Alan Pelaez Lopez at UA LGBTQ+ Institute

Date: Thursday, February 6, 2025

Time: 6 p.m., MST

Where: Environmental and Natural Resources 2 (1064 E Lowell St), Room S107, University of Arizona, Tucson register here; or register for Zoom event here

Alan Pelaez Lopez, editor of When Language Broke Open: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Black Writers of Latin American Descent, will give the Miranda Joseph Endowed Lecture “Dreaming as a Method Against Solitary Confinement,” at the University of Arizona. They will give the lecture via zoom video. Pelaez Lopez takes the act of individual and collective dreaming as serious methods that transgender Black women employ as they face anti-Black violence and transmisogyny inside detention centers, especially solitary confinement. Pelaez Lopez analyzes conversations they have with friends who have survived detention and bring their stories into conversation by analyzing newspaper articles, YouTube videos, and social media posts. Through this, the talk highlights the fact that carcerality attempts to govern the dream-world of migrants, especially when those dreams center on gender, sexuality, and kinship. Alan Pelaez Lopez (AfroZapotec) is a scholar, creative writer, cultural critic, and visual artist from Oaxaca, México. They will give lecture via Zoom video.

There will be beverages and light food available before the lecture starting at 5 p.m. in the ENR2 Courtyard outside of the lecture hall. The event is free and open to the public; register for in person here or register for Zoom event here.

About the book:

When Language Broke Open collects the creative offerings of forty-five queer and trans Black writers of Latin American descent who use poetry, prose, and visual art to illustrate Blackness as a geopolitical experience that is always changing. Telling stories of Black Latinidades, this anthology centers the multifaceted realities of the LGBTQ community. By exploring themes of memory, care, and futurity, these contributions expand understandings of Blackness in Latin America, the Caribbean, and their U.S.-based diasporas. The works collected in this anthology encompass a multitude of genres—including poetry, autobiography, short stories, diaries, visual art, and a graphic memoir—and feature the voices of established writers alongside emerging voices. Together, the contributors challenge everything we think we know about gender, sexuality, race, and what it means to experience a livable life.

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