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 [...]
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 [...]
13 May 2013
By Kristen Reynolds As I sit here on the eve of my graduation, cataloging what I’ve learned over the last few years as a Black woman coming into (what I hope is) consciousness – I feel a great deal of shame. Shame and, if I am going to be incredibly honest, [...]
10 May 2013
By Alyssa Gockley Several weeks ago, Bucknell University published its weekly campus newspaper. While just about every edition of The Bucknellian has some article or opinion piece that makes you raise an eyebrow or shake your head, this particular week’s paper contained something that sparked outrage across campus. There was [...]
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 Duchess Harris, PhD, JD. I did not attend Wednesday’s movie release of “The Help” from DreamWorks Pictures, based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. Why, you ask? Because I read the book. Last week New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni saw an advance screening of the movie and referred to it as “…a story of female grit and solidarity — of strength through...
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At the time of writing, the protests that began two nights ago in the North London neighborhood of Tottenham have developed into full-blown riots in other neighborhoods across the city, including Enfield, Hackney, Brixton, Lewisham, Ealing, Clapham, Peckham, Camden, Woolwich, Bromley, Croydon (5 miles from my current location), as well as the cities of Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham, hundreds of miles away. Police have been employed, civilians attacked, businesses...
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By Rev. Sheri Heller, LCSW “I found god in myself and I loved her /I loved her fiercely.” - Ntozake Shange We come into this world yearning to connect with the mother. Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung conveyed that this innate need for mothering is archetypal, meaning that it reflects a universal symbolic pattern inherent in both the individual and collective unconscious. This universal need was collectively expressed in ancient matriarchal...
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Summer’s Eve has pulled its controversial “Hail to the V” ads amidst enormous criticism from feminists, bloggers, YouTube watchers and…well, just about everybody. Thank goodness because there is nothing more disgusting than a talking vagina. Think about it. No one needs to see that. Except the people at Summer’s Eve who seemed to think talking vaginas were a great marketing ploy. At least Schick Quattro Trim Style commercials use...
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By Keri Day How might art both reflect complex social realities and inspire social realities to be more radically inclusive and complimentary of human flourishing? This quintessential feminist question emerged for me when I took a trip to Rome, Italy, a couple of weeks ago. Upon my arrival to Rome, I was immediately struck by the stunning and dramatic architecture that is a hallmark of the city’s unique aesthetics. ...
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By Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou After the re-election of George W. Bush, I was done with America. Less than a year into Bush’s second term, I left the United Statesfor the first time. At the tender age of 34, I moved to Paris to be like James Baldwin. With money from a writing fellowship, I was confident that I was going to compose ‘the book’; but I was not convinced...
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The pathways into the Murdoch scandal are so numerous that a single writer knows from the outset of any attempt to address it that his or her efforts will be partial, if not futile, at best; with that acknowledgment on the table, I hope to provide here a prolegomenon to TFW’s first forum to come in the next few weeks, when several members of the magazine’s Editorial Collective and...
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Recently, the Iowa based organization, The Family Leader, apologized for a controversial reference to slavery in their “Marriage Vow,” a document that it created to obligate Republican presidential candidates that it endorses to conform to its homophobic, anti-choice, conservative agenda. The passage in question says that: “…a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than...
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Ode to the Hyphen ____________ No dash, minus sign or broken line, you fill / and make continuous until there is no pause / for breath or thought between otherwise well-spaced words. / Oh, the way you change man eating shark to man-eating-shark. / I see you in anti-intellectual working to keep those ‘I’s from merging / into a diphthong and there in syl-lab-i-fi-ca-tion. / You compound-modifying, line-wrapping wonder,...
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A few days ago, my partner Bill walked into our older daughter’s room, where the clunky desktop Mac is located, and to his shock and chagrin found our younger daughter viewing porn on the Internet. Apparently, our bright, tech-savvy child had googled the term “sex” and navigated her way to a screen filled with thumbnail images of naked women in various suggestive poses. When Bill “caught” her looking, she...
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Last Saturday marked Ida B. Wells’ 149th birthday. On July 16, 1862, a few months before the Emancipation Proclamation and three years before the Thirteenth Amendment, the journalist, editor, anti-lynching campaigner, suffragist and feminist was born in Mississippi. The timing is important because of where it places Wells in the traditions of anti-racist and feminist activism. Although periodizing these struggles is never easy, the fact that Wells was too...
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By Zaheer Ali On Thursday, May 26, 2011, Columbia University hosted a public celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Manning Marable. My complete remarks* follow: The last conversation I had with Dr. Marable was on the 3rd of March at the book signing for Beyond Boundaries, the recently published anthology of his writings edited by my colleague, Russell Rickford. As I walked into the room and our eyes met, he...
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Mood for Love ____________NEW ORLEANS, LA ____________AUGUST, 2005 ______1. (There I go.) I am the man / stepping up to the water. I am not / the man I leave behind, / his arms snapped before him (at me)— / taut as when a whip means giddyap, move. Yes, my knees are trembling, like water remembering. I suffer, I am that man ready to quit. Should I turn...
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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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