‘Atlantic Is A Sea of Bones’ : Contortions of resting space

• In Event: 'Heavy Breathing' : Cartographies of Black Pleasure In and Out of Constraint

Abstract

This paper draws from black feminist theorizations of ‘diaspora’ to engage the artistic works of Lucille Clifton (1980) and Reina Gossett (2017). Through the language of the poem I wish to extend Alexis Pauline Gumbs configuration of The Black Feminine Domestic, asking: what would it mean to claim the space of the Atlantic (and beyond) as resting place? Thinking with the images of the film I ask: how might the space of the Atlantic be re/membered in the club, the dressing room and other sites of black femme self fashioning.

Presenter

• Malika Imhotep, University of California, Berkeley