Resource Room, Round Two

So this week I'm continuing work on the Resource Room.  At the end of last week I went shopping for a rug, clock, ottoman, cleaning supplies, and a few other things to brighten the room.  After tons of cleaning and moving furniture, it's almost done.  It has been super exciting to see the progress.  Here are some updated pictures:

The new front room. Office and study space, sofa, calendar for LGBT events.  This will also be the spot for a Safer Sex Station. 

  

 The back room, view one.  Organized GSA storage, new ottoman (I'm super excited because it's a fun color.  It doesn't take a lot to get me excited, clearly), rainbow flag, new sofa arrangement.

The back room, view two.  Fun new rainbow rug, growing library collection, and the tv, which is situated so that it can be seen from both sofas.

Let me know what you think!

The last round of the room is going to be developing the actual resources in it.  For this, I have contacted a few people to recommend books and movies and to help supply safer sex supplies and pamphlets.  I will of course provide updates on that process.  Between narrowing down and ordering the list of books and movies, finishing the new resource binder, and gathering pamphlets and supplies from LGBT-friendly Memphis organizations, the Resource Room is going to keep me busy for another week, but the furniture, cleaning, and other decoration stuff is finished.  Yay!  If you're on campus, feel free to stop by.  I will probably be lurking down here all this week and most of next.  

Special thanks to Rin Abernathy (former Sassy Lesbian columnist for the paper, current lesbro and Fellowships worker) for giving input about everything from furniture arrangement to wall clock color and to Lynn Conlee in Communications for designing our awesome new welcome sign.  Here's a picture of that as well: 

Lynn made it Rhodes rainbow colors. :)

Finally, Happy Pride!  To celebrate, here are two of my favorite photos from the Huffington Post 2012 Pride photo gallery.  

Super cool and cute dog expressing his love of lesbians at West Hollywood Pride. 

Oldest and youngest marchers at the first statewide equality march in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  

Again, let me know if you have questions or concerns through a comment or the Contact Us tab at the top, which goes directly to my email.  I'd love to hear from you! 

LGBT Resource Room

UPDATE:  I'm checking things off as I go along.  Check out the new post and links for progress. :)

The project this week is the LGBT Resource Room, which is actually two rooms in the basement of the Briggs Student Center.  The Resource Room is a new addition to LGBT life on campus. It was added last year.  It's one of the many positive changes in LGBT life to occur since my first year here.  In addition to office space for the Gay-Straight Alliance, the rooms have queer magazines and a collection of queer books (many of which are, let's say, vintage) that we'll hopefully add to this summer.

Here's a list of projects within the Resource Room:
-Rearrange the furniture
-Catalogue the existing library of books (Check out the new Resources Tab at the top)
-Decorate the walls
-Set up a safer sex resource station
-Invest in new book/DVD resources for GSA/Queer Advocacy/Students
-Update/Renew magazine subscriptions
-Create better signs for the Resource Room
-Advertise around campus

Here are some before pictures.  We've started moving furniture so it's not exactly reflective of what the room looked like during the school year, but it'll give you some idea.

This is the front room.  It will be the office space for GSA and will have safer sex resources.  

Here's the back room.  It's got a little nook for the TV and will house the library.  Both rooms will have tables, sofas, and chairs for study space.  

Since it's also Open Rhodes week, this project will probably take two weeks.  I'll upload in-progress and finished photos as it goes along.

Summer 2012

Hi, y'all!

Welcome to Queer Lynx, the blog devoted to LGBT life at Rhodes College.  My name is Sarah Bacot.  This summer, I'm working as the LGBT Community Development Fellow, which basically means that I'm doing a series of queer things on campus.

Here's a sample:

-Reorganizing the LGBT Resource Room in the basement of Briggs
-Making LGBT handouts for students at the Open Rhodes Information Fair
-Creating a calendar of LGBT events at Rhodes and in the community
-Researching cool queer academic events that Rhodes could put together/host
-Making and maintaining this blog

There will be weekly posts about progress, with a specific focus on one project each week, and links to other resources and relevant projects.  There will also be interviews with queer students and hopefully some queer faculty and staff as well.  Please feel free to comment or email me with questions or with ideas for things you'd like to see on the blog.

Project of the week:

This week, it's getting ready for Open Rhodes (and also making the blog, which is fun.  The background is supposed to be rainbow lynx paw prints.).   I'm putting together a brochure and poster with information about organizations and resources on campus.  A similar list will be available as a document here soon.  Here's a preview:

The goal is to give interested incoming students and parents a brief overview and sites for more information.  Also, we'll give them candy and fun rainbow buttons.  The table will be set up at the Information Fair with lots of other groups, including Mock Trial and the Barret Library.  We'll have a table at all four sessions.  The first one begins this Monday, June 18th.