Women’s Studies

Last summer I finished writing “Black Girls Are From the Future: Essays on Race, Digital Creativity and Pop Culture.”

I will be doing a book launch in Oakland, Saturday March 22nd, @ Betti Ono Gallery. Tix are $10.

1. There is a tie for number one. But I will say that being able to edit in real time was one of the major differences. With the blog, I also have an idea of who the audience would be. With a book, I had no idea where the ideas would travel. So I had to learn how to write in a way that assumed that I’d have to explain more.

2. Book formatting is the DEVIL. There was a template provided by Create Space, but I didn’t know that it would take me the better part of a week to actually format the page numbers, the text and fonts. Really, really stressful.

3. I had thought that writing a book, I’d feel lonely and away from my friends. But it was just the opposite. I was busy but I still saw folks; just on off hours or at planned times. But I was out, because I don’t write well at home. I remember one day in particular when I was writing at Whole Foods and the Delta Centennial was taking place and Keondra just came to the Whole Foods on P street to sit with me as I wrote in the cafe. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have extreme periods of solitude, because I do. But it ended up being more manageable than I expected.

4. Going digital. I had no idea the Kindle contract was 17 pages long. So I had it and read it, and thought about it for a long time. I wanted to be certain with my digital publishing choice. The book has been on Kindle since last week.

5. Getting book blurbs. The work flow process of doing a second edition is HELLA non-linear. I actually have two blurbs and an academic review coming out (Peace to Perez) but I had no idea that when I started this process these were the kinds of things that I’d want to add to the back as a blurb and that I’d have to wait, plan and coordinate adding the blurbs to the book. All things I am grateful for.

6. I have NO idea what people think of the book, unless someone actually TELLS me. Blogging is a feedback system. Writing in print is not. Folks found me to tell me on social media, but it just isn’t the same. I am not complaining, just marking the difference.

7. The internet isn’t a respected medium. It was deep to me to learn that having written 963 blog posts isn’t as significant as having 16 essays in print. I get it now, books are tangible, they require waaaaay more resources, and books can travel to places where digital cannot. Which brings me to my next point. I felt like the same person but folks will see you different in print. It just is the nature of the game.

8. You never know who is going to show up when you shine your light, and I was scared at first, but now I am fearless in it. Why? I learned in February that the book was selected by Ruth Nicole Brown to be taught in the Education Justice Project. Reading what men and women prisoners had to say about my work (typos and all) changed.my.fucking.life. Like to know that brothers and sisters TOOK my words so seriously AND that a sister took it upon herself to teach it (And folks say Black women don’t support each other. Some do. Some don’t.) My God. You have no idea. I felt like whatever book writing hangups I had, I needed to address them at the root, because there are, in Ruth’s words “folks who are ready to read Black feminists words on Black feminist terms.”

9. I’m ahead of the game when it comes to a lot of folks who are independent because I’ve been blogging for so long and interacting with folks, I don’t have to over rely on traditional mainstream media gatekeepers. @MarquetteJones has been telling me this for years. But I HAD TO EXPERIENCE it in order to believe it for myself. This is important as Black feminists have been writing and creating public work in the US for at least the last 100 years, and I am grateful to be a part of their legacy on the internet. (More about my project on this later.) You cannot build a community overnight, and in many ways the game is saturated right now. It isn’t impossible to start today. Just work.

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If this is your first time reading my work here are some examples of my blog posts:

1. On Kim Kardashian’s Empire and Race

2. Is A Black Web Browser Racist: BET x Kevin Kelly, x Blackbird

3. Race, Class and Prostitution in the City: Washington DC’s Black Madam, Odessa Madre

4. How Zora and Dilla Helped Me to Claim My Crush

5. Black Women and Pleasure

6. For Colored Bloggers Who Consider Sexism and Racism

7. Are Black Men Really That Homophobic?

8. Kill Me Or Leave Me Alone: Street Harassment as a Public Health Issue

9. The Gender Politics of the Dance Floor

Sign up here to receive Newsletter, and here is the Facebook page. I am excited to see you old friends, and I am excited to meet you new friends.

Is there anything else you want to know about moving from the blog to the book. Let me know, and Ill answer your questions.

For comps, I read Clarie Moses’s “What’s In a Name?” On Writing the History of Feminism” this weekend.

What is fascinating is that she discusses the history of the word feminism, what exactly do we mean when we use the term feminism to describe women’s organizing activities and is it legitimate to call someone a feminist if they didn’t describe themselves as such? #hmmp!

Think about it this way. Do you call someone Black who doesn’t describe themselves as Black? #Ummhmm.

There seems to be three criteria for women’s organizing to be labeled feminist:

A collective focused on advancing women’s cause
Organizing separate from men
Challenge families/religious ideals of what “women” should be, her proper place.

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She states the the term has French origins circa 1880, and it comes from two words Femme, which means woman and ism which is a political identity. Who knew? That’s kind of awesome.

She also asks is it legitimate to label someone a feminist if the term wasn’t being used yet in a particular space. For instance can we call the women getting together to act for the betterment of women in say the 1700’s, even if they did not call themselves feminist. Good question, no?

I have heard MANY a Black woman say “I am not a feminist, thats for White women” and I understand because popular culture representations of feminism would have someone think that feminism was only for “middle classed White women.”

But, Black women- Black club women, since reconstruction so we are talking the early 1900’s on have been organizing. They have been getting together to build schools and churches, protesting the racially and sexually violent treatment of Black women- in short rape, they protested the lynching of African American men- a violent act of power intended to keep African American’s in their place- don’t get uppity.

Feminism is also defined differently based on you is using it. For some it means, “defending the cause of women”, “believing in the moral and spiritual equality of the sexes” or “believing in the intellectual equality” of the sexes.

There has also been work written that states that Native American Iroquois women influenced early White women feminist and the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Reading this I thought, why has the term feminist persisted over time?

Why is it such a hot button term that triggers a knee jerk reaction where folks feel the need to either embrace it or disavow themselves from it?

Over the years, Moses contends that there have been several kinds of feminist. “Liberal Feminists”, “Socialist Feminists”, “Black Feminists”, “Jewish Feminists”, “multicultural feminists”, “Christian Feminists” and I would add to that “Hip Hop Feminists.”

Moses concludes that the gains for women during the period where “feminism” was so broadly defined were enormous. The gains for women were substantial, however some women gained more than others and this happened across racial lines.

Women obtained access to credit and their right to control property and their job earnings
Laws were passed guaranteeing women equal access to higher education

It appears that women made the most striking gains, when the term was used broadly, giving it multiple meanings.

Words are powerful. They help us feel connected to something greater.

What do you think of Femme + Ism?

The Iroquois influenced the Founding Fathers? Word?

You learn something? What? I did.

10 Ways Writing a Book is Different From Writing 963 Blog Posts o.0

If this is your first time reading my work here are some examples of my blog posts:

On the History of the Word “Feminist” and How It is Used.