14 Jun 2013
Mark Anthony Neal is a professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African & African-American Studies at Duke University. Dr. Neal received his PhD in American Studies from University of Buffalo. He is the author of five books, including the recently published Looking for Leroy: Looking For Leroy: [...]
9 Jun 2013
By Mohadesa Najumi Many people object to the phrase “rape culture.” They don’t understand how a culture as civilized as ours can be defined by a force as destructive as rape. They deem it an overstatement, an “over-analysis” by angry bra-burning feminists. Some even consider it an oxymoron. And others [...]
5 Jun 2013
By Bruna Lobato In my first creative writing class as a Brazilian international student at a private American college I received my fiction assignment back with comments and a tall slender “A” written in green ink. I was glad to see validation that I, a non-native speaker, could write well [...]
3 Jun 2013
By Ashley Yenick Do millennials know of any famous feminists in our society? There are many feminists mentioned in this video: bell hooks, Audrey Lorde, Peggy McIntosh, Susan B. Anthony, Gloria Steinem, and Michelle Obama. I was intrigued to hear that Michelle Obama was considered a feminist. I think the interviewee’s [...]
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 John Murillo III Meditations on African performance and subjectivity are always already spoken by this grammar and haunted by these ghosts. For whatever ‘Africa’ means when spoken by Africans, whatever it means in the moment of performance, that cannot change Africa’s paradigmatic relation to other place-names and the people of those places. Performance cannot reconcile this gap between the place of slaves and the places of all...
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By Tarfia Faizullah Aubade: Doctor’s Appointment In the longspun morning I go to return my body to itself to open it wide to hands clasped in prayer inside me Father you sleep in Texas sleep behind the steering wheel you sleep we sleep behind you on navy seats two sisters mouths open like dawn now I open my thighs let them fall to the sides, the white coat...
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As Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency in 2008, critics charged that he was not “black” enough – that is, that his ancestry did not lead back to US slavery. As the son of a Kenyan man and white American woman, he was assumed to know little about black American lives. But now it appears that our president does have at least one slave ancestor…on his mother’s side. Yes,...
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By Janaka B. Lewis Academia is thought to be one of the lonelier career homes for African Americans. We go into graduate programs where we are often one of few African Americans (depending on the field), and many of us continue on to institutions where the same is the case. We are expected, in many cases, to toil alone and additionally deal with perceptions that come with being the...
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By Dana Olwan and Sophia Azeb For too long, Muslim feminists have endured the question of whether Islam and feminism can coexist. This seemingly innocent question, asked on the part of concerned feminists and others, presumes (and sometimes even enshrines) the claim of Islam’s incongruity with feminism. The underlying assumptions that frame this tired debate are often articulated in this way: Can religious practice, which often hinges on patriarchal...
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By Amal Rana “how come you don’t cover your hair?” my breath punches out of me in one big gasp as I pretend not to hear her “so how come you don’t cover your hair like all the women in your country?” she asks me again persistent, insistent, she is unaware that there is any problem with her question I am slow to answer trying to sort out what just...
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By Prof Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé Islam can be fun! (Especially when dismantling interlocking oppressions and building just, sustainable, loving and laughing communities of resistance: Who knew!) Today, I have been writing on Islam and disabilities, about building truly inclusive communities, about thinking “beyond the room.” In the process of doing that, I started thinking about two Muslim women HIV/AIDS activists, Dr. Sunni Rumsey Amatullah (whom I knew as...
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By Sinat Giwa I’m told that I’m a stickler for formalities. My house on Rockwell Street in Chicago was its own sovereignty, where no closed doors (there were not many) went un-knocked before entering. No entry to the house went unacknowledged. No one ever left home without saying, “see you soon.” My parents’ friends or older relatives would call – most times interrupting my dial-up scramble for guitar tabs or...
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By Laurent Dubois On Friday, July 6, the French Football Federation announced that it would ban the wearing of hijab during all organized competitions held in France. The Federation declared that in doing so it was fulfilling its “duty to respect the constitutional and legislative principles of secularism that prevails in our country and features in its statutes.” The decision came one day after the International Football Association Board...
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By Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons I am a practicing Muslim and an Islamic scholar who received my Ph.D. with a focus on Islamic law and women from Temple University in 2002. I came into the tradition via Sufism, the Mystical Stream in Islam. It was my great fortune to meet and study with a Sufi Master from Sri Lanka, M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen who I met here in the United States...
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By Josh Cerretti I am neither a Muslim nor a woman; however, I am attempting to enact feminism and social justice in the age of the ‘War on Terror’. Consequently, I see the necessity of thinking and acting as an ally to Muslim women. This is obviously an incomplete, challenging, and humbling process, but it is necessary because Muslim women have become increasingly important symbols in struggles over war,...
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By Shaista Patel For the last several years, I have identified myself as a Muslim feminist in my activist and grad school circle(s). However, as I sat down to write this article, I suddenly felt quite nervous. I realized that I did not know if I would be recognized as a Muslim feminist by others. After all, my feminist politics are not specifically related to confronting anti-Muslim violence, nor are...
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By Dana Olwan and Sophia Azeb Nearly 1.8 billion people around the world annually celebrate Ramadan, the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic (Hijri) calendar. For many, this means we abstain from food, water, and sex and from cursing, pridefulness, anger, jealousy, and other selfish temptations all month long, from sunrise to sunset. For others – the poor, elderly, sick, children, pregnant women, and others who cannot fast...
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19 Jun 2013
THE ANATOMY OF TRUST OR BREAKING _____ I. HEART The pulse shudders the body at such infinitesimal levels that many of us ignore its existence. Walk around carrying fists in the center of our chests, the bottom tipped somewhat rightward, sitting more-or-less directly below the sternum, squeezing each moment [...]
12 Jun 2013
Diana and the face of the moon another night you are . turning your face ………………….. i am already gone and you are throwing stones . Diana swearing never ….. swearing never …… swearing never ………………………………………… again just say what you are trying [...]
5 Jun 2013
By Kristy Webster The Bee Trap Some girls have eyes like invitations, and some girls wear glasses and scarves, walk with a whistle in their mouth, Some girls leave the window cracked open, they need more air always more than the breeze will bring and some people [...]
13 Jun 2013
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