Raising the Bottom by Alix Chapman

Description

A beat. A body. And a movement rising from the margins.

In Raising the Bottom, Alix Chapman dives into the vibrant, defiant world of bounce music and Black queer performance in post-Katrina New Orleans. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina—when displacement fractured communities and reshaped the city—Black queer artists emerged as powerful cultural anchors, redefining belonging, visibility, and survival.

Through performance ethnography that places the author both onstage and within the community, Chapman explores the lives and artistry of influential figures like Big Freedia and Vockah Redu, alongside the broader network of performers who transformed bounce into more than music—it became a call home.

At the heart of the book is the concept of an “epistemology of the bottom,” a radical framework that challenges hierarchies placing Black and queer bodies at society’s margins. Through this lens, Chapman reveals how bounce artists mobilize pleasure, performance, and collective energy to resist erasure, rebuild community, and reimagine power.

These performances are not just entertainment—they are acts of reclamation. Through sound, movement, and presence, artists remix stereotypes, redirect narratives, and create spaces where joy and resistance coexist.

Blending cultural analysis, lived experience, and academic insight, Raising the Bottom is both a scholarly work and a celebration of resilience. It captures how Black queer performers turn survival into art—and art into a force for transformation.

Book Details
Author: Alix Chapman
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 1478038616