EVERYDAY
BLACK 
MATTER

DR. CHAZ ANTOINE BARRACKS (he/they)

 Chaz A. Barracks, PhD (he/they) is a mixed-media interdisciplinary scholar, filmmaker, podcast host, and current postdoctoral fellow. He teaches courses on Black popular culture and the politics of Black joy through critical media practice. Dr. Barracks writes on the politics of deviance in everyday Black life and wrote and directed Everyday Black Matter, a 2020 film project based in Richmond, Virginia. His research and creative practice are invested in interdisciplinary approaches that center epistemologies of Black joy and refusal, employing storytelling as a method to bridge knowledge gaps relevant to the study of Black queer life in America.






      Artist–scholar working across film, oral history, and sonic practice to make Black queer life and everyday Black joy legible as theory—and accessible beyond the academy. 
      Available for: speaking + guest teaching · screenings + talkbacks · workshops · DJ sets + artist talks 
      Contact


    Work

    Film + Visual Media

    Narrative and experimental filmmaking, documentary visuals, and exhibition-oriented media projects.

    Oral History + Public Scholarship

    Interview-based work and community-centered archives that translate scholarship into usable public knowledge.

    Sonic Practice (DJ)

    DJ sets and sonic programming that treat sound as a mode of cultural criticism—centering Black femme lineages, deviance, pleasure, and refusal.

    Highlights


    Audacity of Pleasure
    Featured author and presenter at the 2025 audacity of pleasure: race, aesthetics, and the politics of desire symposium.

    Mic on a Bike     
    Experimental oral-history storytelling project developed during summer residency at Center for the Arts Homer. Read more: Syracuse University Today, Cortland Standard

    A Gaze on Black Joy: Everyday Black Matter and Con-Artistry Theory     a Theory of con-artistry as a queer practice of Black joy that claims relational and material abundance in the face of tropes of deviance and conditions of austerity. Essay in liquid blackness (Duke University Press). 

    Full Set: A Celebration of Miami Nail Artistry
    Co-directed + led videography for documentary, visual contributions.  

    Detroit Talking Dolls / The Potluck
    Participating artist in community-based art and gathering practice.

    Everyday Black Matter
    Film / visual project exploring Black joy as practice. Read more: Imagining America, Style Weekly’s 40 under 40, film syllabus.

    DONT TOUCH MY HAIR RVA
    Short film centering Black hair narratives as cultural theory. Watch film, talkback. 

    Teaching


    My teaching translates critical media studies into hands-on practice: reading closely, listening carefully, making thoughtfully, and building rigorous stories from everyday life. Students learn how media produces culture—and how culture, identity, and power circulate through images, sound, and archives.

    Courses taught

    Media, Culture, Identity — key frameworks in media studies; culture, identity, and representation.
    Black Joy, Aesthetics, and Critical Media Studies — Black joy studies, visual culture, and critical media practice.
    Oral History— interview ethics, archival methods, and public-facing storytelling.
    Black Digital Commons — Black feminist and Black queer approaches to digital culture, refusal, and counter-archives.

    Themes

    Black popular culture · critical media practice · oral history methods · digital humanities · sound + storytelling · Black queer/feminist theory

    Booking / Contact

    For invitations, bookings, collaborations, or course visits, contact:

    everydayblackmatter@gmail.com  
    Based in: Richmond, VA (travel available)

    Common formats

    • Screening + talkback (45–90 min)
    • Guest lecture or seminar (60–90 min)
    • Workshop: oral history, digital storytelling, or multimodal research (2–3 hrs)
    • DJ set + artist talk (60–120 min)

    Selected Links

    • Film trailer / video portfolio
    • Podcast
    • SoundCloud / mixes
    • CV (.pdf)
    • Instagram