Locating queer-mixed experiences: Narratives of geography and migration

Posted in Articles, Gay & Lesbian, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Social Work, United States on 2015-09-02 20:29Z by Steven

Locating queer-mixed experiences: Narratives of geography and migration

Qualitative Social Work
Volume 14, Number 5 (September 2015)
pages 651-669
DOI: 10.1177/1473325014561250

Kimberly D. Hudson
School of Social Work
University of Washington

Gita R. Mehrotra, Assistant Professor of Social Work
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Social work scholarship concerned with mixed-race and queer identities is growing and ever-changing, yet often treats race and sexuality as separate experiences independent from context and environment. In addition, in studies of mixed-race people, the legacy of the Black-White/US-based multiracial paradigm and the history of such research using race as the only or primary analytic has left a dearth of studies that seek to understand mixed-race experiences within geographical, transnational and intersectional contexts. In this paper, we extend previous work focused on situational and contextual multiracial identities through an interview-based study of a sample of 12 queer and mixed-race individuals. We employ a narrative analysis to explore how emergent themes of geography and migration are salient to self-making processes of participants. Findings include: (1) diverse geographic and migration histories among participants; (2) interviewees’ use of discursive strategies that draw upon experiences of geography and migration within the narrative structure; and (3) the critical role of geography and migration in expanding and changing participants’ identity discourses and in shaping individuals’ identity and sense of community. Ultimately, this work serves as a call for on-going attention to how geography and migration, as well as intersectional and transnational perspectives, add depth and texture to studies of queer-mixed people while also offering specificity to social work’s broader commitment to context and environment.

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Bordering Community: Reclaiming Ambiguity as a Transgressive Landscape of Knowledge

Posted in Articles, Gay & Lesbian, New Media, Social Work, United States, Women on 2012-05-22 18:08Z by Steven

Bordering Community: Reclaiming Ambiguity as a Transgressive Landscape of Knowledge

Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work
Volume 27, Number 2 (May 2012)
pages 167-179
DOI: 10.1177/0886109912443957

Kimberly D. Hudson
School of Social Work
University of Washington, Seattle

Critically investigating the concept of community, this article explores some of the ideological and epistemological frameworks that have defined both the potentialities and the limitations of community as a liberatory and/or liberated space. This article sheds light on how ambiguously identified, bodied, and placed people are affected by cultures and systems of oppression in ways that create unique tensions with community and generate knowledge of the meaning of community itself. The major foci include the transgression, occupation, and policing of racial, gendered, and sexualized borders. In the final section, emerging questions, reflections, and implications for the field of social welfare are discussed.

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Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out

Posted in Anthologies, Books, Canada, Gay & Lesbian, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Poetry, United States, Women on 2010-12-29 22:00Z by Steven

Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out

Inanna Publications
November 2010
250 pages
ISBN-10: 1926708148
ISBN-13: 978-1-926708-14-0

Edited by

Adebe De Rango-Adem (Adebe D. A.)

Andrea Thompson

This anthology of poetry, spoken word, fiction, creative non-fiction, spoken word texts, as well as black and white artwork and photography, explores the question of how mixed-race women in North America identify in the twenty-first century. Contributions engage, document, and/or explore the experiences of being mixed-race, by placing interraciality as the center, rather than periphery, of analysis. The anthology also serves as a place to learn about the social experiences, attitudes, and feelings of others, and what racial identity has come to mean today.

Adebe De Rango-Adem recently completed a research writing fellowship at the Applied Research Center in New York, where she wrote for ColorLines, America’s primary magazine on race politics. She has served as Assistant Editor for the literary journal Existere, and is a founding member of s.t.e.p.u.p.—a poetry collective dedicated to helping young writers develop their spoken word skills. Her poetry has been featured in journals such as Canadian Woman Studies, The Claremont Review, Canadian Literature, and cv2. She won the Toronto Poetry Competition in 2005 to become Toronto’s first Junior Poet Laureate, and is the author of a chapbook entitled Sea Change (2007). Her debut poetry collection, Ex Nihilo, will be published in early 2010.

Andrea Thompson is a performance poet who has been featured on film, radio, and television, with her work published in magazines and anthologies across Canada. Her debut collection, Eating the Seed (2000), has been featured on reading lists at the University of Toronto and the Ontario College of Art and Design, and her spoken word CD, One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award in 2005. A pioneer of slam poetry in Canada, Thompson has also hosted Heart of a Poet on Bravo tv, CiTr Radio’s spoken word show, Hearsay. In 2008, she toured her Spoken Word/Play Mating Rituals of the Urban Cougar across the country, and in 2009 was the Poet of Honour at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word.

Table of Contents (Thanks to Nicole Asong Nfonoyim)

  • Acknowledgements
  • Preface – Carol Camper
  • Introduction – Adebe DeRango-Adem and Andrea Thompson1
  • RULES/ROLES
    • Enigma – Andrea Thompson
    • Blond- Natasha Trethewey
    • Mixed- Sandra Kasturi
    • pick one – Chistine Sy and Aja
    • My Sista, Mi Hermana – Phoenix Rising
    • little half-black-breed – Tasha Beeds
    • “White Mask” – Jordan Clarke
    • “Nothing is just black or white” – Jordan Clarke
    • Roll Call – Kirya Traber
    • What Am I? – Marijane Castillo
    • Casting Call: Looking for White Girls and Latinas – D.Cole Ossandon
    • Conversations of Confrontation – Natasha Morris
    • “why i don’t say i’m white”- Alexis Kienlen
    • “Confession #8” – Mica Lee Anders
    • “Other Female” – Mica Lee Anders
    • “MMA and MLA” – Mica Lee Anders
    • The Pieces/Peace(is) in Me – monica rosas
    • Generation Gap (Hawaiian Style) – ku’ualoha ho’omanawanui
    • The Incident that Never Happened – Ann Phillips
    • In the Dark – Anajli Enjeti-Sydow
    • ananse vs. anasi (2007) – Rea McNamara
    • Contamination-  Amber Jamilla Musser
    • A Mixed Journey From the Outside In – Liberty Hultberg
    • What Are You? – Kali Fajardo-Anstine
    • One Being Brown – Tru Leverette
    • One for Everyday of the Week – Michelle Lopez Mulllins
    • Savage Stasis – Gena Chang-Campbell
    • The Half-Breed’s Guide to Answering the Question – M. C. Shumaker
    • My Definition – Kay’la Fraser
    • Pop Quiz – Erin Kobayashi
  • ROOTS/ROUTES
    • Melanomial – Sonnet L’Abbe
    • half-breed – Jonina Kirton
    • “Inca/Jew” – Margo Rivera-Weiss
    • Open Letter – Adebe DeRango Adem
    • Prism Woman – Adebe DeRango-Adem
    • Southern Gothic – Natasha Trethewey
    • The Drinking Gourd- Miranda Martini
    • Reflection – Jonina Kirton
    • “Untitled” White Sequence – Cassie Mulheron
    • “Untitled” Black Sequence – Cassie Mulheron
    • Mapping Identities – Gail Prasad
    • Whose Child Are You? – Amy Pimentel
    • From the Tree – Lisa Marie Rollins
    • My sister’s hair – ku’ualoha ho’omanawanui
    • I, too, hear the dreams – Peta Gaye-Nash
    • Learning to Love Me – Michelle Jean-Paul
    • A Conversation among Friends – Nicole Salter
    • The Combination of the Two – Rachel Afi Quinn
    • “Loving Series: Elena Rubin” – Laura Kina
    • On the Train – Naomi Angel
    • Coloured – Sheila Addiscott
    • Of Two Worlds – Christina Brobby
    • What is my Culture? – Karen Hill
    • mo’oku’auhau (Genealogy) – ku’ualoha ho’omanawanui
    • Siouxjewgermanscotblack [cultural software instructions] – Robin M. Chandler
    • “Loving Series: Shoshanna Weinberger” – Laura Kina
    • A Hairy Situation – Saedhlinn B. Stweart-Laing
    • “Pot Vida” – Margo Rivera-Weiss
    • Songs Feet Can Get – Rage Hezekiah
    • Opposite of Fence – Lisa Marie Rollins
    • Applique – Lisa Marie Rollins
    • Blanqueamiento – Adebe DeRango-Adem
    • The Land – Farideh de Bossett
    • Native Speaker: Daring to Name Ourselves – Nicole Asong Nfonoyim
  • REVELATIONS
    • Colour Lesson I – Adebe DeRango-Adem
    • Concealed Things – Adebe DeRango-Adem
    • Serendipity – Priscila Uppal
    • “Ultramarine” – Margo Rivera-Weiss
    • before i was this – Katherena Vermette
    • Firebelly – Andrea Thompson
    • From Chopsticks to Meatloaf and Back Again – Jasmine Moy
    • My Power – Sonnet L’Abbe
    • Whitewashed – Kathryn McMillan
    • Actually, I’m Black – Marcelite Failla
    • “Self” – Lisa Walker
    • Grey (A Bi-racial Poem) – Sonya Littlejohn
    • Nubia’s Dream – Mica Valdez
    • both sides – Jonina Kirton
    • Mulatto Nation – Marika Schwandt
    • Colour Lesson II – Adebe DeRango-Adem
    • racially queer femme – Kimberly Dree Hudson
    • mypeople – Ruha Benjamin
    • My Life in Pieces – Jennifer Adese
    • Burden of Proof: From Colon-Eyes to Kaleidoscope – Angela Dosalmas
    • Recipe for mixing – Tomie Hahn
    • Metamorphosis – Gena Chang-Campbell
    • The Land Knows – Shandra Spears Bombay
    • Land in Place: Mapping the Grandmother – Joanne Arnott
    • “I am the leaf, you are the leaf” – Lisa Walker
    • Language and the Ethics of Mixed Race – Debra Thompson
    • Hybrid Identity and Writing of Presence – Jackie Wang
  • Contributors Notes
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