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Cup of Culture
Coming Around
MCC Theater
COMING AROUND follows 28-year-old second-generation Palestinian-Egyptian Brooklynite Eman as she weighs the decision to come out to her devout Muslim mother. Having grown up in Columbia, Missouri with her mother and sister, the three women share a unique tight-knit bond that Eman desperately wants to maintain. But despite being a scholar and visibly “out” among her queer Muslim friends, Eman sits uncomfortably in silence when it comes to her mother. To postpone coming out, she decides to marry her current boyfriend, Q, to give the appearance of strictly hetero relationship interests. The story captures how she struggles with this decision and consequently navigates the opposing expectations of her multiple identities. This is a new kind of “coming out” movie with a mother-daughter love story at its core, and it reveals the often unseen intricacies of seeking common ground and family, especially in religious and marginalized communities of color. The film also has a unique opportunity to broaden the discussion around pansexuality and bisexuality, which often gets lost in the larger discussion of queerness and sexuality. English & Arabic with English subtitles. (75 minutes)
Mobile Archives of Indigeneity: Genesis, Methodology, and Application
Dr. Floridalma Boj Lopez
MCC Theater
In her talk, Dr. Floridalma Boj Lopez will discuss the origins of Mobile Archives of Indigeneity (MAI) as an analytic that emerged from an engagement with Critical Indigenous Studies and her personal lived experience as a member of the Maya diaspora from Guatemala. She will also discuss the ways that MAI requires flexible methods that prioritize community centered projects and discuss how MAI is applied in her upcoming monograph. She will specifically examine how Maya textiles act as a Mobile Archive of Indigeneity in the diaspora and consider the layered gender, historical, political, and economic context of the textiles.
Bio:
Floridalma Boj Lopez is an Assistant Professor in Chicana/o and Central American Studies. Dr. Boj Lopez’s work uses a community centered approach to analyze the experiences of Maya migrants as they cross settler colonial borders and encounter distinct racial hierarchies in the United States. Her research examines cultural production among the Guatemalan Maya diaspora with a particular emphasis on how Maya communities respond to structures of state violence and understand their relationship to Indigeneity in diaspora. She is connected to her K’iche’ community in Xela (Quetzaltenango) and works to share her research and resources across borders.
