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

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…