Part of a year-long installation series centering on queer magic and QTPOC power and their allies!
Diana Oh invites white-identifying individuals to join with each other to recognize and challenge their place within structures of white dominance in White People Read at the Boston Public Library Central Branch in Copley Square. White participants are invited to self-educate by engaging with a collection of books curated by Oh by queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) and women of color about their experiences, histories, and stories. People of color are invited to join at their own point of interest: as audience or participants.
Those interested in being challenged to listen, learn, and interrogate themselves are welcome to participate in White People Read, a space created for reverence, and an invitation to meditate, reflect, and encourage companionship, understanding, and compassion.
White People Read is presented in tandem with What Don’t You Want To Hold On To Alone Anymore?, a solo performance by Oh inspired by her reaction to her/their rage and the validation and invalidation thereof. All are invited to react, respond, and interact with the piece.
I’m creating a dream reading list that feels personal to me. About experiences, histories, and stories of social exclusion and marginalization that I wish all citizens—especially those who are white people in power—could read. I think if we had a broader understanding of the world, we could have a more loving and just society—one where valid rage is validated rather than dismissed, and the rage is collectively explored, alchemized, and transformed into productive and healthy action. Obviously, this reading list could be endless—so I create this reading list from a personal place of how these books speak to me and to the people I love. The books that weren’t assigned in school, that I sought out on my own to come to a comfort and understanding of my personhood. Books that inform me as a global citizen. Books that hold me accountable. Books I have a hunger for. Books that I wish white people who have wealth and power read to educate themselves so it’s not always people of color and women having to fight their own battles. Books that validate the experience of the marginalized: people of color, those in the queer community, people in poverty. May this reading list even dissect the institution and creation of Whiteness. White People Read is tongue-in-cheek, and also my reaction to doing so much teaching as a queer femme of color, and the relief I want to feel to know that people are seeking out this information on their own—in our pursuit of love and growth as a society. White People Read is about being seen. Really seen—deeply with understanding.
Diana Oh on White People Read
About Diana Oh
Diana Oh (she/they) is a witch. She knows it. So do her closest friends. Clairvoyance runs in her family. She went to a spiritual counselor in the jungle in Thailand, and the spiritual counselor told her to sing and go wild in Boston. Everything else the spiritual counselor said came true, so Diana is doing it. She is one of Refinery 29’s Top 14 LGBTQ Influencers, creator of {my lingerie play}, and the first Queer Korean-American interviewed on Korean Broadcast Radio. Upworthy and The Wall Street Journal call her “Badass.” The New York Times calls her “Irreverent.” You can call her “Friend.”
