Being in the academy has enabled me to do my work for the most part, because I have never taken my place within the academy too seriously….
And believe me, I have had some setbacks there. Between 1998 and 2002 I worked for a very homophobic vice president and worked under the leadership of a very homophobic and conservative university president for 12 years. This was not fun. We had to deal with Republicans in Washington during the 1980s; and, at Rutgers, since everything comes to the academy later, we had to deal with Republicans at Rutgers in the 1990s. This was very impactful. During this whole time I, of course, continued to write, continued to study, and published my critical study of the Black Arts Movement, “After Mecca,” and my collected works The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry, 1980-2005. I received my doctorate in 2000, which made me very happy. I worked for it from 1991 to 2000 in the English Department at Rutgers, but actually, I started in 1969 and stopped in 1974. Those nine years of study during the 90s were some of my happiest times. So, really it took me 15 years to finish, but I like to say 30 years.
Darnell L. Moore Interviews Legendary Lesbian Feminist Scholar and Poet Cheryl Clarke. (via
newmodelminority)
(via newmodelminority)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Title: Where Is The Line
Artist: Björk
16 plays
Song: Where Is The Line
Artist: Björk
Album: Medúlla
i haveta turn my television down sometimes cuz
i cant stand to have white people/ shout at me/
sometimes i turn it off
cuz i cant look at em in my bedroom either/
being so white
that’s why i like/ greens/
they cdnt even smell you/ wdnt know what you taste like
without sneakin/ got no
idea you shd be tingled wit hot sauce & showered wit vinegar
yr pot liquor spread on hot rolls
i gotta turn the tv off cuz the white people
keep playing games/ & followin presidents on vacation at the war
there’s too much of a odor problem on the tv too/ which
brings me back to greens
i remember my grandma at the market pickin turnips
collards kale & mustards/ to mix-em up/ drop a ½ a strick a lean
in there wit some ham hock & oh my whatta life/
i lived in her kitchen/ wit greens i cd recollect
yes the very root of myself
the dirt & lil bugs i looked for in the fresh collards/
turnin each leaf way so slow/ under the spicket/ watchin
lil mounds of dirt fall down the drain
i done a good job
grandma tol me/ got them greens just ready for the pot
& you know/ wdnt no white man on the tv/
talkin loud n formal make no sense of the miracle
a good pot a greens on a friday nite cd make to me
that’s the only reason i turn em off the tv
cant stand they gossipin abt the news/ sides they dont
never like the criminals & enemies i like anyway
that’s why i like GREENS/ i know how to cook em
& i sure can dream gd/ soppin up the pot liquor
& them peppers/
ntozake shange
’A Daughter’s Geography’
pp. 59-60
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Title: Oceania
Artist: Björk
15 plays
Song: Oceania
Artist: Björk
Album: Medùlla
“…sweet like harmony made into flesh/
you dance by my side.”
it’s definitely a Björk kind of day.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Title: Breathe . Something/Stellar Star
Artist: Flying Lotus
18 plays
Song: Breathe . Something/Stellar Star
Artist: Flying Lotus
Album: Los Angeles
the space is different.
the s p a c e
is different.
the
space
i
s different
th e
sp a ce
is d if ferent.
the space is different.
thespaceisdifferent.
[ ]
…and open. o p e n.
and[ours.]
