I was first introduced to Gwendalynn Roebke (who uses the pronouns they/them) in 2018.
Fast forward to 2021, as I sat down to interview the youngest (to date) member of the CU Black and Gold Alumni, just days after they graduated. The McNair Scholar graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A in Distributed Studies, a self-structured major called New Age Existentialism. They successfully defended their thesis which is a combination of Astrophysics, Neuroscience and Philosophy.
The Colorado Springs native is a demonstration of what it means to create one's own space: as a Black/multiracial, gender non-conforming, poet, artist, and scholar, Gwendalynn questions why anyone should want to sit at a table where they are on the menu, particularly when they can make their own table? Thus, their focus has been on designing independent spaces for Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC).
In 2020, Gwendalynn and graduate student Alejandra Abad created a form of protest called “Artivism,” an art installation, located outside Norlin Library. It included 43 life-sized black, cardboard silhouettes, placed on different chairs and benches. Each featured a slur or insult hurled at BIPOC students by classmates and professors on the Boulder campus.
Gwendalynn is the founder of Building Leadership Among Communities of Color (BLACC), a student-led program that aims to recruit and support students in challenging systemic anti-blackness, celebrating Black joy and resilience in art, and learning about the movements of people in the African diaspora. They also founded the Radical BIPOC Womxn/Femmes Collective and took part in a CU Scholar Strike webinar on anti-Black racism on campus.
They also have experience abroad, serving as a youth ambassador of the United States in participation with the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Program in Germany, and spending a semester conducting research in Colombia.
Gwendalynn writes and performs their original poetry, and has their first book, a collection of poems titled "A Bruxist Manifesto," set to be published by Really Serious Literature later in 2021.
Welcome to our newest alum -- Gwendalynn Roebke...
