In recent times, students may be struggling to feel a sense of community. This is especially true for students in the LGBTQ+ community who might live with families or in communities that are not accepting of their identity. Hayden Morgan, a Citizen Scholars intern and third year English student, developed an event to create a community for these students. They said, “Since I have been home from the pandemic, I have completely lost all of my inspiration for writing. And I have talked to a few other people who have kind of said the same thing, particularly when it comes to queer writers. But, a lot of queer people have been displaced back to their homes and having to hold back a lot of their personality and a lot of who they are. And as a result, writing doesn’t come as easily and they lose a lot of the inspiration that they had and the place and people that they loved on campus. So, my goal was to bring back a little bit of that community space that we had in our English classes, in poetry nights, our writers workshops, all of the things that RCAH does, and local coffee shops do; I wanted to bring back a little bit of that so that maybe we could find some more of that inspiration again.”
Hayden, who is a poet, is hosting the event every Thursday night at 7 p.m. via Zoom. In addition, there will be check-ins each meeting to see how everyone is doing both creatively and emotionally and to share how they are motivating themselves to write.
If you are searching for a space that will welcome you and accept you for who you are, this is a great opportunity. The event is open to all types of LGBTQ+ writers and whatever medium they choose. We hope to see you there!