This event takes place on Crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required for virtual attendance. 

Charis welcomes editor Rae Garringer and contributors: hermelinda cortés, Brandon Sun Eagle Jent, Lucien Darjeun Meadows, Rayna Momen, Jai Arun Ravine, G. Samantha Rosenthal, and Joe Tolbert, Jr. for a panel discussion about To Belong Here: A New Generation of Queer, Trans, and Two-Spirit Appalachian Writers. This collection delves into how queer, trans, and Two-Spirit Appalachian people make sense of life in the mountains.

Appalachia has long been flattened into a white, Christian, and conservative place. While many Appalachians embrace those labels, they fail to acknowledge the presence of communities of color and of queer, trans, and Two-Spirit people across the region. Religious fundamentalism, white supremacy, homophobia, and transphobia continue to oppress queer and gender-expansive Appalachians, especially Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. These realities have adversely affected queer and trans folks' ability to claim their rightful places within the region.
 
To Belong Here delves into how queer, trans, and Two-Spirit Appalachian people make sense of life in the mountains. Featuring contributors whose identities across race, gender, and socioeconomic background make for a uniquely intersectional look at the area, this collection provides a nuanced understanding of Appalachia and what it means to represent it. Themes of erasure, environmentalism, violence, kinship, racism, Indigeneity, queer love, and trans liberation course through the volume and exemplify the writers' resilience in reconciling their complex and often contradictory connections to home. A collective exploration of rejection and acceptance, To Belong Here calls for a more inclusive future in Appalachia—one where everyone can thrive.

Rae Garringer (they/them) is a writer, oral historian, and audio producer based in southeastern West Virginia where they were raised. They are the author and editor of Country Queers: A Love Letter and the editor of To Belong Here: A New Generation of Queer, Trans, and Two-Spirit Appalachian Writers.

hermelinda cortés (she/they) schemes and daydreams about how to use organizing, narrative and strategic communications to build power, fortify lasting connections between communities, dismantle systems of domination, and build the liberated world we and future generations deserve. The child of Mexicans and West Virginians, country folks, farmers, factory workers and trailer parks, she has dedicated her life to the journey of liberation and to the work of social movements for the last 15 years. Hermelinda is a writer, curandera in training, organizer, communicator, and strategist. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where she writes, cooks, grows flowers, and raises her kid in the company of dogs and chickens. She believes in the magic, alchemy, and revolutionary possibilities of small towns and rural people.

Brandon Sun Eagle Jent (he/she/they) resides in Whitesburg, Kentucky, on the unceded lands of the ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ, S'atsoyaha, and Shawanwaki nations. A lifelong lover of words, languages, and stories, he holds a Masters degree in Linguistic Theory and Typology from the University of Kentucky. Brandon writes poetry as part of a lifelong dialogue between himself, his kin (human and other-than-human), and the natural world, making each piece both a transcript and a love letter.

Lucien Darjeun Meadows (he/him) was born in Virginia and raised in West Virginia. Lucien has received fellowships and awards from the Academy of American Poets, American Alliance of Museums, and National Association for Interpretation. His debut poetry collection, In the Hands of the River, was published in 2022.

Rayna Momen (they/them) holds a PhD in sociology. They are a Black, non-binary poet, queer criminologist, and abolitionist born and raised in West Virginia. Momen co-founded a higher education in prison initiative that expands educational access for currently and formerly incarcerated people. They found their purpose building community in and outside of prison walls as a means of dismantling oppressive systems.

Jai Arun Ravine (they/them) is the author of แล้ว and then entwine: lesson plans, poems, knots (TinFish Press), a book that re-imagines immigration history and attempts to transform cultural inheritances of silence. Their short film Tom / Trans / Thai approaches the silence around female-to-male transgender identity in the Thai context and has screened internationally. The film’s companion scholarly article, “Toms and Zees: Locating FTM Identity in Thailand,” was published in Transgender Studies Quarterly Issue 1.3 (Duke University Press). Their second book The Romance of Siam: A Pocket Guide (Timeless, Infinite Light / Nightboat Books) is a subverted travel guide that consumes and regurgitates orientalism, the tourist archive, and white desire. They live in West Virginia.

G. Samantha Rosenthal (she/they) is Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of the Public History Concentration at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. She is the author of two books, Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City and Beyond Hawaiʻi: Native Labor in the Pacific World. They are co-founder of the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project, a nationally recognized queer public history initiative. Her work has received recognition from the National Council on Public History, the Oral History Association, the Committee on LGBT History, the American Society for Environmental History, and the Working Class Studies Association.

Joe Tolbert, Jr. (he/him) is a writer and cultural organizer who works at the intersections of art and culture, spirituality, and collective liberation. He received his B.S. in Communications from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and completed his M.Div. in Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He is a sought-after facilitator, creative producer, and cultural strategist who works with communities and arts institutions to help them harness the power of art and culture through his company Art at the Intersections.

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on Crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate.

Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. If you would like to watch the event with live AI captions, you may do so by watching it in Google Chrome and enabling captions: Instructions here. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org.

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