Reading about the invention of Black-No-More in George Schuyler’s Black No More reminded me of a Dove advertisement that came out in 2017. The advertisement began with a black model wearing a brown shirt who, in the process of changing her shirt, changed into a white woman wearing a white shirt (CBS). Years earlier, Dove…
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“Incidents”
In her play, Harriet Jacobs, Lydia R. Diamond draws parallels between Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. While Diamond includes emblematic images and characters that resonate with Jacobs’ autobiography, such as the garret and Jacob’s children, she also includes other images that are not mentioned in the original text. For example, in…
Art is a Vicious and Exhausting Cycle: a presentation on Fuego
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk to some students about what it was like to be on Fuego del Corazon. Fuego del Corazon, or Fuego, is a latin dance team in Boston College and is celebrating 16 years since its inauguration. This year, after so much hard work, Fuego won the…
The Power of Gratuity in JID’s “Skrawberries (feat. BJ the Chicago Kid)”
JID’s arrival to the hip hop scene was not a quiet one. Shortly after the release of his first album, The Never Story, critics pounced to compare him to Kendrick Lamar. The two both present immediately with the capacity to create songs with incredible hooks, versatile flows, but most importantly, lyrics that run circles around…
(Pop-Up Challenge) Social Media: A Form of Escapism
In Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Linda successfully “runs away” from slavery without actually ever running away at first. Without anybody ever knowing about her whereabouts (with the exception of her grandmother) after she escaped the wrath of Dr. Flint, Linda hides in a crawl space in her grandmother’s attic,…
Come Get Her: Rae Sremmurd and the Art of Seduction
Rae Sremmurd’s “Come Get Her” lyrically indulges in the seduction, intoxication, and submission of an unidentified woman then placed into use for sexual exploitation. The song immediately begins with the male figure’s identification of the woman as sexually appealing, one of the rap duo stating “Somebody come to the floor, it feels like we’ve met…
(Pop-Up Challenge) Ruthless Lyrics With Meaning
I’m sure everybody is well aware of the song Forget You! by Cee Lo Green, and was especially aware of it nine years ago (it’s been a while) when it first came out in 2010. This is probably due to the fact that it was constantly played on every radio station, all day and every…
PATU Presentation
I enjoyed being a part of Professor Curseen’s class Just Playin’. I never had the opportunity to speak to people about PATU and the process of making the team, practicing, and its effect on me. My PATU presentation was really reflective on my experience as a freshman joining a team with many of my friends…
What Happens When We Take The BITCH Out the Way
Listen to THIS FIRST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw429JGL5zo “Move bitch, get out the way ” – Ludacris, Word of Mouf. Since 2001, Ludacris has been trying to get the “bitch” to move. I decided to help him out and, quite literally, took the word ‘bitch’ out of the song . But instead of only imagining the ‘what if’s’…
Indigo and her Dolls
“Sitting among her dolls, Indigo looked quite mad” (3). In the phrase “Sitting among her dolls” Shange presents the reader with a very specific image of Indigo. Shange’s use of the word “among” in the phrase implies that Indigo has many dolls that are surrounding her. If Shange had used “next to” instead of “among”…
Black Matter 