Why do black characters, in particular, black women of color, have to have some curated, Huxtable-like experience? Why can’t black women, like every other human on earth, be sexual, nerdy, outrageous, or flawed? Why aren’t we allowed to share our stories of affairs, unrequited love, career failures and sexual diversity on camera? For Blavity, Kayla […]
...moreI’m always telling stories, but I sort of fuck with the idea of thinking about myself and my work in a lyrical sense. Because that’s now how I’ve traditionally thought about myself. And it pushes up against the way the academy has been taught to discount black poets and the way black poets speak about […]
...moreIn the existing ways that our fashion, speech and music are ripped from our bodies and plastered as spectacle, this otherwise radical platform becomes a tool of injustice and control. This is the shortcoming of inviting the white gaze. While many see visibility as a step toward progress, when we open our cultural products to […]
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