(This entry combines a previous entry, dated March 14, 2011, with a new reflection). Saying No It took me years to unlearn the habit of saying yes automatically when someone asked me for (or to do) something. So often had that single syllable fallen from my tongue that I would often agree to things before […]
Striking Teachers are Also Parents
After a civil and frank discussion, the House of Delegates voted NOT to suspend the strike, but to allow two more days for delegates to take the information back to the picket lines and hold discussions with the union’s more than 26,000 members throughout Chicago. Teachers and school staff will return to the picket lines […]
Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake!: Let’s Take 2Chainz to School
At the Crunk Feminist Collective, there are educators among us who teach in unsafe classrooms, around uncomfortable kitchen tables, in crumbling youth centers, and between warring crowds on police-barricaded streets. We teach because we believe that offering a lens and the language to critically engage the world are fundamental to changing the world. It seems […]
Starting With A Guide: New models of collaborative scholarship
Back in July, I attended nerd camp, THATCamp CHNM. I learned about the visualization tool Viewshare, created by the Library of Congress. I’m happy to announce the launch of Dr. Stephanie Evans’ “SWAG Diplomacy,” a project I helped her build in Viewshare. SWAG Diplomacy, as described by Dr. Evans, “maps locations of 200 African American autobiographers […]
Throwback Thursday: In the Meantime–Some Thoughts on Voting
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a progressive in a political world that mostly recognizes the binary of Republican and Democrat. Now that the Democratic National Convention is in full swing–especially after rousing speeches by First Lady Michelle Obama and former president Bill Clinton–the questions concerning the role of those […]
At the Risk of Sounding Angry: On Melissa Harris-Perry’s Eloquent Rage
The internets were all abuzz over the weekend sharing clips of our collective Black feminist shero Melissa Harris-Perry’s Saturday morning show. During the show, she lost her cool with panelist Monica Mehta, a conservative financial expert, who represented every unthoughtful mythic thing that I’ve come to believe a person has to believe in order to […]
Throwback Thursday: Back-to-School Beatitudes–10 Academic Survival Tips
Update, August 2012 Next week, my full time grind starts again, after a year of being on fellowship, which allowed me the time to think, read and begin the process of writing my first book. I’m grateful for the time. It has been a year of re-learning old lessons, numbers 1, 2, 4, and 5 […]
Memories, survival and safety
TRIGGER WARNING This post contains information about sexual violence that may be triggering to survivors. I know if feels like I been gone for a minute but now I’m back, green tea on ice with a fitted. 🙂 Mi familia, it has been a while since I last posted. I have to be honest, for […]
Claressa Explains It All
I’ve always been ambivalent and maybe even a little skittish about sports. They seem violent and remind me of The Hunger Games, particularly with the amount of POC presence and the injuries athletes incur. I wasn’t invested in the Olympics until my tumblr friends started pointing out the racism, sexism and nationalism in NBC’s coverage […]
Throwback Thursday: no strings
In as many days I have had conversations with two homegirls who are negotiating the complications of no-strings-turned-tangled situations with could-be, should be, damn near would be lovers. Sex is serious business. Because while everybody should be able to get their physical needs met, there are other, more complicated and tangled needs wrapped up somewhere between tight thighs […]