Documentary Interviewee (Career Development): Truth Through My Lens (3 points)

    On November 6th, I volunteered to be an interviewee for a documentary created by an Afrekete member. Her documentary surrounded being queer in predominately back spaces, HBCU's especially. Through this interview, my interviewer wished to capture both my experiences and opinions surrounding how well queer people are represented in the black community. It was not only an opportunity for me to be a part of sharing the narrative, but it also served as a way for me to learn about what preparations go into setting up for an on-camera interview.

    I was given a lot of questions for the interview prior to filming, just so I already had some ideas about what I wanted to say. I saw the interviewer, Maya Starr, setting up her camera, lighting, and external mic. Since my major is Documentary Filmmaking, we've learned about the different stages of filming a documentary, and I got to be a part of the process. During the interview, a couple of questions stood out to me. One of them was concerned about queer representation within the black community. To me, allowing members of the LGBTQ+ community to have spaces to express and exist gets mistaken for representation, rather sometimes it's a strategy to gain their silence and submission. Now, I haven't been at Spelman long enough to fully confirm that the institution partakes in this conspiracy. However, I answered based on my experiences and what I've seen people do when it came to underrepresented groups. Another question asked what makes being queer so amazing, or what's the best thing about being black and queer. I simply answered that being black and coming out as queer gave me the confidence to be who I am, as well as share my identity with the rest of the world. I have a supportive mother and grandmother back in Maryland, and not a lot of people have that. No matter what I do or how "different" I am, they'll always love me, and that was my motivation to continue to communicate, share, create, and live my life as Caitlyn, no labels necessary. When it comes to my family, they love "because of," not "in spite of." 

    Being a part of this interview, for me, was an example of Purposeful Attention, where I gave undivided attention to sharing my experiences of what it's like to be black and queer. It's important for me to share my story because not everyone is given opportunities to be who they are and share that with those they love. I am very grateful for being an interviewee for this documentary, because it gave me a brief, yet essential, platform to show other people that it's okay to be who you are, and that you should love every part of you.

By Caitlyn Hickman '29