Finding Pride Week’s Purpose In The AUC
Seeing students have expressive freedom is a highlight for organizers, because the LGBTQ+ community is an integral part of the AUC community.
The pride that Morehouse and Spelman students have has intensified except this time it isn’t pride in their school. SafeSpace and Afrekete, the LGBTQ+ organizations at Morehouse and Spelman, have entered their annual Pride Week. It’s a week where the queer community in the Atlanta University Center (AUC) celebrates themselves with events such as: Pride Hump Wednesday, Drag Show, Queer Prom, Karaoke Night, and many other events.
While this week brings some joy to queer students, there immense work that goes into structuring events. Pride is only a week long, but student leaders have spent an outrageous time organizing for a successful week. Afrekete President Lisa Brown mentioned that she and fellow leaders spent six months planning the events.
“There’s so much that goes into planning and making sure things go perfect, so to have the weight gone is a relief,” SafeSpace Vice President Daquan Spratley said. “It’s very strenuous work, getting together with other students who have crazy schedules, and when you have such grand ideas, but don’t have as much support from your institution as you would like. What we do is very important and necessary work whether or not we are backed by Morehouse or not, this is something I feel I must do while I am a student here.
“Knowing that we are changing the climate on campus, that some of the students can wake up and beat their face, get their nails done, and just express themselves in whatever way they want, it makes it all worth it.”
Seeing students have expressive freedom is a highlight for organizers, because the LGBTQ+ community is an integral part of the AUC community.
“The AUC has a large number of students that identify as a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and oftentimes you can’t see that,” Afrekete Social Media Director and Miss Safe Space Asheé Grocé said. “Pride week is one week out of the year that the LGBTQ+ community in the AUC has the freedom to discuss our issues and I think there’s something special about that.”
Lack of support from their respective institution was something that both organizations experienced when organizing their events together. For Afrekete, the main issue was finding event funding and this caused some low moments when putting things together.
“I never wanted to give up because it is not really in my character, but I definitely felt defeated various times,” Brown said. “A specific cause of stress was funding. A lot of things ended up coming out of pocket. I had a really supportive E-Board and they were able to help if I was losing my energy.”
However, they don’t let the low moments stop them from doing what needs to be done, because Pride Week is more than just coming together.
“I believe being in a space as unique as Morehouse it’s important that we celebrate Queer identities as they are quick to be erased or othered,” Spratley said.
“In addition, it allows students who are not queer or don’t know about the queer community out to more events,” Brown said.
When planning events, they made sure to provide the community more than serious conversations but also fun times.
“For instance, we kicked Pride Week ’19 with a brunch,” Spratley said. “The LGBTQ+ loves a good brunch, and we brought it to the students. For an example of what we need, I believe we needed a talk about Sexual Health and maintaining platonic and romantic relationships, so Monday was the Safe Sex and Healthy Relationships Workshop.”
Overall, ensuring that Pride Week is a success is not the easiest thing to do, but when it’s executed it is all worth the while for these leaders because of how the students feel.
“Planning Pride Week is worthwhile when I get to see everyone smiling at the events or crying because it was the first time they felt safe,” Brown said. “Whatever the case, it is worth it because of what it means to our members. It gives queer students an opportunity to feel at home and seen in this space.”
That sense of community is one that people like to see.
“Seeing queer life come together in the AUC, ideally, has not been something I have seen yet,” SafeSpace Archivist Stefon Scott said. “However, I do appreciate the moments when queer students come together and just celebrate each other’s existence, brothers, sisters, and bristers alike.”
Jair Hilburn Morehouse College Junior International Studies major and Journalism minor from Kilgore, TX.
