Further Thoughts On Kelis
I’ve posted briefly about work from Kelis’s “Flesh Tone” before, but here I want to follow through several quick but interesting observations/questions about her recent singles. 1. Afrofuturist feminism in “Acapella,” this time with some theory: I’ve posted about this…
Gaga’s New Album: Doin’ it again, a treat for the freaks?
In the interview posted here on Idolator, Lady Gaga admits that her forthcoming album is going to be, in all but name, a latter-day Wax Trax industrial-dance work: Gaga said, “I think that lyrically it’s more poetic. It’s, in a…
London’s Burning, part 1.1: Lee Edelman Fought the Law, and the Law Won—Edelman’s response to Halberstam
In a previous post I examined Halberstam’s use of the Sex Pistols to critique Edelman’s anti-relational negativity, and to argue for a “political” (or relational) negativity. Looking beyond Halberstam’s own somewhat narrow punk archive, I turned to The Clash and…
Dance in the Dark, Little Monsters: preview of my contribution to “Gaga Stigmata” book
I’m excited to be contributing to a collection on Lady Gaga, curated/edited by the people who run the fab Gaga Stigmata blog. My essay, “Dance In the Dark, Little Monsters: On Gaga’s Post-Goth Posthumanism” will sound somewhat familiar to readers…
When Maya Angelou and James Baldwin Walked into a Bar…
A great–and true!–story, via Feminist Law Professors’ Bridget Crawford: When Maya Angelou and James Baldwin Walked into a Bar… Maya Angelou recently donated 343 boxes of her papers to the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black…
Crunk Feminist Revlections on generations of female rappers
I encourage you to read crunkista’s post on Crunk Feminist Collective. It raises some important considerations/issues/questions in discussions about different generations–and competition among different generations–of female rappers. http://crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/lil-kim-vs-nicki-minaj/ Most interesting–and important, IMHO–is crunkista’s claim that the underlying issue here is…
A few songs (more or less) about AIDS
It’s World AIDS Day. Since nobody seems to talk about AIDS anymore (b/c it’s not so much a problem for privileged men anymore, and more of a subaltern women’s problem), I thought I’d post some of my favorite songs more…
Some Initial Thoughts on “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”
So, I need to spend some more time with Kanye West’s new album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” You can count on some more developed posts about it; those are on the slate for winter break. However, I thought I’d…
London’s Burning, #1: Lee Edelman Fought the Law, and the Law Won
This is the first in my “London’s Burning” sub-series of posts on punk music and queer futurity/anti-futurity debates.* Here, I want to cover Judith Halberstam’s particularly illuminating critique of Edelman. Halberstam argues that Edelman calls on a supposedly critical “negativity”…
Contort Yourself: A follow-up to Shannon Sullivan’s SPEP paper on experiencing white identity as a “joyful passion”
SPEP (Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy) was last weekend, and Shannon Sullivan gave a paper on Nietzsche, Spinoza, and white identity. The paper was bold and provocative (and evidence why people need tenure), and the discussion was heated and…
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