Mapping the Afro-Imaginative: Black Queer Diaspora Studies and the Work of the Imagination

This symposium will convene activists, artists and scholars from throughout the African Diaspora to initiate a sharing on why, how and where we develop creative strategies for black queer world-making. Our initiative is encouraged by recent postcolonial feminist work that calls for creative scholarship and meaningful storytelling as a mode of theorizing about black genders and sexualities. Emergent black queer diasporic artistic practice that mixes media, languages and temporalities in order to usher in expansive new realities absolutely inspires us as well. We are excited to bring these various imaginative modalities together.