Hello and Happy Sunday to you! For the first time in this newsletter’s history, I am late with a Sunday post. This is for good reason; I just spent the last few days networking with faculty & grad students at the University of Virginia, exchanging ideas on how to best support transgender students down in Charlottesville. I also gave a joint DEI seminar for the UVA School of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering department about the importance of trans inclusion in STEM.
Next week, I will share some of the ideas & resources that came up in my conversations in a bigger post. For now, I thought I would share some pictures with you all!
Extra special thanks to the fine folks from UVA who hosted me, especially QIMS (Queer in Medical Sciences), the grad student organization who organized the whole thing, and especially especially Lillian DeCostanza. Lilly (she/they) has been my mentee for the past year, a younger trans woman earning her PhD in biomedical engineering. A year ago, when she was just starting to come out at work, she reached out via email to ask if I could be her mentor, and I agreed. This whole work trip happened because she really wanted me to visit her, then she realized that if she got me to come as a speaker, I could get my travel expenses covered too. Thanks, Lilly! <3 <3
My talk poster! I shared my personal transition story (as someone who came out in the first semester of my PhD program in chemical engineering), as well as tons of tips for how to make STEM programs more trans-inclusive.
Shaylyn Clancy (she/her) of Cell Biology, me, and Lilly (she/they) of Biomedical Engineering. These are some of the co-founders of QIMS!
Me meditating before my talk. I had two FULL days of back-to-back meetings prior to my seminar, providing me with a level of exhaustion reminiscent of my grueling faculty interviews. If you were there and I was too sleepy to chat with you after the talk, I am truly sorry!!
The LGBTQ+ Reception after the talk featured pride flags and this lovingly-drawn welcome message to me. These Virginian queers truly spoiled me!
Me and Lilly at the reception, surrounded by Progress Pride, Trans Pride, and Non-Binary Pride flags.
Some of the queers I connected with the most at the seminar afterparty (which I partially DJ’d).
And now, a silly one!
Aside from my 12+ meetings throughout Thursday and Friday, Lilly also too me to see some local queer venues. One was Visible Records, an anti-fascist bookstore ran by two trans femmes. I bought plenty of zines & buttons from here!
“DECOLONIZE UVA”, a very necessary banner in a university founded by a slaver (Thomas Jefferson).
Visible Records also has an art gallery attached, which was currently displaying stunning works by Caro Campos & Dorothy Li.
After viewing the artwork, we actually ran into Dorothy Li herself, who walked us around the gallery another time and explained the meaning behind the pieces. She told us the legend of how silk was discovered as a material; apparently, a Chinese Emperor’s wife was dining outside one day and a silkworm cocoon fell into her tea. As she pulled it out, the cocoon dissolved and the silk came out in long strands. It was truly a special treat to hear about these works of art directly from the artist herself! You better believe I bought a print after that.
The Beautiful Idea is another queer bookstore that opens literallytoday at the Downtown Mall! We were able to stop by Wednesday night and catch them painting and decorating in preparation for opening day. Incidentally, today is also Cville Pride!
My first taste of Cville’s food culture was The Tea Bazaar, a cozy tea place that Lilly took me too. Bless this woman.
Me and Lilly with our mugs at The Tea Bazaar <3
Me at the IX Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning, next to an apparnetly-infamous Butt Statue, a concrete structure with a crack in the middle making it look like…well, you know. A truck was too in the way to get a shot with the whole thing, so I settled for the tattoo.
Related: me covering up my “UMASS AMHERST” shirt to read “ASS / HERS”
Me giving money to Critter Butts, a queer vendor at the IX Farmer’s Market.
Some of the many, many things I got in Cville, including my Dorothy Li print (top left), zines and buttons from Visible Records, stickers and art from Critter Butts, and more. This thriving art scene just goes to show you that even in the South, queer communities can find each other and thrive.
See you all next week for my normal content!
In solidarity,
-Anna
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