Prompt
Keynote speech for the closing day of Out for Undergrad Marketing 2020 Conference, hosted via Zoom teleconferences due to the COVID pandemic.
The theme suggested to me was immigration and the LGBTQ+ experience in the U.S.
Proposal
The importance of immigration to the queer experience.
Narratively depicted with a hero’s journey, motivated dramatically by family conflicts surrounding a Brazilian deity in my childhood.
Setting: Central Brazilian small town, fervorous Evangelical family.
Character: My young queer self is viewed suspiciously by my Evangelical mom as bewitched or possessed by a Pomba Gira, Brazilian Afro-Indigenous syncretic deities known for their association with LGBTQ+ people, the nightlife, sex workers, streets, and crossroads.
Quest: Finding myself as an outsider, I move to a bigger city in the US with the help of a scholarship, where I am still to become proud of my outsider status as part of an LGBTQ+ minority and as an immigrant.
Setback: The grief resulting of trying to recreate my home hinders my objective of finding one.
Resolution: Finding an amazing queer chosen family in Chicago, ultimately helping me to realize the power of being an outsider.
Presentation Design:
Concept: Camp renditions of Windows 98 professional slide presentations, 8-bit art.
Resources: collages of online art without infringing copyright.
Beginning: Romantic and baroque decor, decorative arabesques, farms, paths, Christian imagery.
End: Chicago skyline, cities at night.
Shout-out to @egoflui for the presentation design.
Audience
LGBT undergrads looking for a career in marketing.
Arguably, that audience comes to an identity-based event like O4U to feel reassured of their space and importance in the professional world and beyond. Participants might want to see idealized, more mature versions of themselves.
To pay attention to a keynote, they might want faster paced entertainment.
Context
From the organizers notes, the theme of the last day was LGBT celebration and pride. The objective was returning to the real world renewed and inspired, so organizers wanted to emphasize the strength of my story.
Conversely, given that my keynote was one of the last event activities people would probably be already tired. Therefore, respecting the medium of communication available, it was important to keep the points concise.
I then decided to focus on evocative imagery, using embodied examples from my personal history to make abstract ideas more compelling through narrative.
Kommentarer