Join us for a book presentation and discussion by the author Lyndon Gill and an engaging conversation with two respondents - Charleston "Xxaalahh" Thomas & Angelique V. Nixon.

In Erotic Islands, Lyndon K. Gill maps a long queer presence at a crossroads of the Caribbean. This transdisciplinary book foregrounds the queer histories of Carnival, calypso, and HIV/AIDS in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. At its heart is an extension of Audre Lorde's use of the erotic as theory and methodology. Gill turns to lesbian/gay artistry and activism to insist on eros as an intertwined political-sensual-spiritual lens through which to see self and society more clearly. This analysis juxtaposes revered musician Calypso Rose, renowned mas man Peter Minshall, and resilient HIV/AIDS organization Friends For Life.

Dr. Lyndon K. Gill is a newly tenured Associate Professor in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Erotic Islands: Art and Activism in the Queer Caribbean (Duke University Press, 2018). His current Ford Foundation supported book project is tentatively titled Love Jumbie: Spiritual Baptism & the Queer Sacred Arts. Dr. Gill is also an installation artist.

Dr. Charleston "Xxaalahh" Thomas Xxaalahh: Artist, Linguist and Educator Artistry: Music (Piano+Voice),Natural Objects, Image, Audience, Education, Healing Artistic Address: The Maternal Principle, Caribbean Cultural Histories, (Black) Male Intimacy, Family Relations, Systems of Violence, Vulnerable Bodies(Female-body, Childbody, Elderly-body) Purpose: Love Labour, Fulfillment, Labour of the Orisha, Nina Simone!

Dr. Angelique V. Nixon is a Bahamas-born, Trinidad-based writer, artist, teacher, scholar, activist, and poet. She is a lecturer and graduate studies coordinator at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, UWI St. Augustine. Her research, cultural criticism, and poetry have been published widely; and her artwork has been featured at several exhibitions. She is author of Resisting Paradise: Tourism, Diaspora, and Sexuality in Caribbean Culture which won the Caribbean Studies Association 2016 Barbara T. Christian Award. And she is author of the poetry and art collection titled Saltwater Healing – A Myth Memoir and Poems (Poinciana Paper Press 2013 sold-out edition).