A Conditional Embrace

Uses an intersectional and intertextual methodology to present a rigorous yet accessible study of Black queer women artists in theater and film.

“A Conditional Embrace is a groundbreaking study that illuminates Southern queer Black performance artists, situating their bold feminist work within vital sociohistorical contexts. With the powerful idea of ‘lovin’ on,’ Tift expands the canon and ensures visionary artists receive the recognition they deserve now and into the future.” —Sharrell D. Luckett, editor of African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity

In A Conditional Embrace, Kristyl D. Tift seeks to understand how Black queer women theater and film artists depict their own survival in heterosexist temporalities and spaces. Using the framework of lovin’ on—a theory inspired by Black feminist thought, performance theory, and queer theory—Tift closely reads the works of a selection of artists to investigate the “conditional embrace” of Black queer art in society. Her intersectional and intertextual methodology considers the text and body as part and parcel of performance work, allowing her to examine the multiple and complex intersections of identity at play in works meant to be read and performed. Tift puts the work of more visible artists such as Dee Rees, Sharon Bridgforth, and Staceyann Chin in direct conversation with lesser-known contributors to Black queer feminist performance such as Shirlene Holmes and Donnetta Lavinia Grays, analyzing not only their plays, installations, and poetry but also interviews, personal essays, performances, and more. Centering the works of artists situated, by birth or migration, in the Southern US and the Caribbean, A Conditional Embrace explores how artists at the margins of art and society represent Black queer women’s survival through processes of self-making, community-building, and homemaking.

Kristyl D. Tift is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Vanderbilt University.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction     Storms Chapter 1     Southern Comfort: The Distinction of A Lady and a Woman
Chapter 2     Breaking Form: Orality, Blueswomen, and Theatrical Jazz in the bull-jean stories
Chapter 3     Girls Like Her: Butch Girlhood and the Black Family in the cowboy is dying and Pariah
Chapter 4     Making It Solo: The Radical Crossings of Staceyann Chin
Afterword     Recovery Efforts

Acknowledgments
Appendix Musical Notes
Bibliography
Index