Living My Black Queer Life: Kiki Methodology and Black Queer Storytelling (Poster 2)

• In Event: Imagining Black Worlds: Emphasizing Black Methodologies in Reparative Educational Inquiry

Abstract

The richness of Black queer life exists within the multifaceted ways we share our lived experiences through storytelling. Black queer vernacular, language, and storytelling are complex, nuanced, and expansive ways of depicting the lives of Black queer people. Kiki-ing, which derives from ballroom culture, is a phrase that offers an innovative qualitative methodology for narrative construction through the lens of Black queer storytelling. Utilizing arts-based research (ABR), this session will examine kiki methodology, Black queer storytelling within qualitative research. Deriving from a phenomenological and ABR dissertation, kiki methodology is influenced by queer of color critique and narrative construction. Kiki methodology engages in three components: (1) Black queer meaning-making; (2) Black queer storytelling; and (3) Black queer artistic expression. This work connects how Black queer people share and express their intersecting identities through queer storytelling in a welcoming and communal environment. In sharing this Black queer qualitative methodology approach, it aims to center words, feelings, and voices of the Black queer community that honor their lived experiences through collective narrative engagement.

Author

• Quortne R. Hutchings, Northern Illinois University