Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination

Preface

Preface My interest in the topics explored in Island Bodies spans many years; this book was developed through research, conference presentations, journal articles, and long conversations. My academic research has also benefited, however, from my personal experiences and community work. I have long been a part of Caribbean communities in the region and its diaspora. I have spent time in Trinidad, Barbados, and Puerto Rico and have lived in or visited many other Caribglobal spaces in New York, Miami, Toronto, and elsewhere. Particularly as the cochair of the Caribbean Board of the International Resource Network, an online project which strives to connect Caribbean scholars and activists who work to document, examine, or improve the lives of sexual minorities in the region, and as a volunteer for and board member of the Audre Lorde Project, a New York City–based center for lesbian , gay, bisexual, two spirit, trans, and gender nonconforming people of color, I have had the opportunity to work on community projects related to sexuality and other issues—experiences that encourage me to link imaginative stories to lived ones. Finally, my experience as a mentor for Green Chimneys, a service center for sexual minority youth in the New York City foster care system—too many of whose children were thrown out by their Caribbean families—provided a reminder of the very real consequences of defying heteropatriarchy and conventional gender. While I do not engage in community work to serve my scholarly research, the two have certainly benefited each other in ways I did not foresee. I have written Island Bodies for the many academic, social, and cultural communities of which I am a part. ix This page intentionally left blank ...