The Syracuse University Humanities Center will devote a special program to black queer studies, March 18-19. Titled “Performing Black Masculinities and Same-Sex Desires,” the program features E. Patrick Johnson and Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr., professors at Northwestern University and Washington University in St. Louis (Wash U.), respectively.

On March 18, Johnson will present his acclaimed one-man show, Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales, at 7 p.m. at the Community Folk Art Center (805 East Genesee St.). The show is based on his bestselling book, Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South (The University of North Carolina Press, 2008). He is the Carlos Montezuma Professor of African American Studies and Performance Studies at Northwestern.

The following day, March 19, Johnson will join Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr., associate professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies and of performing arts at Wash U., for a breakfast seminar on queer methodology and professionalization at 9:30 a.m. in room 304 of the Tolley Humanities Building. Registration is required. To R.S.V.P., email ejrand@syr.edu.

That evening, McCune will discuss his book Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing (The University of Chicago Press, 2014) at 5:30 p.m. in room 123 of Sims Hall. The book is a critical analysis of the “down-low” phenomenon, in which African American men have sex with men but maintain an outwardly heterosexual lifestyle. 

“Performing Black Masculinities and Same-Sex Desires” is co-sponsored by the departments of African American Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies, the Democratizing Knowledge Collective, and the Community Folk Art Center, all in A&S; the departments of History and Sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; and the Wendy H. Cohen Fund for Cultural and Artistic Enrichment, administered by the Department of Drama in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).

The program is co-presented by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program in A&S and the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in VPA.

Events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact 315-443-1011.