Making Space. Taking Space. Owning Space. Creating Space

In this chapter, I explore the intersectionality of my Blackness, Queerness, and out visibility in K-12 educational spaces. Music has always been a joyful activity for me. I fell in love with music in the Black Pentecostal-Holiness church I grew up in. I recreated the musical worship experiences I had at church in my family basement dressed in my mother's clothes singing and directing a chorus of action figures and other toys. Yet, that is when a thread of censorship around my queerness and Blackness developed. This oppression continued as my essence, culture, and humanity were in question as an undergraduate music education student at a predominantly White institution. My experiences in Essence of Joy, a choir that sings music of the African & African American Sacred and Secular choral traditions, and its director helped me realize how I was a victim of discrimination, and I began to seek liberation. This liberation helped me experience freedom from vocal constriction and inspired me to be an out gay Black music teacher in public schools.

Keywords: activism ; anti-racism ; cultural competence ; culturally responsive ; intersectionality ; liberation ; music education ; queer ; racial equity ; sexuality ; visibility