Welcome to Pride Alliance!
Pride Alliance at George Mason University is an organization for people of all genders, sexualities, orientations, and expressions! Our goal is to provide a confidential and safe space for all GMU students, faculty, staff, and members of the community by promoting education and resources and fostering respect for diversity!
With very heavy hearts...
The Pride Alliance Executive Board is sad to announce the loss of a great friend and ally, Brian Picone, who passed away a few nights ago (10/26/09). A recent graduate of Mason, he continued to give to Pride Alliance, and the Mason community as a whole, through his commitment with such groups as SafeZone, Women and Gender Studies, and New Century College. Many of the newer students may know him as his alter ego, Brianna Spice, who hosted the energetic Mason Drag Show 2 weeks ago.
We would like to remind people about the wonderful services offered by CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services) through great individuals such as Adrienne Douglass. For members interested in these services, CAPS is located in Student Union 1, Room 364 and can be reached at 703-993-2380.
In Celebration of Brian...
Mason will hold a Celebration of Brian Picone this Thursday, November 5th, 2009 beginning at 7pm at the Mason statue with a candle lit walk, followed by a multi-faceted celebratory gathering at 7:30pm in the SUB I Patriots Lounge. ALL are welcome; we hope that many who knew and were touched by Brian will participate – it is our hope the event will include as many voices as possible.
The event will be in Open Mic style – and we imagine it will include a mix of media, voices, storytelling, music, performances, testimonials, and creative responses of any kind that reflect or give expression to Brian’s presence in our lives, at Mason, and beyond. Brian was active in so many, many organizations, programs, projects, as well as classes, and we want to invite colleagues, friends, professors, family, everyone from all aspects of Brian’s life, to come forward and participate.
Ways you can share in the celebration: first, come as you are, come with all of your textures, flair, emotions, memories, and aspirations! Come to listen, come to watch, come to lend your greatness to this community celebration in honoring and celebrating Brian and his life with all of his passion, compassion, truth-telling, brilliance, humor and joy.
We are also looking for several (3-4) emcees to serve as hosts for the evening. We're excited that Ryan Allen/Reann Ballslee has agreed to be one of the co-hosts, and we invite several students to join Ryan/Reann as emcees. If you are interested in being an emcee, contact us at wmst@gmu.edu and we will contact you in return.
We invite you to plan to share at the Mic – and this includes all spoken word forms and multimedia forms – tell us if you have any special tech needs at wmst@gmu.edu and we will contact you.
There will also be ample opportunity to participate at the Mic spontaneously – no need to let us know – just come!
This Celebration of Brian Picone is being planned by a group of individuals and offices from around the Mason community. Please direct any questions or additional suggestions to Ric Chollar at rchollar@gmu.edu or Lisa Snyder at lsnyder2@gmu.edu.
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