Blackqueer Lives and Legacies: A Genealogy of the Pedagogy and Culture of Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, and James Baldwin.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	Blackqueer Lives and Legacies: A Genealogy of the Pedagogy and Culture of Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, and James Baldwin.
Authors:	Robinson, Robert^1,2 rrobinson@jjay.cuny.edu
Source:	Taboo: The Journal of Culture & Education. Winter2026, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p193-212. 20p.
Subject Terms:	Cultural activities, Educators, Black people, Curriculum planning, Black LGBTQ+ people, African American authors, Genealogy, Mentoring
Geographic Terms:	Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
People:	Baldwin, James, 1924-1987
Abstract:	This historical-conceptual study reconstructs a Blackqueer pedagogical genealogy linking Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, and James Baldwin. Drawing on biography, intellectual history, and documentary film, it theorizes how queer chosen family and Black fictive kinship organize mentorship, aesthetic production, and educational practice across generations. Locke's ambivalent role as "midwife" of the Harlem Renaissance anchors an analysis of the pedagogical affordances and harms embedded in his relationships with Cullen and other Blackqueer cultural workers. The genealogy then follows Cullen as poet, playwright, teacher, and fictive parent to Baldwin, demonstrating how Blackqueer kin networks nurtured Baldwin's literary formation and educational praxis. Methodologically, the project foregrounds secondary sources to model an approach for excavating Blackqueer genealogies while marking the epistemic limits produced by archival silences. The paper argues that attending to Blackqueer lineages of care, domination, and resistance clarifies how pedagogy moves through bodies, intimacies, and cultural work within and beyond formal schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Education Research Complete

Description
Abstract:	This historical-conceptual study reconstructs a Blackqueer pedagogical genealogy linking Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, and James Baldwin. Drawing on biography, intellectual history, and documentary film, it theorizes how queer chosen family and Black fictive kinship organize mentorship, aesthetic production, and educational practice across generations. Locke's ambivalent role as "midwife" of the Harlem Renaissance anchors an analysis of the pedagogical affordances and harms embedded in his relationships with Cullen and other Blackqueer cultural workers. The genealogy then follows Cullen as poet, playwright, teacher, and fictive parent to Baldwin, demonstrating how Blackqueer kin networks nurtured Baldwin's literary formation and educational praxis. Methodologically, the project foregrounds secondary sources to model an approach for excavating Blackqueer genealogies while marking the epistemic limits produced by archival silences. The paper argues that attending to Blackqueer lineages of care, domination, and resistance clarifies how pedagogy moves through bodies, intimacies, and cultural work within and beyond formal schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	10805400