Dangerous Homes: On Violence Against Women & Gender Non-conforming Persons

a presentation by & conversation between Dr. Treva B. Lindsey and Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter

Disproportionate violence at home, at school, on the job, in their neighborhood as well as instutionalized racism, racial profiling and police brutality, and incarceration rates far exceeding their share of the population: these are the experiences of Black women in this country. A 2017 report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that more than four in ten Black women experience physical initmate partner violence; they also experience higher rates of psychological abuse and more than 20% are raped during their lifetimes. The Human Rights Council’s 2020 report on fatal violence against the transgender and gender non-conforming community found the majority of these victims were Black. Dr. Treva B. Lindsey’s upcoming book America, Goddam: Violence, Black Women, and The Struggle For Justice explores the combined force of anti-Blackness, misogyny, patriarchy, and capitalism in the lives of Black women and girls, as well as their demands for justice for themselves and their communities. Artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter will offer a presentation based on her chilling and powerful work “Consecration to Mary, 2021,” which offers a visual corrective to the violence Thomas Eakins’ photographs visit upon a black girl. We are excited to have them present their work with us and be in conversation to unpack what it means when one’s body is a dangerous home.

This event is part of our year-long exploration on the theme of “Home, What does it look like now?” How can we reconsider home in the 21st century as we cross states and borders seeking comfort, safety and identity? Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and state sanctioned violence against black bodies, the Center for Black Visual Culture (CBVC) will explore the significant ways black visual narratives respond to the cultural, dynamic political, social, economic as well intimate changes that force us to (re)interrogate previous conceptions of home.

Organized by the NYU Institute of African America Affairs & Center for Black Visual Culture; co-sponsored by the following NYU entities: 370J Project; Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality; and by the Department of Photography & Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts.