Jina’s Uprising: A Feminist Look at Two Years of Struggle and Resistance, Developments and Dynamics
On the second anniversary of the “woman, life, freedom” uprising, Feminists for Jina, a transnational Iranian feminist network, held a panel discussion reflecting on the lessons and lasting impacts of this unprecedented, mass feminist revolt. While the events that precipitated the uprising are well known outside Iran, they nonetheless bear repeating because they crystallize the […]
A View from Public Housing: Resident Histories, Perspectives and Hope
A View from Public Housing: Resident Histories, Perspectives and Hope When I was growing up there, we were proud to live in public housing. It was a great place to live. You got to really see a lot of family, community, playgrounds. It was so close to schools. Public housing is no different than […]
Toward an Abolitionist Archival Practice
It was a fall day in September 2021. I was in Barnard College’s library sort of doing homework in my favorite green chair, when my phone buzzed with an email that piqued my interest. The email said that archivists at Barnard had just returned from a trip to New Jersey with a car full of […]
Choice or Chance?
Driving is a form of intimate service work and reproductive labor that extracts the liveliness of drivers for the benefit of the passengers who become consumers of their labor. Even more importantly, this labor is ultimately accumulated as national and corporate wealth, under historical regimes of gender, race, class, nation, work and ableism. Spent Behind […]
Introductory Remarks to “Virgin Capital: Tami Navarro and Tamara K. Nopper in Conversation”
In A Burst of Light and Other Essays, an account of her living with cancer, Audre Lorde concludes the epilogue with, “I work, I love, I rest, I see and learn. And I report. These are my givens. Not sureties, but a firm belief that whether or not living them with joy prolongs my life, […]
Broken Histories Are Never Permanent
History classes have been a struggle for me. Growing up, I was required to read textbooks dominated by a white narrative, and regurgitate “facts” that did not sit right in my mind. I recall how in fifth and eighth grades, whenever my teachers taught the class about African slave revolts, they focused on how many […]
Because of Them, I Am Not Alone: Radical Black Women of Harlem
A particularly evil thing about racism is its ability to make Black women feel alone. For my whole life I’ve been taught that I’m alone, that I will be one of the first or one of the only, that Black people haven’t existed in the places that I exist, but it’s all a lie. There […]
Letter to Zora Neale Hurston
Dear Zora, At twenty-one, by back is already perpetually sore. Every bend, twist, and turn ignites a dull pain deep in my bones. I have lived with this pain for a while now. Each year it has grown in intensity, reaching a new dimension, developing a new expression. I imagine a hole being dug at […]
Black Escapism in Arthur Jafa's "Dreams are Colder than Death"
The escape artist flashed by on a metallic blue motorcycle, pursued by a blur of pulsing red and blue lights. Drawn together by a sentiment exceeding mutual compassion, the sidewalk spectators stood inert, breaths and bodies taut with anticipation. For a moment, parts of us took flight alongside the fugitive, our lives reaching beyond the […]
Next Saturday 2/27: Sustaining Harlem at #SF41
On Saturday, February 27, 2015, join Pat Cruz, Thelma Golden, Virginia Johnson, and Sade Lythcott on “Sustaining Harlem: Art, Community Activism, and Black Women’s Leadership.” Each of these visionary black women has made significant contributions to sustaining Harlem through their leadership in its signature arts institutions. They will offer their perspectives on what it means to work […]
Che Gossett: Blackness, Animality, and the Unsovereign
In “Blackness, Animality, and the Unsovereign,” a recent essay published to the VersoBooks Blog, BCRW’s very own Che Gossett explores the connection between “Blackness and animalization,” arguing that racialization is often enacted as animalization. Che, in engaging the writings of Toni Morrison, Frederick Douglass, Frantz Fanon, Mel Chen and more, proposes an expanded understanding of abolitionism that considers Blackness in […]
Rubbing Salt into the Wound: Added Injury to the 19th Century Irish Immigrant Experience
The 19th century was an unforgiving period for Irish immigrants living in the United States. They faced persecution, poor job prospects, and unfavorable living conditions. Because Irish immigrants often came to industrial cities from rural, uneducated areas, they were only able to work low-skill jobs, which usually involved manual labor. The nature of these jobs caused […]
Films, Media, and Politics: Their Influence on the Devaluation of Women’s Bodies
Through Women’s studies classes and popular Feminist blogs such as Jezebel, I have begun to grasp the extent to which women are defined by their bodies, for which they might be at various times either prized, marginalized or judged. I have also learned that critiques of the female body are not static but can vary based on […]
To the Beat of My Own Drum: Why Gender Amplified Matters to Me
“Is this a gift for someone?” I was posed this question by a sales associate at a music supply store in 2008, while looking to purchase some Vic Firth American Jazz Drumsticks at the recommendation of my drum teacher. At the time, I had been playing drums and percussion for six years and wanted to start playing […]
Engaging the Production of Violence
This post is part of a series of reflections on the interdisciplinary winter seminar, “Mumbai At Home and in the World: Gender, Sexuality and the Postcolonial City.” BCRW Associate Director Catherine Sameh introduced the seminar in part 1, BCRW Research Assistant Nicci Yin reflected on occupying space in an urban environment in part 2, and Liz Gipson […]
An Open Letter to Caribbean Men on Gender-based Violence
Originally published by International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region at http://www.ippfwhr.org/en/blog/open-letter-caribbean-men-gender-based-violence Dear Caribbean Men, We do not have to smile for you. Our smiles are our own. Our lips are our own and our smiles are a celebration of our happiness. We do not have to smile on command. We are not pretty, little, Black dolls […]
The Wild, Wild West
When I offer the introduction: “I’m from North Dakota,” the usual answer is a snarky/incredulous, “People live there?” Well, I am standing before you, and I wasn’t exactly raised by buffalo, although that would be fun. I understand the reaction, and I don’t begrudge the occasional comparison to Siberia, because, in the scheme of the lives […]
Occupying Space: A Transnational Feminist Dialogue
As a student of gender studies, a feminist, and someone who spent most of her life outside of the US, I wanted to be a part of the Mumbai seminar for the ways in which it brought my academic interests–feminism, postcolonialism, performance, transnationalism, etc.–into the context of a global South Asian city, somewhere that is “not-US”. I […]
I Am a Complicated Feminist Latina, Ending Violence
Originally published by International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region at http://www.ippfwhr.org/en/blog/i-am-complicated-latina-feminist-ending-violence Last month after a dinner, I was sitting in my friend’s car, and for the first time in our two-year relationship, we discussed our shared experience of growing up with abusive fathers and abused mothers who did nothing to save us. Recently, I’ve been making […]
Nora Connor in Guernica
It has been more than a decade since the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, conflicts that have raised complex questions about women’s roles in combat, the effects of military life on women soldiers, and the ongoing struggles of veterans returning home from war. Filmmaker and freelance journalist Nora Connor, who is currently teaching […]
Expanding the Scope of What Women Can Say
This post responds to several questions we sent filmmaker and psychologist Jan Haaken about her work. Professor Haaken will deliver BCRW’s Silver Fellowship Lecture on October 23rd, 2012, and will have a private educational screening of Mind Zone on October 24th, 2012, at Barnard – email bcrw@barmard.edu for details. On the Margins My clinical experience has been important in accessing and […]
Challenged to Change Ourselves
This post by Dr. Laura Brumberg is part of a series of reflections on the 37th annual Scholar & Feminist conference, held March 3rd, 2012 at Barnard College. This year’s theme was “Vulnerability: the Human and the Humanities.” At the lunchtime workshop on Environmental Justice, someone asked about how those of us living in less vulnerable […]
Before I was a Patient, I was a Person: On Navigating the Health Care System as a Singleton
This post by Rachel A. R. Bundang, PhD, is part of a series of reflections on the 37th annual Scholar & Feminist conference, held March 3rd, 2012 at Barnard College. This year’s theme was “Vulnerability: the Human and the Humanities.” Struggling with life-threatening illness and undergoing treatment for it is, undoubtedly, a prime situation of precarity: […]