Gendered Aesthetics of Blackness

Rosita Scerbo is Associate Professor of Afro-Latinx Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Georgia State University. She is the author of Latinas en los márgenes: QueerARTivismo y TRANSdisciplinariedad: Hacia una politización de la autobiografía visual de mujeres invisibles and The Afro-Descendant Woman in Latin American Diasporic Visual Art.

"Gendered Aesthetics of Blackness models a strong decolonial practice. Highlighting Afro-Cuban female artists' methodological strategies and processes, Rosita Scerbo demonstrates their purposeful acts of activism and resistance. While attending to the nuances of geography, displacement, memory, and identity in their lives and work, Scerbo also draws important connections between artists on the island and in the diaspora, creating a rich transnational dialogue." — Lesley Feracho, author of Linking the Americas: Race, Hybrid Discourses, and the Reformulation of Feminine Identity"An essential contribution to Latin American and Caribbean studies, Latinx studies, visual art, and cultural studies. Gendered Aesthetics of Blackness sheds light on and amplifies the work of understudied and underrepresented artists from the intersectional standpoint of gender and race. Rosita Scerbo sets a new precedent for how decolonial academic research can be done." — Anastasia Valecce, author of Neorrealismo y cine en Cuba: Historia y discurso en torno a la primera polémica de la Revolución, 1951–1962

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction Afro-Cuban Women as Bridges Between Worlds, Custodians of the Past, and Weavers of Alternative Futures1. Tracing Black Identity and Afro-feminism in the Cuban Historical Context2. Black Femininity Reimagined: Bridging AfroARTivism and Black Decolonial Aesthetics in the Visionary Artistry of Harmonia Rosales3. Decolonizing Trans-Generational Memories of Slavery, Spirituality, and Exile: The Multicultural Artistic World of María Magdalena Campos-Pons4. Susana Pilar's Self-Portrayal of Black Womanhood: A Visual Chronicle of Diasporic Femininity, the Trauma of Separation, and the Legacy of Enslavement5. Unveiling Symbolic Silence: Cultural Syncretism and Archetypal Allegory in Belkis Ayón's Visual Expression6. Empowering Through Art, Shaping Cultural Narratives, and Celebrating Afro-Cuban Heritage: An Interview with Harmonia Rosales7. Transcending Boundaries: Art, Activism, and Afro-Cuban Identity: An Interview with Diarenis Calderón TartabullConclusion Resonating Echoes: Toward a Liberated Aesthetic FutureNotesBibliographyIndex