ALOK (they/them), a multifaceted artist and public speaker, delivered the Spring 2023 Shepard Symposium on Social Justice keynote address on Wednesday, April 19, speaking on topics of inclusion, pain, and current political issues.
During the event, ALOK discussed feelings of fear, anxiety, whimsy, joy, and hope, highlighting the emotions that come with being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, while attempting to provide insight for those who may not consider themselves part of the community.
“We spend so much of our time trying to exonerate and exculpate ourselves from what they say that we are. We say that we are not the monsters in the closet. We say we are not the collapse of civilization,” ALOK said.
“We spent so much time saying what we are not that I think that we forget to say what we are. What we are as a people who believe in love.”
While using humor to discuss current political issues and gender stereotypes, ALOK also delved into personal stories.
“The only accident in my life was when they proclaimed me both brown and boy at my birth and I have been trying to recover from both ever since. You see, the thing about this body is you’ll use words like anxiety and pressure to diagnose this pain, instead of race and gender,” ALOK said.
Students in attendance reported being positively impacted by the event.
“If I had to describe it in two words, I would say touching and necessary,” Ryan Tucker, a graduate student at UW, said.
“While I’m not particularly a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I am a staunch ally; I am a staunch advocate. It’s important to advocate for people because they are people. I think it’s far too easy to vilify that which you don’t understand, but I think if more people got to listen to people like ALOK, they would understand. They would realize these are people, not just an idea.”
Those in attendance also reported enjoying the use of humor to address such serious topics.
“It was an amazing mix of both comedy and poignancy, which I found to be probably the best way to bring forward the points that they wanted to bring up. I just found it to be a very engaging and powerful look at the topics that they wanted to really highlight,” Riley Box, another graduate student, said.
One of the three Shepard Symposium Volunteer Co-Chairs, Allison Gernant, was pleased with the event, and shared it’s important to expose people to unique ways of life.
“We live in a heteronormative society, especially in Wyoming. I understand that in rural frontier places in Wyoming, people sometimes don’t get to understand the expanse of the whole world, of human beings,” Gernant said.
“We’re here to be able to highlight and celebrate all kinds of marginalized people.”
The 2023 Shepard Symposium on Social Justice will be held in two halves, or chapters. Chapter one has begun and will run through April 22 with more events throughout campus. Chapter two will be hosted October 8 through 14.
