The Umbrella Dialogue crosses bridges
On Thursday, April 29 students from Spectrum and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship broke down walls between their respective groups with The Umbrella Dialogue. The event addressed issues that have stigmatized gays and Christian lifestyles throughout the years.
Umbrellas are often thought of as unifying shelters under inclement times. The idea that it is possible to know, get along, and even, as the Bible says “love thy neighbor” regardless of who that neighbor may be, sparked the unity between groups and jump started the project.
The performance consisted of student and community member submitted monologues from the two groups to show that everyone is the same beneath culturally branded labels. As Kevin Carr put it,“[it’s] skin n’ bones kind of stuff.”
The dialogue illustrated differences and roadblocks in crossover and interaction between the two groups. This included stories of Christian faith RA’s, who felt conflicted when asked to wear “gay fine by me” t-shirts and GLBT youth who were also members of the Christian faith and could not find anyone within their faith to turn to.
Kevin Carr and TJ Samuels were the sole performers. The two stood on opposite sides of the stage facing each other as they read the monologues. After each set of monologues, both Carr and Samuels took a step forward. This was significant to the goal of the performance, to bring together the two groups under one umbrella. The performance strove to “promote equality and encourage the Alfred community to commit to stopping victimization between the GLBT and Christian faith communities,” said Ashley Fantigrossi.
The brains behind the whole operation were outgoing president of Intervarsity, Ashley Fantigrossi, and Kevin Carr, president of Spectrum. The two had felt a pull for a project similar to this one for years, and the dialogues provided the opportunity for these two clubs, that were normally considered so different to come together. Fantigrossi recently took a missions trip to New York City where she realized the importance of integrating the two groups. Carr was also in agreement that the time had come for the clubs to work together, thus the project came to fruition. “You shouldn’t let stereotypes make you be afraid of other people that could possibly be your best friend in the long run,” said Carr, addressing his reasons behind the project.
Fantigrossi said that some members of Intervarsity thought the dialogues would be inappropriate; they did not see how the two groups could pull it off. It was, according to Fantigrossi, “definitely a test, but it was worth it for the audience to take something from it.”
