Passionate About Social Justice: Week of Action

Week of Action

The GLBT Center will host its fourth annual Week of Action from Monday, April 1 to Friday, April 5, 2019. The goal of the week is to help students, faculty, and staff find a social justice issue they are passionate about, explore ways to address the challenges of that issue and then discover ways that the issue intersects with other social justice issues.

Week of Action centers around Transgender Day of Visibility, observed on March 31 of each year.

This Year’s Events

This year’s Week of Action will begin with a Transgender Day of Visibility Pronoun Campaign on Monday, April 1, 2019 from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. in the lobby of Talley Student Union. Students, faculty, and staff are invited to participate in #GenderPronounAwareness by getting their picture taken with their pronouns and gathering posters to spread the word across campus.

Later that evening, the GLBT Center will host Josh Burford, director of Invisible Histories Project, for the Week of Action keynote address “Get Off Your Ass: A Look at Radical Queer Activism in the Late Twentieth Century” from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. in Talley Student Union, Room 4101. The talk is a chance for attendees to take a look at what radical queer activism has to offer as an alternative to the “love is love” mentality of the Gay Marriage Movement. Burford will lead attendees through a look at radical groups, how they have created opportunities for change and what their vision of a queer-centered future looks like.

Another component of the Week of Action is Take Back the Night, a partnership with the Women’s Center. Take Back the Night (TBTN) is the earliest world-wide protest against sexual violence and violence against women, specifically. NC State’s TBTN march and rally is an event that reclaims the night and our campus for survivors of sexual assault. The outdoor portion of this event is continued with a survivor speak out. Make your voice heard during Sexual Assault Awareness Month by joining the GLBT Center and Women’s Center as we Take Back the Night on Tuesday, April 2, 2019 starting at 6:00 p.m. in Stafford Commons (see also NC State Observes Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April for more information).

What do clothes have to do with social justice? On Wednesday, April 3, 2019 from 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. in Talley Student Union, Room 4280, join the GLBT Center, the GLBT Community Alliance, the NC State Stewards and the University Sustainability Office for a clothing swap. While you’re there, learn about how thrifting can help the planet, how clothing has been litigated and how important it is to have clothes that feel great to you. The GLBT Center (Suite 5230, Talley Student Union) is collecting donations between March 15 – April 1. No donations are necessary to participate in the swap.

Finish the week on Thursday, April 4, 2019 with “Green Space is a Social Justice Issue” from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. in the GLBT Center Lounge (Talley Student Union, Suite 5230). For an initiative to be truly sustainable, it must be environmentally sound, economically sound and socially sound. Come explore these pillars of sustainability with the GLBT Center, University Sustainability Office and Associate Professor Anne Spafford from the Department of Horticulture Science. A tour of the Green Roof will follow a discussion about sustainability, green space and social justice.

See the Calendar