their mission is multifaceted, reflecting their dedication to raising awareness, educating their fellow Oklahomans, amplifying Palestinian voices, advocating for diplomacy, and supporting the safety and freedom of the Palestinian people.
Practice Practice is a community-based project by Isa Rodriguez and Dylan Cale Jones. Their work focuses on the intersections of art, creativity, and everyday life. They publish accessible resources for artists building balanced, sustainable creative practices.
The Restorative Justice Institute of Oklahoma (RJIOK) is a pioneering leader in restorative justice in the state. Restorative justice is a communal approach to dealing with harm that focuses on relationships over rules. Rooted in Indigenous cultural practices around the world, restorative justice centers the person who has experienced the harm by prioritizing their needs and their healing. RJIOK cultivates healthy schools, homes, and workplaces. Our work enhances communities and encourages connection through healing and authenticity.
Sara Raines (she/her) MPH, CPH, CHES, is a sexual health educator with the Oklahoma City-County Health Department. She received her Bachelor’s in Community Health and Master’s in Public Health from the University of Oklahoma, where her studies focused mainly on HIV. The ways that HIV and harm reduction are intertwined led her to this topic, and she’s been involved in harm reduction in OKC since 2023. When she’s not working, you can find her reading and hanging out with her dog, Boogie.
Kostya (they/them), also known as Socks, is a queer trans immunocompromised and disabled individual residing in OKC. They started Mask Bloc OKC in March 2024 to provide high quality respirators and educational materials to the OKC metro area.
Lila Zucker (she/her) serves as New Disabled South’s Organizing Director, bringing more than 15 years of experience as an organizer, trainer and movement builder to the role. As a queer, disabled organizer, Lila has spent her career building solidarity across intersectional movements in labor, voting and social justice spaces. Union organizing runs deep in Lila’s family, and Lila began organizing within the labor movement in high school. Lila’s deep belief in working towards our collective liberation through cross-movement and cross-disability solidarity guides all of her work. Most recently, she worked as Fair Fight Action’s Deputy Organizing Director, where she oversaw the organization’s voter education and turnout efforts.
I'm Kianle, a recent high school graduate who plans to pursue a further education in visual communication and marketing. I am interested in non-profit work, community outreach, and youth leadership and engagement in issues that affect our communities, especially youth.
Aleah Walker (they/she) is a community organizer and intersectional advocate deeply rooted in Oklahoma City. They recently graduated from Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City with an Associate’s degree in Horticulture Technologies and currently work with OKC Beautiful as a garden educator, teaching nature-based learning to elementary school students in Oklahoma City Public Schools. Aleah has been involved in community outreach for several years, notably through their role as Community Outreach Coordinator with Uprooted and Rising Indian Territory, a local mutual aid organization focused on food sovereignty. In this role, they have supported local BIPOC farmers and helped provide free fresh produce to marginalized communities in food deserts in Oklahoma. While attending Rose State College, Aleah established the first community garden on campus, aimed at supplementing the campus food pantry with fresh produce, serving students, staff, and the broader Midwest City community. She also served as President of Rose State’s Black Student Association and was a founding member of the Collegiate Freedom and Justice Coalition. Aleah continues their community work by organizing Black Queer-centered events in collaboration with Jessica Addai, with the aim of fostering and strengthening Black Queer community in Oklahoma.
MiaMaria Heredia (she/her) is an Afro-Latina, queer woman currently working within the community of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a Mental Wellness Coordinator for Black Queer Tulsa, where she facilitates mental wellness events, healing circles and community-building for the local Black Queer community. Mia also has almost a decade of experience studying and working in the mental health field with children and families. She is a Program Supervisor at Family & Children’s Services, a large mental health non-profit located in Tulsa, and spends her days educating and training mental health clinicians. Her passion and mission is centered in dismantling societal barriers that impact marginalized communities and creating spaces where all persons are loved and free to be their authentic selves.
Author KB Brookins (they/them) is a Black, queer, and trans writer, cultural worker, and visual artist from Texas. Their writing is featured in Poets.org, HuffPost, Teen Vogue, Poetry Society of America, Oxford American, and elsewhere. KB’s poetry chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound won the Saguaro Poetry Prize, a Writer’s League of Texas Discovery Prize, and a Stonewall Honor Book Award. Their poetry collection Freedom House, described as “urgent and timely” by Vogue, won the American Library Association Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for the Best First Book of Poetry. Freedom House was named a Best Book of 2023 by four publications. KB adapted Freedom House into a solo art exhibit, which debuted at Prizer Arts and Letters in April 2024. Their debut memoir Pretty (Alfred A. Knopf) released in May 2024
Kristy Vann (she/her) is a boomerang Tulsan with a passion for making Tulsa an inclusive city to live. As Executive Director, Programming with Black Queer Tulsa, Kristy creates strategic community partnerships, builds sustainable programming for Black queer Tulsans, including BQT's Youth Drop In Center and helps achieve organizational effectiveness as part of BQT's leadership team. She also works as the Senior Revenue Manager with The Common Application, a nonprofit committed to the pursuit of access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. Kristy also sits on the Finance Committee for Housing Solutions, leading in the development, advocacy and coordination of community strategies to prevent and end homelessness. She loves spending time with family, friends and her 2 fur babies.
Hi, my name is Daniel McHenry (he/they) and I am the founder of Black Queer Tulsa (BQT). I am a Tulsa native and grew up on the west side of Tulsa. I spent some time away in Fort Smith Arkansas to take a break from my busy life back in 2017 and when I returned in Oct. 2019 i realized I did not have community. So I began getting busy with creating that space. I am currently working as a personal trainer, and the ED of Events BQT. I have worked in IT for the past 5yrs. I am currently working to build my career in the non profit world to make Black Queer Tulsa, not just accessible to Tulsa, but to Oklahoma.
J (they/them) is a queer disabled individual with experience in housing instability. Their mission is to raise awareness about others with similar struggles. As the Director of Communications for the OKC YAB, they are responsible for all communication implementations on the board.
Jessica Addai (she/they) is a first-generation Ghanaian American who identifies as an Afro-Queer identity. She received her B.A. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a minor in Media Studies from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2023. As a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, her undergraduate research focused on Oklahoma Medical Cannabis patients, medical cannabis communities for women and femmes, and the intersectional experiences of BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ medical cannabis users. Her professional background includes serving as an event coordinator/project manager at the Women's Research & BGLTQ+ Student Center and a Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance researcher at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, where she conducted health-related interviews with diverse Oklahomans for state-wide health data. She is currently a graduate-level academic advisor at the University of Oklahoma.