with Carlos Motta, Pete Sigal, Noelle Deleon, Rebecca Teich

“What did they say?” Language is not always meant to be understood. Certain ways of speaking are intentionally coded, meanings are masked in public space and deciphered only by those in the know. For QueerWordPlay, artist Carlos Motta brought together scholar Pete Sigal, archivist and artist Noelle Deleon, and writer Rebecca Teich to discuss coded forms of communication used in different queer communities, from the pre-hispanic Náhuatl Florentine Codex to the House and Ballroom scene.

Alongside the conversation, Creative Time R&D Fellow artist Carlos Motta and collaborator Justin Linds released the QueerWordPlay poster, which highlighted languages, dialects, slang and coded gestures used by queer communities across geographies. Before the conversation, Albert Fox Cahn of Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) lead a Skill Share: How to Communicate Safely.