MAKE STRAIGHT IN THE DESERT

Abstract

Make Straight in the Desert is both a collection of poetry and a poetry film that combines sociological perspectives with poetics to share a found relationship between the queer masculine experience and the beautiful violence of the Sonoran Desert. The primary inspiration behind this work is the idea of "doing gender," the notion that gender and sexuality are performances necessarily defined by acts and roles. Make Straight in the Desert twists this idea, poetically examining the ever-changing definitions of masculinity. Each poem takes inspiration from one of Arizona's "Five C's", cementing the collection in this sacred place. Born out of love and longing for the desert, the poetry that structures this project investigates the ways in which man has existed within, upon, and outside this ecosystem. By presenting a superimposition of body and land, the work disturbs and deconstructs the preconceived border between man and nature, positing the natural landscape as a queer body in itself. In doing so, it humanizes the Sonoran Desert--which is ever-presently facing drought, endangerment, and pollution due to rapid urbanization--while simultaneously criticizing the capitalist and colonial forces man still exerts upon it. The constant pulsating between liminal self, desert deified, and masculine ideal found across Make Straight in the Desert articulates that the natural is inherently queer.