Black queer autoethnographies

Abstract

This chapter contextualizes the relevance of sharing Black and queer experiences as devices for educating. The autoethnography and embodied practices considered are analyzed through the lens of performance, culture, and race and draw on the recorded investigations of scholars like Julie-Ann Scott, Raquel Monroe, John Perpener, and Megan Young. Public performances are examined by employing analytic tools from dance and movement analysis, cultural criticism, and educational research. I detail how marginalized bodies in traditional and non-traditional performing spaces (from nightclubs to galleries) can serve as repositories, archiving evidence that illuminates the Black queer body as a valuable manuscript in our pursuit of social justice and equity. I invite students to use autoethnographies to challenge Eurocentric norms in their learning and own creative processes. The chapter concludes with an investigation of my own artistic practice, offering perspectives on how sharing my realities augment my pedagogical approaches.