Changing the narrative:

Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You

Lena Waithe’s writing in The Chi and Twenties

Indie Black queer filmmakers (e.g., Cheryl Dunye, Barry Jenkins, Marlon Riggs) have long created counter-narratives that center Black LGBTQ+ joy, love, and complexity.

Bonus Rec: Pleasure Activism - adrienne maree brown

Audre Lorde’s “Uses of the Erotic” reframes the erotic as a source of power and self-knowledge, rather than an externally defined object of desire.

Jennifer Nash and Ariane Cruz highlight how Black women navigate desire within spaces that attempt to confine them, whether in academia, porn, or BDSM culture.

Hip-Hop Feminism (Joan Morgan) calls for a redefinition of pleasure and sexuality that is not dictated by either white feminism or patriarchal hip-hop culture but instead shaped by Black women’s lived experiences.