The first time I “got my hair done” beyond school nights sitting between my mother’s cocoa butter legs while she combed through my hair with grease soaked fingertips, or Saturday morning hot comb rituals in front of the stove, was in the house kitchen of a church lady who did hair on the side. She […]
Tag: friendship
How to Lose A Friend in 10 Days
Day 1: Maintain a friendship with your childhood friend, despite the fact that you no longer live in the same state. Tell her you love her like family and that she is like a sister to you. Day 2: Like friends do, share your secrets and fears. At the moment, because you are both approaching […]
Tu(r)ning to Black Love
This past week, I found myself swept in an emotional whirlwind witnessing Whitney’s homegoing while remembering that she was not even in the ground before the Fox-affiliated shock jocks called her a babbling idiot, bag lady, and a crack ho that should have died years ago. From AM talk radio to morning cable television, a […]
Feminist Musings on Showing Up
It’s 11:30 PM. I have a baby with a cold. I have a looming, untouched exam prep list. I have a sink full of dishes. I have students writing me after 9:00 asking for “leeway” in tomorrow’s class. I have a headache. I have a backache. I have anxiety-induced insomnia. I have people. And when […]
Sex, Scripts, & Single Ladies
I’ll admit it. When VH1’s scripted dramedy Single Ladies premiered a few weeks ago I had very low expectations–so low, in fact, that I forgot it was even coming on that night. It wasn’t until I logged on to my Facebook and saw a bunch of statements like, “OMG!” “He said what?” “Stacey Dash is how […]
Nene vs. Star: Black Women & The Vulnerability of Anger
The first season of The Apprentice brought with it an impressive black woman (Omarosa Manigault) who deconstructed her brilliance to pacify an audience that seeks (if not requires) black women to fit a particular prototype on television. Omarosa embodied what Patricia Hill Collins would designate the black lady, a black woman whose intellect and success […]
How To Say No: The “B” side to Self-Care
(This post is in response to Life Is Not A Fairytale: Black Women and Depression, one of our earlier and most popular posts.) 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 […]
“We Created A Circle”: Reflections on the CFC Retreat
We began making plans for our first Crunk Feminist retreat months in advance. The first attempt, in May, failed because of an unexpected death in Brittney’s family. We initially planned a workshop-like gathering in Atlanta on Emory’s campus but the postponement, coupled with hectic schedules and life’s work, lasted one year. Our second attempt, scheduled […]