Rootwerk: Ballroom Culture As an African Diasporic Cosmology

• Raheem Wicker, Black American Studies, University of Delaware

• Kai Green, Africana, University of Delaware

Rootwerk examines how Black queer people (re)connect with and (re)imagine African cosmologies as a decolonial strategy to challenge Western gender norms and conceptions of selfhood. In this context, cosmology is defined as a system of rites, rituals, and guidelines embodied through practice that enables individuals to navigate the world. This analysis focuses specifically on Ballroom culture as a cosmological system developed by Black queer communities to resist restrictive gender structures and facilitate identity exploration. Ballroom culture continues to provide a space for Black queer people to challenge and reinterpret traditional gender norms through community, practice, and performance. As a cosmology, it incorporates communal rituals and robust oral traditions. Beyond the Ballroom, Black queer communities have also integrated traditional African cosmologies into their cultural and spiritual practices through more direct methods. To investigate these dynamics, this study analyzes the films Atlantic is a Sea of Bone (2017) and KIKI (2017) to explore Black queer communities and identity. The films are examined through Black Queer theory Methodologically, Rootwerk applies Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley’s Black Atlantic, Queer Atlantic framework to interpret the Middle Passage and transatlantic cultural circulation through a queer lens, foregrounding erotic bonds, non-normative intimacies, and gender transgression as central to Black diasporic life. Afrocentric Decolonizing Kweer Theory is also employed to critically engage with gender and sexuality practices among people of African descent. This article demonstrates the creative ways in which Black queer people reimagine gender, religion, and human personhood.