Girl Talk

Conceived as a performance for the camera, Girl Talk captures poet and theorist Fred Moten in a verdant garden donning an ornate velvet cape and crystal jewelry: what is generally coded as decidedly feminine attire. His body spins slowly, filling the frame with mesmerizing continuous motion. Ambient light at times diffuses his image to a rotating blur. He lip-syncs to a jazz rendition of the title song, Girl Talk, sung originally by Tony Bennett, a darling of 60s middle class white culture.