Rumpus Original Fiction: On Sight
You stood and put your hair up. It made you a different man. You got hard and decided you were why.
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Posts Tagged: beyonce
Ways to Become Unpinnable: Talking with Natalie Diaz
Natalie Diaz discusses her new collection, POSTCOLONIAL LOVE POEM.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #92: Perfection
You will now find some version of the list below. It is imperfect.
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Pull Up a Chair: A Conversation with Tyrese Coleman
Tyrese Coleman discusses her debut memoir, HOW TO SIT.
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Revolutionary Anger: Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad
The most important idea within the book is that our anger, in all its shapes, is justified.
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Country, Black Ass, Queer Perspective: Talking with Michael Arceneaux
Michael Arceneaux discusses his new memoir, I CAN’T DATE JESUS.
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Black Panther and Strong Women
I saw myself on the big screen—the strong black woman that I am, and the stronger black woman I aspire to become.
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The Thread: Goddesses and Monsters
Let’s take the women in our lives, and the women who came before us, off the pedestals but also, out of the graves of irrelevancy.
...moreAlbum of the Week: Take Me Apart by Kelela
“The reality is that the way that I’m expressing myself on this record is coming from a place of vulnerability that is very much in the tradition of R&B.”
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Understanding the Language of Female Breakups
Female friendship, however necessary it is in our lives, and for all the joy it brings us, for all its love and support and kindness and generosity, can be a real mindf***k when it ends.
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“Language Orthodoxy,” the Adichie Wars, and Western Feminism’s Enduring Myopia
Adichie is far more significant than her accusers seem to know.
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Yona Harvey
Yona Harvey talks about her path to becoming a poet, Winnie Mandela as an artistic inspiration, and what it means to write more publicly.
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Oscars Flub as Grand Finale for Camp
On the Hollywood stage—amidst gasps, jaw drops, and pearl clutches—we witnessed one final, beautifully coded failure and an over-the-top dethroning of the serious.
...moreAlbum of the Week: Sampha’s Process
After collaborating with the likes of Beyoncè, SBTRKT, Jessie Ware, Drake, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and Solange, 28-year-old British singer, songwriter and producer Sampha has finally released his first solo album, Process, via Young Turks. A significant and evocative title, anticipating the changes happening as listeners work through the LP’s forty minutes: the personal growth Sampha undergoes in taking his […]
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Luke Cage: When Representation Isn’t Enough
This show’s true strength is its diverse portrayal of African-American subjectivity and morality, amongst both the male and female characters.
...moreThis Week in Essays
Men will not protect you anymore. At Jezebel, Madeleine Davies advises that “now is a time for fury and force.” Mark Binelli looks into life on the border town of Nogales for Guernica. Here at The Rumpus, Matthew Clair writes about how we must do more than simply gaze upon suffering; actions speak louder than images.
...moreWeekly Geekery
Want to craft spy thrillers? Learn science writing. The science infusing Fantastic Beasts, and where to find it. This is why you talk like a cowboy. Turn off Beyoncé if you want to actually write today—lyrics hurt productivity.
...moreDancing about Writing
At the Guardian, Zadie Smith writes about why dance is important for her and for her writing: The connection between writing and dancing has been much on my mind recently: it’s a channel I want to keep open. It feels a little neglected—compared to, say, the relationship between music and prose—maybe because there is something counter-intuitive about it. […]
...moreHip-Hop for Clinton
Jay Z, Beyoncé, Chance the Rapper, J. Cole, and Big Sean performed at a Get Out the Vote rally in support of Hillary Clinton this weekend. Trump’s response: a critique of Jay Z’s use of “bad language.” Because he’s the best person to demand all people follow the rules of “proper conduct.” Watch clips from the performance after the jump.
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#Betrayal: On Instagram, Is Hell Other Women?
Instagram: an app powerful enough to blow a million Think Pieces to smithereens in everything it says about female relations.
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The Read Along: Laura Goode
Jesus Christ, this book is like, Toni Morrison/Susan Sontag good. This book is first viewing of Beyoncé’s Lemonade good. This book is Simone Biles good.
...moreMore Reasons Why Beyoncé Is Great
If you make a visual album and get nominated for crazy amounts of awards, you should probably honor your performers. Beyoncé gets this (or her people do, which is close enough to the same thing), once again proving that she stands apart as an unbelievable performer and public figure. In case you didn’t catch the VMAs, Beyoncé made sure […]
...moreThis Week in Posivibes: A Frank Ocean Bonanza
It’s not hyperbole to say that everyone is losing their minds over Frank Ocean’s release of Endless, Blonde, and Boys Don’t Cry Magazine. After a four-year wait between albums, this outpouring offers a lot of incredible material to unpack. Blonde’s credit list alone makes perfect fodder for music writers, listing David Bowie, Brian Eno, Kanye West, Jamie xx, Kendrick Lamar, Elliott Smith, Beyoncé, the Beatles, André 3000, and Pharrell, among others. Add in Ocean’s […]
...moreTome of Black Womanhood
One thing that interests me about Beyoncé is who her predecessors are, and how she’s a kind of symbol for all the different ways that black women are revered but also surveilled in a really intense way, put on display. Morgan Parker’s poetry collection, There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, comes out in 2017. […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Andi Zeisler
Andi Zeisler, co-founder of Bitch and author of the new book We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrl to CoverGirl, discusses capitalism, breast implants, pop culture, and feminism.
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Leslie Pietrzyk
Think about the stories you have inside that scare you. That’s what you should be writing.
...moreThis Week in Posivibes: Songs for Survival
In addition to his song “Spiritual,” which deals with the issue of police brutality, Jay Z has released a playlist of songs to get us through the crushing violence lately exposed by social media. “Songs for Survival” includes music by Beyoncé, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Common, Outkast, Gil Scott-Heron, Fela Kuti, Kendrick Lamar, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Kanye West, and others. You can listen to […]
...moreArtists Respond to the Violence
The violence of the past days has left the nation in a state of shock, and citizens are reacting with the full range of human responses to crisis. Many artists can be counted among those who demand we respond as a country to the violence against black bodies. To name a few: The Game and Snoop Dogg organized a protest against police brutality in […]
...moreRace and Artistic Intention
At Seven Scribes, Daniel José Older examines the critical conversation surrounding Lemonade. In particular, Older addresses critics who wield the idea of an artist’s intention depending on the race of their subject, using intention as “a bludgeon to chastise creators of color or protect white artists.”
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Southern Girl: Beyoncé, Badu, and Southern Black Womanhood
None of the imagery of Lemonade is foreign to those of us who grew up in the South or who have Southern roots.
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