OCTOBER 27-29 2017
The Summit is a gathering place to collectively discuss and explore our rural and small town experiences as LGBTQ people.
This third annual event is a two-day gathering for those of us LGBTQ people who are living, creating, working, and organizing in rural communities and small towns.
Out in the Open is a space to vent, strategize, connect, build, reflect, think, experience, and make. Folks from any rural community or small town are welcome to join us although we anticipate the majority of attendees to be from the Northeast US.
We encourage participants to bring in to all of these sessions thoughts, questions, and strategies connected to struggles for justice against racism, classism, misogyny, incarceration, police brutality, ableism, fascism, transphobia, and other oppressions.
Read on for more details and feel free to be in touch with any questions!
2017 Draft Agenda
FRIDAY OCT 27 (optional pre-Summit work evening)
6-8PM - Food prep and/or Facilitator pre-Summit session
SATURDAY OCT 28
8:30-9 AM - continental breakfast (coffee, tea, baked goods) available
9:00-9:30 - Welcome!
9:30-10:15 - Large group circle
10:15-10:30 - break
10:30-12:30PM - SESSION 1 - Living on the Land and Eating From It
12:30-2:00 LUNCH (provided) - A brief people of color caucus/check-in will be available during this time (12:50-1:20p with an option to extend through lunch) A brief working class people caucus/check-in will be available during this time (from 1:25-1:55 - not co-occurring with the POC caucus)
2:00-4:00 - SESSION 2 - Art & Expression
4:00-4:15 - Break
4:15-5:15 - Large Group Session 1 (with breakouts): Finding Home & Negotiating Capitalism
5:15 - 5:30 - Announcements
5:30 - 7:30 - Dinner (on yr own)
7:30PM-11PM - Share a story, poem, or song! Then DANCE PARTY!
SUNDAY OCT 29
8:30-9:00AM - Continental breakfast (coffee, tea, baked goods) available - space is available here for additional caucuses (as generated by participants!) or repeated caucus space
9-11:00 - SESSION 3: Organizing for Justice
11:00-12:15PM - Large Group Session 2 (with breakouts): Intimacy, Relationships, and Self-Care
12:15-1:00 - Closing Circle
1:00-2:00 - LUNCH (provided)
2:00 on - Clean-up, optional hike, depart
Participants at the 2016 Summit.
More Details
Our intent with this gathering is to bring together individuals, regardless of organizational affiliation, to discuss, prioritize, strategize, about our rural and small town LGBTQ experiences. In an attempt to have no single organization dominate the conversation, we intend to have no more than three folks from an organization at the gathering.
This year's event has been planned in collaboration with a planning committee of seven folks who attended the 2016 event along with Green Mountain Crossroads' executive director, HB Lozito. If you would like to help plan the 2018 event, connect with us at the Summit in October.
In an effort to have a gathering that is small enough to meet most people, yet large enough to have a strong diversity of experience, this year's Summit will be limited to 75 people.
These are participatory sessions; not lectures. We want to delve into the experience, knowledge, creativity, and expertise that exists within the group. Come prepared to share and work!
If you have a session you're interested in offering that fits within the three sessions topics (Living on the Land & Eating from it, Organizing for Justice, or Art & Expression), get in touch!
Registration, Accessibility, Location, and Lodging
Registration
You can register here!
Registration for the weekend is $35.
You must be registered to attend and we'll post updates when the event is nearly full and at capacity.
We have reserved 10 tickets for those who are unable to pay the registration fee. If this is you, please email HB to discuss. There is no volunteer requirement for a subsidized ticket.
Accessibility
If you need an American Sign Language or another language interpreter, please contact HB Lozito by September 27, 2017.
We will be at the beautiful Hilltop Montessori School in Brattleboro, Vermont. There are all-gender bathrooms available and the location is wheelchair accessible.
Only service dogs will be allowed at the Summit. Please leave all other pets at home (or another safe place!).
Dietary restrictions and other food-related needs can be shared with us during the registration survey.
We are striving to make this event fragrance-free. GMC will provide unscented soap for our use during the weekend. More information on how and why to be fragrance-free below:
Please come without fragrances on your clothes, body, or hair so that members of our community with chemical sensitivities can participate without getting sick. More information about why and how to do this is available here: http://www.therootsjc.org/fragrance-free.html
Further Information
More explanation about chemical sensitivities, and a list of fragrance-free products that are widely available (including many PoC-specific products), can be found at http://eastbaymeditation.org/accessibility/scentfree.html.
Some useful thoughts about chemical sensitivities, fragrances, race and gender can be found at http://www.brownstargirl.org/blog/fragrance-free-femme-of-colour-realness-draft-15 .
There is space on the Summit registration form to share any additional accessibility-related needs you have with the organizers. We will do our best to reasonably accommodate those needs.
Location
This year, all activities will be at Hilltop Montessori School.
There is no alcohol or tobacco use on campus. We will share details about walking-distance smoking areas off-campus during the Summit (or can share those with you before as well! Just email for details).
Lodging
If you are interested in staying with some local folks, we can put you in touch with people who can potentially host Summit participants. Please contact HB Lozito for details on this option.
Otherwise, we recommend the Latchis Hotel in downtown Brattleboro.
Additionally, of course, there are many other area options.
About the Summit Organizers
HB LOZITO
(they/them) - I grew up in rural central Maine, started farming when I was 19, and since 2014 have been the ED of Green Mountain Crossroads working to build the power of rural LGBTQ people from Brattleboro, Vermont.
I am also newly a primary caregiver to a small human, am a spoon carver, baker, letterpress artist, oral historian, and living in town as a first-time homeowner with my fab partner and our sweet dog, among many other things. Can't wait to meet/see everyone in October!
GRACE JOHNSTON
(she/her, they/them) My youth was spent in the suburbs of south-central CT, and small towns or rural places have been my chosen home since-- 8 + years in Western MA and now residing in Ithaca, NY. I am an early childhood educator by trade. I am excited about anti-racist collective organizing, supporting families of all kinds, creating accessible resources to translate radical concepts into every-day relevance, and practicing/facilitating mind-body connections.
Here, I am pictured eating a cookie, as they come third in life after my partner and my dog, Pilot. I am looking forward to getting to know this year's Summit group and sharing in conversation and fun times!
LILY JOSLIN
(they/them, she/her) - I'm originally from an agricultural community outside of Portland, OR, and spent the last 9 years working to build a better food system in rural and small-town Maine through organizing, educating, feeding, or some combination of the three.
In June, I moved back to Oregon to complete my Masters in Sustainable Food Systems and steward my family’s land. A very, very large chunk of my heart still resides in New England.