Vogue, the cover of a magazine, but what was it originally? It’s considered one of the biggest dances to ever gain popularity and is now its own style of dance! It gained popularity in the ’80s and ’90s after originating in the underground Harlem ballroom scene during the ’60s. Voguing was created to house music in the Harlem ballroom scene within voguing competitions. The creators of vogue were Black and Latino LGBTQ+ people from Harlem who didn’t have space to be themselves out in the world due to the hatred they’d receive due to being who they truly are, so no the creator of voguing wasn’t Madonna!

Vogue was and still is so influential and might I say revolutionary. It has influenced the “lingo” used by queer kids due to ballroom culture and lots of vogue-esque dance moves are portrayed in urban dances popular in New York like Dominican Dembow or “getting sturdy”. Other than vogue, LGBTQ+ people of color such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were true advocates for gay liberation. Marsha P. Johson (black transgender woman) worked nonstop to help homeless and struggling gay youth, Sylvia Rivera (Puerto Rican transgender woman) was one of the inciters to the stonewall riots at just 17! Those women are part of the reason we see so much acceptance for the gay community that you would’ve never seen if they hadn’t been the face of gay liberation. 

Knowing how much people of color have done for the LGBTQ+ community, I was interested in how LGBTQ+ people of color are now and wanted to see if we as a society have progressed, or if we still have work to do! I decided to interview one of my friends Aleysha to see how her upbringing was and how intersectionality may affect her in the upcoming stage of her life. When we decided to interview it was harder to decide if we should have done this over zoom or in person but I told her that we could do whatever she was comfortable with since this can be more of a sensitive/vulnerable topic. 

We decided to do it in person because we didn’t want to depend on Zoom because of how the internet can be wonky at her house. We spoke at my house just in case she shared any information with me that she may not be comfortable with her family knowing about. At first, I could tell she was nervous and I started off with questions she could answer easily and then went to deeper stuff once she was more comfortable. 

At first, she mentioned her preferred name; Ally, and her pronouns being she/her. When asked about sexuality she didn’t know what to say at first, I let her know she could simply say unlabeled and she told me “I’d say bisexual, pansexual, or simply queer but I honestly don’t really know, so I say unlabeled for now.” She’s Dominican and Puerto Rican and grew up in the Bronx, New York. I as a Dominican grew up catholic, so I was curious to see what her view on religion was. She said that she was raised Catholic as well but as she grew up she realized she didn’t have any personal connection to Catholicism so she now identifies as agnostic. When asked about coming out she got very vulnerable as she told me how she was thrown out of the house by her mom. Without prying I asked her what that experience was like, and she said it was one of the scariest moments of her life. She didn’t “come out of the closet” but her mom used her computer to find documents she needed for work and found Aleysha’s text messages with her ex-girlfriend and flipped out. Aleysha’s mom thought that she was a lesbian and repeated during their argument how that’s “wrong” and how bisexuality “doesn’t exist” and to say “pick one or the other.” Her aunt took her in for a while until she could find somewhere to live.

When asked about how she knew she liked all people regardless of gender, Aleysha mentioned that sexuality is something that develops over time, she realized she liked boys at the same time she realized she liked girls. Ally never properly came out since her mom just found out unexpectedly so it took a toll on her that she was not able to make that decision on her own. Ally grew up as a latch key kid, her parents split up when she was very young, and her mom would work overnight and in turn had to sleep all day, so it was very difficult to truly know what her relationship with her parents was. As an only child, she couldn’t find trust in anyone to speak about things like that so she just never told anyone other than her friends. Since she was outed as a teenager lots of her family tried to talk to her and tell her how she was just “confused” and that everything would be okay soon. When she was still in the closet she would cope with being closeted by wearing makeup or being out in public spaces that accepted her like her school or at queer spaces where she was free to express herself.

She mentioned how her mom had a really ignorant view of LGBTQ+ people due to things she was taught growing up in D.R. where people still can have closed-minded or backward mentalities so it wasn’t until Ally got together with her now boyfriend was when she was able to live with her mom again. She said that since in D.R. we are collectively a religious group of people and it would take them lots of time to grasp “newer” things, that aren’t “new” at all. Her experiences caused her to fall out of love with her culture in certain areas. I asked Ally at the end what she feels that people of color influence culture and who does she admire. She said that for the most part in history and in present-day women of color have done the most significant things for the LGBTQ+ community like Marsha P. Johnson. In present-day someone she admires is Villano Antillano, an openly transgender Reggaeton/Latin trap artist who is unapologetically who she is in an industry of music that has such a misogynistic idea of women. After this interview, I felt a larger respect for Ally and she thanked me afterward regarding my questions and said that she felt liberated since she could talk about these things with no filter, which mad made me very happy to hear.

“Give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry. I think about that quote every time I enter this history class because god, I think about leaving once I step foot into the class. It’s not even anything personal to the professor specifically, but damn I wish hadn’t had to take USSO, I personally just don’t enjoy the subject much. In order to do a class observation I chose my USSO class because I don’t sit next to anybody that would distract me and this way it would be easier to analyze things about the classroom with no problem. 

At first, I enter the class around twelve minutes early to prep my laptop and phone in order to take notes in class and make sure to have and utensil in order to write my name for the roll sheet. The professor enters class around 9:20 AM and begins to write what the lecture will be about across the chalkboard as students walk into class. Today one of our three essays was due so he was going to ask for them but ended up not being able to pick them up around class due to him being ill and not wanting to “infect us”. 

Today the professor was wearing a long sleeve grey sweater. The sweater fit snugly enough around him for me to notice that he had a box in his chest area which I assumed to be a heart monitor. Since the professor was ill today during class seeing the box on his chest interested me because he said that he decides to never miss class, but if he’s sick he should have been able to cancel the class at least today. Especially since in the classroom there are no windows if anybody else is sick he could easily get infected by us! Half an hour before the end of class he ended up removing his face mask due to trouble breathing which seemed ironic since he didn’t want o “infect” anybody if class but I didn’t think much of it since I don’t know personally if he may have a respiratory problem or anything like that.

This professor is well over 80 years old as he mentions often that he’s had over 60 years of a career as a professor. Since his career has been so successful he has traveled the world and had lots of stories to tell! I would be lying if I said I knew what he was speaking about during the lesson but he was telling another story of his. Whenever he does tell stories he easily startles me because of how loud he can be. I zone out easily during this class simply because this professor has a very monotone voice so its very easy to tune out his voice, but when he tells a story he gets super excited and has a complete change in body language which catches all the students’ attention once again. He has a tendency to get off track due to his stories though! Today one of the topics of his lecture had to deal with people of other ethnicities and somehow he related the to his becoming friends with a Nigerian man that spoke multiple languages. These are the things that make the class feel like it goes longer than it should be because it can take him a while to get back on topic. He says we will continue certain topics at our next class session but that rarely ever happens, he likes to say on track according to the syllabus. 

I sit towards the back of the class so it’s very hard to analyze the students and what they’re doing during class, but I have an okay view of other people’s laptop screens and for the most part, it was a split between students taking notes of the lecture or doing something completely unrelated to class like watching Modern Family, doing work for other classes, or even playing Solitaire. This makes it difficult at times when the professor stops for questions at the end of the lecture because we as students either don’t know what’s going on or are too embarrassed to ask anything. Sitting in the back of that classroom is super uncomfortable, wanting to take a call or use the bathroom is impossible, its easier to cross Narnia than maneuver through the chairs. Around thirty students are together yet nobody speaks under the professor asks them to. 

After class officially ended I approached the professor in order to ask him about the lateness policy for class since I didn’t see it highlighted in the syllabus. I had never spoken to him one on one before. Then was when I realized how badly he reeked of cigarettes and I began to think, “ wow, we were super considerate regarding how sick he was, and his trouble breathing when this entire time when he’s just a full-blown smoker.

Sy’Niya Jones the girl with the rose tattoos and piercings. We chose to peer review each other during class because we both have naturally curly hair. During this sudden interaction, we found out that we are more similar than we are different. I began this interview by diving deep into Sy’Niya’s personality and discovering things about her both as an individual and separately as a student. When we started talking I asked her what her name was as well the significance or meaning of her name. She said she was named after a character in the movie Love and Basketball but spelled differently. Sy’Niya mentioned that she grew up in the Bronx and attended a charter school during high school. She didn’t elaborate much regarding her high school experience other than the fact that it was an “average” high school experience, neither here nor there. Every person’s decision to go to college is different, so I was interested as to why she decided to come here to City College. She said that she has a steady job here in New York City,  and her family didn’t want her to leave a very far distance, so she just decided it was easier for her to commute daily!

Sy’Niya is a political science major with the intention of becoming a lawyer. As a child of a Caribbean family, I already know how insistent and pushy they can be, so I asked her how she likes her major and how she plans to use it. Sy’Nia explained that although she had her own initial interest in being a lawyer, she implies that she was pushed more into that direction due to her family’s wishes. Regarding “personal” choices, ethnic families have somewhat executive decisions when it comes to our lives. She is a first-generation Jamaican-American and when asked about career choices and college decisions I related to her a lot! Since she was more pushed into this career choice because of her family she says that she possibly would change her major sooner or later, because of this she doesn’t know what she plans to do 5-10 years from now as a career but she is open to learning about different career paths.

When asked about reading and writing she flat out said that she does not like to read nor write as a passion or hobby, much like me she fell out of love with reading and writing during middle and high school. If she does write she likes to free write instead of writing with a specific prompt, feeling that prompts or essay questions can be suffocating. When I asked to learn about something more personal to her identity in comparison to her as a college student, I discovered that Jamaican food is what comforts her the most, her favorite genre is R&B and her favorite artist is Kehlani ( just like me)! 

Winning the lottery is everyone’s dream, who wouldn’t want to win? I asked her how she’d spend the money and she mentioned that she would distance herself away from her loved ones and buy property on an island to live on her own (and definitely drop out) because she’d finally not be bothered by family/family friends.

Since Sy’Niya is a political science major I naturally associated her major with stress, so I asked her how she manages her major. She laughed and said she doesn’t really manage but in a different sense she is learning how to manage herself as time goes on. She now has a planner and attends class part-time in order to also be able to work her full-time job. She does deal with stress still but she deals with it less if she doesn’t procrastinate, or has her head in the right space. She also prefers to work on stuff for college at home, when she’s on campus her friends will go to the library intending to do work and then end up doing absolutely nothing, so when she’s at home she comes to a peaceful environment where she knows she’ll get stuff done. 

As I mentioned before, she already has an interest in becoming a lawyer because of her argumentative side, her family liked the idea of being a lawyer which is why she was initially content with her major. As a student, she explained that her weaknesses were procrastination and concentration which is the reason why she bought a planner as well as spaced out her schedule to work as well.  She explained that her strength was having a natural desire to help other people/be thoughtful to others. She believes that her acts of kindness contribute a lot, kind of like good karma!

Hello Anna, nice to meet you! I’m excited to be a new student in your class. I’m a sophomore but at times I feel like I’m still a freshman trying to get used to college. Some of my biggest weaknesses as a student and a person are procrastination and motivation. As a kid, my parents always asked me what I wanted to do in the future. I always felt that I had to have a career to be fulfilled in life. My parents obviously didn’t do that with ill intent; they’ve always wanted the best for me and to strive to do better. But their questions made me want to move into the future faster instead of enjoying the present. Although one of my biggest weaknesses is motivation, one of my biggest motivations is to have a stable career so I can be able to take care of myself as well as my family. That motivation is what I consider my biggest strength.

As I said in the beginning, I am a sophomore but still, feel new to college. I  had most in-person classes last semester and I haven’t been on campus for that long. Last semester was an interesting experience because I felt like I could see how professors actually acted on a day-to-day basis and could see how professional they were. I realized that my professors were normal people that could be very disorganized. In comparison to my first semester, I felt like I had to communicate with my professors more often to be on the same page with them, which was ironic since I was completely online during my first semester. 

I have learned that it’s very easy to procrastinate and miss assignments especially if you have a part-time or full-time job while you’re a college student. I learned in the CUNY system to speak up and accommodate myself in different spaces. I worked retail for around a month and realized how much my managers abused their higher “positions” in comparison to people doing the work for the store. I told the managers that I would prioritize my studies over the job in a heartbeat and they continued to schedule me for days when I had classes and tried to wear me out as a new hire. Once I felt that I wasn’t paying enough attention to my classes I immediately quit because I didn’t want to let this store dominate my needs as a full-time student. CUNY’s environment isn’t the friendliest; everyone here mainly comes for classes so there’s not that much of a community here.

I’m not the biggest reader or writer anymore. I was never much of a writer but I loved reading a lot as well as listening to audiobooks. I don’t know what happened to me but out of nowhere, my attention span got so much smaller than it used to be. Now when I try to read, I read with my eyes instead of my brain. My short attention span affects me negatively because if I have to read bodies of work for class or homework I am not motivated to do it. My short attention span applies to different things, the apps I use like Instagram or Tiktok have very short videos and if the topic is really boring I can just scroll past, in a book or a story I have to analyze more of each chapter in order to understand the whole plot.