On March 31, Choate’s upper campus saw a flurry of activity as Choaties and visiting students attended the SPECTRUM club’s 10th annual interschool SPECTRUM conference. The event took place in Ruutz-Rees and began at 9:30 a.m. The conference was open to all Choate students, and no registration was required to stop by and engage in discussion.
For the first activity of the day, the conference participants gathered to listen to three guest speakers: New York City drag queen Ragamuffin, actress and transgender activist Shakina Nayfack, and photographer and activist Lola Flash. These speakers shared their personal experiences with the audience and discussed how their line of work relates to LGBTQ+ activism.
Following the speakers, the conference participants split into smaller groups to engage in workshops based on topics related to the LGBTQ+ experience. These workshops covered topics including the experiences people of color face, religious resistance, the fight for rights, and even a session allowing conference attendees to participate in a drag makeup and fashion workshop. Most of these workshops were based around discussion, but the drag queen workshop with Ragamuffin was interactive and involved costumes and makeup.
This year, Choate hosted more than a hundred visiting participants in addition to members of the Choate community. Many of the participants camefrom prep schools all across the New England area such as Lawrenceville, Andover, Exeter, Hotchkiss, Miss Porter’s, Taft, Walnut Hill, and Williston.
Piper Connelly ’19, co-president of SPECTRUM, added, “We also extended an invitation to Lyman Hall, which is a Wallingford public school. We did that to break down the elitism around LGBTQ+ activism because we have a lot of resources, and we’re aware of it.”
In the days leading up to the conference, the excitement felt by members of the Choate community was palpable. Nico Campbell ’21, an officer on the SPECTRUM cabinet, said, “I’m really excited because it’s a fun experience. It’s pretty meaningful to get all these people together to discuss these topics that you don’t get to discuss every day that are really relevant to your life.”
Medha Illindala ’21, a member of SPECTRUM who attended the conference, explained, “It’s important for younger queer kids to be able to connect with one another and form a larger sense of community, especially since teenagers feel quite lonely sometimes.” This conference has been the main focus of SPECTRUM since winter term, and the members worked hard to make it a unique and rewarding experience for all. In preparation for the conference, SPECTRUM spent all of winter term talking to potential guest speakers, planning out workshops, and sending out invitations to other schools.
Campbell explained, “The hardest part is [planning] the workshops; we’ve spent a lot of time researching. For example, for the resistance workshop, we’ve done a lot of research about how policy change has been done in the past and ways to spread awareness and influence smaller communities like Choate. A lot of it’s just preparing good topic questions to facilitate strong and in-depth conversation.”
Over the years, SPECTRUM, currently led by co-presidents CJ Barnes ’19 and Piper Connelly ’19 and advised by Ms. Mb Duckett Ireland, has been working hard to facilitate discussion about different aspects of the queer experience.
For example, earlier in the school year, SPECTRUM hosted the schoolwide ally week event, during which SPECTRUM met with other clubs on campus such as Young Democrats, Young Republicans, the Asian Student Association, the Body Project, and Christian Fellowship to discuss how the experience of being queer applies to different circles, including religion, race, politics, and more.
The club has also hosted movie screenings, such as the showing of Paris is Burning, which focuses on the emergence of drag culture in Harlem. And as many might know, SPECTRUM always hosts its yearly Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Although SPECTRUM is a club based around supporting the LGBTQ+ community, members do not need to be openly queer to attend. Connelly urged, “We want to open up a welcome to allies and lessen the stigma of being a club member. The goal is to promote an environment where people can be interested in queer culture without feeling pressured to come out, even if they are not queer.”
