Taking a Moment for Life: Remembering Black Queer Lives Through Performance

Abstract

This essay foregrounds Black and queer youth stories of encountering and surviving violence, as reenacted through Tell It!: A Contemporary Chorale for Black Youth Voices. A performance ethnography, Tell It! draws from narratives on the bullying experienced inside and outside K-12 schooling contexts, and narratives of anti-Black and anti-queer violence. Throughout the essay, I argue for the reframing of anti-Black and anti-queer violence as mutually constitutive, coalescing within and through educative spaces and practices. Reflecting on the staged performance of Tell It!, I demonstrate how and why performances of Black and queer youth narratives enable the valuing of these lives and experiences. Rooted in the lives of Black and queer youth, this essay expands educational theory and practice by exploring how the coupling of queer pedagogy, race, and performance creates possibilities for new and different (queer) futures.