PSi #30 Conference: XXX Cruzo, Cruising, Crossroads Fortaleza, Brazil
11-15 December 2025
Performance Studies international (PSi), in collaboration with the Graduate Arts Program at Universidade Federal do Ceará in Fortaleza, Brazil, invites responses to the call for proposals for the PSi #30 Conference in 2025.
Conference theme: XXX — CRUZO, CRUISING, CROSSROADS
Di"erent senses of crossing animate PSi#30. First as a written mark, the three Xs of the Roman numeral that represent “30” here cast the reading into a polysemic realm of competing/collaborating linguistic and cultural forces: secrecy, mystery, incognito, redaction, overwriting, an algebraic variable, an unknown value, non-binary gender, refusal, aphasia, disorder, error, intersectional pathways, intersecting diagonals, proliferating angles, multiplication, lack, blocked, out, hardcore sex, danger, a sacral point, a “something”, a “thing”, the unspecified, a target, a treasure, the vote, the kiss.
The undecidability of the x-thing is held onto here as a sign of complexity, not imprecision. It imparts a critical quality of inconclusiveness that bespeaks the diversified and often conflicting modes of reception and mobilization of Performance Studies in Latin America. For some, another colonizing trend from the academic elite; for others a fresh, rebellious framework enabling the torsion of academic coloniality. From the standpoint of the crossroad, which this conference intends to embrace, the vibrating energy produced by the paradox is way more fertile than the attempt to settle for a conclusion.
CRUZO
In the intercrossing of African diasporic and indigenous cosmopolitical perspectives that structure the religious-philosophical system of Umbanda in Brazil, CRUZO emerges as tactical action of both reading and making worlds. Literally referring to the point in which two pathways cross, the noun CRUZO is nevertheless used and understood as a verb: to make CRUZO is to infuse magical and political potentiality into a text, a sign, an image, a body. Oppositional to any sense of dualism, the operation of CRUZO transforms the thing by imbuing it with dynamism, unpredictability, and potentiality. For this reason, it is a principle associated with Exu/Èṣù and Pombagira, the male and female guardians of the path connecting humans and divinities, and ultimately the deities responsible for opening and closing all pathways and possibilities for communication and creation.
While there are numerous qualities and incarnations of Exu in di"erent spiritual traditions, one of them perfectly illustrates the theoretical-methodological principle of CRUZO in its defiance of hegemonic truth regimes. As historian Luiz Antonio Simas and pedagogue Luiz Rufino tell us, Exu was challenged to choose one between two gourds, which he would bring to the Ifé market: “one contained good, the other contained evil. One was medicine, the other was poison. One was body, the other was spirit. One was the visible, the other the invisible. One was speech, the other what will never be said. Exu immediately asked for a third gourd: he opened the three and mixed the powder from the first two into the third. He shook it real good. Since then, medicine can be poison and poison can cure, good can be evil, the soul can be the body, the visible can be the invisible and the not-seen can be presence, speech can say nothing, and the unspoken can be eloquent.” He then became Igbá Ketá (Lord of the Third Gourd), which he carried on his journey to the Ifé market, while dancing along the way.
CRUZO provides us then with a first principle of non-binarism, inversion, impurity, critical uncertainty. Also of transgression, accumulation and convergence, territory of Exu, with which we expect the field of Performance Studies will inspire itself in its journey through Latin America. In the aftermath of colonialism, which for many of us is but its long duration, CRUZO produces a reenchantment e"ect, “encantamento”, because it widens the present in order to include paradoxical temporalities and the coexistence of multiple cosmovisions. CRUZO turns knowledge into a dance that tricks universal reason, a dance that fills the wound left by colonial violence with embodied potential, proliferating pathways and possibilities.
CRUISING
Crossing geopolitical boundaries and knowledge formations in the strategic mode of CRUZO is hardly immune to the economy of desire and desiring. In a nod to the late José Muñoz, the epistemic force of CRUISING is invited here as a critically queer stance that embraces the libidinal contours of knowledge and politics. Much like in Muñoz’s project, CRUISING is not only, or even primarily, a reference to gay male sexual practices, although these do create exciting space for transgression. CRUISING here is rather a more inclusive mode of relation that queerness a"ords in its inevitable linkage between desire and politics. It gives access to that intercrossing between what Muñoz called the desire for politics alongside the politics of desire.
In that sense, CRUISING is also a form of CRUZO: for a Latin American artist and scholar, approaching the metropolitan legacies, theorists, and institutions of Performance Studies by way of flirting and seduction is a tactical disarming of power relations already in place before any encounter. By way of CRUSING, performance shifts from an “object of study” to an “object of desire,” with all the promise and anticipation the latter transports. By the same token, Performance Studies turns from a transdisciplinary field of studies to a mode of desiring, rubbing ideas and concepts together, and crisscrossing relations. It also brings to the fore the magnificent theorizing of pleasure that has taken place in the history of black and indigenous performance in Brazil, and elsewhere, including carnaval, samba, capoeira, jongo, brega funk, forró, “malandragem” (roguery), and “vadiagem” (loitering), all of which articulate local performative refusals of racist and cis-hetero-patriarchal coloniality.
CROSSROADS
Encruzilhada, in Portuguese, the CROSSROAD is the home of Exu and Pombagira, a liturgical place to dispatch the heavy load of colonial disenchantment. It is also a poetic, philosophical, and political figure of dialogue, of entanglement, and coexistence. But the CROSSROAD also retains a sense of threat and danger. It displaces the conciliatory overtones once associated with “syncretism” and “amalgamation” in order to more fully embrace the tensions and conflicts of intersecting trails, histories, and perspectives.
In the words of the African Brazilian transgender artist Ventura Profana: “we turn the cross into a crossroad”. Leda Maria Martins, prominent scholar of black performance in Brazil, argues that by virtue of having their immediate material connection with home severed by chattel slavery, African Brazilians have re-inscribed memory in cross formulations of knowledge, which are also crossings of temporalities and spatial formations – past and present, Africa and Brazil, are often entangled constructs in performance culture here. This is why the CROSSROAD is so significant in African Brazilian religious systems, such as Umbanda and Candomblé: in diaspora, ancient knowledge is always crossing with newly acquired ones, old and new languages, old and new beliefs, old and new forms of combat. Moreover, as the aforementioned territory of Exu and Pombagira, spirits of mediation, communication, and transport, the CROSSROAD is that which forces the cutting across of directions, of Africa and the Americas, the spiraling of past, present, and future. This figure of radical translation and dialogue between time and space, between north and south, traditions, languages, and hemispheres, should be the central, encoding, and proliferating figure of PSi #30.
Hosting Performance Studies International in Latin America for the first time, especially in the peripheral city of Fortaleza, is the casting of triple X, a triple magic spell: simultaneously a CRUZO, a CRUISING, and a CROSSROAD.
Conference Subthemes Conference presentations will be organized according to the following subthemes:
Philosophies, aesthetics, politics, and pedagogies of the crossroad Senses of crossing in performance theory and practice Anti-dualisms
Counter-colonial strategies in art, life, and theory
Practice research as a crossroad
Latin America as a crossroad
Politics and aesthetics of enchantment/encantamento
Politics and aesthetics of pleasure
Senses of cruising in theory and performance
Desire for politics and politics of desire
Theoretical and artistic figures of entanglement
Non-normative spiritualities
Performances of vitality, revitalization, vitalism
Crossroads of queerness
Politics and poetics of delinquency
African diasporic and indigenous cosmopolitical perspectives in performance Hemispheric perspectives in performance studies
Crossing boundaries in performance art
Contradiction, paradox, and inconclusiveness in performance
Organizing team
Conference chair: Pablo Assumpção Barros Costa, Universidade Federal do Ceará Steering committee:
Eleonora Fabião, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Denise Ferreira da Silva, New York University
Christine Greiner, PUC-São Paulo
Sérgio Andrade, University of Amsterdam
Marcos Davi Steuernagel, The New School
Felipe Ribeiro, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
André Lepecki, New York University
Clarissa Diniz, independent curator
Yuri Firmeza, performance artist and scholar, Universidade Federal do Ceará
Francis Wilker, FUNARTE
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Maurice Moore, PhD 2025
Title: Nonbinaries Crisscrossin and Cruisin Through de Crossroads
Abstract: Let’s go cruising through de crossroads, makin sure we beez crossinmany boundaries through practice of the embod odi odi odi odi odi odi imentderived from sensorial mark making in performance art. Yasssssss! We be on datBlack Blk Blackty Nonbinary magics and ish! For instance, my performance drawing “Your Flags Could Nevh! (feat. Nonbinary Trans Flag, and Pan-African Flag),” is rendered by incorporating elements from performance-drawing, gesture drawing, and some of dat automatism; to create immersive environments and engaging experiences crisscrossing race, gender identity, and gender expression coupled with black hxstories and cultural diasporic traditions in Amerixxxca. Usage of various forms of documentation help capture such renderings and explores how people of the African Diaspora have created bout fifty-'leven times n’ then sum, means of survival and thriving (Yeah We Been Outchea!); through visual and performance art, creating various modes and/or genres stepped in resistance. Moreover, challenging conventional creative practices & scores by infusing dem wit quare aesthetics i.e. call and response, reading, throwing shade, and African American Vernacular/Gestural English (AAVE) etc. By engaging with these modes/genres thru Practice as Research is carried out by the remixing and sampling gleaned from creative arts research, Africana Studies by a wannabe baddie continues to broaden mark-making in dis creative arts research.
Key Words: Practice as Research, Performance Art, Durational Performance, Documentation, Performance Studies, Studio Art, Performance-Drawing
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Title: Joyful Rage: A paradoxical interplay of sensorial inversion
This hybrid performance fuses pre-recorded and live bodily and sonic elements to interrogate José Muñoz’s concept of cruising as a utopian horizon. Engaging deeply with the conference theme of "crossing"—particularly intersection—it examines performance as a space for safely expressing and navigating complex emotional terrains such as rage, joy, and euphoria. Drawing from the philosophical underpinnings of Susan Sontag’s flâneur and Peggy Phelan’s feminist flâneuse, this work celebrates feminist and queer bodies in motion, reclaiming public space as a site of both resistance and emotional release.
Our journey begins in sound, exploring the generative potential of silence, gaps, and interludes as inspired by John Cage’s 4’33”. Here, silence creates moments of reflection, tension, and release, allowing the containment and expression of rage and joy to emerge as dynamic contrasts. Sonic textures shift from stillness to bursts of danceable, punk-pop music, weaving optimism into rebellion. In this context, punk is reimagined as immediacy, raw energy, and hope—a distinct, forward-looking optimism that contrasts with the retrospective sorrow of the blues. This interplay underscores the vibrancy of joy as a radical emotional force, capable of reframing anger and inspiring action.
Movement forms the heart of the performance, embodying improvisational research that affirms the body as a repository of knowledge and emotional processing referencing Maxine Sheets-Johnstone's seminal writings on phenomenology and movement. Gesture becomes a powerful medium—a visual language of quick, communicative, and deeply personal expression akin to gesture drawing in visual art. Improvised dance embodies the contours of rage, joy, and euphoria, blending internal experiences with outward expressions. This emotional vocabulary invites the audience to connect on a visceral level, creating a shared space of empathy and understanding. Costuming and comportment serve as tools of self-determination, challenging societal norms of appearance and emotional expression. Masks paradoxically reveal inner truths, individuality and collective identity while advocating bodily agency. By masking, the performers subvert traditional expectations, embracing vulnerability and aggression as acts of empowerment.
The performance also interrogates the ways emotions are perceived and contained in public spaces. While joy is often deemed socially acceptable, it is frequently subdued, and expressions of rage are marginalized unless carefully framed. This piece challenges such constraints, asking: Can performance be a safe space for exploring rage and aggression without fear of judgment? How can joy, particularly punk-infused joy, serve as a vehicle for processing and transforming complex emotions? Staging alternates between cinematic close-ups and expansive wide shots, guiding the audience through the micro and macro dimensions of the performance. These shifts focus attention on the intricacies of gesture and the collective energy of the performers, creating an immersive experience that bridges the personal and communal.
Joyful Rage offers a vision of world-building through punk energy, improvisational movement, and sonic experimentation. It invites participants to dream of a future where anger, joy, and euphoria are celebrated as essential human experiences. By crossing boundaries of medium, identity, and emotion, this performance stands as a hopeful act of creation—a rebellion against despair, and an affirmation of life.
Key Words: Practice as Research, Performance Art, Durational Performance, Documentation, Performance Studies, Studio Art, Performance-Drawing, Musicology
Author(s) name(s), affiliation(s), Contact Information, Short Bios:
Heather Coker Hawkins
Assistant Professor Area of Study: Cinema Studies + Time-Based Art
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Email: hcokerha@utk.edu
Website: https://heathercokerhawkins.com
Heather Coker Hawkins is a filmmaker-choreographer and teacher originally from Southwest Missouri. She holds an M.F.A. in Film Production with a specialization in Directing from Chapman University and an M.F.A. in Dance from UCLA. Heather makes films, as well as, live physical theater and dance pieces with integrated video projection. Her work choreographs the audience's eye using bodily and perceptual movement to communicate the 'other side of the story' and a 'closer look into the world of" representations of the human (body) in multiple social and cinematic contexts.
Maurice Moore, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Drawing and Painting
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
School of Art
Email: mmoore82@utk.edu
Website: https://maurice-moore-mkx7.squarespace.com
Dr. Maurice Moore is an Assistant Professor of Drawing and Painting at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. They received a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Performance Studies from the University of California-Davis, and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Published by Versal Journal, and winner of their 2022 Amsterdam Open Book Prize, Maurice Moore’s newest book, Drawing While Black Mixtape Vol 1, is a text composed of visual poems that explore various types of queer mark-making. Their works have also appeared in Communication and Critical Cultural/Studies, Decoded Pride, ObsidianLit, and Poetry Foundation. From 2011 to the present, the creative has exhibited at the Centre for Recent Drawing (C4RD) in London, United Kingdom; Calabar Gallery in New York, NY; Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art in Davis, California; and the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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Forthcoming: Nonbinaries Crisscrossin and Cruisin Through de Crossroads, XXX conference PSi #30, CRUZO, CRUISING, CROSSROADS, conference in Fortaleza Brazil, 2025.
Forthcoming: Joyful Rage: A paradoxical interplay of sensorial inversion, XXX conference PSi #30, CRUZO, CRUISING, CROSSROADS, conference in Fortaleza Brazil, 2025.
