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LGBTQ+ teens prepare a Night of Noise

To bring awareness to bullying and harassment, LGBTQ+ teens are making noise, a Night of Noise to be more exact. 

To bring awareness to bullying and harassment, LGBTQ+ teens are making noise, a Night of Noise to be more exact. 

The celebration is set for April 23 and is  organized by Out Boulder County’s, or OBC, student intern team. This year’s virtual event aims to break the silence for LGBTQ+ teens and bring awareness to issues of bullying and harassment in schools.

Four teens were selected for Out Boulder County’s paid internship program this year, giving them an opportunity to engage their community and learn beneficial skills. With issues involving COVID-19 making in-person gathering difficult and unsafe, the program shifted to a virtual space.

Abby Bason (she/her), a sophomore at Longmont’s Skyline High School, said she was eager to find a positive way to spend her free time and help with the LGBTQ+ community.

“Connecting completely virtually has been odd, so the meetings have been strange but still a lot of fun,” Bason said during the team’s weekly video call. 

“I’ve always found it much easier to connect with people in person, so putting in the work to do that virtually was tricky,” said Claire Zhang (any pronouns), a sophomore at Fairview High School in Boulder.

Zhang was interested in joining the internship program because she felt she had a skillset in organizing and event planning that was collecting dust. Previously involved with her school’s Young Democrats, she saw an opportunity to expand her work in the LGBTQ+ community and relearn working with a team after feeling disconnected during the pandemic.

“I’m a very structured person, so working on this event helped me treat others with unconditional love and kindness. I had to understand that some things fall apart outside of anybody’s control, and to be flexible,” Zhang said.

In addition to adapting to a virtual space for organizing, the entire event was planned to take place within a digital space. A virtual poetry slam starts at 4 p.m. on April 23, with professional poets Simba (he/him), Brill Hill (they/them) and Hayden Dansky (they/them) weighing in on pre-recorded submissions from local LGBTQ+ youth. 

The teens invite the community to participate, not just in the virtual party, but in the art submissions as well. Open to local LGBTQ+ ages 11-24, participants can enter video submissions that should be original work under three minutes. 

The public is also welcomed to submit art, photography and writings representing LGBTQ+ issues, the Day of Silence, Night of Noise and response to isolation in the pandemics to a zine — a magazine, often homemade or published online — which will keep works anonymous. Submissions for the poetry slam and ‘zine are due April 20.

“The poetry slam was one of the first things we came up with and it just stuck with us as something that was challenging and fun. We wanted an art project that was interactive and could help give the community a voice,” Bason said.

A trio of art installations also will be on display in Boulder, with one at the Boulder Public Library, another at Lindsey’s Deli on Pearl Street and a third location yet to be revealed. The art project, mannequins representing the Day of Silence and Night of Noise, was funded with grant money and materials provided by Secret Love Collective.

A focus of the art piece, in theme with the event, is community voices. A form for anonymous submissions hopes to feature words and experiences that will adorn the mannequins. Submissions are open through April 20 for interested participants.

Getting together to design and decorate the art pieces was the first time the interns shared the same physical space. 

“In years past, we would start the meetings by sharing a meal together, as a way to build trust and camaraderie, which wasn’t possible this year,” said Jenna Howerton (she/her or they/them), OBC’s youth program manager. “The interns were still able to have conversations about styles and work preferences, and really build open communication.” 

The students agreed that finally getting to work together in-person, after months of planning in a virtual space, was like truly meeting for the first time. 

There were some advantages to planning the event for a digital space.

“The major plus to the virtual event is that we could work with anybody, anywhere. We could be bolder and more creative with our guests,” said Alex Silver (they/them), a sophomore at Centaurus High School in Lafayette. Silver applied for the internship with an appreciation for the work that OBC did for the community, and a desire to bring people together.

The Night of Noise also will host a show and Q&A session from local drag performers, along with a raffle. The capstone to the event is a  musical performance by trans activist and artist Ryan Cassata (he/him).

“When I was a teenager, I led Day of Silence in my middle school and high school. After Day of Silence, we would have fun and meaningful ‘break the silence’ parties, tour an LGBTQ center or another local venue. I love to perform at them to honor the Day of Silence and close the political day with an uplifting endnote,” Cassata said in an email.

“It is refreshing to see that the LGBTQ youth today still want to be involved in activism. I chose to accept the call to be part of this event because I want to support today’s youth in their mission. They’re the future of the LGBTQ liberation movement. I want to support that future and their endeavors,” Cassata said.

The students agreed, the focus of the event was to build a feeling of community and togetherness.

“The past year has been incredibly isolating and hard to connect, it's more important than ever to make space for the LGBTQ+ community,” Zhang said.

“We want everyone to have a safe space with this event, even virtually,” Bason said.

More information on the Day of Silence, Night of Noise and OBC’s virtual events can be found at their website.