Queer Aqui: Together in Hard Times (Queer Aqui: Juntos em Tempos Difíceis) focuses upon questions about the reliance of new right-wing populist regimes on homophobic, transphobic and misogynist ideologies. At the same time, we are thinking about multiple forms of queer and trans life in Rio, and in the global south in general, which craft creative, powerful and impactful responses to these new forms of oppression. The combination of roundtables outlining the struggle on the one hand and others mounting various forms of aesthetic resistance on the other should allow audiences to both reckon with the reality of the hard times we are all in but not succumb to the idea that no response is possible. We expect about 90 people to attend!

A tentative schedule of the day follows below:

 May 25th, 2023, Rio de Janeiro QUEER AQUI

10 - 10:15 am WELCOME and LOGISTICS

10:30 - Noon -  Roundtable with US participants, and Denilson Lopes, an academic colleague from Rio.  

The topic will be Queer Aqui - Theory, Art and Politics in a Global Frame.

Noon - 1:30 pm Catered lunch onsite.

 2pm to 3:30 Paul Amar (UC Santa Barbara) will moderate a panel of Brazilian speakers including Leonardo Morjan Britto Peçanha author of Black Transmasculinities: Plural Narratives in the First Person, and others.

 3:30 - 4pm Break

4:00 - 5:30pm - Panel organized by Moises Lino E Silva, author of Minoritiarian Liberalism: A Travesty Life in a Brazilian Favela along with Brazilian researchers and other participants 

End of academic program.

6-7pm - Performances with Rio Ballroom House of Cazul, Q&A with performers. 

7pm-end: small bites and drinks for closing reception. TBD.