Flux 'Zine as Engaged Queer of Color Critique and Women of Color Feminist Praxis

• In Event: 72.039 - Queeruptions: Queer of Color Analysis as a Basis for Radical Action and Education Reform

Abstract

Queer youth of color are disproportionately marginalized and impacted by violence (Ahmed & Jindasurat, 2015). Queer people of color experience disproportionately higher rates of poverty than white queers (Albelda, Badgett, Schneebaum, & Gates, 2009). Additionally, queer youth of color are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS (Grov et al. 2006) and housing security (Reck, 2009). There is still much to understand about queer youth of color lived experiences and identities, yet, we know about these oppressive contexts of their lives because we tend to limit talk about queer youth of color to their victimization. This underdeveloped attention to the diversity of queer youth lived experiences and identities undermine a deeper understanding of queer life and strategies for negotiating anti-queer discrimination (Kumashiro, 2001).

Despite limits in education research and mainstream gay media, queer youth of color are contributing their own liberating initiatives and acts of resistance through multiple formats and aesthetics, such as grassroots organizing (Driver, 2008), narratives, music, performances, and revisions of family networks (Brockenbrough & Boatwright, 2013). This paper will focus on the author’s experience creating and collaborating with two Black queer youth activist on our zine project called Flux Zine. The author will explore how the zine is a manifestation of a collaborative queer of color critique (Ferguson, 2004), a creative platform for storytelling Black queer ontologies, and a mechanism for coalition building (Moraga & Anzaldúa, 1983).

Author

• Tomas Boatwright, University of San Francisco