Conviviality and the enticement of a Black diaspora

Abstract

In this essay, I center passing encounters that I had between 2005 and 2023 in the United States, Vieques, Cuba, and Grenada. “Passing” refers to the duration, direction, and form of encounter. Most lasted no longer than 15 minutes and were initiated by people offering me street-side greetings, impromptu advice, or seeking information. I offer the passing encounter, significant because of its brevity, as a site of convivial Black diaspora-making. I argue that bodies in proximity, intentional gestures, affective vocality, and word choice were used to navigate and, sometimes, repair rifts that cross-cultural discussions of race and gender could have occurred. I draw on Ruth Simms Hamilton's (2007) concept of circulatoriness, among others, to help me to establish why blackness and womanhood were available and important to co-dialogists and me in the endeavor toward conviviality.