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In 2011, QuERI hosted an all day professional development event in a downtown art gallery. In the morning were four different workshops for educators and student support staff on the school experiences of LGBTQ students and families. The afternoon included a theatre performance by the QuERI Theatre for Change group, student poetry readings, and story sharing by a panel of LGBTQ youth. The 200 pieces of visual and textual art from the Identity Art project were shown in the gallery space.
The Day of Silence (DOS) is a national, annual event where participating students choose to be silent all day in school to represent the every day silencing and invisibility of LGBTQ students. For the past seven years, QuERI has worked to support area students in making the Day of Silence a more active and potentially effective form of action. One approach to increasing visibility has been student flash mobs. A choreographer created a 3 minute dance to a pop song that addressed the value of all individuals. A QuERI arts intern then worked with students in area schools to teach them the dance in the weeks before the annual DOS. The flash mob dances were performed in school hallways throughout the area on the DOS, and the QuERI team drove from school to school all day facilitating the action!
LGBTQ students often feel that the content of their lives is not appropriate material for school projects, assignments, or creative endeavors. Where their heterosexual peers may be comfortable painting images, creating poetry and telling stories of their desires, relationships, heartbreaks and family dramas, LGBTQ students and the children of LGBTQ families often feel unsafe doing the same. Silent Voices is an arts event where LGBTQ students and children of LGBTQ families in middle and high school can feel free to perform and present their art. The event was held at Syracuse Stage, the local professional theatre. Skits, plays, improve, singing, dancing, poetry and visual art by were all a part of the evening. Most students performed original works. The event was open to school professionals, friends, and family.