Work from Saturday's GSA conference

On Saturday, November 13th, members of LGBTQ Narratives facilitated a workshop at the fall conference of the Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools. Members of LGBTQ Narratives facilitated a "common word" writing exercise, in which youth offered up 12 words and everyone in the room had 20 minutes to create a piece using those words in order. Seventeen youth were in attendance at this workshop and many volunteered to share their work on this blog. Thank you to the youth who attended!

Here are a couple of writings from youth & facilitators:


Yes, go run and tell.
I'm gay.
And I express it openly.
Liberate me.
I am not a vegetable. I'm not different.
I am resilient.
I am no different.
Don't expect me to be a masterpiece. No.
I am a human being. I should be treated as so.
I am deliberate in being true to myself.
I am alive and gay.
And all I want is love.
- Jon


The culture runs counter clockwise to Truth.
I cannot suffer the fools who follow so blindly.
Suppressing and expression like mindless vegetables.
It is within our power to build our resilience through the joy of being different.
A masterpiece of the human condition.
A deliberate celebration of being alive, of being Queer, of loving ourselves.
-Danielle

I run from those who hate. I express my emotions,liberating my cause, eating vegetables while I sing a song. I'm resilient to those who oppose my difference, but I am a masterpiece of the creator of the human race. Deliberating when I'll die but I focus on being alive. I believe love is love no matter what for, even if it is for a whore. Even if I'm a bore I don't care. I'll be myself not an imposter like everyone else. If you aren't you then whom the hell are you? I don't know because you pretend that I'm your friend but you are not who you are for real but that is your won deal.
-Garrett

Run to us, offering wares on the street corner like candy, crack, and pencils to write with.
I, I, I, I, I, One, One, One, One
Expression locked within a series of syllables like a Yoko Ono sound piece.
Will unlocking the syllables liberate the sounds?
I am going to marry a vegetable standing outside Rebecca Kleefisch's new office.
Our resilient human-carrot bond.
It's a little different, but she is a masterpiece of a carrot - orange and ridged with purple rings.
Her near human expressiveness in the nobs I pretend are her eyes.
Our deliberately gentle touching - I have to be careful with her.
You don't have to be alive for me to want you
Our love will last until she withers away in the produce drawer and I add her to the compost bin.
-Shannon

Running through the town
I live, my expression on
my face is that of a liberator
of vegetables.
They had resilience to empower
the different types
the masterpiece came
in the form of human
they deliberated on how to
live alive and love together.
-Katie

Running on whispers,
I hear what you say.
I'm here to express to you,
liberate if you will, that you have lived the life of a vegetable.
With resilience, my community has stood proud.
You look at us as though we're different,
but I am a masterpiece, as you are a masterpiece, and we are all the same.
We, together, identify ourselves as "human."
Don't consider our lifestyles as "deliberate disobedience."
We're merely expressing ourselves as who we are while we're alive.
We all love, and not you, nor anyone, can ever tell us that's wrong.
-Maria

Every time I run away
I hold my expression tight
liberate me from my shell
keeping me silent like a vegetable
Hold your resilience
Dare to be different
landed on the island of misfit toys
I'm a masterpiece
I'm a human
This isn't deliberate, I didn't choose this
I'm ALIVE
I know love like anyone else
A name will not hold me back
-Brook

A run in the fabric that holds us
that holds us in
Break the old habit
am "I" triumphant
a pure expression
liberates us from tradition
root vegetables
and their winter resilience
each new season, a masterpiece
each human living free
a deliberate movement
to be unique and alive
with love in our hearts.
-Kiki