Elondust Patrick Johnson (born March 1, 1967) is an American academic scholar and aritist best known as the creator of Quare theory.
After graduating from Hickory High School in 1985,[2] Johnson attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"Quare" signaled a significant departure from the lack of engagement with race and class by queer theorists and with gender and sexuality among black studies scholars.
His second book, Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South—An Oral History (2008), is an ethnographic oral history of the lives of black gay men in the US South, a traditionally uninterrogated region.
The text was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and features pieces by Amber Jamilla Musser, Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley, Jafari Sinclaire Allen, Lyndon Gill and Marlon M. Bailey.
Each script is accompanied by an interview and critical essay by scholars across a range of interdisciplinary fields.
In this text, Johnson employed similar methods (ethnographic oral history) as he did in Sweet Tea.
In 2010, in collaboration with Jane M. Saks, Columbia College and About Face Theatre Company in Chicago,[8][9] Johnson developed the show into full production called Sweet Tea—The Play.
After its Chicago debut, the show traveled to the Warfield Center (2010) in Austin, Texas; Signature Theater in Arlington, Virginia in 2011;[10][11] Dixon Place in New York City (2012); the Durham Arts Council (2014); Rites and Reasons Theater in Providence, Rhode Island (2014); Towne Street Theater in Hollywood, California (2015); Northwestern University's Wirtz Center (2015); and the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (2015).
Johnson won the Black Theater Alliance Bert Williams Award for Best Solo Performance for the show in 2010.
Johnson has served on tenure and promotion evaluations, completed administrative service for Northwestern, and served as an associate editor for publications including Text & Performance Quarterly, Sexualities, Cultural Studies, and Gay & Lesbian Quarterly.