Women and the Word: The Revival as a Counterpublic Space for Black Queer-Identified Women

Alyssa Hollins, Fordham University

Abstract

In the realms of the American mainstream and Black public spheres, the Revival Poetry tour emerges as a counterpublic space for Black queer-identified women in which the experience of freedom of self-consciousness lends to the materialization of the emancipatory Black Erotic-Aesthetic Dimension. The reality of compulsory homophobia—often spurring from the locus of the Black church—creates intimate and widespread isolation for Black queer-identified women in the realm of the Black public sphere. In striving to understand the proliferation of an emancipatory counterpublic space, this thesis project employs Black Erotic Consciousness to survey the historical and sociological realities endured by Black bodies in the realm of the American public and the evolution of Black conceptions of freedom and consciousness in the Black public sphere. In explicating the murky intersections of race, gender, sexuality and religion, my research reveals the fallout of potent white supremacist psychosis in the Black public sphere as the historically masculinist obsessed Black public that succeeds in relegating Black queer-identified people into innovated counterpublic spaces—such as the Revival.

Subject Area

Black studies

Recommended Citation

Hollins, Alyssa, "Women and the Word: The Revival as a Counterpublic Space for Black Queer-Identified Women" (2014). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI10185201.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI10185201

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