Every day I walk or drive through historic Black neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia where upwards of 50% of residential properties are vacant, abandoned and sometimes burned down (but not demolished). I see empty buildings that used to be schools, recreation centers, community centers, and businesses. I see extraordinary flooding each time it rains; rushing water […]
Category: Feminism
Black Queer Trouble in Literature, Life, and the Age of OBama: Part II
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 Scenes of black queer and feminist resistance; or “forced confinement and forced mobility” Recently I said the following at a “Symposium: Black Women’s Studies and the Transformation of […]
Black Queer Trouble in Literature, Life, and the Age of OBama: Part I
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 […]
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 […]
(Black First) Ladies First
I’ve been reflecting, this week, on black first ladies. FLOTUS Michelle Obama seems like an anomaly but black first ladies are commonplace in black communities. While Obama is the first black lady of the White House there have always been black first ladies of black churches. The wives of preachers, these big hat wearing, first […]
Interview with Kiini Ibura Salaam and Chesya Burke
CFs Sheridf and Crunkadelic had the honor of interviewing two awesome speculative fiction authors, the fabulous Kiini Ibura Salaam (author of Ancient, Ancient) and Chesya Burke (author of Let’s Play White). We talk feminism, Afrofuturism, and so much more. Check out the interview below. Kiini and Chesya will be reading from their works at […]
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 […]
Mama’s Feminism
I don’t have a lot of feminist friends, at least not the kind that self-identify as such. My non-academic friends don’t see themselves as feminists, don’t call themselves feminist, don’t all the way understand my relationship with the term. They spend a lot of time trying to resist myths around being black and a woman […]
On Leaving The CFC
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. – Martin Luther King Jr. One of my main growing edges as a person is being a recovering people pleaser. Blame it on being an only child, a lonely extrovert without lots of peers to play with, […]
lovers rock: the crunk feminist summer mixtape series
I refuse to cede this summer to cruelty. I have rubbed the roof of my mouth raw with pomegranate hard candies. I have learned how to take rapid-fire selfies at flattering angles. Underwhelmed by artisanal popsicles, politics and my own work ethic, I have brooded. At my best I have ridden the 2 train through […]