17 May 2013
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help [...]
22 May 2013
By Elizabeth Dorssom I first started referring to myself as a feminist when I was 17. Even though I didn’t identify as a feminist until I was older I was definitely a feminist from a very young age. When I was in elementary school I enjoyed playing with Hot Wheels cars instead [...]
20 May 2013
By Molly Baker On April 23, University of Arizona student Dean Saxton, better known as Brother Dean, stood on a bench brandishing a sign that bluntly stated in bold, black letters “You Deserve Rape.” Saxton proceeded to verbally harass many women that walked by on their way to class, calling them [...]
15 May 2013
By Mohadesa Najumi When I think about what modesty means in today’s political, cultural and religious environment, I am inclined to believe that the concept itself does not involve choice, or any dimension of freedom or independent thought. Rather, modesty constitutes a dictatorial concept forced upon women whether they agree [...]
7 May 2013
*Trigger warning* Sometimes I feel like the NRA is actively just trying to lose all the credibility it has left in this world. Just when you thought the NRA’s annual convention in Houston this weekend couldn’t draw any more negative attention, it goes out and casually promotes a company selling a product [...]
29 Mar 2013
By Monica Torres When I sign my name, it’s Monica, not Mónica. When I order pupusas at my favorite restaurant, the waiter will give my accent an approving nod, as if to say, you’re one of us. But it will only take a harder question for me to reveal the [...]
18 Mar 2013
By Alexa Lambertis At an early age, I was exposed to a woman who essentially changed my life. A sweet lady with a southern background, she was introduced to me as a family friend. I met her in her own home, where we would spend a majority of our time [...]
By Quincy Scott Jones Town and Country: A Review of Marci Blackman’s Tradition (Water Street Press, 2013) In the most brilliant crimes stories, the detective must travel, and hence guide the audience, from more familiar settings to enter hidden and hostile communities. Sherlock Holmes leaves the humdrum armchair to investigate the Red-Headed League. Easy Rawlins leaves his...
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by Gregory L. Caldwell and Omar Ricks Dear President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, At the risk of running afoul of the PATRIOT act, we declare that we still love and respect Assata Shakur no matter what you say. Black people are in a new nadir, and Assata Shakur comes out of...
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By Kelly Sharron and Abraham Weil Laura Briggs is the chair of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. We had the opportunity to speak with her about her latest book, Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption, an interdisciplinary text that analyzes transracial and transnational adoption,...
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By Leah Sicat March 31, 2013 Dear Sisters, I have learned, over time, that it’s a man’s world in which some men hate women, some women hate other women, and some women hate themselves. And, for every 365 affirmations, there are at least thousands of years of documents, wars, and industries bombarding the ether...
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Reflections Unheard: Black Women in Civil Rights is a feature-length documentary that focuses on black women’s marginalization between the Black Power and Feminist movements, as well as the resulting political mobilization of women of color. A large segment of this film focuses on former black women activists’ experiences with racism in the Feminist movement,...
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By Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Heather Laine Talley Perhaps in this twenty-four hour news cycle culture, the horrid sexist and racist sexualization of nine-year old Quvenzhané Wallis both at the Academy Awards and in Twittersphere is now old news. And maybe for her sake, it should be. White feminists’ silence in the face of...
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By Jill Di Donato Stoning the Devil, a recent collection of interconnected stories set in the United Arab Emirates by writer Garry Craig Powell, dismantles the stereotype of the passive Middle Eastern woman. In this authentic and vivid work of historical fiction, which was just nominated for the for the Frank O’Conor Award, don’t expect to read about...
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I want to begin this essay by declaring my stake and investment in the project of rearticulating and reframing narratives around Black female sexuality. I was born to a Black Puerto Rican American mother who birthed me at age 18. I was raised by my mother, grandmother, aunts, and my mother’s friends who had...
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By Tara L. Conley Dear Amanda. Resting uneasily in this contentious, but necessary space, I write this letter to you. Gloria Anzaldúa calls it a nepantla space of consciousness, one of which is characterized by discomfort; a ‘psychic and emotional borderland,’ a threshold space where transformation can occur. I also offer this letter with...
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By: Duane Bidwell In 1954, the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision made it clear that “separate” is not “equal” when it comes to the practice of the common good in the United States. Maybe it’s time to remind those who plan the annual Tet parade in Little Saigon. A few...
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17 May 2013
Assata do not dry like dissipated plums under castro’s bronzing sun you mural fortress you live memorial spirited artifice rouged sea salt that marinates america’s wound Assata you like stripped bone road unaware of which exit is free birth brown coagulated rhythm redefined reborn rumba queen Assata dusk breath [...]
16 May 2013
“Affirmation” by Assata Shakur* ___ I believe in living. I believe in the spectrum of Beta days and Gamma people. I believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs. And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts. And sprouts grow into trees. I believe in the magic [...]
16 May 2013
for Assata Amira Nakati Carter-Goff on her tenth birthday call down the name freedom call up the spirit of no matter what now call your shared name liberation veins steel will fierce focus shielding sacred smile laugh your own name radiant as cuba laugh your yawning name into language [...]
7 May 2013
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20 Apr 2013
The Guardian