Work

About the Work:

Dr. Alan Pelaez Lopez is a theorist, artist, and writer whose work investigates the realities of undocumented migrants in the United States, Black futures, and the complex kinship practices that transgender and nonbinary people build to speak back to power. In their essays and cultural criticism, Pelaez Lopez attends to the nuances of the Black condition in Latin America and the Caribbean. Most known for their commentary on Latinidad, Pelaez Lopez’s social practice is invested in imagining worlds where cultural and ethnic identities of mestizaje are no longer weaponized to perpetuate anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, and anti-Asian racism in Latin American communities.

Sobre el trabajo:

Dre. Alan Pelaez Lopez es unx teóricx, artista y escritorx cuyo trabajo investiga las realidades de lxs inmigrantes indocumentados en los Estados Unidos, los futuros de las poblaciones afro/negras/cimarrones y las complejas prácticas de parentesco que construyen las personas trans y no binarias para responder al poder. En sus ensayos y crítica cultural, Pelaez Lopez atiende a los matices de la condición negra en América Latina y el Caribe. Más conocidx por su comentario sobre la latinidad, la práctica social de Pelaez Lopez se dedica a imaginar mundos donde las identidades culturales y étnicas del mestizaje ya no se utilizan como armas para perpetuar el racismo anti-negro, anti-indí­gena y anti-asiático en las comunidades latinoamericanas.


Selected Poems:

trans*imagination (print + online)
Women’s Studies Quarterly

Overalls (online)
Academy of American Poets

the afterlife of illegality (print + online)
Poetry Magazine

On the occasion that i die before i’m thirty (online)
Catapult

The Spine of Gorée Island (print)
Best New Poets 2019

Libelúlas (print)
The Georgia Review

A Daily Prayer (print + online)
Poetry Magazine

Zapotec Crossers (or, Haiku I Write Post-PTSD Nightmares) (print + online)
Poetry Magazine

Sick in “america” (print + online)
Vinyl Poetry and Best American Experimental Writing 2020

Selected Cultural Criticism:

Black Latinx Actors Have Been Devalued by Hollywood. Where Do We Go From Here?
Teen Vogue

On “In the Heights,” Imagination, and When Latinidad Falls Apart
Teen Vogue

America (n): A Creation Myth
The Andy Warhol Museum

The X in “Latinx” is a Wound, Not a Trend
ColorBloq

Undocumented Artists Exist, But When Will We Center Their Narratives?
Medium

Orlando Massacre: It’s not safe to be a queer person of color in America
Splinter News / Fusion TV

Selected Essays:

As a Black Oaxacan, I Have No Choice But to Betray Mexican Nationalism
Refinery 29

What Having a Second Adolescence Means as a Black Trans Migrant
Refinery 29

The Riot Black and Indigenous Trans People Deserve
Autostraddle

Lessons from an Immigrant Rights Organizer: We Are Not Our ‘Productivity’
Rewire News

What HIV Testing is Like When You Are Queer, Black, and Undocumented
Black Girl Dangerous

Interviews with Artists:

Paola de la Calle’s Art Helps Us Imagine a Future Without Forced Migration
Refinery 29

Mabiland Makes R&B en Español for Black Queer Latines in Search of Freedom
Refinery 29

Live Interview: Indya Moore
Private Event, Night of Cultural Resistance 2021 (UC Berkeley)


Alan Pelaez Lopez is a former contributing writer at Everyday Feminism, you can read their columns here.