Tanya L. Saunders
Dr. Tanya L. Saunders is interested in the ways in which the African Diaspora throughout the Americas use the arts as a tool for social change. As a 2011-2012 Fulbright Scholar to Brazil they began work on their current project which analyzes Black Queer Activism in Brazil. This is a continuation of their research on arts-based social movements in the Americas. Dr. Saunders holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Master of International Development Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Their book on Cuban Underground Hip Hop can be found here: http://goo.gl/fhqrBt. They also have a recently published chapter in No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies found here: https://goo.gl/RkS7c2. For those who read/speak Portuguese, check out their essay “Epistemologia negra sapatao como vetor de uma praxis humana libertaria” found here: https://goo.gl/WamUBM.
Their book on Cuban Underground Hip Hop can be found here: http://goo.gl/fhqrBt. They also have a recently published chapter in No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies found here: https://goo.gl/RkS7c2. For those who read/speak Portuguese, check out their essay “Epistemologia negra sapatao como vetor de uma praxis humana libertaria” found here: https://goo.gl/WamUBM.
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Un estudio de los símbolos utilizados por el movimiento underground del hip-hop cubano, basado en datos recolectados en la Habana de 1998 a 2006, sitúa dicho movimiento dentro de una serie de corrientes culturales que, producidas por la diáspora africana transnacional, se desenvuelven a favor de la igualdad social. La entrega de la juventud afrocubana a la conciencia social del hip-hop se articula a una historia más amplia de activismo africano y la diaspora africana en las artes.
their work in Cuba centered on challenging the oppressive discourses concerning Black women and Black lesbians within Cuban society. Las Krudas link Black women‘s, particularly Black lesbians‘, oppression to the ideological legacies of colonialism. I argue that Las Krudas‘ feminist discourse is a Black feminist critique because of their choice of art, particularly hip-hop, as a political aesthetic. Las Krudas‘ feminist discourse has become a key discourse within the hip-hop community. The data for this essay are drawn from ethnography, textual analysis, and interviews collected from 1998 to 2006.
Cuba’s LGBT population, a population it once targeted for social exclusion. Despite increased rights for Afro-Cubans, women, and Cuba’s LGBT community, lesbians, especially black lesbians, continue to be one of Cuba’s most socially marginalized populations. I argue that there are several intersecting factors that produce this contradiction. These factors are culturally based discourses concerning race,
gender, sexuality, the limitations of post-revolutionary citizenship discourse to address these forms of social inequality, and finally the economic downturn called the “Special Period.” This essay addresses how several women make sense of and navigate these social issues in their everyday lives.
New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have published
featured pieces with titles such as ‘‘The Sexual Revolution in
Contemporary Cuba.’’ The main argument of these pieces is
that things have gotten so much better for Cuba’s lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) citizens that one
simply has to walk through central Havana to see the large
numbers of gays, men who have sex with men, and trasvestis
(gay men who pass as women). Such public displays of
nonheteronormativity may be interpreted as the successful
progression of Cuba’s state-led ‘‘sexual revolution,’’ in which
sexual citizenship has been expanded to include Cuba’s
sexual minorities. Drawing on ethnographic, archival, and
interview data collected between 1998 and 2006, this essay
analyzes the social activism undertaken by the Havanabased,
lesbian-run organization called OREMI, whose key
founding members are women of African descent. It asks
why the Cuban state has been unable to include all femaleborn
citizens in Cuba’s sexual revolution, instead allowing
lesbians to live in a particularly intense form of social
isolation.
Un estudio de los símbolos utilizados por el movimiento underground del hip-hop cubano, basado en datos recolectados en la Habana de 1998 a 2006, sitúa dicho movimiento dentro de una serie de corrientes culturales que, producidas por la diáspora africana transnacional, se desenvuelven a favor de la igualdad social. La entrega de la juventud afrocubana a la conciencia social del hip-hop se articula a una historia más amplia de activismo africano y la diaspora africana en las artes.
their work in Cuba centered on challenging the oppressive discourses concerning Black women and Black lesbians within Cuban society. Las Krudas link Black women‘s, particularly Black lesbians‘, oppression to the ideological legacies of colonialism. I argue that Las Krudas‘ feminist discourse is a Black feminist critique because of their choice of art, particularly hip-hop, as a political aesthetic. Las Krudas‘ feminist discourse has become a key discourse within the hip-hop community. The data for this essay are drawn from ethnography, textual analysis, and interviews collected from 1998 to 2006.
Cuba’s LGBT population, a population it once targeted for social exclusion. Despite increased rights for Afro-Cubans, women, and Cuba’s LGBT community, lesbians, especially black lesbians, continue to be one of Cuba’s most socially marginalized populations. I argue that there are several intersecting factors that produce this contradiction. These factors are culturally based discourses concerning race,
gender, sexuality, the limitations of post-revolutionary citizenship discourse to address these forms of social inequality, and finally the economic downturn called the “Special Period.” This essay addresses how several women make sense of and navigate these social issues in their everyday lives.
New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have published
featured pieces with titles such as ‘‘The Sexual Revolution in
Contemporary Cuba.’’ The main argument of these pieces is
that things have gotten so much better for Cuba’s lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) citizens that one
simply has to walk through central Havana to see the large
numbers of gays, men who have sex with men, and trasvestis
(gay men who pass as women). Such public displays of
nonheteronormativity may be interpreted as the successful
progression of Cuba’s state-led ‘‘sexual revolution,’’ in which
sexual citizenship has been expanded to include Cuba’s
sexual minorities. Drawing on ethnographic, archival, and
interview data collected between 1998 and 2006, this essay
analyzes the social activism undertaken by the Havanabased,
lesbian-run organization called OREMI, whose key
founding members are women of African descent. It asks
why the Cuban state has been unable to include all femaleborn
citizens in Cuba’s sexual revolution, instead allowing
lesbians to live in a particularly intense form of social
isolation.