This film will be followed by a conversation with Dr John Wilkins led by Clodagh Assata Boyce
Selected by Clodagh Assata Boyce for DISSOLUTIONS ’25, Shari Frilot’s Black Nations/Queer Nations? (1995) exemplifies how the multiple, the erotic, the cyber and the spiritual are tools needed to shape a future. As emerging communities are defining themselves in Ireland against tides of far-right nationalism and the flattening effects of neoliberal arts landscapes, this 1995 conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora poses valuable cultural strategies around shaping identity, culture and nation. Through discussions on class, citizenship, Apartheid and Buju Banton, we explore what Black is…and what Black ain’t. This film supports us in challenging the forces of fascism and speaking despite fear. Directing us to hold dear the words of Audre Lorde – “when we speak we remember that we were never meant to survive.”
Notes by Clodagh Assata Boyce
FILM INFO:
Black Nations/Queer Nations?, Shari Frilot, 1995, U.S.A., 52 minutes
“This is an experimental documentary chronicling the March 1995 groundbreaking conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora. The conference brought together an array of dynamic scholars, activists, and cultural workers including Essex Hemphill, Kobena Mercer, Barbara Smith, Urvashi Vaid, and Jacqui Alexander to interrogate the economic, political, and social situations of diasporic lesbians, gay men, bisexual, and transgender peoples. The video brings together the highlights of the conference and draws connections between popular culture and contemporary black gay media production. The participants discuss various topics: Black and queer identity, the shortcomings of Black nationalism, and homophobia in Black communities. Drawing upon works such as Isaac Julien’s “The Attendant” and Jocelyn Taylor’s “Bodily Functions,” this documentary illuminates the importance of this historic conference for Black lesbians and gays.”
Notes from Third World Newsreel
Clodagh Assata Boyce (pictured below) is a Trinidadian-Irish antidisciplinary cultural producer. They are influenced by the traditions of Black feminist thought and their work is rooted in diasporic memory, the politics of care, and practices of refusal. Clodagh‘s curatorial and artistic projects challenge extractive logics, turning instead toward slowness, opacity, and interdependence as strategies of resistance. Through writing and experimentation with material forms, they critique architecture, language, memory, and modes of marginalisation — making space for what is often obscured, withheld, or unspeakable.
In the past year, Clodagh has contributed to Visual Arts News Sheet and Bloomers Journal, and spoken at platforms like the Studio Museum in Harlem and NCAD. Their work blends institutional critique with care-focused methodologies, drawing on their background in community organising (BlackQueerBookclub), film curation (Dublin International Film Festival), and museum education (Studio Museum in Harlem).
Clodagh is presently resident artist at Common Ground’s Studio 468 and curator-in-residence at PS2.
Dr John Wilkins (pictured below) identifies as U.S.-Black and Gay. Dr Wilkins earned his B.A. from Franklin & Marshall College, in Lancaster Pennsylvania; and earned his MA in English Literature from the L’Université de Montréal, Canada. His thesis dealt with “Goddess Imagery in the Novels of Toni Morrison”. Dr Wilkins earned his doctorate from Trinity College Dublin’s School of English where he interrogated representations of “Black Gay Male Identity in the Afri-can Diaspora”. Dr Wilkins is the Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Enterprise Fellow working with both Trinity College Dublin and IMMA. He is Interrogating themes of race and identity within aspects of IMMA’s programmes and exhibitions including The Otolith Group Xenogenesis and Howardena Pindell – A Renewed Language
