The Queer Drama of Black Life

In Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life, Nyong’o argues for a conception of black cultural life that exceeds post-blackness and conditions of loss. Tavia Nyong’o is currently Professor of African American Studies, American Studies, and Theater & Performance Studies at Yale University. Lauren Berlant, author of Cruel Optimism, says Afro-Fabulations “brings virtuosic critical energy” and Saidiya Hartman, author of Lose Your Mother, writes that “the book’s extended engagement with insurgent movement and upheaval, transmutation and plasticity is both breathtaking and surprising.” Rod Ferguson, author of Aberrations in Black, calls the book “nothing less than an archive of oppositional fabulousness.” Responding to the book will be Barbara Browning and Sébastien Régnier (aka Imre Lodbrog et sa Petite Amie), Malik Gaines, Fred Moten, and Ann Pellegrini, as well as a surprise (recorded) performance by one of the artists profiled in the book. Copies of Afro-Fabulations will be available for purchase, and the author will be on hand to sign copies.

Image: Shannon Lewis, Sometimes But Not Very Often (2016)