The Kinkiness of Turquoise

Groove Theory ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 182-223
Author(s):  
Tony Bolden
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Alice Walker ◽  
American Poetry ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Vocal Technique ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Bessie Smith ◽  
Critical Methods

This chapter showcases Betty Davis’s transposition of women’s blues into rock-inflected version of funk. Bolden advances two key arguments. First, Davis reprised the sexual politics and rebellious spirit exemplified by singers Bessie Smith and Ida Cox, for instance, and reinterpreted those principles in modern America. Second, Davis’s eroticism and sui generis style of funk, which she expressed in her recordings and onstage, reflected a sexual politics that served as a counterpart to those of black feminists writers such as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and many others who were publishing coextensively. But whereas black feminist writers often wrote about black women in previous generations, Davis not only addressed contradictions that black women encountered in contemporary street culture; she also represented such X-rated sexual desires as sadomasochism in her songwriting. In addition, the chapter provides biographical information that contextualizes Davis’s route to the music industry, and Bolden uses critical methods from scholarship on African American poetry to illuminate Davis’s vocal technique. 

scholarly journals Rebellious and Strong Black Women in Paradise

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 122-132
Author(s):  
Zadmehr Torabi ◽  
Parvin Ghasemi
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Alice Walker ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Patriarchal Ideology ◽  
Unique Identity ◽  
Strong Black Women ◽  
And Gender

The main aim of this paper is to apply black feminist tenets especially those of Bell Hooks and Alice Walker to demonstrate that unlike the passive black female characters of The Bluest Eye, and the resisting but finally victimized black women of Beloved, the wise and strong black women of Paradise who live in the Convent, are strong enough to recreate themselves as subjects, and to cultivate their own unique identity in a hegemonic environment which is replete with racial and gender discrimination. Black feminist actions and womanistic rituals help them accomplish this improvement. Consolata, and Mavis are two of such strong women of the Convent who not only succeed in healing themselves, but also in healing other black women as well. Black feminists claim in order to place black women at the center of stories about the American past, they must be depicted as subjects, that is, as creative change-agents, rather than as objects, or victims of hegemonic agency. In Paradise black women are depicted thus, have their own voices, and completely reject the patriarchal ideology.

“An Inside Thing to Live by”: Refusal, Conjure, and Black Feminist Imaginaries among Granny Midwives

Hypatia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Lindsey Stewart
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Politics Of Recognition ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Conjure Woman ◽  
Birthing Practices ◽  
American Thought

Abstract “Granny midwives” often based their authority to practice midwifery on the spiritual traditions of rootwork or conjure passed down by the foremothers who trained them. However, granny midwives were compelled to give up their conjure-infused methods of birthing if they wanted to become licensed (that is, to get a “permit”) or be authorized by the state to continue their practice of midwifery. In response, some granny midwives refused to recognize the authority of the state in the birthing realm, willfully retaining rootwork in their birthing practices. In this article, I contrast the response of granny midwives, a politics of refusal, with another major tradition in African American thought, a politics of recognition, such as gaining citizenship and rights, permits, and licenses from the state. Due to the political stakes of the granny midwife's conflict with the state, I argue that black feminists often endow the figure of the granny midwife (or more broadly, the conjure woman) with the political significance of refusal in our emancipatory imaginaries. To demonstrate this, I will analyze the interventions in black liberation politics that two black feminist writers make through their invocation of granny midwives: Zora Neale Hurston's essay, “High John de Conquer,” and Toni Morrison's novel, Paradise.

The Devil’s Gonna Get You

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Gussow
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Bessie Smith ◽  
Lyric Tradition ◽  
The Devil

This chapter explores a major theme within the blues lyric tradition: the devil as a figure who haunts intimate relationships between African American men and women. In some cases, men imagine themselves as footloose, mistreating devils; in other cases, they complain about romantic rivals who act in that way; in still other cases, they rage as their women, in thrall to the devil, grow cold to the touch or transfer their feelings to some other man. Artists covered include Lonnie Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Skip James, and Sonny Boy Williamson, along with Bessie Smith, Koko Taylor, and other black women who call on the devil to punish their no-good man—or, alternately, reject him as a mistreating devil rather than the angel he appeared at first to be.

The Daughters Debt: How Black Spirituality and Politics are Transforming the Televisual Landscape

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josslyn Luckett
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Alice Walker ◽  
Paule Marshall ◽  
Women's Spirituality ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Toni Cade Bambara ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
Film Directors ◽  
Black Spirituality

The spectrum of black women's spirituality in television has become nearly as diverse as the portraits of Afro-Atlantic spiritual practices that became central to key literary works of black feminist authors of the 1980s, such as Toni Cade Bambara, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. While many are the spiritual and televisual daughters of the authors mentioned above, this essay argues that the appearance of this wider range of black women's spirituality and activism in episodic television owes its greatest debt to two films from the 1990s, Julie Dash's, Daughters of the Dust (1991) and Kasi Lemmons’ Eve's Bayou (1997). I focus here on two shows which were themselves created by Black women feature film directors, Shots Fired (Gina Prince Bythewood with Reggie Rock Bythewood) and Queen Sugar (Ava DuVernay). I examine how characters like Pastor Janae (from Shots) and Nova Bordelon (from Sugar) use their spiritual practices in service of social justice, family, and community healing in ways that connect them to the women of Dash and Lemmons’ earlier films.

“Fearfully and wonderfully made”: Black Caribbean women and the decolonization of thick Black female bodies

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamille Gentles-Peart
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Body Politics ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Caribbean Women ◽  
Black Caribbean ◽  
Female Bodies

Black feminists promote decolonization as a strategy to recuperate Black women’s dignity and humanity from racist colonialist ideologies. In order to fully explore Black women’s emancipation, Black feminists have to explicitly consider how Black women break away from the ways in which thick Black female bodies have been defined by dominant white colonial cultures, and how Black women of different ethnicities engage in their own recovery of voluptuous Black female bodies. In this paper, I use a Black feminist intersectional lens to explore the ways in which Black Caribbean women recuperate thick Black female bodies from colonialist and racist ideologies. Specifically, using focus groups, I examine how these women participate in what I refer to as emancipatory thick body politics, discourses that challenge and resist the dehumanization of thick Black female bodies. Findings indicate that Black Caribbean women actively participate in decolonizing thick Black female bodies by forming sisterhood communities with other Black Caribbean women, re-defining womanhood, and engaging in transgressive interpretations of Christian doctrine.

Incorporating intersectional musicality within the classroom: Black feminism through Nina Simone and Janelle Monáe

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmine Hines
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Social Justice Advocacy ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Dominant Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Education And Society ◽  
Nina Simone

In an age of social justice advocacy within education, the work of Black women continues to be excluded from the hegemonic educational canon despite the long history of Black feminists advocating for the eradication of systemic oppressive systems in education. By examining the livelihoods and music created by Black feminist musicians, music educators may begin to reflect on how Black women’s positionality within society has had a direct influence on the music they created within a White culturally dominant society. The purpose of this article is to conceptualize how the intersectional musicality of Nina Simone and Janelle Monáe – informed by the conceptual framework of Black Feminist Thought – can speak to the experiences that Black girls and women face within music education and society.

The character of womanhood: How African American women’s perceptions of womanhood influence marriage and motherhood

Ethnicities ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra Chaney
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
White Women ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
American Women ◽  
Written Responses ◽  
The Family ◽  
Women’S Perceptions

This qualitative paper will focus on how black women understand and perceive womanhood, and will explore how black women’s perceptions regarding womanhood shape their attitudes and behaviours toward marriage and motherhood. Using a black feminist approach, I assert that black women’s perceptions of womanhood are not based on European notions as the family structure and experiences of African American women is characteristically different from that of white women. Further, I assert that African American women create a modified version of womanhood based on their education, social class and economic position in relation to black men, and which may, in turn, inform their decisions regarding marriage and motherhood. Specifically, I examine the written responses of fifteen African American women between the ages of 18 and 55 (mean age of 32.6 years) regarding what is expected of them as women. Qualitative analyses of the data revealed that womanhood was defined in terms of feminine attitudes (strength, sensitivity and sensuality) and feminine behaviours (familial care, their own physical appearance and self-respect). In addition, womanhood was demonstrated through a woman’s ability to care for her home and to take the lead in the absence of male leadership. Supporting qualitative data are presented in connection with each theme. Recommendations for future research are also provided.

Say my name

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-568
Author(s):  
Sonja L. Lanehart
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Black Feminists ◽  
Women Scholars ◽  
Elder Women ◽  
And Linguistics

This essay is a call out and a roll call of Black women scholars – Black Feminists, Critical Race Theorists, Intersectionality Theorists and co-conspirators – doing the work of the elder women and ancestors whose shoulders we stand on. I frame the research on African American Women’s Language around Hull, Bell-Scott and Smith’s (1982) seminal book All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave to shout out not only how language and linguistics researchers got it twisted and need to reckon with truth and say my (language’s) name: African American Women’s Language. And put some respeck on it while you’re at it.

"Let's Do This!"

2003 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrienne D. Dixson
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Elementary School Teachers ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
African American Teachers ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
American Women ◽  
Material Conditions

Historically, African American teachers have been actively involved in political movements that sought to improve the material conditions of African Americans. More contemporary examinations of African American teachers' pedagogy and, in particular, African American women's pedagogy, have found that these teachers have a decidedly political mission to their teaching. Some researchers have described these teachers' pedagogy as culturally relevant. Notwithstanding, there is a growing body of research that seeks to highlight how Black women, in various contexts, have participated in political activities and how their participation is part of a Black feminist activist tradition. This article examines how contemporary African American women teachers continue the tradition of political involvement and situates their activities in a Black feminist activist tradition. The data are taken from a qualitative study of two African American women elementary school teachers. The findings reveal that among other things, the teachers' pedagogy was inherently political.

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