Civic Intimacies: Black Queer Improvisations on Citizenship

Abstract

This ethnographic book focuses on how Black queer people in Baltimore build support structures in the face of ongoing violence and insecurity in their lives. The author advances the concept of “civic intimacies” to account for a range of practices that enable Black queer Baltimoreans to not only survive but also thrive, as they employ strategies of care and belonging to navigate through civic institutions. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Baltimore, van Doorn provides an excellent sense of the vibrancy of Black queer political work in a variety of contexts. His research asks a lot of important questions while providing fair and nuanced analysis, and the text is theoretically deep and astute. While I had an occasional qualm with aspects of the book, I recommend it without hesitation, especially for sociologists interested in queer theory, neoliberalism, or Black queer studies. The text focuses primarily on three institutions: Baltimore’s HIV-prevention system; the Black Church; and the city’s majority-white BDSM community. All three of these sites are explored in depth, and I especially enjoyed reading these ethnographic chapters. The third chapter and parts of the second are particularly strong, where van Doorn examines Baltimore’s HIV-prevention system. He speaks very directly in these chapters, tying a lot of these efforts to the city’s racist legacies and to the continual reproduction of racial inequality. Sociologists interested in public health and race, along with the increasing role of neoliberalism in medical fields, are likely to find much to admire in these chapters. Scholars interested in Baltimore’s ballroom communities, both historically and currently, will also want to obtain this text, as such communities play a significant role in the book.