Lavender Graduation
Lavender Graduation Ceremony
Lavender Graduation Ceremony
For Class of 2023 Graduates Students, Faculty and Staff
About:
Lavender Graduation is an annual graduation ceremony conducted at universities to
honor LGBTQIA+ students and acknowledge their accomplishments and contributions. LGBTQIA+ is an acronym used to signify Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer,
Intersex, and Asexual people collectively.
2023 Ceremony:
As part of KCC’s Commencement festivities, we will be hosting our 3rd annual Lavender Graduation Ceremony for our students who identify as LGBTQIA+, on Tuesday, June 13th, 2023 at 3:00 pm in U219 (check-in is at 2:30 pm).
Participation
Graduates: We encourage all graduates who identify as LGBTQIA+ to participate and be recognized at the ceremony by filling out the form below by Friday, JUNE 9th:https://rebrand.ly/KCCLavenderGRADUATE
Audience: All are welcome to attend the event in support of our LGBTQIA+ graduating students. If you would like to attend our Lavender Graduation Ceremony, as an audience member, please fill out this form: https://rebrand.ly/KCCLavenderGUEST
Any questions regarding this event can be directed to Linda McKernan at linda.mckernan@kbcc.cuny.edu or via phone 718-368-6642.
Featuring
The Lavender Graduation Committee is proud to present the following featured speakers for the 2023 program:
Host
Arturo Humberto Enamorado III
Behavioral Sciences Lecturer, Men's Teach assistant program coordinator, LGBTQ+ Student Organization Co-Faculty Advisor
Featured Faculty Speaker
Amy Karp
Associate Professor for English
Amy Tziporah Karp is an Associate Professor of English at CUNY Kingsborough Community College who specializes in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as well as Creative Writing. Dr. Karp has published numerous journal articles on LGBTQIA+ Jewish American assimilation and her forthcoming book, Speaking from a Strange Place: Ashkenazi Jewish American Women and Non-Binary Queer Figures in Contemporary Popular Culture, will go to press this summer with Rowman and Littlefield publishers. Her poetry has also appeared in numerous magazines and journals and a film based on her long poem exploring queerness, Jewishness, gender, and fighting cancer, The ABC Conjecture, made with filmmaker and Professor Brian Katz, has been shown in film festivals around the world.
Featured Student Speaker
Promyse Williams
Class of 2023 Graduate
Keynote Speaker Lavender Graduation
Mohamed Q. Amin
Founder and Executive Director, Caribbean Equality Project.
Mohamed Q. Amin (he/they) is an Indo-Caribbean, Queer, and Muslim immigrant rights
activist, a native of Guyana, who currently resides in Richmond Hill, Queens, NY.
On the eve of the 2013 NYC Pride Parade, Amin, his partner, and his siblings survived
a vicious attack for being members of the LGBTQ+ community in their Caribbean-centric
Southeast Queens neighborhood. In response to the anti-LGBTQ hate violence, in 2015,
he founded the Caribbean Equality Project (CEP), a non-profit organization that advocates
for Caribbean LGBTQ+ voices in New York City. His transnational advocacy and community
organizing are rooted in gender equity, racial justice, dismantling and decolonizing
systems of oppression, healing, and ending anti-LGBTQ hate violence in the Caribbean
diaspora.
Read More.
Committee Members
Thank you to all who support the execution of the 2023 Lavender Graduation Ceremony and a special thanks to our committee members:
Latoya Aultman; Senior Academic Advisor - Liberal Arts & Humanities Academy
Nadine Browne; Chief of Staff
Arturo Enamorado III; Behavioral Sciences Lecturer, Men's Teach Assistant program coordinator, LGBTQ+ Student Organization Co-Faculty Advisor
Linda McKernan; Program Lead, Special Projects Assistant, Office of the President
Ryan McKinney; Professor of Theatre Arts, Director of Theatre Arts Program, Director, Kingsborough Center for Teaching & Learning (KCTL)
Melissa Merced; Director of Student Life
Helen Nasser; Director Student Union, and Intercultural Center
Jennifer Oliveri; Department of English, Co-director of Safe Zone
Mariana Sang; Administrative Executive Coordinator, Office of the President
Michael Smith; Lecturer, Paramedic Program, Co-director of Safe Zone
If you are a staff or faculty member who is interested in participating in the planning and execution of Lavender Graduation in the future, please reach out to Linda.mckernan@kbcc.cuny.edu.