Scene 1: Six of the eight members of the CFC gather in Atlanta, GA, birthplace of the collective. We are celebrating the launch of our book! We read selections from our book (available online and in fine independent bookstores everywhere) and chop it up with our local fam at Charis Books & More, North America’s […]
Category: Sports
Black Girl Is a Verb: A New American Grammar Book
In her famous essay, “Interstices: A Small Drama of Words,” the venerable literary critic Hortense Spillers wrote, “Black women are the beached whales of the sexual universe, unvoiced, misseen, not doing, awaiting their verb.” At the time, Spillers was talking about the lack of texts about Black women’s sexuality and the lack of a collectively-honed […]
No (dis)Grace: Cam Newton and the Emotional Labor of Blackness
The Panthers lost the Super Bowl. Peyton Manning won his second ring on the backs of a Denver Defense that ain’t nothing nice. Cam Newton didn’t shine, didn’t get to dab, didn’t ever seem to fall into the rhythm fans have become accustomed to this season. He wasn’t playing with the joy and jubilant energy […]
Newtonism: Notes on Cool Masculinity and the Fear of Black Genius
“I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.” –Huey Newton It is the Friday before the Super Bowl and for the last two weeks there has been much ado about the anticipated performance of frontrunner for the league MVP, and star quarterback of the Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton. And […]
What Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman Teach Us About Respectability & Black Masculinity
Like 114.5 million other folk, I was watching the Super Bowl on Sunday night, the most watched show in U.S. TV history (shouts out to Missy Elliott’s halftime performance, yes gawd!). As a Carolina Panther fan I was not terribly invested in the outcome, but I was low key rooting for the Seahawks 1) because […]