Past Black and Latina Womxn Summits
2019 Black and Latina Womxn Summit
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Student Dining and Residence Programs Building | 301 E. Gregory Dr., Champaign, IL 61820
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
Registration CLOSED: go.illinois.edu/BLWSregistration
Our theme for this year’s summit is Decolonization: Our Rebirth.
The institutionalization of colonial practices has historically been forced into our existence as Womxn of Color in all parts of the world; including Africa, Latin America, and the U.S. This year’s theme will explore colonized ideologies that have been forcefully instilled in us and have oppressed us at the institutional, psychological, and emotional level.
In doing so, we will discuss ways to dismantle the structures that have marginalized and deemed us as subordinate by exploring ways to unlearn what we have been taught within ourselves and our daily lives. This theme will take an analytical approach to our cultures and socialized practices that have been historically ingrained in us through colonization. In doing so, we hope to reclaim our identities by acknowledging our past and taking control of our present for a greater future.
Call for Proposals
To Submit Workshop Proposals CLOSED: go.illinois.edu/BLWSproposals
The purpose of the Summit is to provide an opportunity for Black and Latina Womxn in the campus community to build coalitions as well as discuss issues of womxnhood. The summit also provides a space to develop strategies to achieve academic success, professional, development, and wellness. Our goal is to provide an environment for undergraduates, graduates, and staff, to connect and develop a network. Furthermore, we aim to provide a safe space to have deep conversations as well as provide knowledge of the resources that campus provides.
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2018 black and latina womxn summit
Sunday, April 8, 2018
I Hotel and Conference Center | 1900 South First Street, Champaign
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
Registration Form ClOSED: https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/6073821
The theme of the 2017 Black and Latina Womxn Summit is M.O.S.A.I.C. [making our sisterhood an indestructible coalition]
The purpose of the Summit is to provide an opportunity for Black and Latina Womxn in the campus community to build coalitions as well as discuss issues of womxnhood. The summit also provides a space to develop strategies to achieve academic success, professional, development, and wellness. Our goal is to provide an environment for undergraduates, graduates, and staff, to connect and develop a network. Furthermore, we aim to provide a safe space to have deep conversations as well as provide knowledge of the resources that campus provides.
Call for Proposals: CLOSED
Our theme for this year’s 2018 Black and Latina Womxn Summit is Womxn of Fire: Embracing Our Flame. Institutional and systemic practices have historically placed Black and Latina womxn in subordinate positions and have exploited our communities. But still in the face of adversity, we rise from the ashes in full flame. The purpose of this Summit is to learn to address and deconstruct the power structures and oppressive systems that have historically suppressed our communities and have conditioned us to view ourselves in a negative light, all while recognizing our role within pre-existing and emerging efforts that strive to do so. We seek to reclaim control of our narratives by empowering ourselves and projecting our voices on our own terms.
This year’s summit goals are to provide our communities with the tools to remove oppressive systems, address anti-blackness in our communities, and create a strong and sustainable foundation for liberation within our campus community and most importantly, beyond.
Confront:
Within this section, we will confront harmful expectations and assumptions of gender, sexuality, femininity, race, and other aspects of Black and Latina identities. To do so we must center perspectives and voices from our own communities that have historically been erased or silenced, tackling issues that transcend borders. The dominant narratives that exist are only incomplete stories that do not accurately represent the complex identities of Black and Latina womxn.
-Ex. A workshop on colorism in the U.S. and its impacts; workshop on intersectionality/exclusion of this word from the Women’s March (how gender roles/femininity restricts how we see each other and ourselves and this creates further in our communities), The exclusion of Afro-Latinx in both communities
-Ex. A workshop on the consistent violence against tran(s) womxn, and how cisgender women contribute to this oppression. (Transphobia is very present in the Black and Latinx communities)
Deconstruct:
In this section, we want to give Black and Latina womxn the knowledge, skills, and inspiration to continue the fight against intersecting systems of oppression. We believe an analysis of historical violence and trauma is necessary to understand our present day struggle. Our hope is to not only to draw inspiration from examples of resistance throughout past and present history, but to also help Black and Latina womxn develop skills to address pressing issues within our communities and transform into better activist and allies.
Ex. Workshop on activism on college campuses and how we should not detach the surrounding community that are directly impacted by academic institutions, grassroots activism, our role in specific forms of activism (LGBTQ rights, environmental justice)
Empower:
Being a womxn of color navigating a society that places privilege and power in whiteness takes a heavy toll on our mental health and overall well-being. We believe that a crucial part of resisting is active self care and unapologetically expressing ourselves through creative outlets. Although healing from individual, collective, and historical trauma is an extensive journey, we hope to gain the skills necessary to build healthy relationships with ourselves, others, and our communities through which we can continue to grow and thrive.
Ex. A workshop on meditation; workshop on understanding/addressing mental health in our communities, establishing healthy boundaries with yourself/with others
Promote:
In this section, we want to uplift and showcase artists of color to amplify their creativity, increase their visibility, motivate future creators, and demonstrate the power of art as the projection of struggle, resistance, liberation, and healing. In addition, we will offer this space to local activists who are advocating for their community through various methods.
Ex. Workshop that mimics an art museum or showcase (we set up a room with artwork from local artists and booths with grassroot initiatives and let people walk around and look/observe/ask questions about it, etc.)
Wild Card:
This area will focus on any issues or topics that address the lives, struggles, and intersectional identities of Black and Latina womxn that may not necessarily fit into one of the categories mentioned above
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2017 Black and Latina Womxn Summit
Sunday, April 2, 2017
I Hotel and Conference Center | 1900 South First Street, Champaign
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
The theme of the 2017 Black and Latina Womxn Summit is M.O.S.A.I.C. [making our sisterhood an indestructible coalition]
The purpose of the Summit is to provide an opportunity for Black and Latina Womxn in the campus community to build coalitions as well as discuss issues of womxnhood. The summit also provides a space to develop strategies to achieve academic success, professional, development, and wellness. Our goal is to provide an environment for undergraduates, graduates, and staff, to connect and develop a network. Furthermore, we aim to provide a safe space to have deep conversations as well as provide knowledge of the resources that campus provides.
You can download the program at the link below.
BLWS Booklet.pdf
2017 black and latina womxn summit
Sunday, April 2, 2017
I Hotel and Conference Center | 1900 South First Street, Champaign
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
The theme of the 2017 Black and Latina Womxn Summit is M.O.S.A.I.C. [making our sisterhood an indestructible coalition]
The purpose of the Summit is to provide an opportunity for Black and Latina Womxn in the campus community to build coalitions as well as discuss issues of womxnhood. The summit also provides a space to develop strategies to achieve academic success, professional, development, and wellness. Our goal is to provide an environment for undergraduates, graduates, and staff, to connect and develop a network. Furthermore, we aim to provide a safe space to have deep conversations as well as provide knowledge of the resources that campus provides.
You can download the program at the link below.
BLWS Booklet.pdf
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2016 black and latina womyn summit
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Student Dining and Residential Programs
9 am to 4 pm
Registration form: CLOSED https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/53477
The purpose of the summit is to provide an opportunity for Black and Latina Womyn in the campus community to build coalitions as well as discuss topics of womynhood. The summit also provides a space to develop strategies to achieve academic success, professional, development, and wellness. Our goal is to provide an environment for undergraduates, graduates, faculty and staff staff, and community members to connect and develop a network. Furthermore, we aim to provide a space to have conversations of action and unity as expand the knowledge of these topics.
Call for Proposals
2016 Submission Form: CLOSED
For the 2016 program, summit organizers encourage submissions of innovative, diverse, and challenging program proposals that address Black and Latina womyn in higher education. Proposals should align with the one or more of the following themes:
Self-Identity: Our Many Shades
This section explores identities and their intersections within Black and Latina womyn communities. Submissions can include issues in regards to colorism and sexism within said communities, but may also explore queerness, gender, religion, ethnicity and any variety of Black and Latina womyn’s identities and experiences. Presenter should be able to help participants explore the diversity in their identities and aesthetics.
Building Bridges [Over Borders]
This section explores the cultivation of comm(unity) amongst Black and Latina womyn, as well as how building of bridges matters in a global context. Submissions may include historical alliance between Black and Latina womyn, the overlap of Black and Latina womyn’s resistance and resilience, activism, shared experiences and global perspectives.
Treat Yo’self
This section explores mental health and the importance of self-care for Black and Latina womyn. Submissions may include art expression, poetry, self-affirmations, other forms of self-love, the impacts of mental health, and other healing processes for Black and Latina womyn.
Black & Brown (Miss)representation
This section explores the misrepresentations of Black and Latina womyn within various spaces and its influence on perception of womyn and self within society. Submissions may include topics on violence against womyn, sexual assault, body image, redefining beauty, eating disorders, leadership, womyn in the media, womyn in education, defining femininity, and intersectional feminism.
Wild Card
This area will focus on any topics and issues of Black and Latina womyn that fall outside of the aforementioned categories.