Creating Smart and Funky Black Girl Spaces Online….What I Have Been Up to in the Back Channel.

I have a couple of ideas I have been cooking up, every shut eye ain’t sleep.

I am bringing my blog into my dissertation so I can blog again, and not feel like that work is impeding my other work. It is a tenuous process but I feel that I have more to gain if I do it in some ways. Psychologically, I think it will just feel better, and this matters.

Ok, so here is the rub, in order to move on with these four new blog projects, I have gotten honest with myself and started to quantify exactly HOW much time I spend online on my sites/social media spaces, and how much more time I will spend if/when I move forward on the new projects.

So here are the projects:

New Model Minority 3.0 (A fresh link page; easily searchable archives; easier to navigate design for mobile; more regular updates…at least until August; links for the upcoming book projects that I am working on).

A blog about Black and Latina Politics. I have been working on this for nearly a year. I have 4 writers ready to rock. I JUST picked up MHP’s Sister Citizen, while I have not had time yet to read it, I know from browsing it that it is time to build this site. My desire to create this blog is based on MHP’s interactions with Cornel West last summer.

A digital post card site that allows folks to send in confessions on card anonymously.. I think that until we heal, we cannot do the shit we are suppose to do. I see the creation of a Black oriented spaceĀ  as a way to create a space for us to unload secrets that we haven’t told a soul; secrets that are holding us back.

A tumblr dedicated to Black girl art projects. I know that many of us are doing stuff, but there isn’t a single place online where we can go to see these projects.
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A database on Girls and STEM. Honestly this will be a collection of links, probably on blogger because the user interface is so accessible.

A Black girl transformation site. We all are trying to do things in life and I think having a community space online where we can support each other may be useful. Also, the personal development blog posts that I have written here have been some of the most popular posts. So I know that there is an audience. Also, I have Goldy in the back of my head who said that OWN isn’t going to work as it is set up now because this is a reality show culture and in light of that, who wants to watch a network premised on self improvement. I think she has a point. I asked her why does “O” magazine work? Her response was that a magazine isn’t a tv network. Touche.

Part of me is reluctant to do the sites other than the first two listed because all of this shit is work. Sugar cane don’t cut itself. Blogs don’t run themselves.

But when I see how the Black girl blogosphere looks these days, I feel that it is in my best interest to not only try, but to do it in an experimental way that is not tied to the outcomes.

I am approaching this in a structured and strategic way, largely because I think that is the most thoughtful way of approaching it. Also, given the fact that I am a teacher, EVERYthing is structured. I think in outlines, which is good because it allows me to document all the little steps. Teaching has forced me to thinking about my thinking. #metashit.

Honestly if there is enough traffic across the sites, my goal is to charge for ad’s from Black girl cultural workers and run them on the site. Honestly, a part of my goal is to see how we can leverage online space to create work and art that shows black girls as the nuanced, contradictory, fancy human beings that we are. Blog hosting costs bread. And a part of me is interested in seeing if I can create ANOTHER model whereby this space sustains itself. I also want to show other Black girls how to do it. Hence, my processing outloud on the blog.

Again the work. Another thing that I am scared of is that I do it, it is successful, but the time required to keep it up is too much. But then that means that I can’t complain about the Black girl digital spaces that exist because I didn’t do anything to change it. #womp.

Thoughts?

Comments

  1. says

    I’m excited for you! True, it will be a lot of work but I know you can do it and I can’t wait to see the results.

  2. msdailey says

    You have great ideas, lots of good and positive thoughts sent your way so that you accomplish everything you set your mind to!

    msdailey

  3. Renina says

    Melodie ( I called you Mel in my head),

    Woot! It is so good to hear from you. I will keep you in the loop on things. Keep checking back.

    ~R