[By Maryemma Graham] Bielefeld University in the western part of Germany seemed an unlikely place to make a discovery. Teaching for 30 years, facing a new group of students on a regular basis is common practice for me. As far as I was concerned, my trip to the University of Bielefeld for an intensive 4 day seminar “Gender and Memoir” entailed another set of prepared […]
Black ExistentialismS: Situating Black Existential Philosophy February 15, 2013 Submission Deadline: December 1, 2012 Send Submissions and Inquiries to hailej1@duq.edu Celebrating the diversity of understandings, explanations, and explorations into the meaning of blackness within cultural, political, philosophical, and aesthetic life, Duquesne University in conjunction with the Black Aesthetics and Politics series invites participants from a wide range of disciplines and mediums to this year’s […]
[By Jerry W. Ward] Several times during his September 20, 2012 lecture on “The Crisis of Black Leadership” at the University of Kansas, Eddie Glaude, author of In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America (2007), used the phrases “custodial politics” and “democratic perfectionism.” “Democratic perfection” is so critical a concept in political theory that it is virtually invisible in the […]
[By Goyland Williams] I was fortunate to witness two powerful and thought-provoking lectures given by Eddie Glaude Jr., the William S. Todd Professor of Religion and African-American Studies at Princeton University. The first lecture “The Crises of Black Leadership” was given on Thursday, September 20, 2012 and the second lecture “The Role of the Black Church in the age of Obama” was held in the […]
[By Kenton Rambsy] Besides sharing parents and a last name with Howard Rambsy II, I had the opportunity to share the stage and serve on a panel of respondents with him at Make It Funky III. This experience gave me the opportunity to view Howard as more than an older sibling, but to also gain a deeper sense of the work he is doing. More […]
[By Kenton Rambsy] I tend to take for granted that I am not an expert on rap music in its entirety. I play the music daily, attend concerts regularly, and read nearly every hip-hop blogs, but, often times, I neglect to fully comprehend that what I understand hip-hop to be in its current state is actually the product of years-and-years of artistic and cultural movements. […]
[By Kenton Rambsy] Professor of African and African American Studies TonyBolden is certainly a social artifact at the University of Kansas. By social artifact, I mean a witness to numerous social and artistic developments in black culture, a poet, a critic of black writing, as well as a mentor to undergrad and graduate students. Bolden is a leading figure on campus, responsible for organizing events […]