Someone tells me they’ve been coming to Ptown since ‘84 — just before the AIDS epidemic rushed in. I’m immediately taken back to memories of interviews with Black gay men and Black lesbians who have been coming here for just as long, survivors whose stories are largely unknown.. #BlackProvincetown

I find that when I’m back here, I now carry so many of the stories that have been shared with me as I move throughout the space. I hear the voices of people I’ve interviewed, see their faces, remember their memories, which become intertwined with my own.. #BlackProvincetown

#BlackProvincetown

All of my research tasks today have been logistics and relationship building: text messages and emails to confirm upcoming interviews; phone calls with locals and key informants to plan next steps in my fieldwork -- all of this before I step foot back in the field site. #BlackProvincetown

What if we could understand Provincetown not merely as a white space but [also] as a galaxy, or even a universe, of Blackness?

#BlackProvincetown

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSy...

#BlackProvincetown

That Nina Simone was not a straight visitor in Ptown's queer world, but that she was also living a queer life as a Black bisexual woman (as I am), and therefore also a Black queer ancestor not just in the abstract but in the specific archive of Afro-diasporic life that I'm calling #BlackProvincetown

Today in #sabbaticalstories:

Saturday morning, in a nor’easter yet happily (?) at work in my office reading, sipping earl grey tea I brought home from London; messing around with Nvivo and prepping for a #BlackProvincetown interview

..and I just scheduled another interview for #BlackProvincetown

"Lands End - Provincetown" by Melvin Dixon

#BlackProvincetown

"If  I don’t make it to Tea Dance in Provincetown or the Pines, I’ll be somewhere listening for my name.

You, then, are charged by the possibility of your good health, by the broadness of your vision, to remember us."

www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

#BlackProvincetown

.. and private homes, parties, informal gatherings.. this project is multifaceted and sprawling, to say the very least #BlackProvincetown

This project is the most interesting thing I've ever done in my life. It requires going to poetry readings, kink workshops, fashion shows, film festivals, drag performances, sex shops (well, only one), art galleries, church services, the dunes, the beach, tea, galas and so on.. #BlackProvincetown

An unexpected part of my research life right now is contacting, on a fairly regular basis, famous writers and asking: "Do you want to talk to me about Provincetown?" #BlackProvincetown

"Provincetown Poet" by David Bethuel Jamieson (1986)

An intriguing abstract portrait of the renowned poet and writer Cyrus Cassells.

David and Cyrus were both Black creatives and close friends living in 1980s Provincetown.

#BlackProvincetown

Went directly from a glorious 3 hour interview with an illustrious writer for my #BlackProvincetown project to a 90 minute massage.

Thought of @jamellebouie.net today when, in the middle of a qualitative interview for my #BlackProvincetown study, a Black gay man told me - totally unprompted - that he can't stand white people using the word 'woke' because "..they're saying it incorrectly, it doesn't have its meaning anymore.."

I wish I could publish a distinct book about each person I'm interviewing for #BlackProvincetown. They're all so incredibly fascinating and brilliant, complicated humans.

After a few weeks' hiatus due to travel, I jumped back in the research saddle and conducted an interview for my #BlackProvincetown study this morning. It was very difficult to get through, because this man had me laughing my ass off the entire time.