Black LGBTQ Art and Activism in the Americas

This question, posed in bold on the social media pages of Brazilian trans activist organization ANTRA, is at the heart of this symposium. In recent years anti-LGBT legislation and violence have proliferated symbiotically in American democracies, with the United States and Brazil consistently the world leaders in federal, state, and local anti-trans bills as well as in transfemicides that disproportionately claim Black lives.

As Black LGBT communities remain overpoliced and under-resourced throughout the hemisphere, Black macha, man royal, masisi, mati, travesti, transmarikona, patx/pájarx, femme, and jota resistance mobilizes art, activism, and alliance-building to refuse political scapegoating and demand expansive futures for Black LGBTQ communities and all.

By centering Black transness' unique positionality as target of state terror and radical freedom, this symposium brings Black LGBT activists, artists, and scholars from South America and the Caribbean into conversations with U.S. counterparts to develop strategies to protect Black LGBT communities and imagine Black LGBT-centered experiment of life across borders. These strategies include supporting hemispheric alliances in antifascist organizing, denouncing systemic violence against Black LGBT activists, and giving visibility to local struggles to sustain black communities under siege.