Performing Visibility: Freaknic and the Spatial Politics of Sexuality, Race, and Class in Atlanta

During the late 1990s, participants in Freaknic, the annual black college spring break gathering, were greeted by the Atlanta police in riot gear. Defying the police, women gave impromptu performances, sometimes stripping for participants' cameras. Thompson shows how these performances were a response not only to the city's treatment of Freaknic but also to Atlanta's long history of using force to control race, gender, and class.