Liner Notes on Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music as a Praxis of Self-Fashioning

Author

shawn j. williams, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityFollow

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/W1HW-TJ94

Defense Date

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Interdisciplinary Studies

Department

Interdisciplinary Studies

First Advisor

Shermaine M. Jones

Second Advisor

Michael Ra-shon Hall

Third Advisor

Julian K. Glover

Fourth Advisor

Grace D. Gipson

Abstract

Liner Notes on Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music as a Praxis of Self-Fashioning interprets Black musical performance in identity-making, with a focus on how music and Black trans identity intersect and informs Black trans girlhood. As such, Black trans girls render ourselves legible, i.e. understood without shame or judgment, by constructing our identities through the music by Black women we listen and dance to, or watch and sing. These musical connections affirm the possibilities of Black femme expression. This expression of Black femininity is due to what I call an Afrofuturist affect, by which I refer to the transfer of emotions, sensations, and embodied knowledge from Black musical cultural productions to Black trans girl subjects who use these tools and resources to (re)formulate our identities and (re)orient them to promote a sense of pride, pleasure, and satisfaction in mind, body, and spirit. Through this process, Black trans girls create a unique sense of girlhood that transcends adolescence and challenges the definitions and constructs of “Black,” “trans,” “girl,” and “woman” simultaneously. As a Black transgender scholar, I seek to intervene within Black transfeminist scholarship to advocate for an affective understanding of Black trans realities that moves beyond a call for empathy, as empathy does not prioritize the subject of harm. Instead, having an affective understanding of Black trans realities acknowledges the power imbalances and oppressive structures within our white cis-hetero patriarchal society. Therefore, championing the Black trans girls’ visibility and creating safe spaces for Black trans girls to embrace our future as Black women.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

4-28-2025