Spirit in the Dark Body: Black Queer Expressions of the Im/material

Through visual art and sound, Spirit in the Dark Body explores black queer spiritualities in their various forms in order to reflect that something beyond the physical– whether it be community, ritual, care, love, or something else– that moves in/with/through black queer bodies. “Dark body” symbolizes the mystery, refusals, obscurations, layers of fabulosity, liminality, and becoming of blackness, queerness, and spirituality. Where queer spirituality has at times been considered insignificant or even non-existent—immaterial—this presentation reclaims immateriality (the nonmaterial world) through the material bodies that hold it for collective liberation. This sensorium invites engagement with the people, the stories, the embodied experiences, the illegibilities, and the aliveness of black queer people– well-known and everyday, historical (namely, Marsha P. Johnson, James Baldwin, and Pauli Murray) and contemporary.  
 
When black queer sacred stories are told, often, the focus is on trauma, rejection, disconnection, or even conformity. This presentation focuses instead on the power and persistence of black queer spirit. It does not argue for or against religion and theism, or present them as inherent goods-- as the featured figures from the past and present engage spirituality in a variety of ways, including irreligion and atheism-- but shows the ways that black queer people subvert what is deemed sacred to find connection toward the liberation of themselves and their communities. This presentation connects the present to the past through foregrounding black queer ancestors who have engaged the sacred in liberatory ways, while providing space to imagine even more liberatory black queer futures. 

Spirit in the Dark Body: Black Queer Expressions of the Im/material is organized by El/yse Ambrose as part of the 2026 Circa: Queer Histories Festival, presented by One Institute.