DISCOURSE: How do we talk about the border without talking about the border?

In some of our most recent projects we are indirectly being asked to build spaces, produce events, and imagine programming that perpetuates and protects the concept of borders, nations, and identities. As a studio we approach these requests with inquiry, research, imagination and lil’ side eye. How do we inject this discourse and cultural knowing in the work that we do without clashing with the brand, the aesthetic or the tone? How do we focus on intentional spatial design whose intention is to agitate audiences to move beyond the rigidness of these constructed ideological spaces? Especially when these bordered spaces continue to marginalize, criminalize and attack the communities we identify with. These are the internal questions we ask while we are ideating projects with our collaborators. 

This is a curated resource list that shares insight into one of our many ecosystems of discourse that our studio uses to inform practice and fabrication.  This list compiles films, music videos, news articles, academic journals,  online conversations, sculptor works, photography and on-the ground field research from the US-MX border to expand on this discourse. 

ON THE GROUND STUDIO RESEARCH

On May 10, 2023 #Title42, activated by the Trump administration in 2020 to legally turn all asylum seekers away, expired. That same day BLACK DISCOURSE traveled to Tijuana and volunteered with @thisisabouthumanity to listen to the activists from @immdef_lawcenter (who swiftly sued the Biden Administration after the title expiration) and prepare meals in the @fundaciontijuanasinhambre relief kitchen for migrant children stuck at the  US-MX border.

Around the same time of the Title 42 expiration, countries across Africa presented and passed anti-LGBTQ bills including Uganda’s most recent passed law that declares life in prison for homosexual activity. Currently there are 64 countries in Africa that have laws that criminalize homosexuality.

There were 63,278 asylum seekers coming to the US in 2018; nearly half of all asylum seekers in 2018 were under the age of 18 and the majority coming from the African continent. Still, data on LGBTQ+ asylum seekers is extremely limited due to persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Around 30,900 LGBTQ+ people applied for asylum in the United States between 2012 and 2017, with nearly 4,000 seeking asylum due to fear of persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

LISTEN

1. IWS RADIO #02 | Black Lives Matter! - In The Mediterranean Sea Too (2022)
2. Ken Robinson Podcast - Immigrants, Refugees & LGBT Rights (2023)

WATCH

1. “Tell Me” (2023) song by Adam Ness the KAT @iamadamness directed by Ladan @ladambadan Inspired by Sascha Schneider’s “Hypnosis” (1904)
2. Wo Fie feat Wanlov the Kubolor & Sister Deborah (2021)
3. Rafiki (2018) Directed by Wanuri Kahiu. Logline: "Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives," but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety.
4. Black and Asian Feminist Perspectives on Immigration: Violence, Citizenship, and Solidarity (2021)
5. An Offering of Hope from Trans and Queer Migrants | TLC COVID-19 Community Call 6 (2021)
6. Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project: Coming Home (2017)

READ

1. I’m heartbroken at my exile from Uganda. Don’t let them erase our queer community (2023) DeLovie Kwagala non-binary photographer and activist exiled from Uganda shares their life and story.
2. Persecuted and marginalized: Black LGBTQ immigrants face unique challenges BY CASSIE CHEW (2020)
3. The idea of a borderless world by Achille Mbembe (2018)
4. Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP) 
5. Discarded Trash Transformed To Black Queer Power: Leilah Babirye is nailing and burning her way to fierce queer freedom by Senta Scarborough 
6. Artist Leilah Babirye Takes Off the Mask by Svetlana Kitto (2018)
7. A Black Immigrant’s Mission To Center Black Migrants At The Southern Border by Richard Flower (2021) 
8. ASYLUM-SEEKER SAYS HE’S BEING DEPORTED BECAUSE ICE MISHANDLED EVIDENCE OF ANTI-GAY ATTACK by Michael Arria (2017)
9. Homosexuality: The countries where it is illegal to be gay
10. LGBTQI+ REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS: A Review of Research and Data Needs (2022)
11. Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention, and Deportation by EITHNE LUIBHÉID and KARMA R. CHÁVEZ (2020)

Selected chapters from the LUIBHÉID and CHÁVEZ book in relation to discourse below

• “Prevent Miami from Becoming a Refugium Peccatorum”: Policing Black Bahamian Women and Making the Straight, White State, 1890–1940” by JULIO CAPÓ
• “Fantasy Subjects: Dissonant Performances of Belonging in Queer African Refugee Resettlement” by Ab Brown 
• “Imperialism, Settler Colonialism, and Indigeneity: A Queer Migration Roundtable” by LEECE LEE-OLIVER, MONISHA DAS GUPTA, KATHERINE FOBEAR and EDWARD OU JIN LEE

12. Queer Global Displacement: Social Reproduction, Refugee Survival, and Organised Abandonment in Nairobi, Cape Town, and Paris (2023) 
13. Exilic (Art) Narratives of Queer Refugees Challenging Dominant Hegemonies by Fabian Holle, Maria Charlotte Rast, and Halleh Ghorashi (2021)
14. How a Black, Gay Refugee Created a Community For Queer Asylum Seekers by David Artavia (2021)
15. 'Gay Tests' for Refugees in Europe Should Be Banned, Says Court by DAMIEN SHARKOV (2018)
16. Queer Migration and Asylum in Europe edited by Richard C. M.  Mole (2021)

To Learn more about LGBTQ on the ground defense and organizing in Africa please follow:

Papa De (they/them) NonBinary Queer Photographer @aconstantbecoming

Queer Ugandans response community @hashtagwhatnext 

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To Learn more about Asylum defense at the American Mexican Border please follow:

International Community Foundation @icfdn

Immigrant Defenders Law Center @immdef_lawcenter

Fundación Tijuana Sin Hambre (Kitchen): @fundaciontijuanasinhambre

Yes We Can World Foundation (school): @yeswecanwf