Get Yo' Life

R J Millhouse

ISBN 10: 0814259405 / ISBN 13: 9780814259405

Published by Ohio State University Press, US, 2025

About this Item

Seller Inventory # LU-9780814259405

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Get Yo' Life
• Publisher: Ohio State University Press, US
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814259405
• ISBN 13: 9780814259405
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 15.24W x 1.27H x 22.86D centimeters 15.24 centimeters width by 1.27 centimeters height by 22.86 centimeters depth
• Weight: 454 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In Get Yo’ Life, R. J. Millhouse incorporates gender and sexuality studies, archival work, performance studies, and urban studies to craft a historical geography of Black queer public life and culture from the 1960s onward. He does so via case studies of two Brooklyn nightclubs, Langston’s and Happiness Lounge, as patrons fought to preserve their spaces and community in the face of gentrification. Introducing Black queer spatiality as an analytic method and a type of intersectionality-driven memory work, Millhouse teases out the nuanced functions of care-work, performance, and kinship labor, along with attendant sensational, atmospheric, and nostalgic factors, as they inform Black queer placemaking practices. These practices—such as resource fairs, vogue competitions, and the appropriation of public parks as communal places—often face opposition from the police or well-to-do, mostly white, neighbors. Yet, they remain vital sites of Black queer agency. By focusing on the structural powers that condition the lives and placemaking and placekeeping strategies of Black queer people in Brooklyn, Millhouse reveals the ways in which people make and preserve place amid state-sanctioned displacement.

About the Author

R. J. Millhouse (he/him) is Assistant Professor in the landscape architecture, urban design, and environmental design (LAUDED) and interior architecture programs in The Design School at Arizona State University. His research is at the intersection of urban and environmental design, geography, gender, and Black studies.