Salon

“Queer is an energy potential in everyone.” -Maureen Seaton

According to our friends at Wikipedia, a “salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace’s definition of the aims of poetry, ‘either to please or to educate’.”

Well, that sounded a little boring, so we’ve decided to amp up our literary salon series. The Queer Depot Literary Salon Series will, of course, have inspiring hosts and hostesses, and even pastries, at our salons. But, most importantly, we will gather people from the community regardless of sexual orientation and gender identification to do more than just amuse one another. We’ll address important topics within the queer community through spirited conversations that address issues that impact all of us to create a better informed and better connected community.

“We’re all queer,” writes RQ Executive Director Neil de la Flor. “We all have that queer potential in us, an energy potential, a dial—and I’m not talking about sex or sexuality. You can’t turn yourself on to someone you’re not attracted to, but you can amp up your creative life by breaking molds that hold us in place. Queer breaks molds. It’s a creative force within all of us that alters our perception of ourselves and the world. It’s a force that allows us to view the world differently, to conceive of new ideas and recognize the value and potential in those ideas. That famous cliché ‘thinking out of the box’ is the embodiment of queer because we have to take ourselves outside of our cage to see a potential in the world that had never been thought of before. We need more of this in the world!”

The Queer Depot Literary Salon Series will bring more of this into the world! It will adhere (more or less) to Horace’s definition, but we’re going to break the barrier between host and audience so that we can truly find common ground. And, one of the best things about Queer Depot: it’s free and open to the community regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification.We encourage everyone to participate and contribute their voice to the discussion because it is through discourse that we can find commonality.

Upcoming Queer Depot Literary Salons:

Queer 101: An Introduction to Queer
Queer 209: Queering the Community
Queer 354: Queer Literature, Hybridity or Bust
Queer 504: Special Topics in Queer (graduate level course open to all)