UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Traumatic Utopias: Staging Power and Justice in Black and Latin@ Queer Performance A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in English by Alison Rose Reed Committee in charge: Professor Stephanie Batiste, Co-Chair Professor Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, Co-Chair Professor George Lipsitz Professor J. Jack Halberstam, University of Southern California September 2015 The dissertation of Alison Reed is approved. _____________________________________________ J. Jack Halberstam _____________________________________________ George Lipsitz _____________________________________________ Stephanie Batiste, Committee Co-Chair _____________________________________________ Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, Committee Co-Chair June 2015 Traumatic Utopias: Staging Power and Justice in Black and Latin@ Queer Performance Copyright © 2015 by Alison Rose Reed iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Getting a PhD feels a little like that scene in Clueless where Travis inaccurately reads Mr. Wendell Hall’s announcement that he came to class late most often as an indication of his outstanding success rather than tardiness. Arriving (a few minutes past the hour) a bit frazzled but eager, I too would like to stand at the teacher’s podium and say a few words (even though, like Travis, I didn’t even have a speech prepared). But I would like to say this: writing a dissertation is not something you can do all on your own. Many, many people contributed to my dissertation. I’d like to thank my UC Santa Barbara committee for their faith in my meanderings, Jack—for taking a chance…on an unknown kid—and last but not least, the wonderful crew at Whole Foods for allowing me to embarrass myself by spending hours hunched over an absurdly expensive salad as I typed away at my laptop, without which I might never be Dr. Reed. Clueless quotes aside, I would like to more earnestly express gratitude for a rock star dissertation committee that not only sounds like a dream, but proved in reality to be more than I ever could have dreamt of—Stephanie L. Batiste, Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, George Lipsitz, and J. Jack Halberstam—thank you. Jack, not just for giving me a chance but for actively pushing me beyond theoretical stalemates toward the generativity of queer failures and counterintuitive genealogies. George, for convincing me that I must accept the risks, in a spirit of accompaniment, when going against the grain. For opening me to the world of SOUL (Students of Unlimited Learning), whose intellectual energies during those spirited Saturday sessions reinvigorated the work. For your humble modeling of how to be and do in academia. Some people change their minds; you change lives. iv Carl, I have been blessed to have you as my advisor since I entered the MA/PhD program in Fall 2009. Our directed readings my first quarter became the groundwork for so much future inquiry. I was able to hit the ground running by carrying forward the energy from our generative conversations throughout my graduate career, strengthened and affirmed by your ongoing mentorship. I don’t know if I ever told you that on the first day of your memorable seminar on Literature and the Human Rights Movement I woke up with quite a predicament. The course began at one in the afternoon, as did the hours of a tattoo studio I desperately needed to visit in order to attend to an apparently infected Monroe piercing. I chose to attend your class with a swollen face rather than handle what was in fact a medical emergency, and I would do it again. Stephanie, I cannot imagine my life without having encountered your brilliance and guidance. When a student told me that my instruction style, inflection, and way with words echoed yours, I was floored by the compliment. And when I guest lectured on Shange’s for colored girls in Introduction to African American Literature and looked out into the audience to see you beaming and teary, the impact you’ve had on my life condensed in a moment that won’t ever leave me. In putting the finishing touches on my dissertation, it has become ever more obvious that the actual subtitle of my project should be “Stephanie and her BFFs,” as you introduced me to a number of scholars from the Black Performance Theory working group as well as Sharon Bridgforth, whose impact on my spirit has also been transformative. Sharon, thank you for touching my life and the lives of my students through your work as well as your willingness to engage with them via Skype in the classroom. I, and I’m sure they, will never forget it. Teaching your performance texts brings me limitless joy, and to quote our sustaining email exchanges: We are on the Journey together fo sho! v Serving as Graduate Fellow of the Antiracism, Inc. program, convened by Felice Blake and sponsored by the UCSB English Department’s American Cultures & Global Contexts Center and the UC Humanities Research Institute, without a doubt transformed my ways of teaching and doing, knowing and being. I am “Head Over Feet” grateful for the fellowship of the Antiracism, Inc. working group and radical poets/pedagogues: George Lipsitz, Paula Ioanide, Nick Mitchell, Chandan Reddy, Daniel HoSang, Swati Rana, Aisha Finch, Barbara Tomlinson, Sarah Haley, Sunaina Maira, Shana L. Redmond, Kevin Fellezs, Glenn Adams, Daniel “Fritz” Silber-Baker, Ebony P. Donnley, Dubian Ade, Dahlak Brathwaite, David Scott, and of course, Director Felice Blake. Together we opened new worlds in the words that shape our walking. Felice, I don’t know where to start because there will be no end—to my unyielding love, gratitude, admiration, and commitment to our visions of liberation. We may joke, following Drunk History, that at least he fucking listened; nobody does that! But I have had the privilege to bear witness to just how many people hear you. If anyone could singlehandedly end institutional racism, I am convinced that person would be you. As that task proves enormous, luckily we can go it together. I may be moving to Virginia but I am not leaving you. Our work continues! To my community organizing family: I would be lost without you. Members of the SB Coalition for Justice, particularly Sunny Lim, Sonya Baker, Danielle Stevens, Michelle Mercer, and Katie Maynard—you taught me how to be an organizer. To members of the Shawn Greenwood Working Group, in particular Paula Ioanide, and Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), especially Diana Zuñiga, thank you for activating new communities of consciousness on campus. Members of the Coalition for Sustainable vi Communities—particularly Ashley Kiria Baker and Corinne Bancroft—we showed Santa Barbara what Earth Day is all about: jails are toxic! And operating in solidarity with People Organized for the Defense & Equal Rights of SB Youth (PODER) reinvigorated the work in every way, with special thanks to Gaby Hernandez, Marissa Jeannene Garcia, Savanah Maya, and Kathy Swift: Sí, se puede, and we did! I feel endless gratitude for the sustaining force of my DAWGs (Kristie, you said it, and so will I…Dope-Ass-Writing-Group): Shannon Brennan, Jessica Lopez Lyman, and Kristie Soares. Thank you for always encouraging me to say what I mean and do what I say. Your presence touches the following pages, which I can only hope do justice to our collective thinking and writing, theorizing and dreaming. I trust that together we’ll keep calling new cosmologies, creative coalitional networks, and epistemologies into existence. Some of this work benefited greatly from the feedback of editors and anonymous reviewers. Chapter 2 was published in Text and Performance Quarterly and Chapter 4 is in production at Lateral: The Journal of the Cultural Studies Association. Many thanks to the Editorial Assistant at TPQ, Sohinee Roy, as your thorough and thoughtful editing made me a better writer. E. Patrick Johnson, when I felt your approval as I gave my conference paper at Black Sexual Economies I thought I was hallucinating, because you are one of my heroes. Along with Stephanie Batiste, it is a pleasure to know groundbreaking scholars who are also incredible playwrights and performers. Stephanie’s Stacks of Obits and your Sweet Tea stay with me. I am deeply honored that you solicited that paper for the forthcoming Black Queer Studies collection. I want to thank my friend Marzia Milazzo for reading countless drafts of my work and more importantly, for allowing me to learn from yours. Your support as I embarked on vii the job market this past fall kept me going despite the crushing weight of impending deadlines and inevitable rejections. Also thank you to my undergraduate mentors without whom I would not be the person I am today: Julie Prebel, Dan Fineman, Jean Wyatt, Dale Wright, and Leila Neti. So many forces have sustained this stubborn city girl during my six years in Santa Barbara: the UCSB MultiCultural Center staff, particularly Director Zaveeni Khan-Marcus for creating such an enriching space, and helping me see my vision through during my time employed there; my piano teacher George Friedenthal, whose music wisdom now permeates my daily (life) practice; Julie Carlson for providing Shelter from the storm; Bishnupriya Ghosh, for making the English Department a place I want to be; and Jonathan Forbes, for if our scholar-ship felt like it was sinking we just made the ocean look good. Kelly Kawar, my poetry buddy—I would not have gotten through my qualifying exams without you—and Shanna Salinas, I am proud to be called your doppelgänger. Mary Rae Staton, you’ve made everything in graduate school seem possible, and for that I want to give you a big bear hug every time I see you.