GerShun Avilez, "Black Queer Freedom: Spaces of Injury and Paths of Desire" (U Illinois Press, 2020)
Whether engaged in same-sex desire or gender nonconformity, black queer individuals live with being perceived as a threat while simultaneously being subjected to the threat of physical, psychological, and socioeconomic injury. Attending to and challenging threats has become a defining element in queer black artists\u2019 work throughout the black diaspora.\xa0\nIn\xa0Black Queer Freedom: Spaces of Injury and Paths of Desire\xa0(U Illinois Press, 2020),\xa0GerShun Avilez analyzes the work of diasporic artists who, denied government protections, have used art to create spaces for justice. He first focuses on how the state seeks to inhibit the movement of black queer bodies through public spaces, whether on the street or across borders. From there, he pivots to institutional spaces--specifically prisons and hospitals--and the ways such places seek to expose queer bodies in order to control them. Throughout, he reveals how desire and art open routes to black queer freedom when policy, the law, racism, and homophobia threaten physical safety, civil rights, and social mobility.\nOrder this book through University of Illinois Press and use this code to get a discount: F20UIP\nGerShun Avilez is an associate professor of English at the University of Maryland. He is the author of\xa0Radical Aesthetics and Modern Black Nationalism.\nJohn Marszalek III\xa0is author of\xa0Coming Out of the Magnolia Closet: Same-Sex Couples in Mississippi\xa0(2020, University Press of Mississippi). He is clinical faculty of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at Southern New Hampshire University. John is on Twitter at\xa0@marsjf3.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law