Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders
by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley
Duke University Press Books (Feb 27, 2018)
Hardcover, 264 pages
Nonfiction
Description of Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley
From the dagger mistress Ezili Je Wouj and the gender-bending mermaid Lasiren to the beautiful femme queen Ezili Freda, the Ezili pantheon of Vodoun spirits represents the divine forces of love, sexuality, prosperity, pleasure, maternity, creativity, and fertility. And just as Ezili appears in different guises and characters, so too does Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley in her voice- and genre-shifting, exploratory book Ezili’s Mirrors. Drawing on her background as a literary critic as well as her quest to learn the lessons of her spiritual ancestors, Tinsley theorizes black Atlantic sexuality by tracing how contemporary queer Caribbean and African American writers and performers evoke Ezili. Tinsley shows how Ezili is manifest in the work and personal lives of singers Whitney Houston and Azealia Banks, novelists Nalo Hopkinson and Ana Lara, performers MilDred Gerestant and Sharon Bridgforth, and filmmakers Anne Lescot and Laurence Magloire—none of whom identify as Vodou practitioners. In so doing, Tinsley offers a model of queer black feminist theory that creates new possibilities for decolonizing queer studies.

- ISBN: 9780822370307
- Imprint: Duke University Press Books
- Publisher: Duke University Press Books
- Parent Company: Duke University
Books similiar to Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders may be found in the categories below:
- Social Science / Black Studies (Global)
- Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory
- Social Science / Gender Studies
- Social Science / LGBTQ+ Studies / General