Archival Pleasures — Dr Ajamu X

Dr Ajamu X explores taking responsibility for what we create, and the punk-radical necessity of tending to archives that reflect and honour the complex and pleasureful lives of queer Black folk—now and in the so-called past.

Regular Listeners have access to the full and ad-free conversation on Busy Being Black’s Patreon.

This conversation was recorded at the 2025 Kinfolk Convening in Manchester.

‘I think we have a reluctance to talk about pleasure for pleasure’s sake; to validate it, we feel we have to attach it to something else like politics or sexuality. Sometimes it’s just the thing itself. There is a reluctance to talk about what makes us feel good—what we want done with our Black bodies, with our lovers or with our friends—[because] we live in a pleasure-phobic society.’

⁠Dr Ajamu X⁠ is a darkroom and fine art photographic artist, whose practice, aesthetics and theoretical provocations privilege sensuality, and the tactile, material elements of the photographic act. Ajamu’s work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Autograph ABP, Tate Britain, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

Busy Being Black’s theme music was created for the show by Lazarus Lynch and Joshua Pleeter. The oceanic cellos that open the show were created for Busy Being Black by Dylan Halverson.

Cover photo of Ajamu © 2024 Henry Mills

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