A few weeks ago, I got asked to present on Pauline Hopkins at an upcoming conference. I accepted, and I chose to present on Hopkins’ Of One Blood, Afrofuturism, and Black Panther. Instead of looking at the film, as other scholars have done, I looked at the opening scene in Fantastic Four #52. As well, I did not focus on everything I could have … Read More Pauline Hopkins, Afrofuturism, and Black Panther
On October 8, 1955, Jackie Ormes’ Patty-Jo ’n’ Ginger panel in the Pittsburgh Courier showed Patty-Jo standing next to a door as she tells her sister, “I don’t want to seem touchy on the subject . . . but, that new little white tea-kettle just whistled at me!” Ginger leans on a couch, looking at her younger sister. She hold a newspaper behind her back, hiding the … Read More Are We Protecting Our Children When We Don’t Answer Their Questions?
Over the past month, I have read two powerfully moving graphic novels about the separation of families during war. Miriam Katin’s We Are On Our Own focuses on Miram and her mother’s escape from the Nazis in Budapest during World War II. Along with Katin’s memoir, I read Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s The Waiting, a fictional story, based on Gendry-Kim’s mother and sister being separated during the Korean War, separated … Read More Hands in Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s “The Waiting”
In The High Desert: black. punk. nowhere., James Spooner details growing up as a Black kid in Apple Valley, California, and being into punk rock. He details the liminality he felt, being seen as not Black enough by his Black classmates or as nonwhite by his white punk friends. When Spooner met Ty, a Black punk kid, at school, he fell in love with … Read More The Misappropriation of Anti-Racist Punk Classics
Since its debut earlier this year, I have really enjoyed Szymon Kudrański’s Something Epic. Specifically, I enjoy Kudrański’s exploration of the creation and role of art in lives, the ways that art informs us and tells us more about the world we inhabit. I’ve written multiple posts about Kudrański’s series, exploring the ways we use words and imagination to create worlds and the ways that our subconscious … Read More The Dangers of Art in Szymon Kudrański’s “Something Epic”
Interminable Rambling 