We’re having an open call to organise a session at the ‘Let’s Talk About Family’ 2025 Colored Qollective Symposium! Let us know what you’d like to do by Sunday, August 17th 2025!
When: Saturday, September 27th 2025
Where: BAK Base Camp, Utrecht
Hey Fam,
Family: a word that holds so much. For many queer folks, it’s where pain and possibility meet. Sometimes it’s what we’re born into, sometimes what we fiercely create. It can look like Sunday dinners, protest marches, shared housing, healing circles, or silent nods across a room.
This year, Colored Qollective invites you to gather with us for our annual symposium, where we’ll be exploring the many layers of queer family; the messy, the joyful, the undone, and the reimagined.
We’re opening the call for those who want to create, share, hold space, and build with us. Whether you’re an artist, an organizer, a thinker, or someone simply carrying a story in your bones; this space is yours too.
This year’s themes:
- Family Drama
Queer kinship through conflict and care; navigating adoption, migration, cultural clashes, and generational gaps.
- It Takes a Village
Looking at the communities that raise us, hold us, and show us how to survive. This is about mutual aid, collective care, and chosen families.
- Radical (Re-)imaginaries of Family
What if we threw out the rulebook? We’re dreaming of non-normative, decolonial, expansive visions of what family could be.
You can propose:
- Short sessions (15–30 min): Perfect for storytelling, live art, talks, rituals, or interactive pieces.
- Long sessions (45–60 min): Ideal for in-depth workshops, panels, roundtables, or film screenings.
- You can also propose a table/booth in the main area instead of a session!
We’re not looking for perfection. We’re looking for heart. We want to hear from people with lived experience, creative fire, and community wisdom. You don’t need an academic degree or a big platform; just a voice and something to say.
If your work touches on queer family; through grief or laughter, struggle or celebration; we’d love to hold space for it.
Have a question or want to have a chat about your ideas or the symposium? Send us a message via symposium@coloredqollective.org!
Note: we are no longer accepting proposals for sessions. We are keeping the form open for peoples and organisations we have been in touch with who are still finalising their proposal.