In this short critical performative and poetic response to the 2025 Autoethnography Special Interest Group (SIG) session at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI), the author draws meaning and value from the offerings of four presenters. The author narrates the importance of the panel to both the theme of the SIG and the overall ICQI, further building a theory on the resonance of audience response in autoethnographic performance as activist affect. The author concludes by linking the notion of risky business and uncertain futures in the theme of the SIG—to the 2025 immigration and deportation raids in the city of Los Angeles, CA authorized by President Donald J. Trump.
AlexanderB. K. (2000). Skin flint (or the garbage man’s kid): A generative autobiographical performance based on tami spry’s ‘tattoo stories’. Text and Performance Quarterly, 20(1), 97–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/10462930009366286
4.
AlexanderB. K. (2011). “Troping a dope: A critical performative response to kashif powell’s ‘jena six project,’” performance review. Text and Performance Quarterly, 31(1), 97–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/10462937.2010.529928
5.
AlexanderB. K. (2012). Archiving performance/performance as archive: A hybrid book review and performance commentary on E. Patrick johnson’s sweet tea. Text and Performance Quarterly, 32(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/10462937.2012.691294
6.
AlexanderB. K. (2013). Performing passing and passing as performance: On nancy cheryl davis-bellamy’s, ‘passing oolo,’ based on nella larsen’s novel, passing. In JohnsonE. P.Rivera-ServeraR. (Eds.), Solo/Black/Woman: Scripts, interviews, and essays (pp. 113–126). Northwestern University Press.
7.
AlexanderB. K. (2021). ‘I thought I knew you, two’: A performative response to norman denzin and tami spry’s, ‘wild west show’ at ICQI 2018. International Review of Qualitative Research, 14(2), 221–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940844720978755
8.
AlexanderB. K. (2022). Still spellbound: A critical performative response to ‘STILL pOINT’ by elyse pineau. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 18(2), 1–10. https://liminalities.net/18-2/
9.
AlexanderB. K.WeemsM. E. (2022). Collaborative spirit-writing: Performance in everyday Black lives. Routledge.
10.
ChangH.NgunjiriF. W.HernandezK. C. (2013). Collaborative autoethnography. Left Coast Press.
11.
de CerteauM. (2011). The practice of everyday life. In RendallS. F. (Ed.), (3rd ed.). University of California Press. Trans.
12.
DenisonJ. (2010). Messy texts. Or the Unexplainable Performance: Reading bodies' evidence, International Review of Qualitative Inquiry, 3(1), 149–160. https://doi.org/10.1525/irqr.2010.3.1.149
13.
GaleK.PeliasR. J.RussellL.SpryT.WyattJ. (2012). How writing touches: An intimate scholarly collaboration. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
14.
GaleK.WyattJ. (2009). Between the two: A nomadic inquiry into collaborative writing and subjectivity. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
JonesS. H.HarrisD. X. (2021). Queering movements, activist affect, and collective autoethnography. International Review of Qualitative Research, 14(2), 250–257. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940844720978775
17.
LapadatJ. C. (2024). Collaborative autoethnography: An ethical approach to inquiry that makes a difference. In DenzinN. K.GiardinaM. D. (Eds.), Qualitative inquiry in transition—pasts, presents, & futures: A critical reader (pp. 269–283). Routledge.
MuñozJ. E. (2006). Stages: Queers, punks, and the utopian performance. In MadisonD. S.HameraJ. (Eds.), The Handbook of performance studies (pp. 9–20). Sage.
20.
PoulosC. N. (2018). Accidental ethnography: An inquiry into family secrecy. Routledge.
21.
PoulosC. N. (2021). Essentials of autoethnography. American Psychological Association.
22.
WyattJ.Ken GaleK.GannonS.DaviesB. (2011). Deleuze & collaborative writing: An immanent place of composition. Peter Lang.
