A Call for Queer Futures Month—Honoring Black Futures MonthThursday, June 5 | 9am Pacific Time
June, celebrated worldwide as LGBTQ+ Pride Month, provides a powerful moment to assert and honor our identities, which remain frequently targeted and undermined. Yet, beyond celebration, there exists an urgent opportunity: what if Pride also deliberately cultivated a forward-looking practice—known as Queer futures—for envisioning the diverse and vibrant possibilities that await LGBTQ+ people? Drawing direct inspiration from Black Futures Month, launched by the Movement for Black Lives in 2015 as a visionary counterpoint to February’s ongoing commemoration of Black History, we'll host a talk which proposes establishing Queer Futures Month as an essential new tradition every June.
Amidst rising discrimination, slashed funding for LGBTQ+ services and research, and even declining public support, imagining and planning for the road ahead has never been more vital. By centering foresight and speculative creativity, Queer Futures Month aims to equip LGBTQ+ communities with bold narratives and strategic insights for navigating and shaping tomorrow’s uncertainties. Honoring Afrofuturism’s profound influence, this talk will highlight how Black Futures Month has energized Black imagination and Black identity, demonstrating the transformative power inherent in intentional futures work.
Join us for a conversation with speculative designer Jason Tester and Dr. Lonny J Avi Brooks, Professor and Chair of Communication at Cal State East Bay. Ultimately, this presentation advocates that authentic liberation and equitable opportunity will be possible through intersectional solidarity—that the future will only truly be “wide open” when the struggle for justice is shared by all who dare to look beyond the present.