Artists, Performers, and Black Masculinity in the Haitian Diaspora [Paperback]

Jana Evans Braziel examines how Haitian diaspora writers, performance artists, and musicians address black masculinity through the Haitian Creole concept of gwo n?gs, or big men. She focuses on six artists and their work: writer Dany Laferri?re, director Raoul Peck, rap artist Wyclef Jean, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, drag queen performer and poet Assotto Saint, and queer drag king performer Dr?d (a.k.a. Mildr?d Gerestant). For Braziel, these individuals confront the gendered, sexualized, and racialized boundaries of America's diaspora communities and openly resist domestic imperialism that targets immigrants, minorities, women, gays, and queers. This is a groundbreaking study at the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, ethnicity, nationality, and diaspora.

Jana Evans Braziel is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati and author of Diaspora: An Introduction and Caribbean Genesis : Jamaica Kincaid and the Writing of New Worlds.

Contents<\>

Introduction: Haiti's Transnational Politics of Big Man-ism

Part 1. Straight, Queer, and Street
1. Trans-American Constructions of Black Heteromasculinity: Dany Laferri?re, le N?gre, and the Late-Capitalist American Racial Machine-d?sirante
2. From Fort Dimanche to Brooklyn: Transnational Regimes of Violence, Duvalierism, and Failed Heteromasculinity in Raoul Peck's Haitian Corner

Part 2. Queer Fist
3. Honey, Honey, Miss Thing : Assotto Saint's Drag Queen BluesQueening the Homeland, Queer-Fisting the Dyaspora
4. Drag-Kinging the Dyaspora: Dr?d Performing Black (Female) Masculinities in Haiti's Tenth Department

Part 3. Rapping B(l)ack
5. (Rara) Rap Haiti! Wyclef Jean's Chante pwen, Embattled Black Masculinity, and Diasporic Remix as Political Protest
6. Trans-American Art on the Streets: Jean-Michel Basquiat's Black Canvas Bodies and Urban Vodou-Art in Manhattan

Conclusion: Presidentilã$