That's So Gay! : An Event with New Lens Productions

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That's So Gay! : An Event with New Lens Productions

Clayton Conn

Clayton Conn |

Corey Reidy

18 January 2011 - 07:33 EST

James Traynham (New Lens Organizer): I am who I am and you are who you are. You never let someone come and destroy your joy and happiness because of the ignorance and insecurity within themselves.

On Wednesday, January 12th, 2011, New Lens Productions hosted a two hour, 6-8pm, homophobia educational event, entitled NO HOMO, at the Waverly Branch of Enoch Pratt Free Library.

New Lens Productions is an organization of around twenty youth organizers, along with select few adult overseers, that, in their words, work to, “...assist youth in making art and media about often-underrepresented perspectives. The work is used to address systemic problems, facilitate dialogue, shift perspectives and stimulate action.”

New Lens Productions is an evolution from the well-known former 'arts-based afterschool project' entitled Kids on the Hill. In 2009, New Lens became a Fusion Partnerships fiscally-sponsored project, aiming to allow youth to take the reins in social justice. The student activists have now been able to generate earned income,through the project, via their own personally written, directed, created, and produced commissioned videos. Their PSA's are aimed at educating their peers. The change they wish to see is meant to be done by and through one another.

Their numerous PSA’s range on as diverse, multi-faceted, profound, and enigmatic topics as: greenness, choice-making, how to create/conduct healthy relationships, youth and police dynamics, creating destiny, greed, black history and socio-politics, The Black Panthers, change, food, jealousy, the security state, beauty, urbanism, and, most recently, education and homophobia. Each documentary is an illuminating spin of candor, detail, inquisitiveness, intelligence, sharing, and exploration. Each video is a tool that the New Lens crew utilizes to stimulate discussion/education among their peers. New Lens youth organizers conduct workshops, conferences, and speaking engagements, often with their films serving as the impetus for study.

The library’s small conference room packed to the brim as allies and curious attendees filled the seats and lined the walls.

Three New Lens organizers took the stage. James Traynham, Chelsea Monae, and Kemisola Ko-Haru Ayiloye, who were all paramount in creating the documentary, facilitated the evening. Their publicity promised not only a screening of the documentary, but also interactive panels and activities. True to their word, the three youths began the night with a game to springboard conversation. A series of questions were to be announced. If your answer to the question was ‘yes’ you would stand. If the answer was ‘no’ you would remain seated.

Did someone make you come?
Did you come because the flyer said that there would be refreshments?
Have you ever opened a door for a female?
Do you want to get married?
Do you like when people open doors for you?
Can you cook dinner for your family?
Do you think the girl should be totally responsible for birth control in a relationship?
Do you think women have more responsibility in child-rearing?
Should men support women financially?
Do you think there are certain jobs women can’t do?
Do you think it’s ok for men to cry?
Have you ever made fun of someone for being soft?
Do you talk to your friends about your feelings?
Do you put looks before someone’s personality?
Have you ever said “no homo” or “that’s so gay”?
Do you think that being gay is wrong?

Many sat, stood, and questioned the questions as the game chugged merrily along. Many found that it was hard to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to particular inquiries. Many excited whispers escaped in fumbling bubbles as multiple interpretations arose from certain given questions.
When the last question was asked, “Do you believe that homosexuality is wrong?”
No one stood. The New Lens facilitators poked and prodded to get someone to reflect negatively on homosexuality. No one stood.

Into their documentary, No Homo, we went.

New Lens newest documentary is created specifically by straight allies to educate their peers on homophobia.The film slides back and forth between scripted scenes, that the New Lens crew wrote and directed, and real-life interviews. The written plot tells a story of how one young, black male is plagued in thought-provoking scenes about his sexuality, how he projects unto others his own insecurities via bullying, and, in the end,his eventual coming-out. This scripted story serves an essential skeleton upon which the rest of the actual-person plot was built.
In the interviews, straight teenagers speak on their ideas about homosexuality and homophobia. LGBTQ youths discuss their lived experiences.
The film was an expose on youth attitudes towards queerness, otherness, and their roles/interactions between one another.
After the screening, a post-viewing Q&A period was held.
A panel discussion immediately followed. The panel included a self-described transgendered individual, a straight individual- who didn’t fit into perceived norms, a young bisexual male, and an openly gay young male adult (who was featured in the film). Each member of the panel recounted their individual tales.
Hence followed a panel-induced subsequent Q&A, as well an invitation to the audience to share their own personal stories. This particular period was the evening’s dynamite.
Queer theory is deep, vast, fluid, and quickly evolving. Themes of the evening oscillated between norms, roles, language, constructions and deconstructions, view points, acceptance, and peer pressure. Whether knowing or not, which is beside the point, the audience and New Lens organizers dug into many of the cornerstones of this extremely intricate field of inquiry.
The teenagers proved that grappling with existence far from belongs solely to the realms of academia but rather is necessary to utilize for our everyday lives.

The Importance of Straight Allies in the Struggle for Equality

The idea for the film was ignited during a shared sex-ed course. A few New Lens participants began brainstorming on how they could, as straight allies, educate their peers on homophobia. Encouraged by their adult coordinators, a plan was launched. Two years of planning commenced. The end result was not only an extraordinarily poignant PSA but also a hatching of workshops and speaking events directed towards peer-to-peer educational purposes.
Inceptualized by straight youth allies to primarily educate their fellow straight peers on the consequences/ reverberations of thoughts, words, actions, and interactions - it became immediately wildly apparent that there was a dire need for this relationship and collaborative self-education. However, the welcome influence and alliance of the LGBTQ community to the attendance, helped direct the conversation into a humanizing framework. Also, the LGBTQ community was able to serve as personal experts in answering the straight-identified community’s inquiries.

More screenings, workshops, and speaking arrangements for and around this documentary are in the works. Stay tuned to the New Lens website for updated information.

New Lens aims to not only educate others, but in so doing, educate themselves. As the conversation sifted down multiple routes, it became clear that their media-making was far from merely about changing society externally, though a worthy goal. Fundamentally, the organizing is about changing society through changing themselves.

A poignant discussion across a diverse collective body, the night ended with the room brightly buzzing from the immensely provocative dialogue.

Indyreader: What do you think the importance is of straight allies talking about homophobia and trying to educate others on it?

James Traynham (New Lens Organizer): The important, in my opinion of it, the importance is everyone sees that we're all equal. Because you like what you like, that does not make you any different. You're still a human being. You bleed the same. If I get shot I'm gonna bleed red. If you get shot you're gonna bleed red.