BLACK QUEERS WRITING. Nuff Said.
ERIC DARNELL PRITCHARD
An Assistant Professor of English and the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Pritchard's greatest hits include not only what he's studying (who can argue with studying Black queerness?!?!), but in the breadth of his research. Informed not only by his PhD work, but backed up by his MA specialization in Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pritchard has penned some of the most important stuff in the field of comp-rhet I've had the pleasure of reading yet. His study on queer youth of color, which juxtaposes white queer outrage at dead white queer kids with the silence on dead and dying queer kids of color, highlights just how limited hegemonic discourses of "safety" in education are. Also writing about black men's feminisms and the TV hit Empire, Pritchard's work performs the same kind of exigency that is brought to the table by the Black queer ancestral repurposing of literacy that he we're reading about this week. His forthcoming book Fashioning Lives: Black Queers and the Politics of Literacy is under contract. You can (AND SHOULD) find a lot of his work over at academia.edu HERE. |
JANET MOCK
New York Times best selling author and host of MSNBC's weekly digital series So Popular, Janet writes and speaks about culture, identity, and the intersections between race, class, and queerness. Significantly for this class, her website describes Redefining Realness (her beautifully written memoir that launched much of her career) as "offering readers accessible language while imparting vital insight...". Because introducing her is best done by Janet herself, I encourage you to watch Janet at work below. The goal of So POPular! is to discuss the things you pretend you’re too smart to like in an effort to expand the idea of what is considered political and worthy of analysis. |
Mia McKenzie
Self-described "writer and scrappy, smart Philadelphian", Mia is the founder of Black queer website Black Girl Dangerous and author of the novel The Summer We Got Free, which won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. Mia's writing is super hot in queer women scenes that are not completely dominated by white queers (aka pleasant queer spaces); like Janet, Mia is an apartment-hold name for young queers of color because of the vast reach and depth of her blog and her other writings, which include publications in Colorlines and the Crunk Feminist Collective. "Literary, lyrical, and hella quirky" (is she does say so herself), Mia's articles frequently goes viral and are often the subject of hot debates taking place over hard ciders and "Her Story" binging sessions (or maybe that's just my life. But somehow I doubt it.)
Self-described "writer and scrappy, smart Philadelphian", Mia is the founder of Black queer website Black Girl Dangerous and author of the novel The Summer We Got Free, which won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. Mia's writing is super hot in queer women scenes that are not completely dominated by white queers (aka pleasant queer spaces); like Janet, Mia is an apartment-hold name for young queers of color because of the vast reach and depth of her blog and her other writings, which include publications in Colorlines and the Crunk Feminist Collective. "Literary, lyrical, and hella quirky" (is she does say so herself), Mia's articles frequently goes viral and are often the subject of hot debates taking place over hard ciders and "Her Story" binging sessions (or maybe that's just my life. But somehow I doubt it.)
So What's In The Anti-Capitalist Store for me This week?
To kick it off, Pritchard's gonna take us through a study that is LIFE GIVING. Yes, yes, it's written in Academic-ish, which is a sad, sad departure from most of what we've been purusing, but damn this article's important and makes me not be able to WAIT for his book. Why? Because I'm drenched in white privilege, sure, but most of my people aren't, and anyway, this stuff just makes SENSE to queermos. Basically, he lays it down about how Black queers have reshaped literacy so that not only survival, but thriving, too, is part of life in the otherwise soul-sucking world. Spanning his research from how Black queers -- who are never studied in terms of comp-rhet -- "repurpose literacy" to constitute themselves in everything from identity affirmation and love to community formation and self-care, Pritchard brings LIFE to academic research. Black queers -- and queers more broadly, I would argue -- already know that queers repurpose literacies to find our ancestry. But for Black queers, whose ancestry has been attacked so particularly under heterosexist white supremacy, this study (and his larger book project) is super validating. It tugs intimately at the question, "So if Black queers have to repurpose literacy to find ancestry... if they're re-purposing it... what is literacy's purpose and meaning in straight white contexts?" In other words:
If Black Queers are repurposing literacy (YESSSS) to survive and thrive, then what is hegemonic literacy to begin with? How does this help give clarity to what Black literacies are?
- me
AND THEN THERE SHALL BE A CHOICE.
to read janet or mia?
My advice? REFUSE TO CHOOSE. Or, if you must, choose this way (AND THEN READ THE OTHER BOOK LATER):
Janet's book is one of the most beautifully written things I've read. Her life narrative takes you everywhere from Hawaii (where she grew up) to an editorial desk at People.com. She busts apart the uncomplicated myth that trans kids are "coming out so early these days because of the internet" simply by writing her truth about transitioning in high school, giving a searingly real accounting of navigating life as a Black, trans young girl without money. If you're in the mood for a phenomenally penned memoir this week, do this.
Mia's book is a compilation of essays from Black Girl Dangerous, and most of them are searing, powerful accountings of Black queerness in a white supremacist country that hates Black queers even more than it hates Black cishets (which is... difficult to fathom). Ranging from telling you how NOT to "be" an "ally" (hint: IT'S A VERB, DAMNIT) to laying it down about how much more this damn country weeps over white blonde children being randomly shot in school but does not shed a single tear over Black and brown children (in this country and abroad) being systematically targeted for (mass) murder... Mia's work is a collection of hymns to Black love being more powerful than white hate. If you're in the mood for current politics and a series of short, online-esque pieces this week, do this.
BUT REALLY YOU SHOULD DO BOTH. Especially because JANET HAS BEEN BGD'S CRUSH OF THE MONTH.
Janet's book is one of the most beautifully written things I've read. Her life narrative takes you everywhere from Hawaii (where she grew up) to an editorial desk at People.com. She busts apart the uncomplicated myth that trans kids are "coming out so early these days because of the internet" simply by writing her truth about transitioning in high school, giving a searingly real accounting of navigating life as a Black, trans young girl without money. If you're in the mood for a phenomenally penned memoir this week, do this.
Mia's book is a compilation of essays from Black Girl Dangerous, and most of them are searing, powerful accountings of Black queerness in a white supremacist country that hates Black queers even more than it hates Black cishets (which is... difficult to fathom). Ranging from telling you how NOT to "be" an "ally" (hint: IT'S A VERB, DAMNIT) to laying it down about how much more this damn country weeps over white blonde children being randomly shot in school but does not shed a single tear over Black and brown children (in this country and abroad) being systematically targeted for (mass) murder... Mia's work is a collection of hymns to Black love being more powerful than white hate. If you're in the mood for current politics and a series of short, online-esque pieces this week, do this.
BUT REALLY YOU SHOULD DO BOTH. Especially because JANET HAS BEEN BGD'S CRUSH OF THE MONTH.
