KENNETH

Kenneth M Pass is an academic, intellectual, writer, and researcher raised in rural North Carolina. Kenneth began pursuing their Ph.D. in Sociology at Northwestern University in 2016. In summer 2019, Kenneth began a Predoctoral Fellowship in the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Broadly, their research has covered socially relevant topics, such as health inequalities, racial and sexual politics, scientific and technological innovation, social movements, and law. In addition to their research interests, Kenneth has been involved in numerous community and organizational efforts related to queer and racial social justice with keen attention on health and healing.

BUMMAH: Please give a brief introduction of yourself.

KENNETH: I am Kenneth. I am black, gay, non-binary, and I identify with, and am an ever-changing product of black southern culture and life. I am a PhD student which really means that I spend a lot of time cultivating my mind, my thoughts, and my intellect. I'm an introvert and I do my best to nourish my friendships with other black people.

BUMMAH: Where are you originally from?

KENNETH: Well, I was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I grew up the first 10 years of my life in Roxboro, North Carolina. Then I moved to Goldsboro, North Carolina. From there I went to Durham, North Carolina to go to boarding school. So North Carolina is where my roots are.

BUMMAH: What brought you to Chicago?

KENNETH: Well, there are a few more steps before I got to Chicago. I didn't go from North Carolina to Chicago. I went from North Carolina to Atlanta, to New York, to Michigan, to Kenya, back to Michigan, then to Chicago. So a few things brought me to Chicago, but the biggest thing was my Ph.D program at Northwestern. I moved here primarily for professional interests...I went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to get my Master of Public Health, which was a good step for me professionally and in my career and as I grow as an intellectual, but I despised Ann Arbor to the depth of my soul..it is hella white, in the worst kind of way. In the "we like our black people, but only in small bouts, and never too loud" [way]. And it seems to me that a lot of the black, queer people there are content with that.

Actually, one thing I was going to describe myself as was always becoming a whole person. That’s a big part of me, and showing up in the space whole. I didn't feel like I could do that all the time. It was a struggle to do that in Ann Arbor. I actually had gotten into two programs at University of Michigan-two good programs. Well, highly ranked, but I was like, “I can't live here,” because it was too isolating. I was like, “I'm gonna go crazy.” So I moved to Chicago for professional reasons, but also personal reasons. I have a good network of friends here, and community. And generally just more black folks to be around.

BUMMAH: Why was it important for you to also call out where you’ve lived in between your time in North Carolina and Chicago?

KENNETH: Where I've lived at is important. It's been Important for how I kind of come into my identity, come into myself...I went to Morehouse, that's why I lived in Atlanta for four years, and I would not have been the same person if I went to college in, North Carolina. I would've went to a state school and been...I just don't think I would have been the same person. I know I wouldn't have been the same person. Lord knows who...I'm actually scared about who the fuck I would have been like. Oh God.I don't know if I would've liked that person. Maybe I would have, but I don't know.

I think that going to Atlanta and finding a black queer community at Morehouse and in the Atlanta area, and being able to kind of grow into my identity as a non-binary person, as someone who's not invested in masculinity or femininity necessarily...Like that to me was very important. It was important to be in Atlanta.

And I named New York because that was a really good summer. I had a really good summer in New York. Mind you, I had visited New York for good chunks of time. But to live there for even just a summer where I was just doing an internship...it made me realize that post-college I could do this. When you're in college, I think you’re always kind of wondering to yourself if you can really do life. Like really do the adulting thing, and do it well. Then when you leave College you’re like, “Okay, can I do this? Can I like manage all this shit?” And I was like, “Bitch you doing it!” I was like, "Oh, wait.I can do this."

I'm in one of the cities that people say, you know, is tough to navigate through and I'm like, “I'm doing it well. I'm doing this!” I get up in the morning, get my little Dunkin [Donuts] coffee, go to my little internship, work through the day, and then leave. Go get me a little dinner, go home, eat...maybe watch some TV, maybe go out to see somebody, maybe not. But I had a routine, and I actually was making new friends and just living what I sought to be a really nice life...I was originally supposed to go to Columbia, but then I switch to go to Michigan. I thought, “Hmm, you know, if I did go to Columbia, I would live a nice little life here.” It was a good time.

Ann Arbor-I was there for two years, and that also taught me a lot about myself. It taught me about how to get through very isolating experiences. It taught me about how to deal with deep insecurities. Deep, not clinical depression, but sort of like depressive states. It taught me how to deal with those types of things, and my capacity to be alone. Because there were a lot of days where I would literally just be by myself and not have anybody. I mean besides talking to people on the phone, I was not really interacting like that with people. I really spent most of my day [alone], my second year less so, because I had gotten some more friends, black friends, while at Michigan...I was also traveling more to Chicago my second year. But that first year, it was just me and these cats...And I was barely having sex like that, because I've never in my life met so many black men who only sleep with other white and non-black people in my life. Except up here in Rogers Park. Ann Arbor taught me a lot about my capacity to be alone and to be okay with that. And be okay with sitting by myself and being with myself.

Then Kenya-I was there for another four month internship thing. And that, similar to New York, taught me about, “Oh Bitch, you could do this.” Like I done dropped down into a country I don't know shit about really, besides I know I got a job here. I did it, and I made it work. I made some good friends, and cultivated some good relationships, some not-so-good relationships as well. Now I'm here in Chicago, and this is home...More so than Ann Arbor. I've never really thought of Ann Arbor as home actually. I loved my apartment, but I never thought of it as like home. This is home to me-my apartment here, the life I've cultivated here. It feels more like home.

BUMMAH: How do you define home?

KENNETH: Where I feel very comfortable...Where I feel like my spirit, my body, and my mind align. Spirit, meaning where I feel my ancestors. I feel the spirit of my ancestors in a space, and I feel my culture in a space...When I left Atlanta, I almost cried. I was kinda like "Ooh, why am I getting emotional?" It's because I connected spiritually, emotionally, bodily, intellectually, and culturally to that space. The same with North Carolina. When I left North Carolina to go to Atlanta, I felt a little bit of me kind of get left behind.I was very deeply rooted in that space. The same with Atlanta, and New York even in that short span of time. I even think to some extent, Kenya.

BUMMAH: Have you formed any particular routines or habits living here? You talked about some in New York, and you kind of outlined your day. What does that look like for you here in Chicago?

KENNETH: I definitely focus a lot on spending time writing, like really trying to work writing into my daily habits and schedule. Not just thinking about ideas, but writing them down and making memos of what I think. And that has a lot to do with the job that I've taken on as a PhD student. As someone who wants to be in the academy, those are routines that I think sort of had to come...I don't know if they would have been different if I would have stayed in Ann Arbor versus here, because those are things I need to be doing period, as an academic.

Things that may be more specific to Chicago-she loves a good Marshalls. She loves to go to Marshalls down the street. I love to be integrated into my neighborhood. I love to know what's going on, and know where things are, and how to get around without having to look at Google Maps. I like to just know where I'm at, and situate myself in a neighborhood...I do think that because Chicago is very neighborhood centric, it behooves you to sort of know about your neighborhood, the culture, its history. And I do try to do those things here.

Routines are definitely going to work, doing that. Going to class, doing that. I co-coordinate the Race and Society Workshop every two weeks on Monday. I try to go to the gym at least four times a week. Grocery shopping...I don't know. It's strange because I'm a sociologist, so I'm trying to think, "Am I thinking about my life sociologically? Am I thinking about it in terms of Society?” But I actually can't think about it like that right now. It's literally like this is just the boring shit I do..Actually one routine is I spend at least one day out of the week taking care of my home. And every day I take care of my plants and my cats. Like that's a daily thing.

Now it's not always like I'm always on top of it. There are days where I am not always on top of really paying attention to my cats and my plants, and taking care of them the way I need to be. But overall that actually is a routine. I'll Spritz my plants every day, make sure they have water. I got like seven of them up in this motherfucker now...I was kind of like, "Oh bitch, it's a little bit a lot!" I got like...nine of them up in here, and one of them is an Orchid. That motherfucker is temperamental. And then my two cats...so that is the daily routine of sort of taking care of those things, beings. And cleaning my house like at least once a week, like a deep cleaning. Washing clothes, sweeping, mopping, dusting, everything-really nourishing my space. I like that. It's not just cleaning, your nourishing the space.

BUMMAH: In which space do you feel the most alive?

KENNETH: I ain't gon’ say my bed, but Lord...I love my apartment. I'm interpreting most alive meaning my most self, or when I really feel like my complete self. My home is one of them, definitely. I love my home, I love my apartment, and I invest money, time, and energy into it. See, cause I learned this in Ann Arbor. That's why it's so important to name it. Because I learned that if I'm not going to be able to have space outside of my home, I have to be able to cultivate it within. Like how am I shaping the space, shaping my home, or the place that I live to be a home?

I think I've just been very much invested in that, which is why I love to buy plants. I love to paint the walls, buy artwork, buy new furniture, buy pillows and throws. Really think about how I'm cultivating the space and nourishing it, because my home is where I really become who I really am. It's where I let my full self out.The crazy, and the good, and all.

And then the other places I think where I come really alive are the gym and therapy...Gym, because that's a place where I get to come to connect with my body. Therapy, because I can connect with my mind...Because it's another way of connecting with myself and nourishing myself.

BUMMAH: Can you describe your work?

KENNETH: I study African American politics, specifically African American politics and the 21st century HIV crisis. I think as you know, and hopefully people who are ever listening to this should know that despite all the scientific and technological innovations that we've had in the HIV crisis since its beginning in 1981, black people have never fully realized the benefits of those innovations.

As a matter of fact in 1996 when antiretrovirals or HIV medicines were becoming more widely available, a year after, AIDS mortality dropped significantly for white Americans, whereas it only dropped by 2% for African-Americans. Meaning that even though these drugs are available to us or available to everybody, the benefit of them does not always manifest itself in our communities. So I study-how these scientific innovations shape and reshape the political landscape of HIV, and how African-Americans are negotiating within and navigating this landscape, as it changes with science.

The other intervention that I make is by focusing also on laws. To narrow the scope a little bit, I want to study the Ryan White CARE Act and it's legislative history, how it's changed with the science of the epidemic, and has shaped the political landscape of HIV. I also want to study this in the context of HIV criminal law, or laws that criminalize non-disclosure of HIV status, and how those change with science, and change science and politics. Finally, the Getting to Zero Policies, which are about local and state policy initiatives that are geared toward ending HIV infections and AIDS related mortality, AIDS related illnesses, AIDS related mortality in local jurisdictions.

BUMMAH: So one of the things I've always admired about you is your sense of agency around your body and how you navigate the world. Is that sense of agency important to your research? If so, how does it present itself in your research?

KENNETH: I think there's something to be said about how African-Americans navigate different types of Institutions like nonprofits, medical and clinical institutions, state and local public health institutions, criminal justice institutions...I think there's something to be said about how African-Americans are navigating these things, and trying to literally just survive, and thrive in the world. And as a black person in the world, I heavily identify with those struggles in various ways in my life (I'm keeping it very broad). So yeah, I show up in the work because I see myself in the work, in different sorts of ways.

There's this fascination in sociology about "me-search". I don't want to necessarily say this is me-search in a way, and even if it was, we can talk about whether or not that's an issue. I don't think so. But I don't think I'm doing research that's purely about me. I think it's more broadly about how African-Americans have always sought to survive. As a matter of fact, I actually identify this work within what Alondra Nelson, a sociologist, names as a black health tradition, which she calls a long protest in Black political culture of health advocacy that happens within our communities. And I see what happens in the HIV crisis, as a continuation of that tradition, of survival of protest, of wanting to make it in the world and be okay in the world, and dismantling the things that get in the way of us being able to. I mean given my own roots in organizing and shaking shit up, I see myself as a part of that.

BUMMAH: How do you want your work to impact black people?

KENNETH: If a black person was to pick up my book and read it, I would hope they'd have the same reaction I had to other works by black folks, that says, "oh, I see myself in this". Even if you're not living with HIV or doing work around HIV, I would hope that you would be able to just pick up that book and say, “This is telling me something about me as a black person.” I hope that people would pick up my work and say I see myself in it, I see my people in it, and I see our capacity and potential for good, bad, gray area, and nuance. I want black folks to see that. I have a really deep sense of ethics and care around that.

BUMMAH: How do you seek out and foster community?

KENNETH: I think this could probably transcend with people, and places, and just beings-you study them. I think a part of me being an introvert in some ways is that I spend a lot of time reflecting and studying. I know I'm going to sound creepy, but more like I just try to pay attention to people. Like really pay attention to people, places, and things. And learn how they operate, and not take that for granted. And be intentional about learning things. To be intentional also means you have to be be around something, or somebody, or [somewhere]. You have to be intentional about being in close proximity to it in some way, shape, or form. For me that is what fosters community-being intentional about studying and learning something in its entirety, in whole ways, and as especially as it changes. Because we all change people, places. We all change especially as these things change. Yeah. I think that is definitely how I foster community, especially if I think about like my journey.

BUMMAH: This past week you turned 27 and invited your friends into your home to celebrate with you. Why did you decide to have a party this year in particular?

KENNETH: This year I did decide to bring more people around, but generally I try to have somebody around me during my birthday. Because usually it's people who I sort of think of as having added to me. My birthday is not just a day to celebrate me. I think it is on one level,  but I spend a lot of time thinking about how I want to cultivate the space to also show thanks to the people who I love, and who love me, and helped me through the year. Sometimes life can be a moment where you're very alone, and you do have to do your own work around rooting yourself in yourself, and grounding yourself on your own terms. But life is also very much about the connections you make.

I mean I'm a sociologist so I study society and I do think that people do thrive on social interactions. Yeah, that's a thing. And I do think that for my friends they have been such-I have really good friends. How lucky am I to have such good friends. And my birthday is a day to celebrate them too, because they've helped me get around the Sun another year. So yeah, I like to bring it in with people I love, who love me.

This year I decided to just do more people, maybe next year I won't because there was a lot going on, and it was a little stressful at times. By the time everybody got out the house. I was tired as hell, and I took that makeup off, got out them goddamn heels and sat my ass down. But yeah, It was a good time and I generally like to do that. But maybe next year I'll do something different.

Kenneth decided to celebrate with a cake from Jennivee's Bakery in Chicago, owned by Jenne Vailoces, a proud trans Filipino woman.