An examination of Spike Lee’s Chiraq, Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, and Kara Walker’s Sugar Baby reveals these artists turn to the classics to subvert patriarchal, heteronormative, and white supremacist definitions of gender and sexuality.

Tracey L. Walters is Associate Professor of Literature in the Department of Africana Studies at Stony Brook University where she also holds an affiliate appointment with the Department of English, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Cultural Analysis and Theory. Dr. Walters works in the areas Black Women’s Literature, Black British literature, and Pan African Literature.