On Queerness & Race in Brazilian Art & Design

Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, is “full of potential and imagination.” It is a land brimming with regional customs and traditions and multiple histories and encounters both clash and coalesce. This pair of lectures dig through layers of histories and representation in shifting how race and queerness are seen and understood. From “A Redenção de Cã” to the Enciclopédia Negra to the cultural figure of Marielle Franco, the myths of a racial democracy are unpacked and decolonized. We also look at the Manifesto Antropófago, the journal O Lampião da Esquina, and contemporary cuir artists who through sheer audacity and creativity have created new languages and ways of telling their stories.