#blackethnographies

“the sands in the area that surround Saint-Pierre are today a visual reminder of Mount Pelée’s eruption...the beaches are black because particles in the sand are made up of basalt, which comes from volcanic ash” (Agard-Jones 334)

In Agard-Jones’ essay “What the Sands Remember” she explores the archive and presence of queer identity in Martinique. Agard-Jones writes, “This essay asks what it might mean to refute the idea that queerness does not and cannot exist, or must somehow remain invisible, in the Caribbean, and that it is only through disapproval movement that people gain their capacity to be legible, visible, and politically viable subjects” (327). This mentality reminded me a lot of queerness in Bolivia. My girlfriend is from Bolivia and once told me, though she herself is queer, that there are no queer people in Bolivia. We decided later to look into this and actually found this organization of feminist and queer women called Mujeres Creando that does a lot of organizing in La Paz. Below is one of the many street art images which they plaster in the city to raise awareness and acceptance of the silenced queer community in La Paz, Bolivia.

(https://blogs.iteso.mx/magis60aniversarioiteso/2017/10/02/mujeres-que-agitan-las-calles/)

Divine Knights Use Youthful Members As Criminal Pawns

Eastwood’s School-to-Prison Pipeline