::: I Look Up to the Sky Now :::

My name is ANNA GOLDSZNYCER. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. There are many accomplishments that I have made and am very proud of. One thing was graduating from high school in 2000. Now I am in college,studying psychology. I have also been very active in the lgbtq community for quite some time. It all started with recieving a copy of OutYouth magazine when I was 14 years old.Well, before that I came out when I was 13 years old. When I was 15 Istarted going to the lgbtq center in NYC. I wanted to know how this magazine was produced, and I wanted to write more. I never liked to write when I was younger. But I got into it quick. I started from just submitting a poem to the magazine, to eventually becoming editor for it. I learned alot through doing that. I also leanred alot about leadership, and critiquing work. Most importantly, I met other people like me. I have met so many lgbtq people in my lifetime. And I am glad to be one of them. Besides doing the magazine, I was a part of groups, such as SIGNS, a group to help start gay straight alliances in schools. That helped me start my GSA in my high school. Now, it is still a thriving club in the school, doing things that I would not have dreamed of when I was there. That, I believe is my biggest accomplishment, that was the hardest to do. I had gone through alot of trouble just so future lgbtq students could have a voice. There is also this documentary. I feel very proud to be apart of it. All of my talents put into one piece. Its beautiful.

DEXTER ASIDO is a student at Queens College majoring in drama, theatre and dance. Credits include performing as a 'wagoto' character in a kabuki adaptation of Oscar Wilde's Salome (Queens College and Pennsylvania tour), The Marriage of Figaro, by Pierre de Beaumarchais, and several dance showcases. Future endeavors include obtaining a PhD in theater history, focusing on either ancient Filipino dance drama and ritual or gay studies in historical and contemporary theatre. He is the co-founder and VP of Queens College Artisan Rainbow Theatre (ART).

ANDY MONK is a BIG OL' QUEER. Previously a small queer, Andy's closet became too small for both him and his fabulous wardrobe when he was 14. Like a snowball rolling down the crazy hill of life, Andy continually accumulates knowledge, responsibility, and artistic talent. Since Andy's high school wouldn't let him repeat sculpture classes after he'd taken all of them, he moved on to photography and print-making. His work has been shown in exhibitions in the Bronx and Provincetown, MA. From January to April, 2002, Andy studied art in Florence and is currently attending Oberlin College.

AN-D was born in Cali, Colombia (1976) An-d moved to, and was raised in a Colombian immigrant community of Queens, New York (1979). In his mid-to-late-teens, An-d became heavily involved in queer youth activism, locally and nationally. This experience ranged from performance art (School's Out: The Naming Project) and public access television production (BENT TV) to peer education and counseling, public advocacy, and street outreach. An-d aspires to apply his formative experiences in a diversity-minded youth community to his professional/academic pursuits in the world of television. He attended Hunter College for two years before receiving his Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from Amherst College in 2001.

P.
Is a good old queer.
P.
He was never a girl.
P.
Was once in the ARMY.
P.
Hopes he can serve again.
P.
Is an artist at heart.
P.
He is suave with the girls.
P.
If you want to know more about him
Get the movie and find out what he's
all about!

JON SALVATOR has been involved in the LGBT Community since 1996. He started out as a volunteer at the "Gay Men's Health Crisis" Clinical Services Department and was hired as a Community Follow-Up worker and then as Assistant to the Director of Clinical Services, shortly after. He found his way to the Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center where he immediately became active in the "Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender Youth of New York" youth-run organization, supported by the "Youth Enrichment Services." He has facilitated numerous discussion groups on topics ranging from homophobia, racism and AIDS. Jon facilitated workshops for the "National Youth Advocacy Coalition's" annual conference in Washington D.C. & for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and Youth Enrichment Services sponsored, "Breaking Walls, Building Bridges" annual conference as an activist and as a performance artist. In 1997, Jon started to explore his creativity in its activist incarnation. "School's Out: The Naming Project" was his first experience in community-based performance. From there, Jon has been invited to perform at "Here Theater's" annual "Queer at Here" showcase and also at the "5th annual HIV Aids and the Arts" conference sponsored by various AIDS organizations. Jon continued with the "Youth Enrichment Services" as a Family Group Leader for the program's annual Summer Community Camp Program from 1997 - 2000. Since aging out of YES, Jon has moved on to working at "French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts" theater camp, as a camp counselor for children ages 7 to 17 and as Video Director, fusing different media between the camp's wide array of departments. He is also a web designer/developer and his artistic work continues on www.divinationx.com.

KEVIN SANTOS is a senior at CUNY Queens College. He is a student teacher of English in a high school in Brooklyn. He has dedicated five years of thought and laughter into improving the lives of queer youth. Starting out as a camper at YES community camp program he wanted to give back to his community and consequently became a family group leader at YES 2001 community camp, one of the most rewarding experiences of his life. A self proclaimed megalomaniac with narcissistic and conflicting tendencies he is a strong advocate for anarchy and peace. With that in mind he considers himself a bootleg artist that photocopies the work of others and cuts and pastes them into stories that he tells to people over and over again in hope that they will make their own photocopied cut and pasted lives and make their own stories diversifying and fucking up the notion of what being queer is all about. He also hates to write about himself in third person.

SARA WEKSELBLATT is a writer and poet majoring in English at Hunter College. Her writing has been published in the Dispel the Prejudice art journal in its Winter 2001 issue, and in OutYouth magazinešs Spring 2001 and Summer 2001 issues. Sara is a visual artist who has been part of a collaborative project between the Worldstudio Foundation and the Youth Enrichment Services program of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center, NYC. Her photo-text montage created in this project exhibited at the Campbell Soady Gallery in New York in the winter of 2001 as part of the Create! Donšt Hate group show. As well as an artist and student, Sara has been an activist in the LGBT community for the past three years. In May of 2001, she fought for the passage of the Dignity for All Students Act and the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, which are anti-discrimination acts in New York Statešs public school system, in Albany. In addition, Sara serves as part of a team of trained Peer Educators who facilitate weekly meetings for queer youth participants of the Youth Enrichment Services program of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. Sara is an avid volunteer and leader at Godšs Love We Deliver, a non-profit organization to benefit the needs of the HIV/AIDS community since March of 2001.

TEASPOON (a.k.a. Tricia) graduated from Hunter College with a bacheloršs degree in Media and hopes one day to work in the Publishing field. Teaspoon is the youngest of eight. She currently lives in Brooklyn, and is working at a health center. Teaspoon has been working with media for the past four years. She first started working with School's Out: The Naming Project. In School's Out, she worked as a Production Assistant. Tricia then started performing with T.A.G. We're It!, and has appeared in many performances. She hopes to continue doing this type of art so that she might make a difference in someone's life. Her most recent work has been as an Artist in Resident in Houston, Texas working with queer youths in H.A.T.C.H. in collaboration with Diverse Works.

SURABY YENSI is a 20 year old aspiring opera singer currently studying classical music and guitar. He is a native New Yorker of Dominican and Cuban parents. As an activist he has performed community service with The Bronx Helpers of the South Bronx from 1995 to 1999. He has worked in community-based urban development projects ranging from community service in public schools, to improved housing for low-income families. Suraby participated in the Youth Enrichment Services annual Community Camp 2000 and 2001. He has also taken part in a group discussion at the MTV studios after the premier of "Anatomy of the Hate Crime," for MTVšs new campaign

G.i. JaE n. HaRdCoRe
I am a twenty one year old queer female. I am currently a Communications Major at CMSV. My concentrations are film and broadcasting. I have been writing since eighth grade. Originally I wrote short stories about a kid who finds a magical skateboard. I began writing poetry in my sophomore year of high school, but I didn't begin to get more serious about it until I began to go to the Creative Writing program at the Y.E.S. program. My writing has been published in New Youth Connections, Out Youth, Creative Writing Anthology, the MounTimes, I won first place at my school's talent show for the poem seen in the documentary, I was on the discussion show that aired on MTV right after their showing of Mathew Shepard: Anatomy of a Hate Crime, I've been a member of the Y.E.S. program since 1998, I was a group marshal for the Y.E.S. program in the NYC Pride Parades, years 1999 - 2001. I am very proud to be a member of this documentary group, and I hope you all enjoy the "montage" of our experiences.