This dissertation examines the spatial and discursive practices of black queer women (hereafter BQW) in Washington, D.C. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted within “the Scene,” a colloquialism referring to the transient collection of leisure spaces in D.C. produced for and by other BQW including book clubs, professional sporting events, private house parties, semi-public events held in mainstream venues, happy hours, and annual Black Pride Celebrations, I explore the way BQW actively bend, borrow, and queer language, space, and black cultural values to make room for their unique expressions of black female sexuality within black sexual politics, American popular culture, and the urban landscape. There are two key levels of analysis: (1) I examine the way BQW produce and maintain the “BQW Scene” within the context of a city that is both “gay-friendly” and majority black; and, (2) using critical discourse analysis alongside queer theoretical approaches to the study of affect, I analyze discourses of belonging, self, and others which manifest in my informant’s discussions of the scene. This dissertation demonstrates how BQW make sense of multiple, sometimes contradictory normative practices related to race, gender, sexuality, and class. In so doing, it explicates the interrelationships among race, gender, sexuality, and class as they instantiate themselves within space and discourse.

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