Kritikos engages topics such as writing about the arts, critical studies, translation, the artist in society, and art as speech.
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."—James Baldwin
Register to Vote!
Each semester, members of the CVPA community are called to meet for a 90-minute session once a week with a goal of long-term commitment to relationship building, awareness, reimagining, transformation, critical thinking in community, and the creation of conversations as well as systems of compassion and healing.
We explore books, music, art, essays, podcasts, and documentaries that allow us to critically question and consider our roles as artists, thinkers, citizens, and creatives in a society founded on systems of oppression. All are welcome.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE A GIFT?
If you’d like to support Kritikos, please click on the "Make a Gift" button below. On the form, please select "Additional Comments About Your Gift" and ask that your funds be directed towards Kritikos.
Thank you!
Previous Reading Group Reading Materials
Spring 2025 Reading Materials
Week 1: February 21, 2025 - Imagining Abolition: Violent Systems Will Not Make Us Safe
Materials
Seriously Entertaining: Ruha Benjamin on "In Being Bold" (video)
Beautiful Solutions pp. 282-290 [PDF]
Sending Unarmed Responders Instead of Police: What We’ve Learned
What Is Abolition, And Why Do We Need It?
The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition
Week 2: February 28, 2025 - Imagining Abolition & Climate Justice: Wildfires & Prison Labor
Materials
Incarcerated Firefighters Do Risky, Low-Pay Work. Many Say It’s The Best Job Behind Bars.
Climate Carceralism: The Future of Climate-Linked Prison Labor
Nevada just banned ‘slavery and involuntary servitude’ in prisons. Why didn’t California?
The Impacts of Climate Change on Incarcerated People in California State Prisons
Incarcerated Labor & Wildfires
Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition
Week 3: March 7, 2025 - Imagining Justice: Breonna Taylor
Materials
Imagining Justice, by Ruha Benjamin [PDF]
In ‘Breonna’s Garden’ app, you’ll find Breonna Taylor’s favorite things and messages of love
Jury finds ex-detective guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights in deadly raid
Investigation after Breonna Taylor’s killing prompts agreement on police reform in Louisville
Week 4: March 21, 2025 - Why Would Anyone Imagine Us Without Us? AI & Digital Blackface
Materials
Meta scrambles to delete its own AI accounts after backlash intensifies
Meta removes AI character accounts after users criticize them as ‘creepy and unnecessary’
Computer-generated inclusivity: fashion turns to ‘diverse’ AI models
Who is Shudu? AI model is reigniting debate around technology, beauty and race
The White Internet’s Love Affair with Digital Blackface | Internetting with Amanda Hess (video)
Unpacking the Racism of Digital Blackface in the Information Age (video)
Is it OK to use black emojis and gifs?- BBC News (video)
Week 5: March 28, 2025 - Imagining AI & Environmental Justice
Materials
The Uneven Distribution of AI’s Environmental Impacts
AI’s Dark Side: Climate chaos and pollution, especially in Black and Brown neighborhoods
Black communities lack internet access but are saddled with digital pollution, report finds
The US must balance climate justice challenges in the era of artificial intelligence
The Environmental Inequity of AI
How Data Centers Became Hot Real Estate Investments (video)
More environmental abuses alleged on Maryland mega data center project (video)
Week 6: April 4, 2025 - Imagining Love: Loving v. Virginia
Materials
How Loving v. Virginia Led to Legalized Interracial Marriage | History (video)
Report on Loving Case 1967 (video)
Virginia Opera's "Loving v. Virginia" Will have World Premiere at Center for the Arts May 3–4
Composer Damien Geter's remarks on Loving v. Virginia opera announcement (video)
Marriage License for Richard Perry Loving and Mildred Delores Jeter
State of Virginia, County of Caroline Commonwealth Warrant of Arrest vs. Mildred Jeter
State of Virginia, County of Caroline Commonwealth Warrant of Arrest vs. Richard Loving
We Talk to Interracial Couples 50 Years After Loving v. Virginia (HBO) (video)
"Lullaby" from Loving v. Virginia (video)
Week 7: April 11, 2025 - Imagining Black Joy & What it Takes to Heal
Materials
The Uses of the Blues, by James Baldwin [PDF]
What It Takes to Heal with Prentis Hemphill (video)
Love at the Center (chapter from Prentis Hemphill’s 'What it Takes to Heal,' pp. 189-200) [PDF]
Healing the Imagination: Art Lessons from James Baldwin
"Nothing Personal: A Collaboration in Black and White," Mason Exhibitions, Arlington, January 31-May 3, 2025 (exhibition)
Bessie Smith-Back Water Blues (video)
Billie's Blues (video)
Whitney Houston - I Have Nothing (The Concert for a New South Africa [Durban] - LIVE) (video)
Fall 2024 Reading Materials
Week 1: October 4, 2024 - Media Literacy & Digital Citizenship
Materials
Influencers and popular podcasts fuel election disinformation among Black voters, report shows
The Dark(er) Side of Media: Crash Course Media Literacy #10 (video)
Media Skills: Crash Course Media Literacy #11 (video)
PEN America’s primer for news consumers on spotting and combating disinformation when news breaks
Expanding digital citizenship education to address tough issues
Checklist: Navigating Disinformation on Social Media
Misinformation Dashboard: Election 2024
How Did Opinions Get In Our News? (video)
Week 2: October 11, 2024 - Voting Rights Heroes & Why We Still Need Them Today
Materials
Fannie Lou Hamer rattled the Democratic convention with her speech 60 years ago (video)
Fannie Lou Hamer's America | Beyond the Lens (video)
Fannie Lou Hamer Risked Her Life for the Right to Vote (video)
In Georgia, Local Officials Express Frustration Over New Election Rules
A life-changing habit: Five reasons why you should vote in every election
The Power and Promise of the Black Vote
Week 3: October 18, 2024 - Economic Justice, Affordable Housing & the Criminalization of Poverty
Materials
Racial Segregation and Concentrated Poverty: The History of Housing in Black America (video)
US Supreme Court ruling will worsen homelessness crisis, groups warn
How to Advance Housing Affordability—The Ongoing Struggle
Poor People’s Campaign National Fact Sheet 2023
Emergent Threats: State Level Homelessness Criminalization
HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge Agrees Rent is Too High (video)
Week 4: October 25, 2024 - Water Justice
Materials
What's a Superfund Site and Why Should You Know About Them? (video)
Surprising Solidarity in the Fight for Clean Water and Justice on O’ahu
The Jackson Water Crisis, the Complexity of Environmental Racism
Flint residents grapple with water crisis a decade later: ‘If we had the energy left, we’d cry’
Supreme Court Keeps Navajo Nation Waiting for Water
How companies are profiting from the water crisis (video)
Corporations Are Privatizing Tap Water. You're Paying the Price (video)
Week 5: November 1, 2024 - Food Justice, Food Apartheid, Food Sovereignty
Materials
Why These Activists Use the Term 'Food Apartheid' Instead of 'Food Desert' | NBCLX (video)
‘The food system is racist’: an activist used a garden to tackle inequities
The Revolutionary Roots of Haitian Soup Joumou (video)
What is an Indigenous Kitchen? (video)
Farms Run by Queer and BIPOC People Are Sites of Community and Strength
Can Food Be Political? (video)
Your Hobby Could Make You A Better Citizen (video)
Week 6: November 8, 2024 - Black Mental Wellness During Election Cycles
Materials
How Black Women Can Protect Their Peace This Election Cycle
This Election Looks And Feels Different For Black Women, Here’s How We Can Center Self-Care
Murmurations: From Rupture to Repair
Love as the Practice of Freedom, by bell hooks (pdf)
(1982) Audre Lorde, “Learning from the 60s”
Centering Queer (Self) Care in the 2024 Election
A Litany for Survival, by Audre Lorde
Repair, by Cole Arthur Riley (pdf)
Week 7: November 15, 2024 - Black Joy: Reclaiming My Time
Materials
Discrimination isn’t just infuriating. It steals Black people’s time.
Explore the Constellation: Gail Anderson's Reclaiming My Time Poster
Reclaiming My Time: Meditations on Rest and Reconnection
Reclaiming My Time at National Museum of African American History and Culture
Time Isn’t Money: “Saving Time” explores a life beyond the constraints of the Western clock.
Rest, by Cole Arthur Riley [PDF]
Homeplace (A Site of Resistance), by bell hooks
Summer 2024 Reading Materials
Week 1: June 14, 2024 - Cowboy Carter: Love & Lessons Long Overdue
6 BLACK HISTORY LESSONS WE LEARNED FROM BEYONCÉ’S ‘COWBOY CARTER’
Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' cover art, explained by a professor
FIVE SCHOLARS DISCUSS BEYONCÉ’S “COWBOY CARTER”
With ‘Cowboy Carter,’ Black Country Music Fans Are Front and Center, at Last
Country music pioneer Alice Randall gets to the roots of the genre in ‘My Black Country’
Beyonce's 'Cowboy Carter' is throwing a spotlight on racism and gatekeeping in country music
Beyoncé - JOLENE (Official Lyric Video)
Beyoncé - TEXAS HOLD 'EM (Official Lyric Video)
Week 2: June 21, 2024 - Imagining Black Eco-Justice
In Sudan’s Civil War, Farmers Are Grieving Their Land and Loved Ones
Inside Africa's Forgotten Conflicts
Imagine Black: ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE JUSTICE
We Need Histories of Radical Black Ecology Now
Radically Reimagining Our Future Through Climate Fiction
Afro-Solarpunk Unveiled: A Glimpse Into Africa's Futuristic Culture
What is Solarpunk? (video)
Week 3: June 28, 2024 - Black & Autistic
KNOXROXS: A PHOTO ZINE AMPLIFYING BLACK AUTISTIC JOY
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network Welcome Packet
The Scholarly Neglect of Black Autistic Adults in Autism Research
How Black autistic women and girls are excluded from conversations on resources and research
“A Catalyst for Activism”: Talking with Finn Gardiner from the Autistic People of Color Fund
Dozens of deaths reveal risks of injecting sedatives into people restrained by police
It's Vital to Increase Police Understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorders
Week 4: July 12, 2024 Anti-Blackness & the Family
A Comparison of Two Works on Black Family Life by Patricia Hill-Collins [PDF]
Continued Devaluation of Black Womanhood by bell hooks (excerpt from ain't I a woman pp 71-81) [PDF]
The Burning of Rebellious Thoughts: MOVE as Revolutionary Black Humanism, by J. M. Floyd-Thomas [PDF]
The Historical Legacy of Black Family Reunions
Week 5: July 19, 2024 - Land Justice, Land Back: Gentrification, Reclamation & Reparations
Materials
Central Park's Hidden History: The Destruction of Seneca Village | Town On Fire (video)
The Lost History of Oscarville, GA: How a Thriving Black Community Was Erased (video)
BUYING BACK THE BLOCK: ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE FIGHTING TO SAVE BLACK COMMUNITIES FROM GENTRIFICATION
Reclaim Osage: Mike Africa Jr. on Push to Buy Back MOVE House 38 Years After Philly Police Bombed It
The Contemporary Relevance of Historic Black Land Loss
Local community activists discuss gentrification, land justice in Philadelphia at UMOJA panel
Sociologist Tanya Maria Golash-Boza on the Gentrification of D.C.
Week 6: July 26, 2024 - James Baldwin & The White Liberal
Why James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time Still Matters
The White Liberal | James Baldwin | 1969 (video)
God's Black Revolutionary Mouth: James Baldwin's Black Radicalism [PDF]
How Liberal White America Turned Its Back on James Baldwin in the 1960s
Unpacking the False Allyship of White Racial Justice Leaders
Week 7: August 2, 2024 - Black Joy: Black Gardens as Ecotherapy & Liberation
Black Gardeners Find Refuge in the Soil
Gardening for Liberation: The Legacy of Black Gardeners and Gardens
In 'Soil,' Camille Dungy weaves together gardening, race and motherhood
The Black in the Garden podcast wants you to find joy in the soil
Black Joy and Plants: A Guide to Growing into a Plant Parent (video)
Spring 2024 Reading Materials
Week 1: February 16, 2024 - Racial Capitalism & Extractive Colonialism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
What Is Colonialism? A History of Violence, Control and Exploitation
What Does It Mean to Dismantle Racial Capitalism Anyway?
Democratic Republic of Congo Faces “Worst Hunger Catastrophe” as Mineral Extraction Enriches the Few (video)
How Clean Energy Is Increasing Worker Exploitation in DRC (video)
"Cobalt Red": Smartphones & Electric Cars Rely on Toxic Mineral Mined in Congo by Children (video)
Just Transition: Moving from an Extractive to a Regenerative Economy
Week 2: February 23, 2024 Racial Capitalism, Extractive Colonialism & Performative Anti-Racism in Academia
If you or someone you know needs free and confidential suicide prevention resources and support, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 via call, text, chat, or by visiting 988lifeline.org.
[Trigger Warning: Suicide] OPINION: Dr. Antoinette Candia-Bailey's Tragic End Reminds Me How Much Empathetic Leadership Can Literally Be A Matter of Life or Death for Black Women
[Trigger Warning: Suicide] The Persistence Of Pet To Threat
Extraction as white supremacy | Moving towards anti-extraction practices in the arts
The Ways We Work: Extractivism in the University
The Best Way to Honor Black History Month Is to Stop Co-opting the Movement
Towards a non-extractive and care-driven academia
Week 3: March 1, 2024 Racial Capitalism & Theories of Anti-Work
Sabotage, Slowdowns, and Theft: An Interview with Robin D.G. Kelley on Black Anti-Work Politics
Work Will Not Save Us: An Asian American Crip Manifesto
Black Women Laborers (video)
Shiftless of the World Unite, Chapter 1, pp. 25-43, from Race Rebels (PDF), by Robin D.G. Kelley
“Nothing but Joy”: The Welfare Rights Movement’s Antiwork Freedom Dream (PDF)
Week 4: March 15, 2024: Land Justice, Land Back
Land Justice: Angela Glover Blackwell in conversation with Kavon Ward
Stolen Lands: A Black and Indigenous History of Land Exploitation
Indigenous and Black Communities Find Common Cause for Land Justice
How the #LandBack Movement Might Help Save the Planet (video)
Movement to return land taken from Black and Indigenous people in the U.S. gains momentum (video)
For the Wild: TIFFANY LETHABO KING on The Black Shoals [with brontë velez], Part One /315
For the Wild: TIFFANY LETHABO KING on The Black Shoals [with brontë velez], Part Two /316
Week 5: March 22, 2024 Racial Capitalism, Settler Colonialism & Mass Incarceration in the United States
The origins of policing in America | Perspective (video)
Convict Leasing | Black History in Two Minutes or So (video)
Mass Incarceration Since 1492 (PDF), by Jenell Navarro & Kimberly Robertson [Chapter 16 from Otherwise Worlds]
Mass Incarceration Since 1492 Zine
Why Do We Have Private Prisons? (video)
American Purgatory: Prison Imperialism and the Rise of Mass Incarceration
How One Artist Turned a Wrongful Conviction and a Prison Sentence Into Powerful Performance Art
What If Prisons Were Abolished? | Opinion (video)
Week 6: March 29, 2024 - Charles Blow and the New Migration Manifesto
Migrations: From Exodusters to Great Migrations (video)
Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series
Charles Blow's 'The Devil You Know' Is A Black Power Manifesto For Our Time
Why African-Americans left the south in droves — and what's bringing them back (video)
The Case for a New Great Migration in the US | Charles M. Blow | TED (video)
Charles Blow calls for ‘reverse’ Great Migration for Black Americans to increase political capital (video)
Returning to the south: what can ‘reverse migration’ do for Black Americans?
Revisiting the Great Migration through paintings and poetry
Week 7: April 5, 2024 Black Joy: Rest, Healing Justice & Community Care
What is Healing Justice? (video)
Fireweed Collective Healing Justice Framework
Healing Justice Is How We Can Sustain Black Lives
Communities Of Care, Organizations For Liberation
What It Means To Center “Healing Justice” In Wellness
adrienne maree brown and Prentis Hemphill On Restoring Our Rhythm
Fall 2023 Reading Materials
Week 1: September 29, 2023 Affirmative Action: Knowledge & Solidarity as Strategies of Resistance
Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action in Colleges But Keeps It for Military Academies (video)
Republicans Target Minority Scholarships After Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling
Inside the Cynical Campaign to Claim That Affirmative Action Hurts Asian Americans
Affirmative action divided Asian Americans and other people of color. Here's how
How Affirmative Action Changed Their Lives
Brief of Asian Americans Advancing Justice and 37 Organizations as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents (pdf)
Affirmative action for rich kids: It's more than just legacy admissions
Virginia high school admissions case could be legal follow-up to affirmative action ruling
Week 2: October 6, 2023 The Vote
5-Minute History of Voting Rights Since 1965 (video)
When voting rights didn't protect all women (video)
Congressman John Lewis on Race and Voting - Civil Rights Movement (video)
Voting Rights Act Of 1965 Put To The Test In Supreme Court | NBC News NOW (video)
The US Supreme Court just made this map illegal (video)
The next Virginia Senate could be one of its most diverse
How Voter Suppression Laws Target Native Americans
Ten years of a crippled Voting Rights Act: how states make it harder to vote
Week 3: October 13, 2023 Felony Disenfranchisement
Voter Suppression and Felony Voting: The Debate Explained (video)
Angela Davis on Felon Disenfranchisement (2008) (video)
The Racist Roots of Virginia's Felon Disenfranchisement
ACLU sues to stop Virginia law stripping felons of voting rights | NBC4 Washington (video)
Increasing Public Safety by Restoring Voting Rights
FELONY DISENFRANCHISEMENT LAWS (map)
An appeals court blocks Mississippi's permanent ban on voting after certain felonies
US Supreme Court won't scrutinize Mississippi curb on voting by felons
Week 4: October 20, 2023 Is “Race Neutral” the New “Separate but Equal”?
Color Blindness, History, and the Law from The House That Race Built by Kimberle Crenshaw [PDF]
Why Color Blindness Will NOT End Racism | Decoded | MTV News (video)
WATCH: Why 'colorblindness' is not the right approach to race (video)
The Next Battle Over Colorblindness Has Begun
There’s no such thing as ‘race neutral’
Colorblind :Rethinking Race (2012) (video)
Week 5: October 27, 2023 Algorithmic Justice: Racism & AI
Joy Buolamwini saw first-hand the harm of AI bias. Now she’s challenging tech to do better.
Artificial Intelligence "Godfathers" Call for Regulation as Rights Groups Warn AI Encodes Oppression (video)
Will AI inspire hip-hop artists — or displace them?
Generative AI systems are being released too quickly says MIT Researcher (video)
New York’s mayor wants you to know how much he loves police robots
Is NYPD's 'SnitchBot' A Glimpse Into The Future Of Racist Policing?
San Francisco supervisors bar police robots from using deadly force for now
Eight Months Pregnant and Arrested After False Facial Recognition Match
Week 6: November 3, 2023 The Will to Change: Has Our Learning Transformed Us?
Let This Radicalize You Virtual Book Launch (video)
Hope and Resistance: Voices of a People’s History of the United States in the 21st Century (video)
Student Civil Rights Activism: Crash Course Black American History #37 (video)
In the Spirit of the Midnight School by Roderick Ferguson [from Our History Has Always Been Contraband] [PDF]
Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Action: First Steps
George Floyd: Three Years Later, The Work Remains
Week 7: November 10, 2023 Black Joy: Celebration, Leisure & Rest
Rap and Hip Hop: Crash Course Black American History #47 (video)
HOW HIP-HOP CONQUERED THE WORLD
Women Artists: The Creative Process by bell hooks [PDF]
Avoiding Burnout and Going the Distance (Chapter 10 from Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba) [PDF]
The Last Resort Artist Retreat: A Conversation with Derrick Adams
Summer 2023 Reading Materials
Week 1: June 23, 2023 - The Roll Back: Then, Again & Now
Reconstruction: Crash Course Black American History #19 (video)
Reconstruction in America (video)
The Roll Back (video)
How one journalist risked her life to hold murderers accountable - Christina Greer (video)
Civil rights legislation sparked powerful backlash that’s still shaping American politics
Mississippi Republicans pass bill to create separate, unelected court in majority-Black city
Why Are People Hating on CRT? Politics Explain it All (video)
How Tennessee GOP’s majority used power to expel Democrats
Week 2: June 30, 2023 - Racism & Access to Reproductive Rights & Care
Inequity in US Abortion Rights and Access: The End of Roe Is Deepening Existing Divides
Mississippi hit by 900% increase in newborns treated for syphilis
‘I Don’t Want to Die’: Fighting Maternal Mortality Among Black Women
Abortion Bans Are Part Of A Larger Agenda To Roll Back Advances In Racial Justice And Women's Rights
Doreen Garner Sculpts Our Trauma
Is the anti-abortion movement rooted in white supremacy?
The Historical Significance of Doulas and Midwives
What is a Doula: A Modern Maternal Discussion
Week 3: July 7, 2023 - Racism & Roll Backs in Education
School Segregation and Brown v Board: Crash Course Black American History #33 (video)
The Troubled History of American Education after the Brown Decision
This one act locked Black students out of school in a county for 5 years (video)
The controversy over AP African American studies, explained
Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work was cut from AP African American Studies. Now she’s fighting back.
Florida Rejects Dozens of Social Studies Textbooks, and Forces Changes in Others
The Lies America Tells Itself About Black Education by Bettina L. Love
Week 4: July 14, 2023 - Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action (video)
The History of Affirmative Action | The New York Times (video)
Legacy Admissions Favor The Rich And Wealthy
The Future of Affirmative Action (video)
Conservative activist steers U.S. Supreme Court college race cases (video)
U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Race in Admissions: Prepare Now for the 2023 Ruling
‘Race Neutral’ Is the New ‘Separate but Equal’ (pdf)
Week 5: July 21, 2023 - Black Feminisms
(1977) THE COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE STATEMENT
Black Feminist Organizations (video)
Women and the Black Power Movement: Crash Course Black American History #40 (video)
On Channeling the Rage of Audre Lorde to Combat Racial Injustice
‘Black Haters’: Crabs in a barrel
Backlash and Betrayal by bell hooks
Feminist Change by bell hooks [Chapter 28 from Teaching Critical Thinking, pp165-168] PDF
Do We Need a Black Feminist Bechdel Test? Moya Bailey Thinks So.
Week 6: July 28, 2023 - Mutual Aid, Labor Unions & Solidarity Economics
Disrupting the Pattern: A Call for Love and Solidarity by adrienne maree brown
The Birth of the Black Panthers (video)
How the Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program Both Inspired and Threatened the Government
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LABOR, RACE AND SOLIDARITY
Black Women, Mutual Aid, and Union Organizing in the Time of COVID-19
Mutual Aid: The Soul of the Solidarity Economy (video)
Behind the Netflix Picket Line, Black Writers Have A Lot to Say About Pay
‘Solidarity, Not Charity’: A Visual History of Mutual Aid
Week 7: August 4, 2023 - Black Joy: Strategies of Hope
Mavis Staples - "We Shall Not Be Moved" (Live in Chicago) (video)
A Litany for Survival by Audre Lorde
Hope Is A Discipline feat. Mariame Kaba
Hope, mutual aid, and abolition
Angela Davis on social change: "No movement is possible without hope"
Muholi V, 2022 by Zanele Muholi
The Will to Learn: The World as Classroom, by bell hooks [PDF]
Spring 2023 Reading Materials
Week 1: February 10, 2023 - Fugitive Pedagogy
Is there an uncontroversial way to teach America’s racist history?
What’s Missing From the Discourse About Anti-racist Teaching
Building a Teaching Community by bell hooks, Chapter 10 from Teaching to Transgress, pp 129-165
PBS Books and ASALH Present: A Special Conversation between Jarvis Givens & Cornel West (video)
Elite Black Public High Schools (video)
Week 2: February 17, 2023 - What Can We Learn from the History of Activism & Organizing?
Poor People's Campaign (video)
The Movement and Campus Violence (video)
Remembering Gene Sharp, a pioneer of people power
Power’s Prophet: Remembering Gene Sharp
Rosa Parks’s Transformative Two Weeks at the Highlander Research and Education Center
History Repeating: Lessons From The Civil Rights Era For Maximizing The Power Of Protests
198 Methods of Nonviolent Action
"If There is No Struggle, There is no Progress," (1857) Frederick Douglass
"Life, Liberty and Legacy," Harriet Tubman
Week 3: February 24, 2023 - What Can We Learn from New School Activism & Organizing?
He was fired by Amazon 2 years ago. Now he's the force behind the company's 1st union
Chris Smalls - The Man Who Took On Amazon and Won | The Daily Show (video)
Whose Streets? The history and future of activism in America by SARAH JAFFE
The Power to Change the World: A Teaching Unit on Student Activism in History and Today
Finding Lessons for Today’s Protests in the History of Political Activism
Civil Resistance Tactics in the 21st Century by Michael A. Beer
Climate Strike: Mikaela Loach on How Capitalism, Colonialism & Imperialism Fuel Climate Crisis (video)
Global Citizen Asks | Mikaela Loach on Why Climate Justice is Racial Justice (video)
Week 4: March 3, 2023 - Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture
National Museum of African American History and Culture: Talking About Race: Whiteness
White Supremacy Culture Tema Okun
WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE CHARACTERISTICS
Ending White Supremacy Requires White People To Realize Black Liberation Isn't A 'Zero Sum Game' (video)
Let's Talk About White Supremacy Culture (video)
Debunking The Most Common Myths White People Tell About Race | Think | NBC News (video)
Week 5: March 10, 2023 - adrienne maree brown: We Will Not Cancel Us
We Will Not Cancel Us by adrienne maree brown
On Being with Krista Tippett: adrienne maree brown “We are in a time of new suns”
Virtual Event: WE WILL NOT CANCEL US by adrienne maree brown (video)
What is Transformative Justice? (video)
Everyday Practices of Transformative Justice (video)
How to Support Harm Doers in Being Accountable (video)
The Modern Roots of Transformative Justice (video)
Week 6: March 24, 2023 - Racism & Aging
When Ageism And Racism Collide: What A F**King Conundrum
Aging While Black: The Crisis Among Black Americans as They Grow Old by Rodney A. Brooks
aging to love, loving to age by bell hooks (PDF) from communion: the female search for love by bell hooks
Why African-American seniors are less likely to use hospice (video)
Podcaster Curates Stories of Black Women & Aging | Omisade Burney-Scott | PBS American Portrait (video)
Racism may accelerate aging on a genetic level, study finds
African American Older Adults and Race-Related Stress
Elderly, ill and Black in a pandemic: ‘I’m doing everything I can not to get this virus’
Week 7: March 31, 2023 - Black Joy: Pleasure & Peace
The right to joy and pleasure is a crucial element of racial justice by Brence Pernell
The Power in Pleasure by adrienne maree brown
Black Joy in Pursuit of Racial Justice by Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts
Discovering Accessible Delight by Luticha André Doucette
STAYING RESILIENT WHILE TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD
A Radical Right to Happiness by Amy Dru Stanley
Fall 2022 Reading Materials
Week 1: September 30, 2022—Lorraine Hansberry: Artist as Witness/Redlining/Loving Blackness
hansberry: the deep one by bell hooks (pdf)
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black - Harlem Cultural Festival 1969 (video)
Lorraine Hansberry's Inspiration for "A Raisin in the Sun" (video)
How Redlining Shaped Black America As We Know It | Unpack That (video)
Lorraine Hansberry's inspirational words on being young, gifted and black (video)
The Autobiographical Roots of A RAISIN IN THE SUN (video)
The Many Visions of Lorraine Hansberry, by Blair McClendon (web article)
"The Black Revolution and the White Backlash" Forum at Town Hall sponsored by The Association of Artists for Freedom (web article)
Week 2: October 7, 2022—Basquiat: Artist as Witness/Artist as Community Member
Hip-Hop’s Afrofuturistic Hive Mind by Greg Tate (pdf)
Writing the future: BASQUIAT and the hip hop generation at the MFA Boston (video)
Altars of Sacrifice: Re-membering Basquiat, by bell hooks (article)
The chaotic brilliance of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jordana Moore Saggese (video)
Fab 5 Freddy - Change The Beat (video)
Growing Up With Jean-Michel Basquiat | I Was There (video)
Excerpt from Jean Michel Basquiat - The Radiant Child, Tamra Davis, 2010 (video)
Week 3: October 14, 2022—Julie Dash: Our Stories Our Way: The Oppositional Gaze
Julie Dash - On Daughters of the Dust 25th Anniversary Restoration (video)
A Word from Greg Tate (pdf)
Dialogue between bell hooks and Julie Dash April 26, 1992 (pdf)
Preface to Daughters of the Dust: The Making of an African American Woman’s Film, by Toni Cade Bambara (pdf)
Lady Lope - Daughters of the Dust and the Oppositional Gaze in Film, Ep. 1/3 (video)
The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators, by bell hooks (pdf)
Daughters of the Dust (2K Restoration) | Official US Trailer (video)
Beyoncé - All Night (video)
Week 4: October 21, 2022—Titus Kaphar: Erasure/Reclaiming Histories
THE GREAT ERASURE, by Charles M. Blow (web article)
Can art amend history? | Titus Kaphar (video)
Titus Kaphar: Can beauty open our hearts to difficult conversations? | TED (video)
Titus Kaphar, The Cost of Removal (video)
Painter Titus Kaphar | 2018 MacArthur Fellow (video)
'How The Word Is Passed' Teaches The Importance Of Reckoning With History (web article)
Making Space for Black History in the Classroom, by Anthony Crawford (video)
Historical Erasure is Dangerous for Democracy, by Kirk Bailey and Zuri Davis (web article)
Week 5: October 28, 2022—Serena Williams: Black Feminist Analysis of Motherhood
Serena Williams Says Farewell to Tennis On Her Own Terms—And In Her Own Words (web article)
Black Women and Motherhood by Patricia Hill Collins (pdf)
In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, by Alice Walker (pdf)
Black Mother Woman by Audre Lorde (web article, audio only)
Man Child: A Black Lesbian Feminist’s Response by Audre Lorde (pdf)
July 4, 1974, by June Jordan (web article)
Beyoncé - Sorry (video)
Week 6: November 4, 2022—Nina Simone: Artist as Activist
How Nina Simone Became the 'High Priestess of Soul' | Evolution Of | NowThis (video)
The story behind Nina Simone’s protest song, “Mississippi Goddam” (web article)
What Happened to Nina Simone? (web article)
A Raised Voice: How Nina Simone turned the movement into music (web article)
Four Women - Nina Simone 1965 (video)
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black - Harlem Cultural Festival 1969 (video)
Nina Simone: Mississippi Goddam (video)
“Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”: Nina Simone's Africana Womanism by Jasmine A. Mena and P. Khalil Saucier (pdf)
Week 7: November 11, 2022 —Michael R. Jackson: The Joy of Loving & Celebrating our Full Selves
Michael R. Jackson’s Big Broadway Thriller, by Niela Orr (web article)
Trailer: A Strange Loop (video)
What Makes Michael R. Jackson Tick, and What Ticks Him Off, by Elisabeth Vincentelli (web article)
Michael R. Jackson - “A Big, Black and Queer-Ass American Broadway Show” | The Daily Show (video)
A Strange Loop: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert (video)
Watch the Cast of Off-Broadway's A Strange Loop Perform ‘Inner White Girl’ (video)
A Strange Loop: Michael R. Jackson, Raja Feather Kelly, Stephen Brackett, and Rona Siddiqui (video)
Summer 2022 Reading Materials
Week 1: June 24, 2022—Race, Rest, and Pleasure Activism
Love as the Practice of Freedom (PDF)
The Uses of the Erotic by Audre Lorde (PDF)
adrienne maree brown: pleasure activism (video)
What is 'black joy' and why do we need it in our lives? (video) BBC Ideas
How to combat 'burnout?' A group nap (video) USA Today
Atlanta-Based Organization Advocates For Rest As A Form Of Social Justice
Rest as Reparations: If there is a way to heal from trauma, where does one start? The New York Times
Radical Self Care: Angela Davis (video)
Week 2: July 1, 2022—Black Joy, Self Care & Healing from Racial Trauma
Calm: Do Nothing for 2 Minutes
RADICAL SELF CARE: ALICIA GARZA (video)
Understanding Racial Trauma (video)
How racism makes us sick | David R. Williams (video)
Racism at My Job Literally Gave Me PTSD by Erika Stallings
Audre Lorde reads Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As Power (Full Updated) (video)
Kleaver Cruz The Black Joy Project
Dignity and Power Now Healing Justice Toolkit (PDF)
Week 3: July 8, 2022—Radical Self-Care & Loving Blackness
We need more 'trauma-free Blackness.' Here's a start by John Blake (CNN article)
Loving Blackness as Political Resistance by bell hooks (PDF) - Chapter 1 from Black Looks pp. 9-20
The Radical History of Self-Care
Artist Billie Zangewa – the Ultimate Act of Resistance is Self-Love | TateShots (video)
Radical Self Care: Nona Hendryx (video)
Radical Self Care: Terence Nance (video)
Dreamweavers: In / Conversation - Carrie Mae Weems and Terence Nance (video)
Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, SAINt JHN, WizKid - BROWN SKIN GIRL (Official Video)
Week 4: July 15, 2022— Healing from Racial Trauma: Celebrating Blackness
Dr. Alex L. Pieterse: Coping with generations of racism and racial trauma (video)
Lizzo - Special (Live From Saturday Night Live)
Lizzo - About Damn Time [Official Video]
Beyoncé - BREAK MY SOUL (Official Lyric Video)
Micheaux: Celebrating Blackness by bell hooks [PDF]
Oscar Micheaux: The First Black Indie Filmmaker
Unpacking Black Joy From The Revolutionary to the Ordinary (video)
Conversations on Black Healing (Full Episode One - video)
Week 5: July 22, 2022— Black Joy & Self-Compassion: Setting Boundaries
How Jessamyn Stanley Resists a Culture That Thrives on Body Negativity
The Darwin Variant, and/or Love of the Fittest
At The 'Museum Of Black Joy,' It's The Everyday Moments That Go On Display
10-Minute Guided Meditation for Beginners to Clear Thoughts
Why the BIPOC community is getting serious about boundaries: ‘Boundary work is liberation’
4 BIPOC Women on the Power of Saying 'No'—And Why It's Essential for Self Care
Week 6: July 29, 2022 — Black Joy: The Art & Legacy of Cuisines & Foodways of the African Diaspora
Transatlantic Food Migration: The African Culinary Influence on the Cuisine of the Americas by Diane Spivey
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America | Official Trailer | Netflix (video)
Why I Made High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America | Netflix (video)
High on the Hog | Dr. Jessica B. Harris Interview | Netflix (video)
The Profound Significance of ‘High on the Hog’ by Osayi Endolyn
Chef Bryant Terry’s new “Black Food” celebrates the African diaspora’s foodways and culture
In the Season, The Edna Lewis Story (video)
Week 7: August 5, 2022 — Summer of Soul
SUMMER OF SOUL | Official Teaser (video)
SUMMER OF SOUL | Soul Searching | Featurette (video)
'Summer Of Soul' Celebrates A 1969 Black Cultural Festival Eclipsed By Woodstock
With ‘Summer of Soul,’ Questlove Wants to Fill a Cultural Void
Everybody Is a Star: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson on Making His Oscar-Winning Doc, Summer of Soul
The Harlem Music Festival From ‘Summer of Soul’ Gets Recognized by Congress
Questlove’s ‘Summer of Soul’ Doc Inspires New Harlem Festival Set for 2023
Spring 2022 Reading Materials
Week One - Is Racism Violence?
Physiological & Psychological Impact of Racism and Discrimination for African-Americans
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Racial Trauma (PDF)
How to Recognize and Cope with Racial Trauma
Racism Is a Health Crisis. Why Aren’t We Treating It Like One?
What White People Need To Know About Racial Trauma In The Workplace
Violence Prevention | University Policy | George Mason University
Week Two - Racism & Workplace Justice
When you don’t disclose salary range on a job posting, a unicorn loses its wings
How to Promote Racial Equity in the Workplace: A five-step plan by Robert Livingston
To Reduce Racial Inequality, Raise the Minimum Wage
Wage justice is racial justice—tipped workers deserve full minimum wage
The Racist History of Tipping, Minimum Wage and the Fight for Equity | Unpack That (video)
The Fear Black Employees Carry
Anti-Black racism in academia and what you can do about it
Black Representation in Academia and Corporate America Remains Inadequate in 2021
Week Three - Bystander Fatigue: When and Why Allyship Fails
A Year After George Floyd’s Killing, White Allyship Fades
Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance (PDF) by bell hooks
Support for Black Lives Matter has decreased since June but remains strong among Black Americans
Letter from Birmingham Jail (PDF) by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Overcoming Racial Equity Fatigue
White Backlash Is the Inevitable Response to Black Progress in the United States
No more white saviours, thanks: how to be a true anti-racist ally
How to Reject Allyship Fatigue and Keep Doing the Work of Anti-Racism
Week Four - Colorism, Featurism & Texturism
The Impact of the Browning of America on Anti-Blackness
How Immigrant Communities Are Addressing Colorism and Anti-Blackness
Tangled: Black Hair and Texturism in Ethnodrama (PDF) by Kernysha L. Rowe
What Dark-Skinned People Will Never Tell You (video)
Light Skinned Privilege | Decoded (video)
How hair discrimination impacts Black Americans in their personal lives and the workplace (video)
Journalists apologize for mocking appearance of Blue Ivy, Beyoncé's 7-year-old daughter
Week Five - End Pretrial Detention & Money Bail
End to Pretrial Detention and Money Bail
The Truth About the Money Bail Industry (video) narrated by John Legend
The problem with the U.S. bail system - Camilo Ramirez (video)
Bail: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO video)
The Significance of Illinois Ending Cash Bail (video)
Waukesha Suspect’s Previous Release Agitates Efforts to Overhaul Bail
Week Six - Anti-Racism & Body Positivity
How Whiteness Killed the Body Positive Movement
Why Are Women of Colour Left Out Of Body Positivity?
Lizzo, “Body Positivity,” and the Impossible Expectations for Black Women’s Bodies
For Queer Men of Color, Pressure to Have a Perfect Body Is About Race Too
Black Men Carving a Place in the Body Positive Movement
The Black History of the Body Positive Movement
Stephanie Yeboah: ‘How I learned to stop using my body as a punch bag’
Week Seven - Black Joy: The Art & Legacy of Cuisines & Foodways of the African Diaspora
Transatlantic Food Migration: The African Culinary Influence on the Cusine of the Americas by Diane Spivey
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America | Official Trailer | Netflix
Why I Made High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America | Netflix
High on the Hog | Dr. Jessica B. Harris Interview | Netflix
The Profound Significance of ‘High on the Hog’ by Osayi Endolyn
Chef Bryant Terry’s new “Black Food” celebrates the African diaspora’s foodways and culture
Fall 2021 Reading Materials
Week 1 - Abolish Police & Prisons: Prison Labor
END TO ALL JAILS, PRISONS, AND IMMIGRATION DETENTION
Slavery in Louisiana's prisons? This lawmaker wants voters to outlaw forced labor for good
At Least Seven States Have Prison Inmates Working in Governors' Mansions and Capitol Buildings
Prisoners Are Getting Paid $1.45 a Day to Fight the California Wildfires
In Cameron Rowland’s ‘91020000,’ Disquieting Sculptures
How prison labor contributes to the U.S. economy
Prison Labor: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) - video
Week 2 - The Role of Racism in the War on Drugs
The legal cannabis industry is exploding, but overwhelmingly run by white owners
Jay Z: 'The War on Drugs Is an Epic Fail' by Jay-Z, Molly Crabapple, Jim Batt, Kim Boekbinder and Dream Hampton (video)
State cannabis reform is putting social justice front and center
Hip-Hop Pioneer Fab 5 Freddy Delves into the Cannabis Industry in New Netflix Doc
New York’s Legal Weed Law Could Still Screw Over Black People
How a racist hate-monger masterminded America’s War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a Lie | Decoded (Season 8) - video
Week 3 - Racism in Sports
‘I was the only black kid in the pool’: why swimming is so white
Simone Biles Dials Up the Difficulty, ‘Because I Can’
Gregg Deal’s Performance Art Exposes the Real-Life Effects of the Washington Football Team’s Name
Swimming caps for natural black hair ruled out of Olympic Games
Black America defends Sha’Carri Richardson over Olympics suspension for marijuana
Black Female Athletes Score for Activism
All the Black women in us are tired
Sha'Carri Richardson's drug test suspension is the end result of racist policies
Week 4 - Voter Suppression
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IS ONLY 55 YEARS OLD—AND HANGING BY A THREAD
America's long history of Black voter suppression
Map: See Which States Have Restricted Voter Access, And Which States Have Expanded It
Tomashi Jackson’s Many Shades of Voter Suppression
Tomashi Jackson: Love Rollercoaster
House passes John Lewis voting rights bill that's set to stall in Senate
Stacey Abrams: Voting rights not a question of partisanship, but of 'peopleship' (video)
Black Americans and the Vote
Week 5 - Black and Indigenous Peoples' Solidarity against White Supremacy
The Endless Robbing of Native American Graves
Her Voice, Our Future: The History of the Dept of the Interior and the Nomination of Deb Haaland. (video)
Did Europeans Enslave Native Americans? (video)
Indian Boarding Schools' Traumatic Legacy, And The Fight To Get Native Ancestors Back
Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists
Indigenous peoples echo Black Lives Matter’s call for justice
Indigenous artists stand with the Black Lives Matter movement as part of new community initiative
Week 6 - Racism & Student Loan Debt
Racial capitalism and student debt in the U.S. (PDF)
#CancelStudentDebt - How does student debt affect black borrowers? (video)
Why Do Students Have So Much Debt? (video)
Historically Black colleges making moves to forgive student debt (video)
Can Biden Shrink the Black-White Wealth Gap Without Canceling Loan Debt?
America’s Student Debt Crisis: Marvin's Story | Consumer Reports (video)
Angela Davis: We can't eradicate racism without eradicating racial capitalism (video)
Week 7: November 12, 2021— Black Joy & Self-Compassion: Setting Boundaries
How Jessamyn Stanley Resists a Culture That Thrives on Body Negativity
The Darwin Variant, and/or Love of the Fittest
At The 'Museum Of Black Joy,' It's The Everyday Moments That Go On Display
A Day of Self Love (video)
10-Minute Guided Meditation for Beginners to Clear Thoughts (video)
Why the BIPOC community is getting serious about boundaries: ‘Boundary work is liberation’
4 BIPOC Women on the Power of Saying 'No'—And Why It's Essential for Self Care
Summer 2021 Reading Materials
Week One - The Role of White Women in Perpetuating White Supremacy
White women’s role in white supremacy, explained
How Southern socialites rewrote Civil War history (video)
Women Have Always Been a Part of White Supremacy
Dear White Women, Are You Abusing Your Racial Privilege?
I Refuse to Listen to White Women Cry’ - Activist Rachel Cargle has built a brand — and a business — by calling out racial injustices within feminism
Amy Cooper Charged: Why White Women Privilege Must Be Dismantled (video)
Week Two - Understanding the History of Systemic Racism in the United States
Ibram X Kendi: Stamped from the Beginning (video)
The 1619 Project - The New York Times or view here: https://pulitzercenter.org/sites/default/files/full_issue_of_the_1619_project.pdf
How systemic racism shaped the ecosystems of U.S. cities (video)
Health Disparities in the Black Community: Past & Present (video)
The Racist Origins of U.S. Law (video)
Systemic Racism in U.S. Policing Deconstructed (video)
James Baldwin Discusses Racism | The Dick Cavett Show (video)
Can art amend history? | Titus Kaphar (video)
U.S. History: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO (video)
Week 3 - Racism without Racists
colour-blind racism: the four frames
Color Blind Racism (video)
COLOR BLIND RACISM - EXPLAINED IN 10 MINUTES | Eduardo Bonilla-Silva - 2002 (video)
Art That Confronts and Challenges Racism: Start Here
Amy Sherald: The Great American Fact (video)
Erasure by Exclusion: How Art Schools and Institutions Uphold White Supremacy (video)
Week 4 - Abolish Police & Prisons: Surveillance of Black Communities
END THE SURVEILLANCE ON BLACK COMMUNITIES
“Coded Bias”: New Film Looks at Fight Against Racial Bias in Facial Recognition & AI Technology (video)
Compliance Will Not Save Me: Black and brown people’s defiance is not the problem. Our compliance is not the solution. by Ibram X. Kendi
Police technology under scrutiny following Chicago shooting
How Surveillance Harms Black and Brown Communities (video)
The Woman Making Art out of the FBI's Surveillance of Her Black Panther Father
How Surveillance Has Always Reinforced Racism
White People Unnecessarily Calling the Cops on Black People | The Daily Show (video)
Week 5 - Racism in Academia
From Georgetown Law To JAMA: What We Can Learn From Racist Incidents In Elite Academia
Envisioning Higher Education as Antiracist
Claiming a Louder Life: Part I
Racism in Academia (3:55) (video)
White Academia: Do Better. Higher education has a problem. It’s called White supremacy. By Jasmine Roberts
Teaching to Transgress Today: Theory and Practice In and Outside the Classroom (video)
An Essay for Teachers Who Understand Racism Is Real by Bettina Love
The ONE Virginia Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence in Higher Education
Week 6 - Emotional Privilege, Racism & Anger
The Uses of Anger by Audre Lorde
Emotional Intelligence, racial stereotypes, & the politics of emotional expression | Khadija Mbowe (video)
The witness would not be described as angry
Why Are Black Women So Angry (5:26) (video)
The Capitol siege shows how White Americans can express anger that Black Americans cannot
Black Women Have Never Had The Privilege Of Rage
Killing Rage by bell hooks, Chapter 1: Killing Rage: Militant Resistance, pp 8-20
Week 7 - Healing from Racial Trauma: Celebrating Blackness
Dr. Alex L. Pieterse: Coping with generations of racism and racial trauma (video)
Lizzo - Good As Hell (Official Music Video)
Lizzo - Juice (Official Video)
MY POWER (Official Audio)
Micheaux: Celebrating Blackness by bell hooks [PDF]
Oscar Micheaux: The First Black Indie Filmmaker (video)
Unpacking Black Joy From The Revolutionary to the Ordinary (video)
Conversations on Black Healing (Full Episode One - video)
Spring 2021 Reading Materials
Week One - Race & Medicine
“This Is How Black People Get Killed”: Dr. Susan Moore Dies of COVID After Decrying Racist Care (Democracy Now video): (6:07)
Say her name: Dr. Susan Moore (Washington Post article):
The Tuskegee Study (video) 3:01)
The US medical system is still haunted by slavery (Vox Pro Publica video) (8:49)
Beyond Tuskegee — Vaccine Distrust and Everyday Racism (New England Journal of Medicine)
Meet the Black female scientist at the forefront of COVID-19 vaccine development (CBS article and video) (6:25)
Ted Talk: The problem with race-based medicine | Dorothy Roberts (video) (14:36)
Early Data Shows Striking Racial Disparities In Who's Getting The COVID-19 Vaccine (NPR 5-Minute Listen)
Henrietta Lacks (HeLa): The Mother of Modern Medicine (Painting by Kadir Nelson)
Doreen Garner Sculpts Our Trauma | Art21 "New York Close Up" (video) (7:38)
Week Two - Dismantling the White Gaze Materials
Facing Difference: The Black Female Body by bell hooks ( PDF from Art on My Mind, pp. 94-100)
The Politics of Radical Black Subjectivity by bell hooks (from Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, Chapter 2, pp. 15-22)
Discerning Photography’s White Gaze
Black writers courageously staring down the white gaze – this is why we all must read them by Stan Grant
'Fairview' and tackling the white gaze by Hannah Miao
White Savior: The Movie Trailer (Late Night with Seth Meyers video) (5:51)
Week Three - Cultural Appropriation
What is Cultural Appropriation? by Ijeoma Oluo (Chapter 10 from So You Want to Talk About Race)
Watch This Documentary on Braids and Appropriation in America | ELLE (20 minute video)
We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs by LAUREN MICHELE JACKSON
What is Cultural Appropriation? (Video)
7 Myths about Cultural Appropriation DEBUNKED! | Decoded | MTV News
Jessica Krug: Inside the mind of an imposter (Video)
The Long, Painful Legacy Of Blackface In America (HBO)
These Blackface-Wearing, N-Word-Spewing Culture Vultures Would Like to Teach Your Kids About Hip-Hop
Week Four - Museums Are Not Neutral
African American Artists Are More Visible Than Ever. So Why Are Museums Giving Them Short Shrift?
The Guggenheim’s First Black Curator Is Denouncing the Museum’s Treatment of Her
The Problem with Museums (Video)
The British Museum is full of stolen artifacts (Video)
moCa Curator La Tanya Autry Advocates Museums Are Not Neutral
Former Staffers and Board Members Denounce Racism at Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
The Met Will Turn Down Sackler Money Amid Fury Over the Opioid Crisis
An Instagram Account Is Amplifying Anonymous Testimonies of Racism in Museums
Week Five - The Black Horizon: Black Womxn, Sex & Power
Constructing Radical Black Female Subjectivities: Survival Pimping in Austin Clarke's The Polished Hoe by Jennifer Thorington Springer (PDF 23 pages)
Why I Speak Up for Black Women. I’m not afraid of criticism, and “Protect Black women” should not be controversial by Megan Thee Stallion
Selling Hot Pussy: Representations of Black Female Sexuality in the Cultural Marketplace by bell hooks (PDF Chapter 4 from Black Looks pp. 61-77)
WAP: the summer smash hit that exposed the fear of sexually liberated black women by Michell Chresfield
Against the Grain: Black Women and Sexuality by Desiree Lewis 9 (PDF 24 pages)
Zanele Muholi – ‘In My World, Every Human is Beautiful’ | Tate (video)
Week Six - Racism & Travel
Life after the ‘Green Book’: What is the future for Black travelers in America? By Glynn Pogue
What Was It Like to Travel While Black During Jim Crow? | 360 Video | Op-Docs (20:08)
The real story of the Green Book (Video 4:16)
[LoveCraft Country Series] S01 E01 Sundown Town Scene (Video 4:35)
This former sundown county expelled 1,100 black residents in a racial cleansing (Video 9:14)
2020 Is the Summer of the Road Trip. Unless You’re Black, by Tariro Mzezewa
Freedom Riders (Video 1:52:28)
Evita Robinson: Reclaiming the globe (Video 6:37)
Week 7 - Radical Self-Care & Loving Blackness
We need more 'trauma-free Blackness.' Here's a start, by John Blake (CNN article)
Loving Blackness as Political Resistance by bell hooks (Chapter 1 from Black Looks pp. 9-20)
The Radical History of Self-Care
Artist Billie Zangewa – the Ultimate Act of Resistance is Self-Love | TateShots
RADICAL SELF CARE: NONA HENDRYX (Video)
RADICAL SELF CARE: TERENCE NANCE (Video)
DREAMWEAVERS: In / Conversation - Carrie Mae Weems and Terence Nance (Video)
Nina Simone: That Blackness (Video)
Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, SAINt JHN, WizKid - BROWN SKIN GIRL (Official Video)
Fall 2020 Reading Materials
Week 1 - Misogynoir
Radical Self-Care, Angela Davis (video)
Why you need to know what 'misogynoir' means right now (article)
End Adultification Bias (Full Version) (video)
The Uses of Anger by Audre Lorde (essay)
The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House (pdf) by Audre Lorde (essay)
How to Be an Anti-Racist: Chapter 14: Gender by Ibram X. Kendi
M4BL: End of the War on Black Women (website)
Doreen Garner Sculpts Our Trauma | Art21 "New York Close Up" (video)
‘Nobody's Free Until Everybody's Free’: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Legacy Is More Important Now Than Ever (article)
The problem with celebrating the 19th Amendment: Opinion by Treva B. Lindsey (article)
Ida B. Wells | The Vote | American Experience | PBS (video)
The Revolutionary Practice of Black Feminisms
Week 2 - Reparations
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic article)
What is Owed by Nikole Hannah-Jones (NYT article)
We May Be the First People to Receive Reparations for Slavery | NYT Opinion (NYT video)
Slavery reparations bill debated in US House hearing (The Guardian video)
‘Stain of slavery’: Congress debates reparations to atone for America's original sin (The Guardian article with video)
Can reparations help right the wrongs of slavery? (PBS video)
North Carolina City Will Give Reparations to Black Residents | NowThis (video)
Reparations, H.R. 40 and the Path Forward (ACLU)
How Reparations Could Fix The Racial Wealth Gap In America | NBC News NOW (video)
Six questions about slavery reparations, answered (CNN article)
Week 3 - Afrofuturism, Otherwise Worlds, and Freedom Dreaming
Why should you read sci-fi superstar Octavia E. Butler? - Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey (video)
Excerpt: "Emergent Strategies" - adrienne maree brown (video)
Sci-Fi Digital Series “Afrofuturism” Sun Ra Part 1 | DUST (video)
Afrofuturism mixes sci-fi and social justice. Here’s how it works. (video)
Afrofuturism Explained: Not Just Black Sci-Fi| Inverse (video)
Otherwise, Fergusonby Ashon Crawley (essay)
Against the Normative Worldby Sofia Samatar (interview)
Notes Toward a Theory of Quantum Blackness, by SOFIA SAMATAR (poem)
Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Chapter 6: KEEPIN’ IT (SUR)REAL: DREAMS OF THE MARVELOUS, by Robin D. G. Kelley
Freedom Dreaming: A Call to Imagine, by Sarah Branch, Downtown Brooklyn Arts Management Fellow
Freedom Dreaming - Digital Resource Guide
Week 4 - Race and Disability
Alice Sheppard on Disability Dance and Access
Children of color with autism face disparities of care and isolation
Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability
M4BL POLICY PLATFORM: END THE WAR ON BLACK HEALTH AND BLACK DISABLED PEOPLE
Intersectionality & Disability, ft Keri Gray, the Keri Gray Group #DisabilityDemandsJustice (video)
#RaceAnd: Kay Ulanday Barrett (video)
Week 5 - Education as Liberation: Anti-Racist Pedagogy
Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Chapter 2—Paulo Friere (full text)
Teaching to Transgress, Chapter 1: Engaged Pedagogy and Teaching to Transgress, Chapter 4: Paulo Freire, by bell hooks
https://sites.utexas.edu/lsjcs/files/2018/02/Teaching-to-Transcend.pdf (full text)
bell hooks on interlocking systems of domination (4 min video)
We Want to Do More Than Survive, Chapter 5: Abolitionist Teaching, Freedom Dreaming, and Black Joy by Bettina Love
Creating Inclusive Classrooms (Mason Website)
“Education Liberates” featuring bell hooks and Bettina Love (1 hr, 30 min video)
Week 6 - Black Trans Lives Matter
END THE WAR ON BLACK TRANS, QUEER, GENDER NONCONFORMING AND INTERSEX PEOPLE (website with multiple resources)
Black Trans Women Seek More Space in the Movement They Helped Start
Marsha P. Johnson Was a Transgender Rights Pioneer Who Fought for LGBTQ Minorities
Black Trans* Lives Matter | D-L Stewart | TEDxCSU
Thousands Protest in Support of Black Trans Lives in NYC | NowThis (video)
Diamond Stylz on Why Black Trans Rights Are Civil Rights | The Root
Week 7 - Black Joy, Self Care &Healing from Racial Trauma
Calm: Do Nothing for 2 Minutes
RADICAL SELF CARE: ALICIA GARZA
How racism makes us sick | David R. Williams
Racism at My Job Literally Gave Me PTSD by Erika Stallings
Audre Lorde reads Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As Power (FULL Updated)
Summer 2020 Reading Materials
Week One, June 26, 2020: Intro, Check Your Privilege, Role of the Artist in Society, and Rules of Engagement
The Creative Process by James Baldwin (PDF)
Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh (PDF)
White Fragility, Chapter 10, by Robin DiAngelo (PDF)
People Try The "Check Your Privilege" TikTok Challenge (video)
Week Two, July 10, 2020: Race in Academia and #BlackintheIvory
Teaching to Transgress, Chapter 10—Building a Teaching Community: A Dialogue by bell hooks
We need more black and brown teachers but not for the reasons you think by Andre Perry
Walkington
‘I Was Fed Up’: How #BlackInTheIvory Got Started, and What Its Founders Want to See Next by Francie Diep
After colleges promised to increase it, hiring of black faculty declined by Matt Krupnick
10 Moments Black People In The Workplace Know Too Well (Video)
Week Three, July 17, 2020: Defunding the Police, 13th (Feature Film), The New Jim Crow, and MPD 150
13TH | FULL FEATURE | Netflix (video)
What are we talking about when we talk about “a police-free future?”
MPD150: A People’s Project Evaluating Policing: Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to defund the police? (video)
Angela Davis: ‘We knew that the role of the police was to protect white supremacy”
Slavery still reigns in US prisons (video)
The school-to-prison pipeline, explained (video)
Week Four, July 24, 2020: Representation Matters, Questioning and Decolonizing Your Syllabus, and Race in the Classroom
It’s time to decolonize that syllabus by Yvette DeChavez
Decolonize Your Syllabus: An Interview with Yvette DeChavez
Hip hop, grit, and academic success: Bettina Love at TEDxUGA (video)
Decolonize Your Syllabus—U of SC Center for Teaching Excellence (video)
Week Five, July, 31, 2020: Race and Climate Change
The Principles of Environmental Justice (PDF)
Environmental justice, explained (video)
A Brief History of Environmental Justice (video)
Coronavirus Death Rates Are a Direct Result of Environmental Racism by Leila Ettachfini
Environmentalism’s Racist History by Jedediah Purdy
It's Time for Environmental Studies to Own Up to Erasing Black People by Wanjiku Gatheru
“Pollution is Segregated” Says the Father of Environmental Justice | Amanpour and Company (video)
Week Six, August 7, 2020: Anti-Racist Allyship between Black and Asian Americans Against White Supremacy
Alex Dang - "What Kind of Asian Are You?" (NPS 2013) (video)
Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights” by Kenji Yoshino
'Model Minority' Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks. Chow, K. (2017, April 19).
Internal Colonialism: White Supremacy and Education
Meet the Asian Americans helping to uproot racism in their communities
Week Seven: August 14, 2020: Race, Rest, and Pleasure, Who deserves to rest?, The Nap Ministry, and Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown
Love as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks
The Uses of the Erotic by Audre Lorde (PDF)
adrienne maree brown: pleasure activism (video)
What is 'black joy' and why do we need it in our lives? | BBC Ideas (video)
How to combat 'burnout?' A group nap | USA TODAY (video)
Atlanta-Based Organization Advocates For Rest As A Form Of Social Justice
Rest as Reparations: If there is a way to heal from trauma, where does one start?
RADICAL SELF CARE: ANGELA DAVIS (video)
Gallery of Artists and Activists
In our Kritikos Program we call upon and discuss the work of innumerable scholars, authors, activists, artists, musicians, poets, dancers, and playwrights to guide our discussions. Here are just a few of them:
Learn More About the People Above From Our Summer 2021 Session
Rachel Cargle
Rachel Cargle is an activist, academic, writer, and lecturer. In her academic and professional work, Rachel Cargle explores the intersection of race and womanhood––challenging the interlocking systems of oppression through intellectual discourses and educational tools and resources. For KARRG, we turn to Rachel Cargle’s work to examine how white women should divorce themselves from white supremacy to become accomplices to BIPOC individuals.
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, an avid journalist, and the creator of the 1619 Project. In the 1619 Project and her other works, Nikole Hannah-Jones moves the reader to confront America’s national hypocrisy and ignored truths regarding systemic racism. For KARRG, Nikole Hannah-Jones and the 1619 Project lay the groundwork in our discussions for exploring a history of system racism in America.
Titus Kaphar
Titus Kaphar is an American painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and installation artist, and the recipient of awards such as the 2018 MacArthur Fellowship and the 2018 Art for Justice Fund grant. In his works, Titus Kaphar investigates contemporary themes and significance in artworks and artforms of the past. For KARRG, we watch Titus Kaphar’s 2017 TED Talk—“Can Art Amend History?”— in which Titus Kaphar whitewashes one of his paintings to shift the viewers’ gaze from an affluent white family to a young brown servant child.
Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde was a Black writer, feminist, and activist who devoted her life and her work to exploring issues of civil rights, racism, feminism, lesbianism, and the Black female identity. In her activism and published works, Audre Lorde centers the importance of liberation for oppressed and marginalized populations, and organizing individuals across differences of race, gender, sexual orientation, and class. In KARRG, we constantly affirm Audre Lorde’s words: “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
Learn More About the People Above From Past Sessions:
bell hooks
bell hooks is an American author, professor, feminist, and social activist. Having written over 40 books, she is also known for coining the phrase "imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" to describe the many interlocking systems of oppression active in U.S. society and culture. For KARRG we turn to this phrase in nearly every session often expanding on it as "imperialist white supremacist capitalist cisheteropatriarchy."
Dr. Bettina Love
Dr. Bettina Love is the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at the University of Georgia and a pioneer for educating communities on race, education and educators, abolition, and Black joy. She is an award-winning author and co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network, whose mission is to develop and support teachers and parents to fight injustice within their schools and communities.
Audre Lorde
The Black feminist, Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was a native New Yorker and daughter of immigrants. Both her activism and her published work speak to the importance of struggle for liberation among oppressed peoples and of organizing in coalition across differences of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, age and ability.
Learn More About the People Above From Past Sessions:
Ingrid Masondo
Ingrid Masondo is a South African photography artist who has worked independently on extensive personal projects, particularly focusing on the body, its habits and practices, and markings and performances. Masondo is an arts, music, and cultural worker, who currently works as the curator of Photography and New Media at the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
Cardi B.
An award winning and multi-platinum American hip hop artist, Cardi B is also a feminist, political activist, philanthropist, and actor. Born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx, she continues to break records through her work and make history through the accolades she receives.
La Tanya Autry
La Tanya Autry is a cultural organizer in the visual arts who centers social justice and public memory in her work. In 2017, she co-founded the global advocacy initiative "MUSEUMS ARE NOT NEUTRAL" with Mike Murawski. The Crossroads of Commemoration: Lynching Landscapes in America is her dissertation that analyzes how individuals and communities memorialize white supremacy models, such as lynching violence in the built environment, concentrates on the interplay of race, representation, memory, and public space.
Megan Thee Stallion
Originally from Houston, Texas, Megan Thee Stallion is a feminist and an award-winning American hip hop artist. Her work embraces female sensuality and confidence, centers female desire and pleasure, and defies stereotypes.
Learn More About the People Above From Past Sessions:
Dr. Susan Moore
Dr. Susan Moore was a Michigan-based family medicine physician who died December 20, 2020 of complications from COVID-19. Dr. Susan Moore died just weeks after posting a video online from her hospital bed accusing a white doctor of denying her requests for pain medication and proper treatment because she was Black.
Kadir Nelson
Kadir Nelson is a Los Angeles-based painter, illustrator, and author whose work is centered on African American culture and history. His work is best known for being featured on the covers of The New Yorker magazine as well as the album covers of Drake and Michael Jackson.
Lorna Simpson
Lorna Simpson is an African American photographer and multimedia artist who challenges conventional ideas about race, women, and culture. She was awarded the J. Paul Getty Medal in 2019.
Doreen Garner
Doreen Garner is an American sculptor and performance artist whose work explores the frequent suppressed and traumatic medical histories of the Black body.
Learn More About the People Above From Past Sessions:
Alice Sheppard
Alice Sheppard is a disabled choreographer and dancer from Britain as well as a sought-out speaker engaging on topics related to disability, arts, race and dance. She first began her career as a professor and after watching disabled dancer Homer Avila, she was challenged to take a dancing class and immediately fell in love, and later made her debut with the Infinity Dance Theatre.
Paulo Freire
Paulo Freire was a renowned Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate on critical pedagogy. Pedagogy of the Oppressed is Freire's most influential work and leads us in this approach on how we can read the society around us.
Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson was a fearless and bold African American transgender woman who fought for LGBTQ rights and was an outspoken advocate for trans people of color. Despite her struggle with mental illness and often being homeless, she made her way as a drag queen and served as a "drag mother" for homeless and struggling LGBTQ youth.