Originally Delivered by Cheryl Clarke as the Kessler Lecture on Dec. 6, 2013 at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center Note: Elizabeth Lorde Rollins, my friend and sister, introduced me at the event. Thank you, Beth. Wonderful to see you again. We miss your Mother. In case I […]
Category: Activism
Fuck Sears, or When Mall Cops Attack
Any one that knows me, knows that I do not like the Internet. I just don’t trust it. Too much of our personal information is out there and it is completely out of our control. It took me years to get a smart phone because I thought that having a smart phone would jeopardize my […]
De-Tangling Racism: On White Women and Black Hair
Pictures from a new exhibit by photographer Endia Beal called “Can I Touch It?” showcase several white women, all corporate execs, who agreed to get a “Black hairstyle” and then have their portrait taken. Apparently, this very quotidian fixation with Black women’s bodies and Black women’s hair is now the stuff of art exhibits. This project […]
Loving Ourselves: The Case for Radical Empathy
It’s been a rough past few weeks, hasn’t it? Between the SCOTUS rulings, Zimmerman trial, another recent discovery of a serial killer who has targeted Black women, and the general tomfoolery of white supremacy experienced on a daily basis, it seems like we can’t catch a break. Certainly, it’s never easy to be a person […]
Reproductive Injustice and the ‘War on Women’ or, An Ode to the Intersections
These days, it’s hard to read something in regards to feminist activism without hearing the phrase “war on women.” Despite important and sharp critiques regarding the limitations of the phrase, it continues to hold cache as a means to characterize the depth and fortitude of the conservative legislative attack on women’s reproductive rights. This attack, as […]
this is how we do it: the crunk feminist summer mixtape series
Josephine Baker famously fled the U.S. for the reprieve from racism post World War I France provided. She called France her home for the rest of her life but continued to perform stateside. She also protested. She addressed the masses at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and juxtaposed the measure of […]
Happy Birthday Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson!
Guest Post by Reina Gossett A few months ago I took the PATH train to Hoboken with my artistic collaborator Sasha Wortzel to interview Randy Wicker for a film we are making about Sylvia Rivera. Randy is one of the few surviving members of Mattachine Society, an early queer radical organizing group in the US. […]
TODAY! Grassroots Fundraiser for Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition!
Earlier this week, CF Sheri wrote “Atlanta Harm Reduction: Prevention as First Response” to shine a light on the great work of the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC). Today, CFs EeshaP and Crunkadelic continue to lift up the AHRC that, like so many grassroots organizations doing direct service in our communities, is struggling with financial […]
always arriving: a black scholar’s mixtape
But we knew. And our knowing was like a sister’s embrace. Sonia Sanchez, “A Letter to Dr. Martin Luther King,” homegirls and handgrenades (1984) I first sat at the feet of Sonia Sanchez at Spelman College where I was assiduously loved and educated. Sanchez was invited by the Women’s Resource and Research Center to help […]
Atlanta Harm Reduction: Prevention as the First Response
Dear CFC Community, There are some places where people are warned never to go, known for violence, drug traffic, and poverty. For those who have not grown up in these environments we are taught to fear and/or condemn people who live there. This is not true of everyone. There are some s/heroes who “see the […]