Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the unfinished journeys of hope(s) through an analysis of interviews conducted with black queer urban youth in Johannesburg. It shows how black queer urban youth in Johannesburg inhabit the city physically, and how their experiences of the city are informed by multiple presences

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at the unfinished journeys of hopes through an analysis of interviews conducted with black queer urban youth living in Johannesburg. The paper uses translocality and affect theories to show how black queer urban youth living in Johannesburg inhabit the city physically, and how their experiences of the city are informed by multiple presences. The paper argues that the interviewed participants do not necessarily explain or understand their existence across the city solely based on tangible characteristics such as the materiality of space, but also through a variety of affects. These affects include feeling joy, sadness, wanted, unwanted, hopeful, resilient or inspired, among a whole array of other feelings. All these feelings have an impact on how participants experience present home(s), hope(s) and their imaginations for the future. The paper also acknowledges the existence of liminality, suspension and waiting in quotidian accounts of selected black queer people in the city. These dynamics are much more prevalent among trans youth.