Cultivating Safe Spaces

How do we support each other? How do we build spaces that support our collective desires? As QTBIPOC (queer, trans, brown, indigenous, persons of color) traverse the world, we often discuss how inclusive intersectional spaces can come to be, or how they would feel once we find ourselves in them. This can look many different ways, and fulfill different needs.

Safe space is a synonym to self-care; the validation of prioritizing and understanding why a container makes a large difference in the way we unwind and recharge. Safe spaces often lead back to family and home. However, not everyone has this luxury. Thus, space for safety can run the gamut of a household, a studio or rehearsal space, parks or other nature spots, social gathering spaces, which can be any place between bar to support groups, from libraries to sex clubs, or even the abstract sense of being in a space where one can remain alive, away from any risk toward one’s existence.

Below we conversed with Pochas Radicales about their goal to create an art collective for BIPOC womxn and how that desire comes back to the safety of home, and communal living. Also, we discussed sex-positive spaces where queer BIPOC men found community, freedom and healing over body dysmorphia and sexual trauma. In addition, we spoke to an asylum-seeking immigrant whose queerness almost had him killed, and yet, how this very queerness taught him about community and chosen-family as a form of survival.