QWOCMAP Testimonials

Letter of support from Kristin Wygal

QWOCMAP works to expand the opportunities given to and the visibility of queer women of color. Many people in the San Francisco community and the world at large know little about the queer women of color community. We are everywhere yet our voices remain underground. We are not given access to specific mediums, such as film and video, in order to express our experiences. The voices in mainstream media are not our own. QWOCMAP works to shift all of that. It is an enabling organization that inspires queer women of color here in San Francisco to tell stories. It is a source of healing, organizing and networking with other strong women within our community.

Rebecca Hurdis writes:
"For young women of color, there is a sentiment that we must find a central identity that precedes all others. We are asked to find one identity that will encapsulate our entirety. We are asked to choose between gender, class, race, and sexuality and to announce who we are first and foremost. Yet where is the space for multiplicity? ~ Ed. Hernández & Rehman, "Heartbroken," Colonize This!

I am marginalized in the women's community because I am a queer person of color; I am marginalized in people of color communities because I am a queer woman; I am marginalized in the queer community because I am a woman of color. QWOCMAP provides the space for queer women of color to embrace the intersection of identity, to be queer, female, and a person of color. Through video production classes and the Queer Women of Color Film Night, we have the opportunity to embrace our community as well as to expose the broader San Francisco community to our voices.

As a queer woman of multiracial descent, gaining access to video as a medium has opened me up to a new level of expression. I was a participant in the video production class specifically for queer women of color under 25 years of age. Within that class, I was able to create a short video, which later had its world premiere at the Queer Women of Color Film Night. Since then, it has gone on to be screened in Toronto, Boston, Frameline's San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Vancouver, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Berlin, Bombay, and multiple cities in Brazil. It also continues to be up for consideration in multiple cities through out the world. Without QWOCMAP, I would never have been able to make such a video and therefore would not have realized the power of video and film as a medium.

QWOCMAP enabled me to pick up a camera and share my thoughts with the world. It gave me access to equipment and a support network with other queer women of color that allowed me the power and self-assurance to continue to see the project to its end. Because of QWOCMAP, I plan to pursue an M.F.A. in film production.

I work within the queer community and understand that there is rarely space for queer women of color. It is important for QWOCMAP to continue to bring our community together so that we recognize our complexities and embrace our differences and join together more unified.

QWOCMAP can continue to enrich, not only the San Francisco community, but communities throughout the world through providing space for queer women of color in the film industry, a space to celebrate film and video creations of queer women of color, and to expose a larger audience to our creations and experiences.

Sincerely,

Kristin Wygal
November 20th, 2004



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