a taste of home

So I didn’t make it to Cedarville because I was sick. So, I stayed in the hotel all day trying to get better. By the end of the day, I felt great. The next day, the riders headed over to a neighboring city to visit the Coretta Scott King Center at Antioch College. We held a small community potluck and just had a relaxing day. We hung out with some students, climbed some trees, and coveted bicycles. We were told that the college was pretty liberal, so I wanted to walk around and check it out.











We went to the bookstore on campus, and on the way, I saw a spray-painted sign that read “Jail Solidarity,” so I asked a girl what it was about. That day, two Antioch students were arrested for sitting in at a recruitment center. I then thought “pretty liberal” was probably an understatement. When we walked into the bookstore, we immediately saw books on Transgender issues, Queer studies, anti-war topics, etc.



I browsed through their shirts, and their motto is “Education, Responsibility, Action = Change.” I bought a book in their Queer Studies section called Growing Up Gay in the South, which I have started reading, and it is fabulous. We chatted with the woman working at the bookstore, and she told us about a FTM transgender senior art exhibit on campus, and our jaws literally dropped. We got directions and headed over.



On the way out, we met some students and talked about environmental issues and such. They saw the patches on my bag and said that they have an anarchist resource center on campus ran by Queer Liberation activists. I didn’t know how to respond really… I didn’t know that schools like this one existed.

We walked across campus on the way to the art building, and the building is literally a giant warehouse. We discovered that a student can pretty much do art wherever they like. There was graffiti on the walls, floors, stairs, etc. The entire building was a canvas. I thought of Banksy and smiled. We learned that the exhibit closed the night before, but that we could still view the pieces upstairs. We also learned that the exhibit was solely STENCIL ART. If you know me, you know that I couldn’t make it up the stairs fast enough.



The stencils were beautiful. We later learned that all of the trans guys were students from the school, and I was impressed that Antioch had that many F2M trans students there.




my favorite


a view of the art studio below

We then walked around campus a little bit and found an amphitheater of sorts that had books painted on it.



We had to head back to the center, else I would have explored the entire day. I was really impressed with the school and the students. It was good being there, I felt like I was at home hanging out at the Locust House. The kids were smelly and shoeless and cared about the world. And it was good.