It is hard to believe that October, November and December came and went, and now it is 2020! So many wonderful moments have taken place since early October.
For one, I was down in Los Angeles with Omi Osun Joni L. Jones “The Diaspora Project,” sponsored by the Thousand Currents Foundation. For four days, I met and worked with ten other folks from the African Diaspora. We dug deep into our experiences to think about place making, collaboration and healing. We cooked together and ate together and walked away…more together. We even had the opportunity to go to D’Lo‘s show “To T or not to T,” presented at the Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Center. After all was said and done, I went with Courtney D. Morris to the Underground Museum where we had the chance to see new video work, art work and to learn more about this space and its history.
November was a whirlwind. Though I wasn’t able to go in person, I did send a talk to be read as part of the American Anthropological Association roundtable on “Black Queer Feminist Futures,” organized by Omotayo Jolaosho, and including Andrea Allen, Layla Brown, Shanya Cordis, Nessette Falu, Marcia Ochoa, Juli Grigsby, Savannah Shange, and Alix Chapman. What an amazing crew of people. I was finishing a manuscript and couldn’t go, but the talk I sent. [embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/zorashorse/files/2020/01/Lara_Black-Queer-Feminisms-in-the-House-of-Anthropology-1.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]
In November, I also had the opportunity to go down to Austin to be part of the Danza Huitzilmeztli gathering. It was so, so cold and so incredible to be in the presence of so many strong Native and Afro-descendant women. Thank you to Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli for the opportunity to be there, and to honor Afro-descendant peoples in relationship to Native/Indigenous communities.
December ended the quarter, the year…and thank goodness! I was ready to settle down for a bit. drea brown and I received our contract from University of Pittsburgh Press for Teaching Black: Pedagogy, Practice, and Perspectives on Writing. We are so excited!! We have contributions from so many amazing people, including: Sharon Bridgforth & Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Lauren Alleyne, Anastacia Tolbert, Aricka Foreman, Douglas Kearney, Lisa B. Thompson, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, JP Howard, Bianca Spriggs, Nelly Rosario, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Kelly Norman Ellis, John Keene, Avery R. Young, F. Douglas Brown & Jamal Adams, Toi Dericotte, Rhodessa Jones, Gabrielle Civil, and Sheila Maldonado. The very dear Dr. Joyce Joyce will be writing our introduction. This has been an incredible process and we are both so excited to have so many amazing people and such fantastic contributions coming together. If you don’t know…now you know.
2020 is looking very exciting. Soon, I will post some news about a performance art collaboration that is set to take place in May 2020…stay tuned. And Happy (Gregorian) New Year!