Kin/folk: on queer models of collective beholding

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to investigate how ancillary modes of kinship are present in the lives of Black queer folk as opposed to solely any biological or given relationship structure. And, as a practical theologian in training, I offer an analysis of these kinship structures that, despite their necessity, explore their ingenuity and their resilience as a form of collective care, or collective ‘beholding.’ In the face of institutional neglect and cultural and religious ostracism, I am interested in how these kinship structures, notwithstanding their given complexities, might serve as a model for theological epistemologies of care. I draw upon scholarship from queer theory, quare theory, performance studies, and queer theologies to serve as examples of this type of collective relational orientation. Furthermore, I turn to the FX Television show POSE as a case study of how this kinship structure is made apparent even in the realm of artistic expression.