by Xavier Livermon, Karma R. Chávez, and Lisa L. Moore
These are intense times, to say the least. If the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t enough, police and other vigilantes have continued to target Black people and some of their brown and white supporters, leading to months now of urban rebellions. These rebellions, as with so much organizing in the movement for Black lives, have been largely led by young, Black, queer, trans and feminist freedom fighters whose deeply intersectional politics refuse to leave anyone behind and challenge the very foundations of the U.S. nation-state. As the election nears and white supremacy surges, violent vigilantes terrorize those who protest, as recent murders by a 17-year-old white terrorist in Kenosha, Wisconsin make so plain.
Indeed, these are intense times. But they are not necessarily unusual times in the context of global history, and they’re not hopeless times. As Black feminist radical thinker Mariame Kaba insists, “hope is a discipline.” Put differently, to hope is not enough. That hope must be accompanied by disciplined practices of worldmaking. What does it mean to have and practice hope in this moment? What does it mean to make the world we want to live in?
In this issue of QT Voices, we devote our attention to the worldmaking practices of Black queer and trans students, teachers, writers, thinkers and artists. This issue is anchored by our podcast, Audio QT, with Karma Chávez interviewing Xavier Livermon, the author of the book Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and Subjectivity in Post-Apartheid South Africa, and until recently a professor at UT and LGBTQ Studies Affiliate. In our Ask a QT feature, we ask Austin filmmaker Funmi Ogunro, “What Is a Freedom Community?” Her answer is a beautiful one-and-a-half minute documentary, the trailer for her upcoming feature. In Deep Dive, our queer history column, Brynna Boyd tells the story of UT’s first–and so far only–Black lesbian Student Government president, Toni Luckett. We celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the Black Queer Studies Collection in the UT Libraries with a delicious collection of favorite picks by Anthony Douglass, Faith Williams, and Terrane Ansley, introduced by Women’s and Gender Studies Bibliographer at the Perry-Castañeda Library, Gina Bastone-Treviño. We’re delighted to introduce a new feature with this issue, QT Arts, featuring hard-hitting and haunting poems by KB and breathtaking dance videos by Khorri Tinson. We also have a fascinating interview with Khorri by her friend and collaborator, Libby Carr. Priscilla Ferreira’s essay, “Breathtaking Whirlwind,” is a moving reflection on collective and personal queer responses to the Covid and Black Lives Matter crises.
As always, we have an inspiring collection of reflections by LGBTQ Studies students on their internship experiences. Angela Kang, Alyssa Ashcraft, Simona Gabriela Harry, and Tasnim Islam of the Coalition Against Sexual Misconduct tell the powerful story of student protests against faculty sexual misconduct in 2019-20. In another collaborative essay, Victoria Rivera and Hyunmin Oh write about their internship experiences at the KIND Clinic. Noé López writes about allgo, the vibrant statewide organization for queer people of color that we are lucky to have as an Austin neighbor.
Making a way out of no way, practicing hope as a discipline, exploring what it means to feel free: in this issue, we celebrate and affirm the Black queer and trans voices leading us into the future we desire.
Xavier Livermon is Associate Professor of Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC-Santa Cruz. He has recently published Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and Subjectivity in Postapartheid South Africa (Duke University Press, 2020).
Karma R. Chávez (she/her) is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, and a member of the LGBTQ Studies Advisory Council at The University of Texas at Austin.
Lisa L. Moore (she/her) is Archibald A. Hill Professor of English, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, and Director of the LGBTQ Studies Program at The University of Texas at Austin.
