Oberlin College has long cultivated a reputation for advancing cutting-edge thinking and scholarship, and for supporting historically disenfranchised communities. My Name Is My Own takes this work another step forward, cultivating exciting conversations within the Oberlin community, across disciplines, and with national scholars and community organizers on the front lines of academic and sociopolitical innovation.

Each year, the Multicultural Resource Center is honored to work in collaboration with our many partners including faculty, students, and staff as well as other programming series like APA Heritage Month, Latino/a Heritage Month, Black History Celebration, LGBT Film Series, and Trans Day of Remembrance to conceive, develop, and implement such an exciting series that involves and connects so many individuals and communities.

The primary mission of My Name Is My Own is to provide institutional support to Oberlin communities that identify as queer and of color in the broadest senses of those words. In pursuit of this goal, My Name Is My Own supports and creates multiple and varied spaces in order to allow for (1) support reflection and community-building within queer communities of color at Oberlin, (2) education and confrontation of oppressive praxis in non-queer and/or non-of color Oberlin communities and individuals, and (3) inter- and intra-community coalition-building. These spaces encourage participants to explore the construction and experience of race and sexuality, gender and sex in various communities, foregrounding the experiences, concerns and work of queer people of color. My Name Is My Own features public lectures, film screenings, workshops, and small discussion groups between students, faculty and national scholars and organizers.

The 2005-2006 My Name is My Own Series is dedicated to the ten-year anniversary of the MRC

The 2004-2005 My Name is My Own Series was dedicated to Gloria Anzaldua, who passed away May 15, 2004

The 2005-2006 My Name is my Own Series Schedule:

JOSE ESTEBAN MUNOZ
Public Lecture: “Feeling Like A Problem: Latino Affect and the ‘Sorrow Songs’” September 22, 2005 4:30 p.m. West Lecture Hall

SHANA AGID
Public Lecture: “Fags Doom Nations” and Other Parables of Hate: Imagining a Transgender Politics” November 15, 20054:30 p.m. King 306

HANIFAH WALIDAH
Public Performance: “Black Folks Guide to Black Folk” February 17, 2006 8:00 p.m. in Wilder Mainspace *Co-sponsored with Black History Celebration.

LEROY FRANKLIN MOORE, JR.
Public Lecture: “From Police Brutality to Sexuality: People of Color with Disabilities in the
Mix” March 9, 2006 at 4:30 p.m. in West Lecture Hall
Public Spoken Word Performance and Workshop: “Black Blind Blues to Crop-Hip-Hop
through Spoken Word” March 10, 2006at 8:00 p.m. in Third World House Lounge

BEAUTIFUL BOXER
Public Screening April 6, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. to be held in Hallock Auditorium in the Environmental StudiesCenter. Facilitated discussion following the public screening.

MARC LAMONT HILL
Public Lecture: “Reconsidering Black Masculinity in the New Millenium” April 20, 2006 4:30 p.m., Wilder 101

YOUNG ALUMNI PANEL
Translating Academics and Activism at Oberlin College into a Career – April 27-28, 2006
Young Alumni Panel: (Myrl Beam, OC ’05, Julie Dulani, OC ’04, Desiree Pipkins, OC ’05, Ilana Turoff, OC ’04) panel and discussion co-facilitated by a faculty member and a representative from Career Services, April 27, 2006 at 4:30 p.m. in Wilder 101
Young Alumni Workshop: for students interested in activism and civic engagement as a career path, April 28, 2006, at 12 p.m. in Wilder 112

MRC END OF THE YEAR BBQ
Come hang out with friends and good food. It is a chance to celebrate our many collective accomplishments as well as honor departing staff--Rashne Limki OC ’05, A/PA Community Coordinator and Andrea Stokes OC ’05, LGBT Community Coordinator, May 10, 2006 at 4:30pm. Location TBA.

My Name is My Own Pamphlet for 2005-2006

My Name is My Own Pamphlet for 2004-2005