# Quare Theory

Quare theory was created by "E. Patrick Johnson" in 2001. Quare theory was created to promote the voices of queer people of color.
Quare theory is similar to “queer theory”; they are both forms of "critical theory" that focus on the study and theories of queer identities and actions. E. Patrick Johnson believed that within queer theory there was an erasure or minimization of queer people of colors voices. Johnson created Quare theory to uplift the voices that queer theory historically hadn't. With Queer theory there is “a significant theoretical gap” meaning queer theorists often silence or lessen the voices of queer people of color.

## History

Quare theory was created by E. Patrick Johnson who is a scholar and artist who studies gender, race, and sexuality performance. Johnson has written several books in the focus of his studies. He focuses on gender, race, and sexuality performance “modes of scholarly and artistic production”. He is a professor at Annenberg University for performance studies as well as a professor at Northwestern University for African American studies. Besides being a professor, Johnson is also “Dean of the School of Communication”. Furthermore, in the year of 2020 Johnson was “inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences”.
Johnson proposed quare theory to fill the gap left by queer theory. Johnson’s essay on Quare studies proposes to address queer behavior and history from people of color’s perspectives. The term quare was inspired from Johnson’s grandmother because when she said the word queer with her accent it sounded like she said quare.

## Definition

Quare theory is focused on “the racialized bodies, experiences, and knowledge of” queer people of color. It's a perspective that's meant to shed light upon marginalized voices. The theory "narrows the gap between theory and practice" and highlights the performance aspect of the body. Quare theory focuses on uplifting and addressing the needs of queer people "across issues of race, gender, class, and other subject positions".

## Quare vs queer theory

Quare theory is “both a counter theory” and “a counternarrative to queer theory”. Johnson discusses in his essay regarding quare theory that queer theory, whether intentionally or not, doesn’t include queer people of color’s voices. With quare studies, Johnson intended to increase the exposure of queer people of color and their issues. Quare studies explores different identities focusing on queer people from “racialized and class knowledges”. Quare studies fills in the gaps that queer theory left empty.

## E. Patrick Johnson's Related Works
### Books

* Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women, University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
* Black. Queer. Southern. Women—An Oral History, University of North Carolina Press, November 2018.
* Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South—An Oral History, University of North Carolina Press, 2008.
* Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity. Duke University Press, 2003.

### Edited collections

* Blacktino Queer Performance (with Ramon Rivera-Servera). Duke University Press, 2016.
* No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies. Duke University Press, 2016.
* Cultural Struggles: Performance, Ethnography, Praxis. Edited collection of essays by Dwight Conquergood. University of Michigan Press, 2013.
* Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology. (with Mae G. Henderson), Duke University Press, 2005.

### Journal articles

* "Put a Little Honey in My Sweet Tea: Oral History as Quare Performance." Women's Studies Quarterly 44.3/4 (Fall/Winter 2016): 51-67.
* "In Search of My Queer Fathers (In Response to Bishop Eddie Long)." Cultural Studies <-> Critical Methodologies 14.2 (April 2014): 124 -127.
* "To Be Young, Gifted, and Queer: Race and Sex in the New Black Studies." The Black Scholar 44.2 (Summer 2014): 50 – 58.
* "Pleasure and Pain in Black Queer Oral History and Performance." (with Jason Ruiz) QED: A Journal of GLBTQ Worldmaking 1.2 (Summer 2014): 160 – 170.
* "After You've Done All You Can: On Queer Performance and Censorship." Text and Performance Quarterly 33.3 (July 2013): 212-213.
* "Queer Epistemologies: Theorizing the Self from a Writerly Placed Called Home." Biography 34.3 (2011): 429-446.
* "Specter of the Black Fag: Parody, Blackness, & Homo/Heterosexual B(r)others." Journal of Homosexuality 45.2/3/4 (2003): 217-234.
* "'Quare' Studies Or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned From My Grandmother." Text and Performance Quarterly 21 (January 2001): 1-25. Reprinted in Readings on Rhetoric and Performance. Ed. Stephen Olbrys Gencarella and Phaedra C. Pezzullo. State College, PA: Strata, 2010. 233-257. The Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory. Ed. Noreen Giffney and Michael O'Rourke. Farnham, England: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2009. 451-469. Sexualities and Communication in Everyday Life: A Reader. Ed. Karen Lovaas and Mercilee Jenkins. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006. 69-86, 297-300. Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology. Ed. E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005. 124-157.

### Book Chapters

* “Foreword: Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey.” Long Term: Essays on Queer Commitment. Eds. Scott Herring and Lee Wallace. Duke University Press, 2021. vii-ix.
* “Remember the Time: Black Queer Nightlight in the South.” Queer Nightlife. Eds. Ramon Rivera-Servera, Kareem Khubchandani, and Kemi Adeyemi. University of Michigan Press, 2021. 222-234.
* “Put a Little Honey in My Sweet Tea: Oral History as Quare Performance.” Imagining Queer Methods. Eds. Amin Ghaziani and Matt Brim. New York University Press, 2019. 45-62.
* “The Gospel According to the Gays: Queering the Roots of Gospel Music.” Oxford Handbook of Music and Queerness.” Ed. Fred Haus and Sheila Whiteley. Oxford University Press, 2019.
* “Introduction.” No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies. Ed. E. Patrick Johnson. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016. 1-26.
* “Introduction: Ethnoracial Intimacies in Blacktino Queer Performance.” Co-authored with Ramon Rivera-Servera. Blacktino Queer Performance. Eds. E. Patrick Johnson & Ramon H. Rivera-Servera. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016. 1-18.
* “Southern (Dis)Comfort: Homosexuality in the Black South.” Creating and Consuming the U.S. South. Eds. William A. Fink, David Brown, Brian Ward, and Martyn Bone. University Press of Florida, 2015. 97-116.
* “Black.” Keywords for American Cultural Studies, Vol. 2. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glen Hendler. New York: New York University Press, 2014. 30-34.
* “Introduction: Opening and Interpreting Lives.” Cultural Struggles: Performance, Ethnography, Praxis. Dwight Conquergood. Ed. E. Patrick Johnson. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013. 1-14.
* “Gays and Gospel: A Queer History of Sacred Music.” Out in Chicago: LGBT History at the Crossroads. Eds. Jill Austin and Jennifer Briers. Chicago: Chicago History Museum, 2011. 109 -125.
* “Afterword.” Windy City Queer. Eds. Kathie Bergquist. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2011. 237-238.
* “Scatter the Pigeons: Baldness and the Performance of Hyper-Black Masculinity.” Blackberries and Redbones: Critical Articulations of Black Hair/Body Politics in Africana Studies. Eds. Regina E. Spellers and Kimberly R. Moffitt. Hampton, V.A.: Hampton UP, 2010. 147 -156.
* “In the Merry Old Land of OZ: Rac(e)ing and Quee(r)ing the Academy.” The Queer Community: Continuing the Struggle for Social Justice. Ed. Richard Johnson, III. San Diego: Birkdale Publishers, 2009. 85-103.
* “Going Home Ain’t Always Easy: Ethnography and the Politics of Black Respectability.” Out in Public: Reinventing Lesbian/Gay Anthropology in a Globalizing World. Eds. Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2009. 54-70.
* “Queer Theory.” The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies. Ed. Tracy C. Davis. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008. 166-181.
* “Black Performance Studies: Genealogies, Politics, Futures.” Performance Studies Handbook. Eds. D. Soyini Madison and Judith Hamera. Thousand Oaks, C.A.: Sage, 2005. 446-463.
* “Performing Blackness Down Under: Gospel Music in Australia.” Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Performance and Popular Culture. Eds. Harry Elam and Kennell Jackson. Ann Arbor, U of Michigan P, 2005.
* “Mother Knows Best: Black Gay Vernacular and Transgressive Domestic Space.” Speaking in Queer Tongues: Gay Language Without Gay English? William L. Leap & Tom Boellstorff. Eds. Champagne: U of Illinois P, 2004.
* “Specter of the Black Fag: Parody, Blackness, & Homo/Heterosexual B(r)others.” Queering Communication: Theory, Research, and Interventions. Ed. Gust A. Yep. Binghamton, New York: Haworth Press, 2003. [reprint]
* “Feeling the Spirit in the Dark: Expanding Notions of the Sacred in the African American Gay Community.” The Greatest Taboo: Homosexuality in Black Communities. Delroy Constantine-Simms. Ed. Boston: Alyson Press, 2001: 88-109. [reprint]