black : open — Toward Black, Queer, Feminist Poethics of Polyeroticism

• In Event: Black Queer Politics

Abstract

Imagine: poetics of polyeroticism: a black queer feminist framework for building liberatory theories and politics of/beyond “nonmonogamy.” This presentation uses ‘poetics’ as a lens to address black and nonmonogamous sexuality. Black queer feminism critically reorients us toward black sexuality (maligned within economies of dispossession) and nonmonogamy (devalued under sexual normalcy) as actually generative resources. Poetics of polyeroticism challenge institutionalized monogamy and racism’s universal “truth” of sexuality—encouraging instead constant renegotiation of sexuality through erotic practices, cultural criticism, and social transformation. Critically black, thus open, poetics of polyeroticism invite us to reclaim eroticism as ours: a genesis of liberatory politics.

Presenter

• Jordan Victorian, University of California, Santa Barbara