In Conversation: Living Durham’s Queer Legacies

Join the Nasher this Pride month for an evening celebrating queer legacies of Durham. Featuring Jesse Huddleston of the LGBTQ Center of Durham, Mandy Carter of Southerners on New Ground, and Reverend Racquel C.N. Gill of the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in conversation about Durham Pride’s history and why Pride is for everyone.

5:30 PM doors open

6:00 PM talk begins

Parking for this event is free

Visit the LGBTQ Center of Durham and Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice websites to learn more about the great work they do and how you can support them.

Jesse Huddleston (he/she/they/we) comes from a family of artists, educators, and public servants. As a Black genderqueer artist and practitioner living in North Carolina since 2006, Jesse expresses their humanity and passions for people, equity, and the arts through expansive vocations focused on connecting people and preserving culture. In addition to serving as Committee Chair of Pride: Durham, NC at the LGBTQ Center of Durham, Jesse also works as Senior Neighborhoods Coordinator at Duke Community Affairs, as Director of Music Ministry at CityWell United Methodist Church, and as Board Chair of the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice.

Mandy Carter (she/her) is a southern Black lesbian activist with a nearly 60-year movement history of social, racial, and LGBTQ+ justice, organizing since 1967. Based in Durham, NC, she co-founded the former Triangle Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gay Men in 1986 and is credited as a co-founder of both Southerners On New Ground (SONG), an anti-oppression and intersectional justice organization dedicated to queer liberation in the South, and the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), a national civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and same-gender loving people. She pays tribute to these organizations and causes as this year’s Grand Marshal for Pride: Durham, NC 2025.

Reverend Racquel C.N. Gill (she/her) is a native of Winnsboro, South Carolina. Racquel serves as the Minister for Intercultural Engagement at Duke University Chapel and lives in Durham, NC with her spouse, Reverend Doctor Chelsea Brooke Yarborough, Ph.D.. Racquel is also the “Theologian in Residence” at the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South. She is an active member of the board of directors for the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice and Peace Hill at Avila, a contemplative community committed to restorative justice in Durham.