Ranging from the terrifying embrace of the slave ship’s hold to the racist encoding of ‘cuddly’ toys, On Cuddling is a unique combination of essay and poetry that contends with the way racial violence is enacted through intimacy. Informed by Black feminist and queer poetics, Antwi focuses his lens on the suffering of Black people at the hands of state violence and racial capitalism. As radical movements grow to advance Black liberation, so too must our ways of understanding how racial capitalism embraces us all. Antwi turns to cuddling, an act we imagine as devoid of violence, and explores it as a tense transfer point of power.

Dr. Phanuel Antwi is the Canada Research Chair in Black Arts and Epistemologies in the Department of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia. He is an artist, teacher and organizer concerned with race, poetics, movements, intimacy, and struggle. He works with text, dance, film, and photography to intervene in artistic, academic, and public spaces. He is a curator, activist, and associate professor. He is an alumnus of the U of G and a research team member with the IICSI.

Presented by Interdisciplinary Programs, the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, and the Office of Academic Equity and Anti-Racism