The judges reveal their scores. Al Larriva-Latt Photos.
Mariah Roque, a rising eleventh grader from Ansonia, belted the opening number of Lin Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights. The music swirled around her. The crowd at Bregamos Community Theater buzzed.
After she hit the final notes, the panel of judges displayed their scores on their smartphone screens.
“Seven, eight, eight, eight, eight, seven,” the judges’ phones read out.
It was the start of the final day of Black and Brown Queer Camp, an eight-day program for 13- to 30-year-olds in Connecticut organized by Black and Brown youth workers and facilitators from the New Haven Pride Center, Citywide Youth Coalition among others. Now in its fifth year, the camp seeks to provide a safe space for students to express themselves and find friendship, security, and power in and amongst their peers.
Preparations for the cookout begin. Al Larriva-Latt Photos.
After a half-virtual, half-in-person camp last year, this summer’s camp was fully in-person. Last week, it concluded with a fragrant, day-long, laughter-filled cookout at Bregamos.
“It feels really safe; it feels like a big blanket of love,” said Juancarlos Soto, one of the camp’s facilitators and deputy director of the New Haven Pride Center.
Preparations for the final cookout—to which campers and their friends were invited—were underway in the Bregamos parking lot. Campers and facilitators poured ice into coolers, fired up the grills, and strung veggies and chicken onto long skewers.
This was the first year that Black and Brown Queer Camp was held at Bregamos’ Fair Haven hub (last year it was held at the New Haven Pride Center; previous years have also made use of the Black and Brown Power Center at 928 Chapel St.). High walls surround the square on all sides, and visitors must traverse a lengthy driveway to reach the theater. The secluded location seemed to contribute to the camp’s sense of safety.
A testament to that sense of security is the recent experience of Efrancheli "Frenchie" Ducos-Rivera, a former fellow with Citywide who served as a camp facilitator this year. In part because of the support of her peers during the last week, she’d found the strength to come out to her family. In a flowing green and white dress, she seemed to glow as she described the sense of community she’s found as a camp leader.
The four friends Bella Lozada, Jacki Banegas, Siul Rivera, and Reem Saood stood on the balcony overlooking the long parking lot, recalling their camp experience so far. All are incoming juniors at Wilbur Cross High School and will be spending a lot more time together next fall.
“Unfortunately,” Rivera quipped, part of their running joke about being stuck with their friends. The other three laughed and rolled their eyes.
Theron Samuels.
Over the past eight days, camp had been eventful. The camp leaders facilitated healing and spirituality sessions and discussions about queer history from a Black and Brown perspective. The group took a fully funded trip to Six Flags New England. There’d been lots of karaoke and dancing in between.
The four agreed that they didn’t have one favorite activity; what they most appreciated was the community and sense of togetherness the camp fostered.
“Just meeting people. We’re able to like, be equal, and like, nobody’s better than anyone else,” Lozada said.
“Ageism. We don’t do ageism. There’s no hierarchies,” Saood added.
“It’s nice to come somewhere knowing you’re gonna be accepted,” Lozada said.
It was the same for the New Haven-raised Roque, who is going into eleventh grade at Emmett O’Brien Technical High School.
As a first-time Queer camper, she said she was nervous to attend because she didn’t know anyone. But those worries soon evaporated when she got to camp. Finding acceptance was easy.
“It’s easy to like, keep in,” she said.
A duet during the lip-sync portion of the day. Al Larriva-Latt Photos.
Roque’s favorite part of the camp was the tailored queer history curriculum that centered Black and Brown people. That curriculum included a “Hidden Figures” workshop by Ducos-Rivera, which highlighted lesser-known figures including the Harlem Renaissance performer Gladys Bentley and the Stonewall rioter Stormé DeLarverie.
She’d also learned about shortcomings of allyship within the queer community, she said. While trans, gay, and lesbian people are all oppressed, she said, it's possible for one to contribute to the other’s oppression.
“In a regular classroom, you wouldn’t really learn that,” she said. “You would learn like, from the book. Meanwhile, we’re learning the underground, true histories.”
Back inside the theater, the karaoke was winding to a close. Tufts University student Adrian Huq (who is also a writer for this publication) delivered a rousing rendition of Brittany Spears' “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.” Then Saood and Theron Samuel took the stage as a duo.
Bella Lozada at the karaoke mic. Al Larriva-Latt Photos.
While Saood provided the vocals, Samuel twerked, worked, and strutted across the stage, swinging his arms left and right, wrists loose. Elios Bergos followed with a heartfelt rendition of “All I Ask” by Adele. As he sang, the crowd turned on their smartphones flashlights and started waving them around.
Although it was the last day, many of the campers plan to see each other again soon at an eight-week Abolition Bootcamp held by CityWide Youth Coalition. One of the Queer campers, Dave Cruz-Bustamante, is helping to write the bootcamp’s curriculum. In addition to serving as a political education facilitator at Citywide, he’s also an incoming student representative for the New Haven Board of Education.
That sense of continuance is part of the program’s overarching mission, Soto said.
“Our goal is to really make sure that when youth leave this place, they have a place to continue to be themselves and show up authentically and continue to organize and heal and do the work.” he said.