Celebrating Erotic Divinity: Liberating Black Bodies and Spirits

As part of the Department of Human Sexuality’s decennial celebration series, the virtual event "Celebrating Erotic Divinity: Liberating Black Bodies and Spirits" — organized in partnership with the Center for Black & Indigenous Praxis — offered a powerful and immersive exploration into the sacred dimensions of Black sexuality, embodiment, and liberation.

Allyship isn’t just reposting a quote. It’s bringing our names into the rooms we’re not in. It’s doing the internal work so you can stand with us in the external one.
Clarissa Francis (The Real Hot Girl Doc), Ph.D. ’21, Human Sexuality

In a world where Black bodies have long been silenced, hypersexualized, or erased, "Celebrating Erotic Divinity: Liberating Black Bodies and Spirits" created a sacred space to honor the divine eroticism that lives within them. Through a dynamic blend of embodied performances, reflective dialogue, and interactive exchange, the event uplifted erotic spirituality as a pathway toward personal and collective agency, healing, and transformation.

Event Highlights

The event began with a warm welcome and opening by CIIS representatives and the Department of Human Sexuality’s Black Studies Committee. Featured speaker and Human Sexuality alum Clarissa Francis, Ph.D. ’20 (known on social media as The Real Hot Girl Doc) then offered a thought-provoking keynote on eroticism, Black identity, and spiritual liberation. The celebration continued with performances by Goddess Jessi and Perle Noire that wove traditional dance and burlesque in an invocation of erotic divinity, followed by a dynamic panel discussion moderated by Bianca Laureano that included the performers and influential sex educators Marla Renee Stewart and tia marie. After the panel, event attendees engaged with the speakers and performers during an open Q&A session. The event closed with an invocation by Goddess Jessi, grounding the evening in collective empowerment.

When your lineage has been denied autonomy, reclaiming it through sensual performance becomes revolutionary.
Perle Noire

"Celebrating Erotic Divinity" invited participants to witness and celebrate Black eroticism as sacred, revolutionary, and deeply healing — offering an inspiring vision of liberation that centers pleasure, embodiment, and ancestral wisdom. 

The event also marks the beginning of a yearlong call to action to center Black sexuality in scholarship, community work, and activism. “This systemic neglect has had profound consequences: it has shaped whose voices are heard in research, whose experiences are validated in education, and whose realities inform the knowledge we produce,” shared Human Sexuality Chair and Professor Michelle Marzullo during the event. The Department of Human Sexuality is committed to confronting this erasure and ensuring that Black sexuality is not marginalized but centered in our ongoing work.

Moving forward, the Department of Human Sexuality invites you to be part of this transformation — participating in multiple events planned for 2025-26 and collectively envisioning a long-term framework for Black-centered programming. Take a few minutes to share your thoughts, ideas, and ways you’d like to participate in the next phase of this work:

Help us shape the future of Black sexuality in scholarship and activism