You guys, did you realize that Hillary Clinton is the Courtney Love of the 2016 Democratic primaries? And that that makes Bernie Sanders Kurt Cobain?! Read on & I’ll show you two infographics that totally prove it. Plus, they’ll help you registered Dems out there decide how to cast your vote!
Filed under Uncategorized
“… I discovered the Riot Grrrl movement, and that really changed everything for me. Girls were picking and choosing pieces of ‘female’ fashion and twisting them: lipstick and baby doll dresses paired with dirty Converse and a skateboard; a cute pageboy haircut and a child’s barrette with hairy armpits and a guitar. I stopped seeing makeup, shaved legs, and dresses as the enemy. They aren’t imperatives of being female; they’re part of a costume that people of any gender can choose to wear or not.”–Beth Ditto
Filed under Rah! Rah! Roundup
When we were younger, books about girlhood let us know we weren’t alone, and showed us that young women’s voices and stories are important; that girls can be smart, adventurous, playful, sad, and strong. Now that we’re all grown up, these amazing vintage covers would be just perfect for blowing up, framing, and hanging in our apartments.
I just learned that this book wasn’t really written by an anonymous drug-addicted teenager like last year. What is definitely ultra-real though is this awesome cover. (Via) Continue reading
Filed under Art + Comics, Books + Literature
The Huntington Library recently revealed this cover page from brilliant science fiction legend & Afro-Futurism pioneer Octavia Butler’s personal notebook, which was discovered in their archive:
via huntingtonblogs.org
“This is my life. I write bestselling novels.” **CHILLS** Continue reading
Filed under Books + Literature
Alexis Clements wrote an essay for Hyperallergic about her experience attending the Poetry Project’s live event, “White Room,” a conversation dealing with how to dismantle white supremacy among American poets. Among many other observations, she notes: “People have been walking away from and refusing the white room, the male room, the straight room, the able-bodied room, all the rooms, for a long time. Alternative spaces and radical political movements did not get “killed” in this country. Narratives of failure around radical politics often look at too short a time span, too little of a sweep of history.”
Filed under Rah! Rah! Roundup, Uncategorized
“Sexist attitudes and simple lust may fuel some men’s desire to become a sexual predator, but impunity allows them to act on that desire. If the goal is for women to be able to operate in the music industry (or anywhere) free of harassment, assaults, discrimination, and predation, removing that impunity would seem like a good place to start. And that might—might—be what’s happening right now.”–From “Breaking the Silence in the Music Industry”
Filed under Rah! Rah! Roundup
Photo by Nicole Heffron
This fall, while I was working on a few artist statements for a few different applications, I was concurrently reading up on Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I was particularly interested in how Narcissus almost did not make it into the DSM-V. He eventually held on to his spot in the Personality Disorder section, despite all the debate. So proud of you, phenomenal Narcissism! You survived your potential death knell and continue to plague society. Or is it society that plagues the Narcissist? Arguably, this particular “disorder” has socially constructed, rather than biological, roots. In a nutshell, rates are higher in the US than most other countries, and are higher among men than women. These facts are not surprising. Our capitalist, individualist culture fuels narcissistic tendencies, surely. But do our literary and artistic communities need to feed narcissistic tendencies? Or is there room for all sorts of brilliance to shine, equitably?
Filed under Books + Literature, Everything Else
“I was trying to figure out why, in 2009, we were still being treated the same way, if not worse, then when I was 14 and listening to Bikini Kill.”–Tom Tom founder Mindy Abovitz on why there are “so few female drummers.”
Filed under Rah! Rah! Roundup
“Don’t forget it! Use your voice!!!!”
So shouted 69-year-old Patti Smith, arms flailing, long grey hair flying, at the Wiltern in Los Angeles during Saturday’s sold-out last night of her tour performing her iconic 1975 album Horses for its 40th anniversary. She spit on the stage, danced barefoot and thrust her voice to the heavens, with the crowd roaring back. An older female artist thrumming with life, rage, rock and joy; aging, ageless, human.
Filed under Music + Playlists
Winter Santiaga, the protagonist of Sister Souljah’s 1999 debut novel The Coldest Winter Ever, is anything but a wallflower. The equally beautiful and selfish favored daughter of Brooklyn drug kingpin Ricky Santiaga, Winter is sixteen going on twenty-five, and accustomed to the luxuries bought with dirty money—her biggest concerns are looking fly, getting off, and having fun. When things are good, Winter’s life is a label-flashing Hype Williams video. Her father expresses his love through expensive gifts, from 14-K gold and diamonds to head-to-toe Chanel and Gucci outfits. Winter admires Ricky’s hustle, confusing wealth for the promise of unshakeable stability, social status, and security. Unfortunately, Ricky’s empire implodes when jealous rivals snitch to the feds. He is arrested and shipped off to Rikers. CPS snatches up Winter’s three younger sisters, and her mother is arrested for being an accessory to her husband’s felonies. Without hesitation, Winter snaps into solider mode, plotting and scheming ways to make some quick cash while remaining in hiding. She’s not above using sex to get what she wants, whether that be cash, transportation, or a place to crash for the night. She says, “To be able to shit on people before they get a chance to shit on you. That’s power.”
Including her fiction debut, Sister Souljah’s books continue to sell year after year. Despite the staggering success, mainstream publishing has been quick to categorize her work as Urban Literature or Street Lit. The origin of the name is literal and, according to scholars such as Keenan Norris and authors such as Omar Tyree, refers to stories around the plight of urban life, ranging from Stephen Crane’s “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” to Iceberg Slim’s memoir, Pimp: The Story of My Life, and Richard Wright’s Native Son. Yet mainstream publishing, which is typically not a reflection of diversity but racial and often gender uniformity, uses this label as a code for Black, as though all work revolving around Black characters in urban environments repeat the same stories. One look around your last standing Barnes and Noble, or even while browsing the endless genres on Amazon, shows this race-based categorization and exclusionary hierarchy of literature. Souljah’s novels routinely address the trials and tribulations of Black and African-American people. However, this does not mean that her work cannot also embody a category not defined by Otherness. This would otherwise simply be known as Fiction. Continue reading
Filed under Books + Literature
