The Georgetown Disability Cultural Center (DCC) and LGBTQ Resource Center hosted activist and writer Eli Clare on Feb. 3 for a virtual reading and discussion of his recent novel Unfurl, an anthology of prose and poetry centering on queer and disabled communities. Held over zoom with 125 attendees, the event featured Clare reading selected excerpts from his work followed by a moderated Q&A with GU Pride Co-President Jackie Early (CAS ’26).
Dr. Amy Kenny, director of the DCC, described Clare’s work as an invitation to collective action and imagination.
“Eli spoke about the importance of inviting others to join us in creating community, offering mutual aid, and dreaming with us,” Kenny said. “Eli’s work is always issuing invitations to learn, teach, and practice a more expansive and accessible community together.”
Many of the excerpts Clare shared addressed the current political climate of the country, reflecting on major events in recent years, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2016 election, through the perspective of marginalized communities.
These themes were especially present in his poem “LET REBELLION BE OUR SONG”, in which he wrote,
“sing with the immigrants abducted
the farmworkers detained and deported
sing with Keith Porter, Renee Good, Alex Pretti
sing with Gaza, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis
sing and sing again.”
In discussing the poem, Clare referenced the recent aggressive immigration enforcement practices of Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents in major US cities, including ICE’ murder of three United States citizens, and the inhumane treatment of immigrants. The poem itself also touched Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine, which has so far resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Palestinians.
Clare also focused on his prose piece “UNCLASSIFIABlE”, which explores gender fluidity and the struggles faced by transgender and nonbinary people. He encouraged readers to respond to marginalization by building spaces of care and solidarity, what he described as “dreaming them into existence.”
“Manifesting these dreams takes so many different kinds of work,” Clare said. “It takes people who are different from us. It means being held accountable for our mistakes.”
Clare emphasized that activism is not about achieving perfection, but about recognizing when well-intentioned efforts indirectly sideline others.
“The goal is asking, who is missing here? Who has disappeared?” he said. “And keep asking those questions, and making all our work, whether it’s organizing street protests, witnessing civil disobedience—making all of that work be driven by the answer to those questions.”
During the moderated conversation, Early centered her questions on community-building, asking Clare how to cultivate inclusive spaces that make room for individuals with varying identities and experiences.
Clare responded that community work often requires discomfort.
“In those spaces, to do that coalition work, it’s not always going to be comfortable—we need to tease apart what’s safe and what’s uncomfortable,” he said. “But at the same time being uncomfortable, it doesn’t automatically mean we’re unsafe.”
Clare also reflected on his upbringing in a “right-wing, libertarian” household in Oregon, explaining that his political views shifted over time when they were challenged.
“The work for me of becoming the left-wing progressive that I am today came from being challenged in many ways,” he said. “I went through a radicalization process—that process was really uncomfortable but yet I was in a space where I was safe, letting go of all of that upbringing.”
In an interview with the Voice, Early said that her questions were informed by her involvement in GU Pride and her experience as an openly transgender student. Early said that Georgetown has not always felt fully trans-inclusive, including in GU Pride and within other LGBTQ+ spaces themselves – witnessing that sometimes transgender students do not experience the same courtesy as other minority groups on campus.
“For trans students it’s been very hard to build a community,” she said, adding that it would be meaningful to build spaces that specifically support the trans community.
Clare acknowledged Early’s concerns, particularly regarding transgender women.
“We cannot afford that kind of hostility, our communities making direct and explicit coalition with right-wing folks, with transphobic, anti-immigrant legislators and white nationalists,” he said.
At the same time, he emphasized the importance of focusing on tackling systemic issues rather than engaging in discourse with specific individuals when trying to stand up against discrimination. Early said that resonated with her especially when considering her own personal interactions.
“I really liked his ability to disentangle the interpersonal from the institutional. I admittedly get quite frustrated with certain people and I don’t think that is a good way of going about change, rather understanding that we have this collective thing we want to accomplish,” Early said.
During his discussion of his activist work, Clare described himself as a “rabble rouser,” someone who “creates disturbances that need to be created.”
“It means to disrupt the belief systems we grow up with. To disrupt what the history books tell us and don’t tell us, to disrupt the systems that are destroying humans and other beings, and the planet itself,” he said.
When asked who he hopes to reach through Unfurl, Clare emphasized that his primary audience is “the community” reflected in his work.
“My biggest hope is that my work, as it returns into the community, will be useful,” he said. “If people outside those communities find my work, appreciate my work, and learn from my work, that’s great—but first, it’s my work returning to the community, it’s where I come from.”
