Terrance Dean, a post-doctoral fellow with Denison’s Black Studies Program, presents a film seminar on “Don’t Forget About Us: Popular Culture & Black Queer Sexual Politics in America” on Tuesday, July 23, at 7:30 p.m., at the Belcourt Film Center in Nashville, TN.
With the rise in popularity of Black queer identity in media, film and music, this seminar explores the ways in which Black queer persons have radically challenged the status quo using their sexuality, gender, and queer performance as forms of resistance.
Looking through popular cultural phenoms such as rapper Lil Nas X, actor Billy Porter and the hit television show “Pose,” and the iconic cult film PARIS IS BURNING, this seminar explores an interdisciplinary engagement with the history, culture and politics of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities during the 20th and 21st centuries.
We will consider how Black queer identities and political issues shape Black LGBTQ experiences in literature, film, music, and television cultural productions. As we honor the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and the gay rights movement, this seminar will pay particular attention to the works of Black LGBTQ actors during historical periods of civil unrest and its trajectory to current day social movements, such as Black Lives Matter.
About the speaker:
Terrance Dean recently received a Ph.D. in the Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University, where he focused on the intersection of race, sex, sexuality, and gender in Homiletics and Liturgics. A former entertainment executive with MTV and BET, he is the author of numerous books, including Hiding in Hip Hop, Visible Lives, Straight from Your Gay Best Friend, and Mogul. Dean has been a guest speaker for multiple events, including Black Love in the American Imagination: A Seminar on James Baldwin and discussions around Barry Jenkins’ MOONLIGHT and Raoul Peck’s I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO. In Spring 2019, he taught Vanderbilt University’s first-ever Black LGBTQ History course, Insider/Outsider: The Genealogy of Black LGBTQ Peoples.
