We take a bite out of Third Places, such as conferences, think tanks, liberation labs and other liberatory-conscious spaces that offer queer and trans community and connection outside of home, work and social media.
Host R.B. Brooks (they/them) reflects on sharing (third) space with a small but mighty group of LGBTQ+ higher education scholars and educators to examine how to make LGBTQ+ centers/spaces on college campuses anti-racist spaces and how the facilitation, environment, and pace of the think tank offered a liberatory framework for new possibilities.
View the transcript for this episode.
Additional resources and references
Learn more about Third Places:
“Exploring How the Pandemic has Impacted Third Places” (Michigan Minds podcast)
Ray Oldenburg, who coined the concept of Third Places, penned a newsletter to urban planners warning of “Our Vanishing ‘Third Places’”
Allie Conti writes for The Atlantic – “Do Yourself a Favor and Go Find a ‘Third Place’”
AlibsWrites blogs about “The Death of Third Places and the Evolution of Communities” for Illumination on Medium
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown published by AK Press
Resources for centering anti-racism work in LGBTQ+ spaces on college campuses:
The American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice & Decolonization
Consortium of Higher Education LGBTQ+ Resource Professionals Policy & Practice Recommendations
About the podcast
Take the Last Bite is a podcast by the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity. It's a direct counter to the Midwest Nice mentality— highlighting advocacy and activism by queer/trans communities in the Midwest region. Through each episode, we're aiming to unearth the often disregarded and unacknowledged contributions of queer and trans folks to social change through interviews, casual conversations and reflections on Midwest queer time, space, and place.