James Baldwin

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

Kritikos Anti-Racist Reading Group

Kritikos engages topics such as writing about the arts, critical studies, translation, the artist in society, and art as speech.


The Fall 2024 Anti-Racist Reading Group Series

Fridays, October 4-November 15, 2024–1-2:30 pm  

To join the discussions, find a Zoom link posted weekly under each title below.

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Mosaic tile
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
— James Baldwin

Dear George Mason University Friends and Neighbors:

Inspired by mass actions and worldwide protests demanding racial justice, CVPA’s Arts in Context continues the Kritikos Anti-Racist Reading Group this semester, moderated by Mason faculty members Jessica Kallista and Kristin Johnsen-Neshati, with help from co-organizers, Jaimie Appleton, Jordan McRae and Sang Nam.

Members of the community are called to meet each semester for a 90-minute session once a week with a goal of long-term commitment to relationship building, awareness, reimagining, transformation, and action, around anti-racist practices, racial justice, and the creation of conversations as well as systems of compassion and healing. We continue to focus on anti-Black racism and its effects on society. 
 
Grounded in the knowledge that it is not a question of whether we are racist, but rather, how racism is expressed and experienced in ourselves, our lives, our behaviors, and our institutions, 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 racist values and practices.

—The Kritikos Anti-Racist Reading Group Organizing Committee

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Thank you!


Previous Reading Group Reading Materials

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)

BLACKBIIRD (Official Lyric Video) Beyoncé, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts

Beyoncé - TEXAS HOLD 'EM (Official Lyric Video)

 

Week 2: June 21, 2024 - Imagining Black Eco-Justice

Congo and the Climate Crisis

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

Shooting of 15-year-old ‘beautiful soul’ in California revives scrutiny on law enforcement abuse of youth with disabilities

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 

The Moynihan Report at Fifty

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]

Theorizing White heteropatriarchal supremacy, marriage fundamentalism, and the mechanisms that maintain family inequality

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

My Dungeon Shook

 

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

Liberation Ecotherapy™

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 Growing Traditions

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

Extractivism

What Is Colonialism? A History of Violence, Control and Exploitation

What Does It Mean to Dismantle Racial Capitalism Anyway?

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Industrial mining of cobalt and copper for rechargeable batteries is leading to grievous human rights abuses

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

Extraction is not a metaphor: Decolonial and Black Geographies against the gendered and embodied violence of extractive logics

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

How to Counteract Extractive Behavior in Social Justice Movement Building to Sustain Momentum by Gwendolyn VanSant

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

Gen Z does not dream of labor

“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

Performance or Progress? The Physical and Rhetorical Removal of Indigenous Peoples in Settler Land Acknowledgments at Land-Grab Universities 

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

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

When Sleep Becomes an Art Form

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

Register to vote

 

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

Register 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

Register to vote

 

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)

As the global musical phenomenon turns 50, a hip-hop professor explains what the word ‘dope’ means to him

HOW HIP-HOP CONQUERED THE WORLD

Women Artists: The Creative Process by bell hooks [PDF]

The Necessary Art of Leisure

Avoiding Burnout and Going the Distance (Chapter 10 from Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba) [PDF]

The Last Resort Artist Retreat: A Conversation with Derrick Adams

Derrick Adams Gives Black Joy the Cinematic Treatment

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 ORIGIN OF STUDENT DEBT: REAGAN ADVISER WARNED FREE COLLEGE WOULD CREATE A DANGEROUS “EDUCATED PROLETARIAT”

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

DEI Legislation Tracker

‘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]

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"

Opinion: The ‘soft girl era’ is sweeping social media, but the idea of a soft life for Black women isn’t new by Rachel Cargle

Muholi V, 2022 by Zanele Muholi

The Will to Learn: The World as Classroom, by bell hooks

Spring 2023 Reading Materials

Week 1: February 10, 2023 - Fugitive Pedagogy

Fugitive Pedagogy: Jarvis Givens rediscovers the underground history of black schooling by Lydialyle Gibson

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)

Black History Is Our History: Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Also Known As The 'Father Of Black History Month (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

Cancel Culture Is Real, But adrienne maree brown Says We Should Be Careful About Throwing People Away

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

ADRIENNE MAREE BROWN on Pleasure as Birthright /115 (video)

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)

Talking about Race: Self-Care

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)

Nina Simone: That Blackness

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 -coming]

Oscar Micheaux: The First Black Indie Filmmaker

Unpacking Black Joy From The Revolutionary to the Ordinary (video)

BEAM Tool Kits & Resources

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

A Day of Self Love

10-Minute Guided Meditation for Beginners to Clear Thoughts

Why the BIPOC community is getting serious about boundaries: ‘Boundary work is liberation’

How to Unplug, Set Boundaries, and Practice Self-Care During Tumultuous Times. Here’s how to unplug, unwind, set boundaries, and stay healthy as we fight systemic racism and police brutality by Taneasha White 

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

In a New Netflix Series, Black Food Gets Celebrated—and Apex Preservationist Gabrielle E.W. Carter Gets Her Due

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

‘Summer of Soul’ Review: Questlove’s Directorial Debut Captures the Legacy of Forgotten ‘Black Woodstock’

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 

How racism harms children 

Racial Trauma

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

White supremacy, with a tan

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

Bail Reform

Civil Rights Advocates Release Scathing Report Tracing Ties Between Fairfax Financial and For-Profit Bail Industry

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’

Taylor McManus, a Black-centric Body-Positive Artist Championing the Redefinition of Beauty Standards

 

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

In a New Netflix Series, Black Food Gets Celebrated—and Apex Preservationist Gabrielle E.W. Carter Gets Her Due

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

In the Season, The Edna Lewis Story

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

American Slavery, Reinvented: The Thirteenth Amendment forbade slavery and involuntary servitude, “except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”

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

END 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

Hearts of Our People: Power

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?

Clark Atlanta University, HBCUs across the country clear student balances and cancel debt with federal funds

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’ 

How to Unplug, Set Boundaries, and Practice Self-Care During Tumultuous Times. Here’s how to unplug, unwind, set boundaries, and stay healthy as we fight systemic racism and police brutality. by Taneasha White 

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

Audre Lorde

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)

Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger asks appeals court to throw out murder conviction for killing Botham Jean

 

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 herehttps://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

Hidden in Plain Sight: The Ghosts of Segregation Vestiges of racism and oppression, from bricked-over segregated entrances to the forgotten sites of racial violence, still permeate much of America’s built environment.

colour-blind racism: the four frames

Color Blind Racism (video)

The Linguistics of Color Blind Racism: How to Talk Nasty About Blacks Without Sounding “Racist” by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

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

The Sapphire Caricature

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

Anger Can Build a Better World: Black Lives Matter protests are not anti-American, but as American as one can get.

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)

BEAM Tool Kits & Resources

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

Nine Black Artists and Cultural Leaders on Seeing and Being Seen: Amy Sherald, Michael R. Jackson and others discuss the challenges and opportunities of cultivating black audiences and dismantling historically white institution.

Beware the 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)

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

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

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 Sexualtiy 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

The Boldly Feminine Gaze of Hiba Schahbaz--Schahbaz’s large-scale paintings, on view in her latest exhibition Dreaming, assert the right to claim and occupy space as a woman

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)

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 

How Far Have We Really Come? Black Women Faculty and Graduate Students’ Experiences in Higher Education by Lori

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)

Teaching Critical Thinking Chapter 4 Decolonization by bell hooks (PDF)

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)

Trump's EPA Concludes Environmental Racism Is Real: A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency finds that people of color are much more likely to live near polluters and breathe polluted air— even as the agency seeks to roll back regulations on pollution by Vann R. Newkirk II

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

  1. Preface: covering-1-13 (PDF)
  2. Racial Covering: covering-108-127 (PDF)

'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)

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

M4BL: 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)REALDREAMS OF THE MARVELOUSby Robin D. G. Kelley 

Freedom Dreaming: A Call to Imagineby Sarah Branch, Downtown Brooklyn Arts Management Fellow 

Freedom Dreaming - Digital Resource Guide

Week 4 - Race and Disability

Alice Sheppard 

Alice Sheppard on Disability Dance and Access 

Racism and Ableism 

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)

A Vision for Black Lives M4BLPOLICY DEMANDS FOR BLACK POWER, FREEDOM, & JUSTICE Policy Brief 4 (PDF)

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)

Black Trans Lives Matter: Movement Pushes for Justice & Visibility Amid “Epidemic” of Violence Democracy Now (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

Talking about Race: Self-Care

Understanding Racial Trauma

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)

Kleaver Cruz The Black Joy Project

Dignity and Power Now Healing Justice Toolkit

Gallery of Artists and Activists

In our Kritikos Anti-Racist Reading Group we call upon and discuss the work of innumerable Black scholars, authors, activists, artists, musicians, poets, dancers, and playwrights to guide our discussions. Here are just a few of them:

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Rachel Cargle
An activist, academic, writer, and lecturer
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Nikole Hannah Jones
A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and avid journalist
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Titus Kaphar
An American painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and installation artist
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Audre Lorde
Was a Black writer, feminist, and activist

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.”

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bell hooks
An author, professor, feminist, and social activist
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Dr. Bettina Love
An award-winning author and co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network
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Audre Lorde
An activist and writer

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. 

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Ingrid Masonda
A South African photography artist
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Cardi B
An award winning and multi-platinum American hip hop artist
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La Tanya Autry
A cultural organizer in the visual arts
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Megan Thee Stallion
A feminist and an award-winning American hip hop artist

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.

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Susan Moore
Was a Michigan-based family medicine physician
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Kadir Nelson
A Los Angeles-based painter, illustrator, author
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Lorna Simpson
An African American photographer and multimedia artist
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Doreen Gardner
An American sculptor and performance artist

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.

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Alice Shepherd
A disabled choreographer and dancer from Britain
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Paulo Freire
A renowned Brazilian educator and philosopher
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Marsha P. Johnson
A transgender woman who fought for LGBTQ rights

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.

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Anti-Racist Resources