Our work
comes to life
in community.
From national convenings to youth-led programs and leadership gatherings, Rustin Institute events create space for learning, connection, and collective action. Explore what’s coming up—and revisit where we’ve been.
2026 at a glance
January
25th annual Rustin/Lorde
Community BreakfasT
The Breakfast is grounded in Black LGBT organizing, yet it convenes a multiracial, intergenerational platform for mutual support and mobilization. As an annual event the Breakfast educates participants and connects them to individuals, organizations and coalitions working toward social change.
February
you(th) belong and netherlands consulate presents: Black history love letters
Black History Love Letters 2.0 returned this Valentine’s Day as a vibrant, heart-forward gathering rooted in memory, art, and collective gratitude. In the spirit of Black History Month, leaders, artists, poets, musicians, and community creatives come together to offer original love letters—through words, song, and performance—to the Black elders, ancestors, and cultural visionaries who have shaped their lives and imaginations.
National Day of reading hosted by Human rights campaign
On February 27, the Bayard Rustin Society hosted a joyful National Day of Reading celebration in honor of Human Rights Campaign’s initiative. The program reflected on its history and importance while highlighting the Society’s commitment to inclusive education and to honoring the legacy of Bayard Rustin.
The event included readings of two children’s books. The Executive Director of the LGBTQ+ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights shared A Song Unsung, a tribute to Rustin’s life and impact. National Youth Advocacy Fellow Dhruv Aggarwal then read from his own book, Wiggly Noodles & Roaring Dinosaurs, celebrating curiosity, imagination, and neurodiversity, and spoke briefly about his work.
The evening concluded with a community Q&A, where families, educators, and young people reflected on the power of storytelling to affirm LGBTQ+ identities and build more welcoming communities.
March
Bayard Rustin Day & Rustin Institute for Leadership Development Announced
Organize The Future: Rooted. Rising. Ready., honored the life, legacy, and enduring relevance of Bayard Rustin through an afternoon of reflection, dialogue, and artistic expression rooted in justice and human dignity. Building on the spirit and success of our inaugural celebration, this year’s program brought together historians, advocates, and creatives whose work embodies Rustin’s vision of courageous, nonviolent leadership and community care as activism.
Special guests will included Sean Allen, Walter Naegle, LGBTTQ+ Institute Founding Executive Director, Ryan Roemerman—and two dynamic intergenerational panel discussions. Together, we invited the community to remember Rustin not only as a historic figure, but as a living call to action—one that challenges us to lead with integrity, imagination, and love.
April
Healthy Futures: Youth Voices, Arts &
Health Advocacy, and the Work Ahead
The LGBTQ+ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and Performance Hypothesis, LLC hosted an inspiring conversation exploring how the arts can serve as a bridge between health, healing, and human rights across generations and across borders.
Bringing together international leaders, researchers, clinicians, artists, and young advocates, the dialogue examined how creativity and cultural expression can advance wellbeing, strengthen communities, and confront inequities.
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Been Here, Still Here: Celebrating Black LGBTQ+ Educators
At this event, we honored contemporary leaders such as David Johns and Bettina Love, whose work challenged us to build classrooms rooted in truth, justice, and liberation. At the same time, we placed them within a powerful lineage—some who came before us and others still living—that stretched across generations: Bayard Rustin, whose commitment to nonviolent leadership cultivated young organizers; Angela Davis, whose teaching inspired countless students to imagine freedom; Pauli Murray, who used both scholarship and moral courage to challenge injustice; and Kabir Amari X, whose “Black History is Queer History” workshop has been a groundbreaking way of educating both students and educators that any Black history that omits LGBTQ+ people is incomplete, inaccurate, and a disservice to the fullness of our collective story.
We also celebrated event organizers who have a long history as friends and co-conspirators: Micia Mosely, whose founding of The Black Teacher Project created vital space for Black educators to thrive, lead, and teach from a place of wholeness; and Tim’m West, whose continued work as a brave educator—from helping create Teach For America Prism Alliances nearly a decade ago to building intergenerational leadership models through the LGBTQ+ Institute and now the Rustin Institute for Leadership Development—ensured that young people were seen, affirmed, and equipped to become the next generation of courageous leaders.