Ferial Pearson

In April 2018, Ferial Pearson was interviewed by Luke Wegener, UNO Libraries Oral History Associate, for LGBTQ+ Voices: The Queer Omaha Archives Oral History Project. The interview is over 2 hours in length.

Dr. Ferial Pearson, born in Nairobi, Kenya, is a queer, Muslim, Indian-African immigrant woman, first-generation college graduate, educator, community activist, speaker, writer, and creator of the internationally-recognized Secret Kindness Agents Project. After graduating from college Pearson taught English at Omaha South High School for 10 years, while advocating for LGBTQ+ students and serving as sponsor for Omaha South’s Gay Straight Alliance Club and Unity Club. Her work then continued as a Talent Advisor for the Avenue Scholars Foundation at Ralston High School for 2 years. During her work at Ralston High School, Pearson founded the Secret Kindness Agents Project, a now internationally-recognized program in K-16 schools that aims to deepen student’s understanding of empathy and compassion through small acts of anonymous, intentional kindness. Pearson is co-founder and leader of Open Arms Transgender Support group, and is one of the original organizers of Omaha’s Tom Mahony Pride Prom for LGBTQ+ youth.

All of this and more was covered in the interview. Pearson's interview is available through the Queer Omaha Archives website or in UNO Libraries' Archives and Special Collections.

This post is part of a series sharing previews of the new oral history interviews gathered as part of LGBTQ+ Voices: The Queer Omaha Archives Oral History Project.

Support Oral Histories

We rely on external funding to conduct oral history interviews, so once we have exhausted our grant funding and private gifts made by community members, collecting new interviews will be paused until we are able to raise additional funding. We need to hear from community members soon to ensure your stories are captured, preserved, and available for future generations to learn from and enjoy. If you have been contacted by the archives and are considering sharing your story, we hope to hear from you!

If you would like to support continuing the collection of and access to oral history interviews, please consider making a donation to the Queer Omaha Archives or contact us to volunteer with the project.

About Oral History and the Queer Omaha Archives

From the first conversations between students, faculty, community members, and archivists about creating the Queer Omaha Archives, there were plans to include an oral history component in the collecting initiative. Oral history has the ability to share the memories of people and communities who lived through those events with the present and future through the voices of people from our communities. LGBTQ+ Voices: The Queer Omaha Archives Oral History Project is currently collecting oral history interviews from members of the greater Omaha LGBTQ+ communities, sharing their wide-ranging experiences with their fellow Nebraskans and the world through the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Queer Omaha Archives website.

About the Queer Omaha Archives

The Queer Omaha Archives is part of UNO Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections and officially launched in 2016. The Queer Omaha Archives collects and preserves materials relevant to the LGBTQ+ community in the region. Archives & Special Collections' material is available for the university community and general public at both the Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library and online.

Visit the Omaha Oral History Blogs to learn more. https://queeromahaarchives.omeka.net/items/show/3283