Drawn from the life narratives of more than seventy African American queer women who were born, raised, and continue to reside in the American South, this book powerfully reveals the way these women experience and express racial, sexual, gender, and class identities — all linked by a place where such identities have generally placed them on the margins of society. Using methods of oral history and performance ethnography, E. Patrick Johnson’s work vividly enriches the historical record of ...

Giving voice to a population too rarely acknowledged, Sweet Tea collects more than sixty life stories from black gay men who were born, raised, and continue to live in the South. E. Patrick Johnson challenges stereotypes of the South as “backward” or “repressive” and offers a window into the ways black gay men negotiate their identities, build community, maintain friendship networks, and find sexual and life partners — often in spaces and activities that appear to be antigay. Ultimately, S...

E. Patrick Johnson's Honeypot opens with the fictional trickster character Miss B. barging into the home of Dr. EPJ, informing him that he has been chosen to collect and share the stories of her people. With little explanation, she whisks the reluctant Dr. EPJ away to the women-only world of Hymen, where she serves as his tour guide as he bears witness to the real-life stories of queer Black women throughout the American South. The women he meets come from all walks of life and re...

Performance artist and scholar E. Patrick Johnson’s provocative study examines how blackness is appropriated and performed—toward widely divergent ends—both within and outside African American culture. Appropriating Blackness develops from the contention that blackness in the United States is necessarily a politicized identity—avowed and disavowed, attractive and repellent, fixed and malleable. Drawing on performance theory, queer studies, literary analysis, film criticism, and et...

A groundbreaking study of the connections between homoeroticism, cannibalism, and cultures of consumption in American literature and US slave culture.Scholars of US and transatlantic slavery have largely ignored or dismissed accusations that Black Americans were cannibalized. Vincent Woodard takes the enslaved person's claims of human consumption seriously, focusing on both the literal starvation of the slave and the tropes of cannibalism on the part of the slaveho...

Explore the physics behind the world of Star Wars, with engaging topics and accessible information that shows how we’re closer than ever before to creating technology from the galaxy far, far away—perfect for every Star Wars fan!Ever wish you could have your very own lightsaber like Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi? Or that you could fly through space at the speed of light like Han Solo and Poe Dameron?Well, those ideas aren’t as outlandish as you think.

This new collection brings together plays and monologues from the National Black Theatre Festival, one of the most historic and culturally significant events—not only in the history of Black theater but in American theater. Held every two years in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, this gathering of Black theater companies and artists from around the country and across the globe features an extraordinary array of performances, workshops, films, spoken-word poetry, and more. Established in 1989...

A prize-winning poetry collection that delves into the dark wood of the digital underworld: "Impressive . . . thought-provoking." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)What is the deep web? A locked door. A tool for oppression and for revolution. "An emptying drain, driven by gravity." And in Patrick Johnson's Gatekeeper—selected by Khaled Mattawa as the winner of the 2019 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry—it is the place where connection is darkly tran...

This edited volume explores the democratic dangers posed by a political press that emphasizes electoral competition, strategy, entertainment, and what Jay Rosen calls “savviness”—praising candidates for being politically smart rather than being honest—in its coverage of a political landscape dominated by a looming authoritarian threat. Contributors document how the American and global political press have failed to fulfill their role in elections and demonstrate how authoritarians have use...

Cornucopia explores the health and economic implications of U.S. farm policy. Using a corn farm in rural South Dakota as his starting point, Johnson reviews the history of agricultural policies in America to understand how large-scale, industrial agriculture came to play such a large role in U.S. and world food production. He also discusses the role of agricultural policies in the on-going "food for fuel" debate, as well as the linkages between agricultural outputs and health outc...

The Digital Closet: LGBT*Q Identities and Affective Politics in a Social Media Age discusses how LGBT*Q individuals occupy a precarious space within society as a marginalized community in the United States. They are afforded representation in some venues yet are often invisible. Through social media, LGBT*Q individuals have sought new ways to forge communities and increase their visibility. This rise in visibility afforded individuals means to seek out and distribute information to help in...

We hear plenty of discussion about missional theology, missional leadership and missional church planting. But what about missional preaching? Now that the church in the West lives within a post-Christendom context, how should preaching look different? What homiletical assumptions arose within Christendom but are no longer relevant for a missionary church? In The Mission of Preaching, Patrick W. T. Johnson develops the first missional homiletic, a model for preaching dete...