Publications.
Kwaito Bodies.
In Kwaito Bodies Xavier Livermon examines the cultural politics of the youthful black body in South Africa through the performance, representation, and consumption of kwaito, a style of electronic dance music that emerged following the end of apartheid. Drawing on fieldwork in Johannesburg's nightclubs and analyses of musical performances and recordings, Livermon applies a black queer and black feminist studies framework to kwaito.
Black Stud, White Desire: Black Masculinity in Cuckold Pornography, Mandingo Parties, and Sex Work
Colonialism and African Sexualities
Livermon provides a brief overview of how sexualities have been discussed in the African continent, making the argument that there is no one ‘African sexuality’, and that instead African sexualities emerge as discursive and political formations shaped by Africans themselves as much as by colonial formations.
Disruptions in Respectability: A Roundtable Discussion
What do the politics of representation present in the realm of knowledge production? This roundtable of scholars of gender, sexuality, Black, and Latino studies circle the discussion around this question by positioning politics of representation and respectability within the realm of popular culture, pornography studies, and other highly consumed forms of media. The discussion also points toward themes of intramural policing, and other forms of oppression performed within Black and Brown communities as ways to understand how respectability politics are martialed in the public sphere.
Editor’s Note: Cultural Industries and African Diaspora
From afrobeat to zouk, Afrodiasporic musical traditions have become foundational in the practices of culture industries worldwide. The commodification and consumption of these sounds as well as attendant movement practices, fashion styles, and a variety of other items are complexly entangled with, even central to, local, national, and international circuits of culture and capital.
HIV (STDs, STIs, and Viral Hepatitis) Prevention and Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) Needs Assessment
In 2008, the HIV Prevention Program of the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) was awarded competitive Supplemental CDC/NCHISTP/DHAP funding to conduct an HIV (STDs, STIs, and Viral Hepatitis) Prevention Needs Assessment for Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). This CDC funding was designated for states to assess the strengths and weaknesses of existing prevention services and resources that target MSM and to identify barriers that impede MSMs access to these services and resources.
Measuring Gay Rights In Post-Apartheid South Africa
In 1996, South Africa became the first country in the world to enshrine protections on the basis of sexual orientation into its constitution. Nine years later, the Constitutional Court ruled that the state had a duty to extend the rights of legal marriage to same-sex couples.
Queer(y)ing Freedom Black Queer Visibilities in Postapartheid South Africa
On any given Thursday night, the residents of Soweto gather around their radios to listen to the salacious radio show Cheaters. Inspired partly by the US-based television show of the same name, and broadcast on Jozi FM, the radio show encourages disgruntled lovers who suspect their partners of infidelity to call in and have the radio station investigate
Representations of Sophiatown in Kwaito Music: Mafikizolo and Musical Memory
“Si-ghetto Fabulous” (“We Are Ghetto Fabulous”): Kwaito Musical Performance and Consumption in Post-Apartheid South Africa
The sweeping changes that ushered in the fall of the apartheid regime and the implementation of a Bill of Rights has generally meant that more attention has been paid to human rights and dignity in post-apartheid South Africa, particularly for those who were previously excluded from protections during apartheid.
Sounds in the City
Soweto nights: making black queer space in postapartheid South Africa
In this article, I examine black queer nightlife in Soweto and its relationship with the making of black queer space in South Africa. Through an in-depth examination of the microgeographies of a Soweto stokvel party, I reveal the complexities of post-apartheid formations of race, class, gender, and sexuality.
Usable Traditions: Creating Sexual Autonomy in Postapartheid South Africa
In July of 2004, local South African newspapers led with provocative headlines such as “The kiss SA TV has never shown before.”3 The kiss in question was to be featured on the television series Yizo Yizo. Created by the state-owned South African Broadcasting Company, the series, then in its final season, had already provoked considerable public debate with depictions of sex and violence that pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable television, particularly for a youth audience.