Cover image: How Some Folks Get to Space without a Rocket (Planetary Travel)a collage by Mirlande Jean-Gilles. Mirlande Jean-Gilles.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
2020 Ana-Maurine Lara
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lara, Ana-Maurne, author.
Title: Queer freedom : Black sovereignty / Ana-Maurine Lara.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2020] | Series: SUNY series, Afro-Latinx futures | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020006762 | ISBN 9781438481098 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781438481111 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sexual minoritiesDominican RepublicSocial conditions. | BlacksDominican RepublicSocial conditions. | BlacksRace identityDominican Republic. | Sexual minoritiesIdentityDominican Republic.
Classification: LCC HQ73.3.D65 L37 2020 | DDC 306.76097293dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020006762
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For my young relatives: may our worlds be a better place because we are in it.
For my queer : Black ancestors and ancestors yet to comethe brujas and the storytellers, the artists and the teachers, the ones who run and the ones who stay behind, the ones who speak and the ones who stay silent, the brave ones and the cowards, the ones we have yet to imagine. All we have for you is love.
For you, we call in the Four Directions, the forces of the Sky and Earth, and all of the Elementos.
We begin here, with story, roadmaps, a question: are we free : sovereign?
El da ms soleado cae llovizna sobre mi pecho
la india dice que casndose est una bruja con su pareja
y nios y nias admirados van
corriendo, saltando de aqu para all
como celebrando una boda real.
La reina de las brujas te llevar
all por la enrama a bailar gag.
XIOMARA FORTUNA , Bruja
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Tisa Bryant once shared two key questions with me: Who do I love? And to whom am I accountable? These questions are everything. Here, I want to start off by saying that very often, the answers to these questions overlap, but not exclusively so. Similarly, to whom I am accountable also often includes people for whom I am grateful. And here, I would like to mention those for whom I am gratefulspecifically and especially in the process of bringing this book into being. Now, the introduction to this book includes a moyugba and a naming of those who I am calling into the room from among the living. So this is not that. This is a thank-you, a gracias, mezi, a seneka kakom, a tlazokamati of a different ilk. I did not intend to write this book, but it is the book I have intended. I am filled with such deep gratitude that it is hard to express in words.
I want to say thank you to all of the healers, servidores, tradition keepers, dancers, drummers, and community leaders who have received me in their homes for so many years, and who continue to do so, offering me fresh-brewed coffee, a glass of cold water, and simply time together. I am so joyful that you are here in this ceremony with me, celebrating together as we have done for so many years now. Thanks to all of the abuelas, brujas, medicine women and men, paleros, vuduistas, santeros, obas, babalawos, iyalorishas, guardians, and liboristas who continue to share their knowledge with me, often with so much love, joy, and kindness. Thank you to all of the seres that protect you, so that you can continue transferring your knowledge to all of the generations yet to come. Thank you, also, for having my best interests in mind and taking care of me so well. Thank you, especially, to the community in San Cristobal, which, through laughter, el compartir, and work has taught me so much; Wanga, Naina, Francisca, and Canuma, who are all amazing; Guadalupe Tonalmitl Retz Yanez, Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli, Beatrice Ilhuicatlahuilli Villegas, Yvette Mendz, Xiuh Lalis, Abebbe Oshun, Adela, Amantina, Doa Carmen, La Chinaamazing leaders and elders who serve their communities and, in so doing, teach me and all of us. In our visits together, we have learned so muchtlazokamati for your entrega and love for all of our peoples; Vanessa K. Valds, who invited me to the Let the Spirit Speak! Conference at City College so many years ago, and who then opened up the door so that this ceremony could take place. Your rootedness in your vision and connection to spirit enabled this ceremony to be midwifed as a book through the SUNY Afro-Latinx Series. I am honored to be part of that vision, and to be wrapped in this river; Rebecca Colesworthy, thank you for your excitement, gentle guidance, and editorial acuity. Thank you for understanding this poet; all of the senior scholars who have walked with me and then, having shown me snippets of possibility, have gently drawn me forward, in particular Joni L. Jones/Omi Osun Olomo, Jafari S. Allen, Inderpal Grewal, Kamari Clarke, Lynn Stephen, Michelle McKinley, Michael Hames-Garcia, Ginetta Candelario, April Mayes, Carlos U. Decena, Fatima L. Portorreal, Matt Richardson, Omiseke Natasha Tinsley, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Gina Ulysse, Erica L. Williams, Rosamond King, Angelique Nixon, Solimar Otero, Elizabeth Alexander, and many, many others. I hope that I continue to be worthy of the honor you bestowed upon me by taking my work, my inquiries, and my methods seriously; my colleagues, in particular the bad-ass women of the Yale Black Feminist Reading Group (Dana Asbury, Kristin Baxivanos, Sofia Betancourt, Diana Burnett, Jalylah Burrell, Adom Getachew, Sarah Haley, Jennifer Leath, Key Jo Lee, Christine Slaughter, Heather Vermeulen), who taught me how to put our work in conversation, and to Kemi Balogun and Margaret Rhee, who offered insight into what was going on here when I wasnt sure; all of my friends who held space for me while I worked through some of the harder aspects of this ceremonythank you, Courtney Morris, Lauren F. Guerra, drea brown, Sheree Ross, Jai Dulani, DLo, Anjali Alimchandani, Maram Epstein, Justine Lovinger, Alejandro Quiahuitl Martnez, Angela Mictlanxotchil Anderson, Cristina Hernndez; my kinfolk, especially Lennox, Niko, Leo, Luciana, Victor Jos, Ernesto, Enrique, Mom, Pap, Ta Magal, Ta Lupina, Alice, Carol, and Lauren; my ancestors, those named and unnamed, who walk with me sharing in the love I hold for them and reflecting it back to me; Ala Reyes-Santos, who has been a partner, a friend, a cheerleader, and an interlocutor at all stages of the development of my research and writing, including making me hot chocolate when I thought I could go no further. Seneka kakom for being my partner in so many adventures and in this work we are doing of building treaties toward a world where our ancestors are collectively and indefinitely free : sovereign forever. Mafarefun Yemanya. Dannishibuii.
