Archive
Essay
Toward an Abolitionist Archival Practice
Jul 11, 2023
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 […]
Read MoreChoice or Chance?
Aug 18, 2022
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 […]
Read MoreIntroductory Remarks to “Virgin Capital: Tami Navarro and Tamara K. Nopper in Conversation”
Dec 1, 2021
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, […]
Read MoreBroken Histories Are Never Permanent
Oct 1, 2019
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 […]
Read MoreBecause of Them, I Am Not Alone: Radical Black Women of Harlem
May 9, 2019
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 […]
Read MoreLetter to Zora Neale Hurston
Jan 4, 2017
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 […]
Read MoreBlack Escapism in Arthur Jafa's "Dreams are Colder than Death"
Oct 13, 2016
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 […]
Read MoreNext Saturday 2/27: Sustaining Harlem at #SF41
Feb 19, 2016
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 […]
Read MoreChe Gossett: Blackness, Animality, and the Unsovereign
Sep 9, 2015
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 […]
Read MoreRubbing Salt into the Wound: Added Injury to the 19th Century Irish Immigrant Experience
May 5, 2014
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 […]
Read MoreFilms, Media, and Politics: Their Influence on the Devaluation of Women’s Bodies
Dec 6, 2013
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 […]
Read MoreTo the Beat of My Own Drum: Why Gender Amplified Matters to Me
Jul 10, 2013
“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 […]
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