The University of Chicago Lesbian and Gay Studies Project is pleased to announce a two-day symposium exploring the art and activism of queer Caribbean writers and artists. This symposium–the first academic gathering devoted entirely to same sex-loving writing from the region–is motivated by the unprecedented blossoming of queer Caribbean literature in the last decade, as LGBT literature from Jamaica, Trinidad, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Suriname has debuted to international audiences and acclaim. We aim to bring these literary voices together to consider in their own words how art and activism bridge Caribbean, queer, and community identities.

The symposium will open Friday night with a literary reading and book signing followed by a symposium on Saturday to be held on the University of Chicago campus. The event opens conversation between novelists, spoken word artists, activists, and singers who consider how their art and activism bring together Caribbean, queer, and community identities. Discussing intersections between art and gay rights organizing, immigrant rights activism, language politics, publishing markets, song and dance, popular culture, and recovered histories, the panels look at the complexity of LGBTQ Caribbean literary undertakings at and as a crossroads with sexual and racial, local and global issues.

The symposium takes place April 15-16, 2005.

For more information, contact the Lesbian and Gay Studies Project at
(773)834-4509.