Black Queer Studies Collection

2023-2024

The Monica K. Roberts Graduate Award: Kyle Okeke, New Writers Project in the Department of English

A creative writing MFA student in the English Department's New Writers Project, Okeke's submission titled "In the Image of God" is a series of sometimes surrealist, sometimes concrete poems that explore sex, religion and black history, while capturing the experience of growing up a black queer boy in America.

Graduate Honorable Mention: Leandro Stoffels, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese

A Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Stoffels' submission titled "Precarious Pop: Leona Vingativa, Social Media, and Black Eco-Transfeminism in Brazilian Popular Music" is a paper that explores a trilogy of viral videos by the Afro-Brazilian transgender comedian and artist, whose "trashy environmentalism" offers a response to environmental racism and a challenge to make something reusable out of capitalism's worst excesses. 

The Hogan/Schell Undergraduate Award: Jayden McCree, Liberal Arts Honors Program

A Liberal Arts Honors program student, McCree’s submission titled “Eden” is a collection of ten poems and four musical compositions inspired by KB Brookin's poetry collection Freedom House. This work explores in word and sound McCree's own experience of modern black transness. 

Undergraduate Honorable Mention: Chidera Orazulike, Radio-Television-Film major

Radio-Television-Film major Orazulike’s submission titled "Somayina" is a screen play set in contemporary Nigeria that examines sexuality, generational trauma and Igbo traditionalism.

2022-2023

The Monica K. Roberts Graduate Award: Allen Poterie, Performance as Public Practice program in the Theater and Dance Department

Allen Poterie’s winning submission, entitled “And Don’t Let Go: Scenes of Holding as a Means of Emotional Exchange between Black Men,” is a scholarly literature review that contextualizes his creative work-in-progress – a television screenplay about the lives and relationships of Black Queer men. The work cited many books and films in the Libraries’ Black Queer Studies Collection, including literary work by Essex Hemphill, films directed by Marlon Riggs and scholarship by E. Patrick Johnson.

The Hogan/Schell Undergraduate Award: Jeremiah Baldwin, majoring in Government, Rhetoric and Writing, and African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS)

Jeremiah Baldwin submitted  “Caught At An Intersection The Podcast,” which examines Black Queer experiences through interviews and discussions, using Kimberlé Crenshaw’s watershed theory of intersectionality as a framework. In one episode about James Baldwin, the undergraduate senior interviews author Alejandro Heredia, whose book, You’re the Only Friend I Need, is included in the Black Queer Studies Collection.

Honorable Mentions: Alexandria Cunningham and Tolu Osunsade

Two additional submissions received honorable mentions for distinguished work. Alexandria Cunningham, a graduate student in AADS, and Tolu Osunsade, a senior majoring in Public Health and AADS, were recognized for their use of the collection. Cunningham’s submission was a selection from her dissertation “The Black Freak Nasty Magic Project™ :: Choreographies of Play, Pleasure and Sexuality.” Osunsade’s submision was the work “The Harm in Reproductive Healthcare for Black Women and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals in The United States.”