Queer Nightlife

Catalog description

What do we want from a night out? What is possible in this “queer” time? And what are we wearing to the function? This seminar explores the connections between and among nightlife, queer worldmaking, and other unruly subcultural practices. Rather than a linear history of nightlife and club culture, in each week we venture to a new theme/destination. We explore the spaces, the dancing, the outfits, the laws and legal gray areas, the drag, the cruising, and the rumbling bass, textures, and frequencies of queer nightlife. Through close readings, guest speakers, site visits and sustained cultural analysis, we acquire a critical understanding of the potentialities of queer "after hours" in the making of subcultural identity and emerging aesthetic practices. The course melds theory and practice and includes site visits to Providence area venues as well as a CDJ workshop.