Center for Humanistic Inquiry CHI Salon: Resisting Fragmentation: Black LGBTQ+ Acts of Self and Community Making in Brazil

How do people whose social location lies at the intersection of violence from multiple systems of power find ways to envision their own subjectivity in society? How do these people, who are stripped of power by systems of white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism, construct visions of self that move beyond that state of oppression, both individually and collectively? How do these multiply marginalized communities find freedom in themselves and with one another?

This presentation by CHI Fellow Watufani Poe investigates the processes of self and community making for Black LGBTQ+ people in Brazil. Through analysis of a Black LGBTQ+ party called Batekoo, Poe outliness how the organizers of this socio-political space work to enable a kind of freedom for Black LGBTQ+ people. This freedom allows an experimentation of self that is otherwise heavily restricted outside of Batekoo. He also highlights the costs to ensure that Black LGBTQ+ freedom continues to exist within the Batekoo space as the party becomes more popular, and shows the necessary conflicts to maintain that freedom.