by Ana Y. Bernal, LGBTQIA2-S UsCC Member and Executive Director of Q Youth Foundation

A valuable intersection is missing as Mental Health Awareness Month and Pride Month ended and for some LGBTQIA2-S individuals, it is an in-between time where one fight ends, and another fight continues.  But both struggles are never mutually exclusive of one another.

Since 2016, Q Youth Foundation has worked with Los Angeles LGBTQIA2-S community members by offering workshops to learn how to write their own stories as plays. The workshops have produced over 50 plays featuring fictional stories to autobiographical memoirs.  In our workshops, we have tackled many conversations about form and process in writing – but a recurring theme within the stories is trauma and stigma that have shaped characters and plays.  As a result, our workshops subconsciously began to form a network of community care.  The writing group realized that there is a prevalence of trauma in our stories, recognizing how trauma affects us as individuals, and responded by addressing trauma in the creative practice of playwriting. We are creatives and not mental health professionals.  However, through further research and development, we learned that we have engaged our community in a framework of Trauma-Informed Care.

I do consider us cultural and community organizers with the expertise of leading workshops and producing performances for audiences in Los Angeles.  With Mental Health Awareness and Pride Month behind us, we continue to work with our community members in building brave spaces.  Currently, we have produced accessible radio theater plays streaming on Spotify and YouTube platforms.  To learn more about our current and ongoing projects, visit http://www.qyouthfoundation.org/.