ABSTRACT
Benjamin takes inspiration from Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad and uses a PowerPoint presentation to capture the story of Rex, who served two terms as the Persimmon Marching Band’s Drum Major. Rex’s story is structured as an orientation session for prospective (queer) band members who may question how they may locate inclusion on the campus of an institution as large as Persimmon. More specifically, Rex helps navigate how queerness may flourish within the unlikeliest of places (a rigidly traditional marching band) and how queerness may flourish within academic work. Rex’s chapter visually disrupts the manner by which ethnographers translate the stories they receive from complicated, exuberant participants; thus, the chapter serves as a model for creative tale writing within the ethnographic tradition.
