Taboo x Afrofuturism x Surrealism
I am inspired to bring Black queer epistemologies into mainstream academic conversations. My research explores themes of taboo, storytelling, and Black queer world-making. The following scholars, artists, and activists inspire my academic interests:
Ytasha Womack
Christina Sharpe
Hortense Spillers
Nnedi Okorafor
madison moore
Chaz Barracks
Danielle Brathwait-Shirley
Fred Moten
Zalika Ibaorimi
Amber Abundance
Research Projects
Ourqive: The Divine/Design Feminine
In an effort to both honor the innate divinity and agency of Black trans femmes, I immortalize and exemplify Black and Brown trans goddexxs. This Black queer archive or “ourqive” seeks to anoint trans femininity by exemplifying empowered Black and Bown trans folx. The ourqive holds space for all manner of artifacts: visual, audio, interactive media.
Image above: Divine by Aurora Higgs, digital graphic design
Burlesque as Storytelling
I am a burlesque performer which means that I am an artist who plays with dance, exhibitionism, and political expression. By revealing my skin in a classically cis-feminine artform, I am telling a story that expands my audience’s conception of gender, race, and sensuality. I empower my body by transcending white-supremacist stigmas around respectability and hedonistic pleasure-seeking
image above: Glitched ‘Lesque by Aurora Higgs, GIF image
Creating a Black Queer Folklore
In an effort to combine my passion for world-making and storytelling, I am investigating what a queer Black feminist folklore could do in the backdrop of a developing world. What can a canon of mythologies, legends, fairy tales, etc. do to transcend the white-supremacist status quo in hopes of queerer pastures? I will contribute to this cannon and related media through art, poetry, short stories, and media production. The frameworks that I draw on in this endeavor will be gothic short stories, mysticism, and afro-surrealism.
image above: artifact of the goddess Neith. Aegis of Neith, Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt - Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon