Random Thoughts: I came across a few articles and a video about how our brain sometimes prevents us from planning our futures because we do not see our future selves as us but as strangers. In NY Times article I read asked and answered, “Why does this matter? Because our connection to our future selves […]
Read More The My-Stery: Our Future Selves Are Strangers?“Narrow views of Blackness lead to a sometimes stalled consumption of challenging art and media.” – Dara M. Wilson While reading the Pitchfork feature on Janelle Monae, some of the issues concerning her art process and the reception of her art reminded me of the balancing act between black intellectuality and black physicality and the […]
Read More The My-Stery: Janelle Monae and the Struggle for Black Complexity in Mainstream MediaIf you know me, you know I like to watch channels like National Geographic, The Discovery Channel and The History Channel. And you know what’s interesting — when a channel that has shows that tend to stick to facts, does speculative specials, like what I saw on Sunday, Mermaids: The Body Found. The docufiction was […]
Read More The My-Stery: Mermaids (or Aquatic Apes?)…“The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling.” – Audre Lorde Quite a number of people within the past couple of weeks have basically told black women (and other women of color in general) […]
Read More The My-Stery: Honoring Black Women’s Voices, Bodies and SupernaturalnessI feel genuinely weakened and tired from the not guilty verdict given to the George Zimmerman case. I was not shocked by it, but it did feel like another painful smack in the face after you’ve already been beaten several times. During the whole trial, two quotations from Malcolm X came to mind: “If you […]
Read More The My-Stery: The Different American Realities We Have and Politics of Proof – RIP Trayvon Martin“The booty don’t lie” – Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu’s “Q.U.E.E.N.” “I’m wigglin’ my fanny, I’m raunchy dancing, I’m-a-doing it doing it” – Betty Davis’ “If I’m in Luck I Might Just Get Picked Up” “Free yaself gal, you got class and you got pride Come together cuz we strong and unified… Show it off […]
Read More The My-Stery: Dance Apocalyptic By Shaking Your Groove Thing!Several months ago, I wrote a post about the mask as technology, but after reading Louis Chude-Sokei’s essay about PT Barnum and Joice Heth, I want to think further about saying that the mask is technology, specifically in reference to German producer Frank Farian and the groups Boney M and Milli Vanilli. Most people know […]
Read More The My-Stery: Revisiting The Mask as TechnologyAs you may have heard, Rick Ross came out with the controversial line from his latest song, “U.O.E.N.O.” : “Put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” A few days later, he addressed the lyrics with an “apology” […]
Read More Black Girls/Black Women Are From the Future: Something Men Like Rick Ross Need to KnowWhen some think of the song “Lady Marmalade,” one of their first thoughts is that it is a song about a New Orleans prostitute. On the surface it may be, but the song is much more nuanced and has deeper meaning beyond that. Listening to the song, I realized how ambiguous it is. First, the […]
Read More Black Girls/Black Women Are From the Future: Thoughts on LaBelle and “Lady Marmalade”Angela Davis is more than an afro and if you think wearing an afro is radical and revolutionary enough, then you do not know much about Angela Davis’ life. Having grown up in Birmingham and knowing the girls who were murdered in the Birmingham church bombing, Davis seemed destined to want to make a change […]
Read More Black Girls/Black Women Are from the Future: Free Angela
Sherese Francis 