When Language Broke Open collects the creative offerings of
forty-five queer and trans Black writers of Latin American descent
who use poetry, prose, and visual art to illustrate Blackness as a
geopolitical experience that is always changing. Telling stories of
Black Latinidades, this anthology centers the multifaceted realities
of the LGBTQ community.
By exploring themes of memory, care, and futurity, these
contributions expand understandings of Blackness in Latin America,
the Caribbean, and their U.S.-based diasporas. The volume offers up
three central questions: How do queer and/or trans Black writers of
Latin American descent address memory? What are the textures of
caring, being cared for, and accepting care as Black queer and/or
trans people of Latin American descent? And how do queer and trans
embodiments help us understand and/or question the past and the
present, and construct a Black, queer, and trans future?
The works collected in this anthology encompass a multitude of
genres—including poetry, autobiography, short stories, diaries,
visual art, and a graphic memoir—and feature the voices of
established writers alongside emerging voices. Together, the
contributors challenge everything we think we know about gender,
sexuality, race, and what it means to experience a livable life.