A triptych: the left photo is of two mangoes hanging from a tree. The middle is of two brown men. One is wearing an African mask, and the other kisses his throat. The image on the right is of three men, overlaid with a photo of grass.
Queering the Archive: Brown Bodies in Ecstasy: Visual Assemblages, and the Pleasures of Transgressive Erotics

Jordache A. Ellapen reflects on his photographic project, Queering the Archive: Brown Bodies in Ecstasy, which blends photographs from his family archive with contemporary portraits shot in a studio. The work examines the intersections of race, sexuality, and eroticism as they relate to the in/visibility of black and brown queer bodies and subjectivities in South Africa.

Painting of a white swan and a black swan touching beaks
Frottage: Introduction

Keguro Macharia weaves together histories and theories of blackness and sexuality to generate a fundamentally new understanding of both the black diaspora and queer studies.

image of a person's head and chest in a water body and covered in colorful paper mache print
Toxic Animacies, Inanimate Affections

Mel Y. Chen considers "toxicity" and "animacy" in the racializing and queering of bodies and sociality. Through a look at national panic in the US surrounding lead in Chinese-manufactured toys, an auto-ethnographic exploration of body, sociality and immunity, and other varied discussions, Chen probes social and object relationships amid material and bodily assemblages. 

mu-swampthing.jpg
Monstrous Relationalities: The Horrors of Queer Eroticism and 'Thingness' in Alan Moore and Stephen Bissette's Swamp Thing

In this essay, we suggest that this new conceptualization of Swamp Thing re-positions the creature as a thing; an obdurate entity that does not easily adhere to rigid classifications of ‘human’ or ‘plant,’ of ‘animate’ or ‘inanimate,’ of ‘original’ or ‘copy’ (even if characters within the comic text may argue otherwise).

mu-mistressamerica.png
I'm Just Normal

In Noah Baumbach’s 2015 national-millennial fable, Mistress America, “I’m just normal” bespeaks dissatisfaction. It’s an identity that Tracy claims in an effort to project her way out of it.