The talks in this session touch upon the search and design of spaces where queer identities are allowed to perform and flourish. They focus on the ways in which these spaces work to shield and provide safe haven against class-based, cultural, societal, and urban pressures. The safe havens discussed work both in tandem and in tension with the existing context of the built environment they inhabit – this context being, at one end, present-day architecture culture or, on the other, the urban development of the city.

 

The first talk starts us off on a domestic scale with "Queering white heroic modernism: Amaza Lee Meredith designs A House of her Own," focusing on the house African-American architect Amaza Lee Meredith has designed for herself and her partner and demonstrating how Meredith’s innovative residential design negotiates between her own identity, middle-class black culture and the dominant Modernist white male culture.

 

The second talk, “Drag Culture: Intangible Heritage Through Ephemeral Places,” moves from the domestic to the urban. Here, as opposed to the stability of the home, we focus on the transience and impermanence of the spaces which have hosted Drag performances in Los Angeles over time. A history of drag develops in tandem with its association to the development of the city.  
 

Speakers

• Drag Culture: Intangible Heritage Through Ephemeral Places
  Chuy Barba-Bonilla
• Amaza Lee Meredith Imagines Herself Modern
  Jacqueline Taylor

 

Moderator

Sophie Juneau

 

All sessions will take place at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Exact classroom locations to be announced.