I work from a queer, mixed Middle Eastern and Caribbean immigrant perspective. My work generates structures in the liminal spaces where symbols, patterns, and stories act as protection spells and portals to futures that queer our realities—welcoming all to participate, resist, or play.
Same Team (2018) is a transdisciplinary work (figure 1) that began with a postcard (figure 2). Jacek Kolasiński, the curator of Return to Sender: Corresponding to the Caribbean, exhibited at FIU Miami Beach Urban Studios in 2018, had shared it with me. He asked each participating artist in the show, myself included, to respond to the postcard, which depicted two men holding hands while walking on a street in Port-au-Prince in 1905. This singular image triggered a memory of the first time I was called queer; it opened a space for the creation of this work, where Haitian history and folklore mix with personal stories and fictional projections, navigating themes of affection, the formation of queer identity, and gender-based violence. The work collectively asks when and where it is safe for men to hold hands in public through queering the concept of the sports team.
The installation consists of three primary components: three short creative non-fiction texts written and performed by the artist, with audio recordings accessible via QR codes printed on floor decals (figure 3); a set of 6 team jerseys presented on garment racks and arranged to suggest their wearers were holding hands, each depicting different figures significant to the texts; and a logo (figure 4) symbolizing two men holding hands, printed on an appropriated storefront window behind the team shirts and used to brand both the shirts and the floor stickers. The texts stand as individual works but collectively form a trio of lenses that look at how the performance of public affection, especially between men, triggers fear, violence,
or even death.
Much like a sports team, the work also implies a collective, collaborative endeavor that may continue into the future by expanding Same Team with other players whose stories will unfold in new fields of play.
CATALOG OF ARTIFACTS:
Same Team jerseys (6 displayed on 3 store-bought garment racks):The jerseys each depict a different element from the stories and have custom elongated numerals designed to sit on the shoulders like epaulets.
(1) Masisi (Player No. 11): On the front, this shirt depicts the two men holding hands from the postcard. There is no direct evidence they were gay, as holding hands was then culturally acceptable in Haïtian culture. October 11 is my birthday, which is National Coming Out day, and 11 is also the age at which I was first outed by being publicly called Masisi, the Kreyol word for faggot.
(2) Leclerc (Player No. 02): This shirt is named after Charles Leclerc, the general dispatched by Napoleon to quell the Haïtian rebellion. He lived at the Habitation Leclerc with his wife Pauline, Napoleon’s sister and a famous beauty. Pauline is depicted on the shirt, as is my dad, who in the same location centuries later would construct swimming pools for the luxury boutique hotel situated there and named after Leclerc.
(3) Dunham (Player No. 06): This shirt depicts Katharine Dunham, famed dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and educator. She was an advocate for racial justice, education, and a great champion of Haitian culture. She owned the property on which the Habitation Leclerc hotel was built; she died in 2006.
(4) Milk (Player No. 22) This shirt depicts politician Harvey Milk (born May 22, 1930), LGBTQ+ icon and martyr to anti-LGBTQ+ violence. His ghost haunted my first visit to San Francisco, where I was accompanied by my partner who never felt comfortable showing affection in public but made an exception on Castro Street.
(5) Boukan (Player No. 00): Boukan is the word for a bonfire in Haitian Kreyol. This shirt depicts an abstracted frame from a dark web video clip showing a violent attack where two men were assaulted on the street in Haïti and burned alive for being queer. The horrific attack is already in progress at the start of the clip; moments later, passersby, instead of helping the victims, position burning debris closer to them to hasten
their deaths.
(6) Malice (Player No. 01): This shirt depicts Donald Trump, the number one villain against LGBTQ+ rights in the USA as President at the time. Malice is the name of a character in Haïtain folklore that is always coupled with a character named Bouki. In these parables, Bouki is naive but kind, while Malice is knowing and malicious. This shirt, paired with jersey number 5, reveals a play on words that only Kreyol speakers would grasp: Boukan as a stand-in for Bouki.
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