Annual Events

NYU Portraits

August • NYU Portraits is a performance-based program featuring a dynamic student cast and celebrity guests. The program creates a vibrant and colorful experience through which historical and contemporary movements for justice and equality come together on stage to invigorate a commitment to create social change.

MLK Week

February • Each year, MLK Week includes an exciting array of events and programs curated to honor the legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—and to commemorate his historic 1961 visit to NYU’s Washington Square campus.

NYU Women Lead

March • The NYU Women Lead, building from the work of NYU Womxn100, and in conjunction with the NYU BeTogether efforts, the Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation works to embed and escalate intersectional, gender-centered strategic action through the NYU Women Lead: A Global Leadership Accelerator. This university-wide initiative has two initial foci for realizing institutional change: first, a focus on inclusive leadership through NYU Women Lead: A Global Leadership Accelerator that also includes robust alumni engagement. The second, which is a part of the first focus, specifically centers Black women’s leadership models and archiving the histories of Black women through the Global Black Women Leadership Initiative.

Trans Inclusion in Higher Education Symposium

March • This event provides NYU community members and non-NYU faculty and administrators with educational opportunities and resources to help them become more effective allies to transgender and nonbinary communities in a higher education setting.

Solidarity Week

April • Through a weeklong series of programs and events, Solidarity Week creates chances for students, faculty, and administrators to deepen their understanding of the experiences of others—and to raise awareness of the individual and collective injustices that confront many people in our society.

CMEP Around The City

Ongoing Series • Visit featured local businesses owned by people of color and other historically marginalized communities through a series of outings around New York City! 

Cultural Graduations

April and May • Acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments of students of color from various cultural backgrounds as they graduate from their undergraduate, graduate, or professional studies programs.

FOCUS Mentorship Program

Ongoing Series • FOCUS is a year-long structured mentorship program designed to offer first-year, first-generation undergraduate students, especially those who identify as students of color, the opportunity to connect with NYU alumni, faculty, staff, graduate students, and other professionals for ongoing support, resources, and advocacy.

Graduate Students of Color Series

Ongoing Series • Opportunities for graduate students, especially those who identify as students of color, to connect and build community through informal engagement and leadership development.

Nia Awards

April • The Nia Awards recognize NYU community members for their efforts in promoting inclusion, belonging, and social justice at NYU and beyond. Each year, CMEP invites students, staff, administrators, faculty, and alumni to honor the award recipients who exemplify Nia, a Swahili word meaning 'purpose.'

Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC) Gatherings

Ongoing Series • This social and educational program series is designed to help build community for queer and trans people of color.

Unpack That Dialogues

Ongoing Series • This cohort-based series invites students to discuss current issues related to difference, community, and social justice. Through the six-week program, students learn to develop effective dialogue skills, explore identities, and connect individual experiences to larger systems.

NY(Drag)U

September • This student drag showcase is hosted by a contestant from RuPaul's Drag Race.

Queer Leadership Retreat

October • This annual retreat is an opportunity for LGBTQ+ and ally undergraduate and graduate students at NYU to spend a weekend intentionally building community, deepening an understanding of multiple identities within their communities, and empowering each other to develop their own definition of queer leadership.

Trans Awareness Week

November • This week-long series of events celebrates the lives and experiences of transgender and nonbinary communities and educates the NYU community about the how to better serve as allies to these communities.

Lavender Graduation

April • This celebration recognizes all graduating LGBTQ+ students, as well as NYU students, staff, faculty, alumni, and student organizations, for their positive impacts toward LGBTQ+ inclusivity and equity. 

NYC Pride March with NYU

June • Each year, NYU and NYU Langone Health community members walk together in the NYC Pride March, which commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising.

First Year Queers and Allies (FYQA)

Ongoing Series • This leadership program gives incoming first-year and transfer students the opportunity to build community with their peers, engage in service-learning within the larger NYC community, and develop themselves as leaders. FYQA meets weekly with an Alternative Breaks service-learning engagement during spring break.

LGBTQ+ Faculty and Graduate Student Dinners

Ongoing Series • Informal conversations between LGBTQ+ faculty and graduate students as they come together over dinner.

OutBreath

Ongoing Series • All ability levels are welcome at these one-hour mindful meditation sessions that are held in an LGBTQ+ centered and peer-led space.

Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC) Gatherings

Ongoing Series • This social and educational program series is designed to help build community for queer and trans people of color.

Queer Grad Socials

Ongoing Series • This series of monthly socials is held specifically for LGBTQ+ and ally graduate students.

Queering Faith

Ongoing Series • This initiative, in collaboration with Global Spiritual Life, provides programs, events, resources, a student group, and associated chaplains in support of LGBTQ+ community members who want to engage their LGBTQ+ and religious/spiritual/faith identities.

Quench (Queer + Lunch) Series

Ongoing Series • Explore intersectional LGBTQ+ and ally topics and connect with NYU and New York City resources at these lunch and discussion events.

Richie Jackson LGBTQ+ Service Fellows  

Ongoing Series • With the generous support of NYU alumnus Richie Jackson (TSOA '87), this leadership program gives undergraduate students in their second year and above the opportunity to learn critical skills such as LGBTQ+ advocacy, organizational leadership, programmatic development, and strategies for inclusive service through weekly cohort meetings and a year-long internship with a local LGBTQ+ non-profit organization in New York City.