Identity, Power and Hope: A Reflection on Advice from the Lights

With the Yale New Haven Hospital Pediatric Gender Program

Streamed live on Facebook and YouTube

Join members and affiliates of the Yale Pediatric Gender Program for a reflection on this year’s Big Read selection, Advice from the Lights, by Stephanie Burt. In this hour-long conversation, we will discuss identity development, the idea of identity as a journey versus an endpoint and feelings of power and powerlessness across various identities. We will end with a discussion of hope, and how to engender hope in youth in our current sociopolitical climate.

ABOUT THE NEW HAVEN NEA BIG READ 2020 For the New Haven NEA Big Read 2020, as a community we are reading the book Advice from the Lights by transgender poet Stephanie Burt. This program is part of the NEA Big Read, led by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, New Haven Pride Center, and the New Haven Free Public Library with additional support from The Institute Library, Nasty Women Connecticut, People Get Ready, The Word, and the Yale Medicine Gender Program. NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

Jillian Celentano (she/her)

Jillian Celentano (she/her) is a transgender woman and an advocate for the transgender community who speaks at various venues across New England. Jillian is currently earning her masters degree in social work to become a counselor for primarily trans youth and adults. She is interning at the Yale Gender Program in New Haven.

Naomi Libby, MD (she/her)

Naomi Libby, MD (she/her) is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and psychotherapist practicing in New Haven. She enjoys working with a wide array of folx from diverse backgrounds, with a particular focus on trans* youth and their families.

Rebecca Miller, Ph.D. (she/her)

Rebecca Miller, Ph.D. (she/her) Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, is a clinical psychologist and serves as Director of Peer Support at Connecticut Mental Health Center. She draws upon her lived experience with mental illness and Parkinson’s Disease in her work.

October Mohr (they/them)

October Mohr (they/them) is a second year at Yale Divinity School and they are pursuing priesthood in the Episcopal Church. October is passionate about the intersection of trans* health and religion as well as advocacy work surrounding Title IX. They are currently working as a chaplain at the Yale Gender Program and as a Fellow in Yale Title IX office.

Christy Olezeski, Ph.D., (she/her)

Christy Olezeski, Ph.D., (she/her) Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Psychology section is a child and adolescent focused clinical psychologist. She is the Director of the Yale Gender Program, an interdisciplinary program that provides services for transgender and gender expansive individuals 3-25 and their families.