Surviving From the Margins: A Conversation About Identity With James Baldwin

Abstract

Black feminist thought and Black feminist autoethnography are the theoretical and methodological tools that I use to explore transnational identity construction as a Black, Trinidadian–American woman who has experienced hyper(in)visibility. Three letters capture my epiphanic moments as the outsider-within. I stage an interaction with the late literary-activist–scholar, James Baldwin, to address identity-making through race and transnationality, and to problematize interpersonal, structural, and disciplinary forms of power that shape my identity. My critical autoethnography is a self-story—a story that is always navigating between dual citizenships and culture. I place my epiphanic moments in conversation with those of James Baldwin to highlight Black experience from the past and present to provide new ways of narrating difference.