Any queer devouring archives knows the affective spectrum of these pursuits. If you are of indentured descent, the word “archive” itself evokes perhaps its own set of possibilities for seeking out origins at the nexus of the violence and horror of a system history could not bother to index. This is a series for those of us written out of the record; but perhaps, also for those of us who would set the record aflame. And this series is for all of us imagining new genealogies, ways of knowing and possibilities for our existence(s), and for creating archives of our own.

This series was imagined as an in-person convening of artists, writers, performers, oral historians, scholars & poets ( — and those at the intersection of those worlds). Due to COVID-19, these plans were shelved. By leaping into the virtual stratosphere, I was serendipitously able to connect with queer community of indentured descendants from across the diaspora, from Suriname via Amsterdam & The Hague, from Fiji via Australia, from South Africa to Montreal and Mauritius. As a queer Indo-Jamaican scholar and writer, these connections have become the world to me. 

I am grateful to the individuals and collectives who agreed to participate in this vision. This series, which started out as a passion project with no funding, eventually received institutional support. I am also grateful that beyond the initial 2021 series of Queer x Indenture, we have continued generative works of art, scholarship and archival visions that exceed the limits of history.

Much thanks to Dr. Stu Marvel & Studies in Sexualities at Emory University; Dr. Beth Reingold & the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Emory University; Jef Pierce of Penn Libraries at the University of Pennsylvania; and the support of a Mellon PhD Intervention Project grant.

– Suzanne Persard, 2023