The Annual LGBT OUTreach sypmposium is scheduled from 10 am to 4 pm, April 4 in room 111 of the GSEIS building.

This year's symposium, entitled Queer Text(ures): Reading and Writing LGBT Community History, will focus on how community history is written through literacy and publication, and how we as information professionals can contribute to its commemoration. Our hope is that this will be a forum of diverse voices from a variety of backgrounds, engaged in dialogue about the strands of history and identity that tie us together in community.

Confirmed Speakers are

Noel Alumit, Writer and Performance Artist
Noël Alumit is an American writer and actor. Named one of the Top 100 Influential Gay People by Out Magazine, Alumit's work has been published in Tilting the Continent (New Rivers Press), Take Out (Asian American Writers Workshop/Temple University), Subterraneans, and the literary journal DisOrient. His debut novel, Letters to Montgomery Clift (MacAdam Cage), received the 2003 Stonewall Book Award for literature and his second novel, Talking To the Moon, was released in late 2006 by Carroll & Graf.


Chris Freeman, Instructor, University of Southern California
Chris Freeman is an Instructor in the Department of English at the University of Southern California. His research focuses primarily on 20th Century gay and lesbian studies. Freeman is the co-editor of several books, including "The Isherwood Century: Essays on the Life and Work of Christopher Isherwood" (Lambda Literary Award winner); and "Conversations With Christopher Isherwood." He also edited John Carlyle's Hollywood memoir, and, more recently, a book about gay Los Angeles scheduled for publication in 2008.


Felice Picano, Writer and Publisher
Felice Picano is an acclaimed writer who has also been actively involved in the publishing of gay literature. He founded Sea Horse Press in 1977, co-founded Gay Presses of New York, and is a member of the Violet Quill group. Picano's first book was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Since then, he has published twenty volumes of fiction, poetry, and memoirs, and is considered a founding member of modern gay literature.


Imani Tolliver, Poet and Educator
Imani Tolliver is a poet and educator. She has received several awards, including a Lannon Literary Fellowship and a John J. Wright Literary Award. In addition to having been a featured poet across the country, Tolliver also teaches an LGBT poetry workshop at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza/LA Gay and Lesbian Center. Presently, she serves as the 2007/2008 Poet Laureate for the Watts Towers Arts Center in Los Angeles, California.


For archived information on last year's symposium, please click here.