'Love and Freedom': Black Queer Studies Conference returns after 25 years

25 years after the first Black Queer Studies Conference, over 250 academics, activists, artists and students gathered on UNC’s campus from Friday through Sunday to celebrate and continue its legacy with an anniversary conference. 

“If you weren't here, you truly missed an event that was about love and freedom,” Kayla Corbin, the lead organizer of the conference and a doctoral student in the Communications Department, said. 

The three-day conference featured eight panels ranging in topics from policy and pedagogy to sex and representation. Some of the over 30 panelists also participated in the first conference and other panelists were from younger generations. All of them focus on the intersections of Blackness and queerness in their work. 

“I feel like Black queer studies is a testament to our resilience," Sharon Holland, a UNC professor and panelist at both conferences, said. “It is a testament to good thought and the importance of that thought.”  

In addition to the panels, there were also performances on Saturday night, including “Strange Fruit,” written by E. Patrick Johnson, who organized the first Black Queer Studies Conference in 2000 when he was a Carolina Minority Postdoctoral Fellow at the University. Johnson is currently the dean of the School of Communication at Northwestern University. 

Some ephemera from the first conference is currently on display in a curated exhibition of the history of Black queer studies titled, “We Have Always Been Here: An Imperfect History of Blackness and Queerness,” which will be open to the public at the Love House until April 28. 

The conference culminated with a picnic at The Love House on Sunday. Corbin said it was a beautiful moment where people got to be out and enjoy music, food and one another's company. 

Ash Williams, an abortion activist, North Carolinian and one of the panelists, described the conference as a celebration.

“People have been using the term gathering, a coming together,” he said. “Folks have crossed borders and barriers to be able to think within this discipline, but also folks have crossed borders and barriers to be here and be together.” 

Naima Starr, a sophomore studying philosophy at Spelman College in Atlanta, said she enjoyed networking with people with the same visions and goals. 

“I think it's beautiful,” Starr said, describing the conference. “Especially in this day and age where there's so much silencing and erasing what we were talking about today– Black queer studies and our lives.” 

As a 19-year-old, Starr said she enjoyed the chance to dialogue with her elders, especially since she felt she could help them understand the challenges facing her generation and learn from them how to survive.  

Keith Clark, a panelist at both the original and anniversary conferences, echoed Starr’s sentiments of reciprocal education. Now, a professor himself at George Mason University, Clark said when he was young, he would ask his professors questions to make them think outside of the box. 

“A lot of times, older people we sort of get institutionalized, set in our ways, thinking it's crystallized,” he said. “But young people always push and raise questions and ask questions like ‘Did you think about it in this way? Well, why do you believe that?’ And so it's important that education is not a one-way thing.”

Johnson said he hoped that the intergenerational conversations from the weekend would be generative and encourage further writing, creating and resisting in this current political moment. 

“The fact that we had this conference despite what's going on, I think, is a sign that we can continue to do this work,” he said. “And it might not look like the forms in which it's looked like before, but it will continue. It was happening before the first conference, and it will continue after this.” 

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com