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Sacrificial Entrepreneurship: The Political Economy of Queer and Trans of Color Community Arts under Neoliberalism

ABSTRACT This ethnographic study considers the political economy of queer and trans of color community organizations in the context of urban neoliberal governance in Toronto, Canada. While state institutions promote entrepreneurship-based arts funding as a means of economic development, queer and trans of color grassroots initiatives engage with these institutions in ways that compel a reconsideration of the relationship between entrepreneurship and neoliberalism. I propose the concept sacrificial entrepreneurship to identify how the disruption of the neoliberal incitement to personal gain by sacrificing one’s economic well-being is patterned along lines of race, gender and sexuality. Focusing on Unapologetic Burlesque, a queer anti-racist community performance initiative, I show how queer and trans of color grassroots initiatives in Toronto take public resources intended to promote individual profit-making to create minoritized spaces of belonging. Through sacrificial entrepreneurship queer and trans of color subjects simultaneously collude and oppose the unfolding of neoliberal state initiatives.