Erotic Islands

In Erotic Islands, Lyndon K. Gill maps a long queer presence at a crossroads of the Caribbean. This transdisciplinary book foregrounds the queer histories of Carnival, calypso, and HIV/AIDS in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. At its heart is an extension of Audre Lorde's use of the erotic as theory and methodology. Gill turns to lesbian/gay artistry and activism to insist on eros as an intertwined political-sensual-spiritual lens through which to see self and society more clearly. This analysis juxtaposes revered musician Calypso Rose, renowned mas man Peter Minshall, and resilient HIV/AIDS organization Friends For Life. Erotic Islands traverses black studies, queer studies, and anthropology toward an emergent black queer diaspora studies.

"Highly recommended.", "Part history and part ethnography, Lyndon K. Gill’s Erotic Islands offers an innovative approach to nascent and long-established fields such as black diaspora studies and anthropology, correspondingly. Scholars of Caribbean studies or queer studies will likewise benefit from Erotic Islands.", "Reading Erotic Islands is a sensual exercise. The chapters, organized based on the senses, visual, aural and tactile engagement in art and activism, are punctuated by excerpts from Gill’s field diaries, also rich with sensory descriptions. . . . The text successfully engages the reader on multiple levels. Erotic Islands provides rich and provocative explorations of same-sex desire and instructions for applying the erotic lens, while making invaluable contribution to deeper understandings of the queer Caribbean.", “I celebrate this book for resisting dominant imaginings of paradise and refuting the idea that the region is unlivable for same-sex-desiring persons. This work takes seriously the spaces of our Queer Caribbean lives with caring analysis.”, “Some ethnographers are griots who rely on ethnography to reveal certain truths about the world. Lyndon Gill is one such scholar. Attentive to the transformative power of language, story-telling, and multiple registers of world-making, he reveals the power of ‘eros as a lens, vital for surveying the elaborate topography of connections we share as political, sensual, and spiritual beings’ (p. 11).”

Lyndon K. Gill is Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.