In a time when autistic, queer, and multiply marginalized lives are too often defined through deficit, pathology, or mere survival, this keynote reclaims joy as both an act of rebellion and a blueprint for the future. Queer Joy in Dystopian Times: We Get To! invites participants into a dynamic exploration of how autistic culture and lived experience generate wisdom for resilience, resistance, and collective thriving.

Drawing from more than two decades of clinical practice and lived experience as a queer, neurodivergent, disabled, and multiracial clinician, Tawanna-Marie Woolfolk, LCSW, interweaves storytelling, therapeutic insight, and ancestral wisdom to show how joy can be cultivated as a protective factor, a community connector, and a liberatory force. Rather than postponing joy to a safer or more perfect future, this keynote insists on joy here and now — joy as both a survival strategy and a radical reclamation of humanity.

Participants will be invited into reflection, imagination, and collective visioning, leaving with renewed energy and tangible practices for fostering belonging, creativity, and abundance in their work and communities. This keynote celebrates autistic culture not as an exception to the world but as a source of hope, rebellion, and possibility for building futures where we all get to thrive.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify how autistic and queer joy function as acts of resistance and cultural survival in oppressive contexts.

    

2. Apply clinical and community-based strategies for fostering safety, belonging, and collective abundance among autistic clients and peers.

    

3. Analyze the role of joy in shaping autistic futures, emphasizing resilience, creativity, and liberation in therapeutic and community spaces.