Sorry Excuse for a Social Life

My most recent posts for AFROPUNK

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:55:00 -0400

can be accessed by clicking the titles below. Enjoy!

Kanye West’s ‘Black Skinhead’—Is He Going Punk?

RedBull Music Academy: Erykah Badu Discusses Meeting André 3000, Working with J Dilla, “Groupthink” & Her Love for Janelle Monáe

Afrofuturism: A Talk With Artist Coco Fusco - Black Subjectivity Meets Science-Fiction

Get Funky To New Janelle Monae & Erykah Badu Collab ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’

I will be reading a queer theory/theological paper I wrote at...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:14:00 -0400

I will be reading a queer theory/theological paper I wrote at Eugene Lang Colleg’s Queer Christianities conference on May 4th. My paper, titled “Cunt and Congregations: Voguing in the Black Church” explores the similarities between Ball culture and characteristics unique to worship in the Black church. I will be the only undergrad on a panel of graduate students, so this both excites and intimidates me. If you are free and in the city, please come through.

The BAD GRAMMAR zine event in NYC was killer!

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:38:00 -0400

The BAD GRAMMAR zine event in NYC was killer!:

Much love to AFROPUNK for posting this review of the BAD GRAMMAR showcase last Thursday! Peep issues of our zine here.

bdgrmmr: More photos from the BAD GRAMMAR showcase at BGSQD...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:32:52 -0400

bdgrmmr:

More photos from the BAD GRAMMAR showcase at BGSQD last Thursday! <3

bdgrmmr: ISSUE 3...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 22:41:31 -0400

bdgrmmr:

ISSUE 3 “HEADLESS”

http://issuu.com/badgrammar/docs/headless

bdgrmmr: The event was a huge success last night. Big thanks to...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:13:57 -0400

bdgrmmr:

The event was a huge success last night. Big thanks to BGSQD and everyone who came thru!

:-)

bdgrmmr: bklynboihood: oh yes. Bad Grammar. The legendary...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:37:39 -0400

bdgrmmr:

bklynboihood:

oh yes.

Bad Grammar.

The legendary BABY HAIR : A VISUAL HISTORY will be available at our showcase this Thursday.

S/o to everyone showing us support, and hope to see everyone at the showcase Thursday!

I wrote an article about BAD GRAMMAR

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 21:52:55 -0400

for Catch Fire. Enjoy!

bdgrmmr: BAD GRAMMAR EVENT!! MARCH 28TH,2013 READINGS. DJ...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 05:30:00 -0400

bdgrmmr:

BAD GRAMMAR EVENT!!

MARCH 28TH,2013

READINGS. DJ SESSION. PROJECTIONS.

I am now a regular contributing writer

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:49:00 -0500

for AFROPUNK. I have written three posts so far, which I have linked below. Enjoy, and there is much more to come!

Growing Up Queer: A Brief Lesson on Hetero- and Homonormativity

Not Funny: What’s up with the twitterverse justifying Quvenzhané Wallis being called a “cunt”?

Gender Neutral Bathrooms: Don’t Be Freaked Out

The newest issue of BAD GRAMMAR is available to read by clicking here. It features interviews with...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:08:00 -0500

The newest issue of BAD GRAMMAR is available to read by clicking here. It features interviews with The Banjee Report and Cakes Da Killa. Enjoy!

THE BANJEE REPORT AT PARKSIDE LOUNGE - FEBRUARY 17 | 9 PM

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:33:26 -0500

BAD GRAMMAR is currently assembling an issue to accompany Chicago’s party/podcast/performance group The Banjee Report’s visit to NYC. The event will be this Sunday, February 17, at Parkside Lounge on 317 E. Houston St. at 9 PM. The newest issue of BG features interviews with The BR’s three masterminds aCeb00mbaP, 1wo and Mister Wallace as well as an interview with Cakes Da Killa. S/o to PAPERMAG for the write-up!

Yulan Grant, Brandon Owens and I have started a zine called BAD GRAMMAR. We recently put together...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:30:00 -0500

Yulan Grant, Brandon Owens and I have started a zine called BAD GRAMMAR. We recently put together an issue to accompany THE WHOLE HOUSE EATS—the gallery show comprised of the work of eight members of the artists collective HOUSE OF LADOSHA. I conducted interviews and wrote an oral history of the collective’s formation and Yulan did all of the design. The issue is accessible through the link above or by clicking here. Enjoy, and there’s more to come!

THE WHOLE HOUSE EATS - February 7 | 6 PM | Culturefix

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 13:08:00 -0500

February 7 at 6 PM, Culturefix bar and gallery will host a gallery opening for artist collective House of Ladosha. The opening will feature an in house zine by BAD GRAMMAR aka myself, Yulan Grant and Brandon Owens. Click here for more details.

No subsequent posts

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:54:00 -0500

will feature the terms “queer rapper” or “queer rap.”

I used these terms in earlier posts to express excitement for the exposure of rappers I saw as, in some form or another, representing my socio-political identity in a new context. I never intended to marginalize; nor do I intend to erase their identities in not using said terms. If I write about any of the artists once deemed as “queer rappers,” I will only address their sexuality and gender expression if it is necessary in analyzing their work. Though, it usually isn’t.

THE WHOLE HOUSE EATS - February 7 | 6 PM | Culturefix

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:41:00 -0500

I have recently been busy comprising an oral history of the artist collective House of Ladosha. My piece is to be featured in a zine, designed by Yulan Grant in collaboration with Brandon Owens, that will accompany an upcoming gallery show exhibiting the respective art of eight of the collective’s members. The show is titled THE WHOLE HOUSE EATS and is being curated by Chris Udumezue, aka Neon Christina Ladosha, as a part of a collaborative residency between Snowy Wilderness and Superchief at Culturefix bar and gallery. If you will be in the NYC area on February 7, please come through.

Michelle Dorrance's "SOUNDspace"

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:57:00 -0500

Photo via Dorrance Dance

Last night I had the opportunity to see the work of tap dancer Michelle Dorrance and her company Dorrance Dance/NY. The show, titled SOUNDspace, was choreographed in relation to the architecture of St. Mark’s Church, the venue in which it is featured, and its limitless sound possibilities.

Beginning, in darkness, with the frantic tempo of scattered rhythms circling the perimeter of the stage, from floor level, and the perimeter of the upper level, from above, the lights quickly illuminated the restless pace and alert posture of the dancers, a style equally militaristic and fanciful. Once lit, the dancers slid across the stage amongst poly-rhythmic footwork. That the show ran a good twenty minutes before any of the dancers actually put on tap shoes is emblematic of Dorrance’s imagination.

The ubiquity of the rhythm and the cohesion of the choreography—everything from the entrances and exits to the putting on and removal of the dancers’ various shoes is choreographed into the show—encased the audience in a world of light play, enigmatic body angles, tempo and secondary colors. Running at about an hour without intermission, the performance is strung together much like a symphony in which the breaks between dances are sparse and strategic and range from fast paced, ghostly footsteps moving through the dark to the apocalyptic rumbling of the upper level of the church.

While deeply invested in rhythm, appealing to the ear, the show is also photographic, appealing to the eye, Dorrance’s choreography and collaboration with contemporary/hip-hop dancer Mishay Petronelli an evocative physical interpretation of acoustic musicality. And while notably innovative, such respect paid to classical steps and styles such as the aforementioned slides and, later in the show, sand dancing, creates a space in which deep tradition is redefined for a contemporary audience, informing us of the dance’s origin rather than disregarding it. Highlights of the performance include an expressionistic collaboration with bass player Greg Richardson and solo improvisation by tap master Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards.

My poetry professor once mentioned that writers are still writing poems to fit a 8 1/2” X 11” sheet of paper—commentary, having studied under her for three years now, I interpret as addressing the necessity for poets to attempt greater feats, thus allowing the work to outsize its perceived possibilities. Michelle Dorrance’s work is bigger than itself.

SOUNDspace will be running through the 19th. Tickets can be purchased here.

Woodbridge, VA 1

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:02:22 -0500

A suburban pit stop off Interstate 95, the local discount mall and various business strips checkered with franchises serve as the primary sources of recreational activity. An ongoing construction site in which forests are constantly demolished to expand and create neighborhoods catering to its inhabitants, as diverse economically as they are racially, seeking easy living just a thirty minute drive south of the nation’s capital. Town houses, apartment complexes and McMansions rise as more trees fall in this quiet pocket of America in which growing up was not joyous enough to compare to a dream nor tumultuous enough to compare to a nightmare.

Social justice via social media

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 23:11:55 -0500

A recent phone conversation with a friend has made me consider my liking for posting issues pertaining to social justice on my Facebook wall. The conversation arose after two high school friends, one white and the other white-passing Latina, responded amongst a number of college friends, the majority of them Black, to a link I posted to the This is White Privilege Tumblr page preceded by the quote “White privilege is being able to still be considered a decent person despite your racism.” The conversation became heated when one high school friend argued that, legally, racism does not exist because no current laws prohibit people based on race, and the other argued that the Tumblr page promoted hatred of white people. Ultimately, my high school friends were arguing for the existence of reverse racism. My college friends disagreed.

I won’t focus on my standpoint on this interaction; a quick skim of my blog will reveal my thoughts on the matter. I want to focus, more so, on a question my friend asked me in our phone conversation—that being, if I am still Facebook friends with people from high school, referring to white people in particular and naming a specific teacher I still speak to. Before she finished asking the question, I knew what she was wondering—that is, how I feel about possibly making white individuals that I admire feel accused for, in her words, “blaming their race,” via my posts and commentary.

I am not a quick thinker. It takes time for me to formulate my responses to things I feel are problematic or with which I disagree, and I am posting this on my blog because I see it as an important point to make and to share.

Any white, straight, cis, male, etc. person that feels “accused” by anything pertaining to social justice I post on my Facebook wall, write on my Tumblr or tweet is failing (or refusing) to engage in the content in a critical manner or further research the topic and its supporting statistics as necessary. For an individual to read a blog composed of the voices of people who lack a privilege said individual possesses and feel accused or offended is for this individual to ultimately perpetuate oppression by viewing said blog as, in the case of This is White Privilege, inherently anti-white for being pro-POC. This assumption is inherently racist, just as the assumption that feminism is anti-male—Black feminism anti-male and anti-white, etc—is inherently sexist in that these assumptions underscore the discomfort the privileged have with having their voices hushed by people who are rendered invisible and irrelevant by preexisting systemic and institutionalized oppression. Blogs such as This is White Privilege deny the privileged their privileges by amplifying the voices of the people said privileges oppress. The privileged don’t like this. But because of power structure, such blogs are imperative.

My ultimate response to how I feel about how people from high school may react to my Facebook wall is that I don’t care, both for the aforementioned reasons and because the fact that I am ever even asked the question of how I feel about possibly offending people possessing the privileges I critique underscores the fact of their privileges. I’ve even gotten a joke about my white roommates kicking me out for how loudly I speak about my politics.

I’ve seen white individuals say “nigga” throughout social media, I’ve seen a high school friend’s photo of dollar bills beside a piece of paper that reads “Child Support for 4 Latroy Jr” on her Instagram, and during high school had a white peer, in front of my teacher, tell me that he was blacker than I am—all of these actions receiving little to no remark or a resistant shrug of the shoulders. As for me, my actions via social media are met with skepticism and hesitance, often because of how white people may react.

Over Christmas break my father, jokingly, asked when I had become so militant. Privilege means that those who zealously speak out against oppression are often caricatured for doing so, hence the stereotype of militant and Black. Such caricatures exists of feminists too, serving the same purpose of depicting the radical-minded as holding unrealistically extreme views, thus making it appear that the oppression against which we fight does not exist.

When I texted another friend to tell her what my father said, she replied, “That’s how you know you’re doing it right.”

High School Sucked (intro)

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 23:23:00 -0500

High school felt like a silly social experiment in which not I nor any of my peers knew we were participating. When my affinity for whiney emo music and skinny jeans wasn’t impetus for Bob Marley-obessed white boys to call into question my Blackness, my sexuality was a common topic of discussion amongst the people it affected the least. When I would later move to New York City for college, trading in my Anne Sexton poetry anthology for the writings of James Baldwin and bell hooks, and distance myself from my experiences in that physically massive but mentally stifling brick building, I would learn to laugh at everything that happened in those four years that, at the time, felt nothing short of an eternity.