Event | Rhythms/Performances of Subversion & Conformity

Event | Rhythms/Performances of Subversion & Conformity
Date: 1 December 2024
Time: 11:30-18:00
Location: BAK Utrecht (Pauwstraat 13A, 3512 TG Utrecht, Netherlands)
Organizers: BAK Utrecht and Dr. Wigbertson Julian Isenia (University of Amsterdam)
Contact: w.g.s.j.isenia@uva.nl
Registration: https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tickets-rhythmsperformances-of-subversion-conformity-1084174688679?aff=oddtdtcreator
Credits: 1 ECTS

The symposium “Rhythms/Performances of Subversion & Conformity” centers on a table reading of “Marival” (1996) by Felix de Rooy, a landmark play depicting Caribbean queer and trans experiences amid Dutch postcolonialism. By blending “mariku” (a Curaçaoan slur for gender and sexual nonconformity) with “carnaval,” the play portrays the lives of queer immigrants in Amsterdam’s Bijlmermeer. Performers include Collin Edson, Laurindo Andrea, JeanPaul Paula, NØËL, Wigbertson Julian Isenia, and Damani Leidsman. The reading is followed by a conversation with Alejandra Ortiz and two audience members from the original 1996 production, initiating an interdisciplinary exploration of performance to reimagine gender and identity while critiquing colonial legacies.

Drawing on recent works such as Lyndon K. Gill’s study of queer activism in Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival and calypso traditions; Kristie Soares’s exploration of pleasure-based politics in Puerto Rican and Cuban pop culture; and Matthew Chin’s analysis of queer performance in Jamaica, we explore how performance complicates and transforms existing notions of identity and the “nation.” Nicosia M. Shakes’s research on Black feminist theater in Jamaica and Carlos Ulises Decena’s study of queer spiritual performances in Santería and Lucumí further reveal how music, theater, and religious practices intersect with activism, pushing the boundaries of Caribbean society. These works illustrate how performance is critical for reimagining gender, queerness, and identity while confronting colonial legacies and critiquing whiteness.

The symposium prompts us to reflect on the questions these works raise: How do Caribbean performative practices, including theater, film, and dance, function as tools for reimagining identity and challenging colonial legacies? What are the implications and ethical considerations of activating archives and re-telling erased or marginalized histories, especially concerning the representation of bodies and identities impacted by institutional violence and colonial narratives? Finally, given our geographical context, how can we initiate a meaningful dialogue between the Dutch Caribbean and the broader Caribbean and Latin America region, considering that the Dutch Caribbean has often been missing or underrepresented in the literature?

By highlighting the variety of cultural practices found throughout the Caribbean region and its diaspora, this symposium aims to spark discussion among artists, academics, and the general public. We will look at how performances address colonial histories, deal with racism and masculinity, and add to the region’s ongoing discussions around queer and trans identities.

The keynote speaker is Professor Lawrence La Fountain–Stokes (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), who will present “Ana Macho and Tropical Decolonial Drag,” examining Puerto Rican drag and trans performance and the intersections of race, gender, and diaspora. He discusses the Puerto Rican nonbinary pop singer Ana Macho, who began as a drag queen in 2016. Engaging with theorists like María Lugones and Kareem Khubchandani, among others, Professor La Fountain–Stokes illustrates how Ana Macho uses transloca drag performance for significant political purposes.

Lectures, open-call research responses, memory sessions, listening rituals, harvested annotations, sobremesas, and a nested program of Latinx interventions about restorative justice will enrich the themes emerging from this literary provocation.

Justice Jamal Jones’s film essay “Notes on a Siren” explores Vodou lore alongside Black queer and trans identity. Shot in the Cayman Islands, the film confronts the filmmaker’s colonial positionality and experiences under the gaze of others. Eliza Khodabux examines post-independence Surinamese cinema in “Post-Independence Surinamese Cinema: Gendered Subjectivities, Creolization, and National Identities in Post-Colonial Dutch Caribbean.”She analyzes “Wan Pipel”(1976) by Pim de la Parra, exploring its depiction of Suriname’s national identity and engagement with racial, ethnic, and gender dynamics within Dutch postcoloniality.

Jonathan Tjien Fooh presents “From Colonial Violence to Re-Storying Our Ancestors’ Dreams,” combining ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and traditional Javanese storytelling to create an audiovisual collage that revives erased histories of Javanese indentured labor in the Caribbean. Stephan FFLoor’s “Beyond Empathy and Representation” reconsiders Caribbean performative practices as aesthetic and political acts that engage with colonial history to foster change.

In “Practices of Restitution: The Dangers of Commodification and Fetishism of Memory,” Felipe Zúñiga, Terry Holiday, and Miguel Corral explore the risks and possibilities when archives are activated. Terry Holiday, a prominent Mexican trans artist, uses “patchworks” to recover voices lost to institutional violence. Miguel Corral analyzes how archival practices reactivate memory, disentangling institutional narratives around bodies living with HIV. Members of Red Comunitaria Trans—Pascale Espinosa, Katalina Angel, and Daniela Maldonado Fonseca—present “Other Architectures: Ephemeral Appropriations.” They explore ephemeral architectures created by marginalized communities in unwelcoming environments, challenging oppressive systems through movements and transient spaces.

This event will be the final BAK Community Portal event before BAK closes.

This event was made possible by the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA), the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, and the Municipality of Utrecht.

Registration for Attendance

You are welcome to attend the symposium even if you are not presenting. You can register via this link: https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tickets-rhythmsperformances-of-subversion-conformity-1084174688679?aff=oddtdtcreator

ECTS Credits

RMA and PhD students affiliated with Dutch partner universities can obtain 1 ECTS credit without presenting a paper. To earn the credit, students should study the two assigned readings (see below), prepare two discussion questions for one or more of the speakers, attend the event and write a 1500 essay after the event (deadline 15 December). The questions will be addressed during the panel discussion.

Please send your discussion questions to w.g.s.j.isenia@uva.nl, indicating to whom the questions are addressed. The deadline to register for ECTS credits is 20 November 2024.

Assigned Readings (for ECTS Credits)

• La Fountain–Stokes, Lawrence. 2021. “Theorizing la Loca: Feminist and Queer Debates.” In Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance. University of Michigan Press.
• Isenia, Wigbertson Julian. Forthcoming. “Wildcard Character.” In Mariku: Trans Methodologies and Archives in the Dutch Caribbean.

Contact Information

For inquiries, please contact:

Dr. Wigbertson Julian Isenia

Email: w.g.s.j.isenia@uva.nl