Pleased to share my new piece🤓✊🏿
"The 'Sonic Color Line': Shakespeare & the Canonization of Sexual Violence Against Black Men"
I ask: How do black males scream for centuries yet remain unheard? How...
#SexualAssault
#PTSD
#BLM
#ShakeRace
#Shakespeare
@Seabreezyy
And the people who facilitated this...Diddy did not act alone. There are powerful, rich (white) folks in the mix here, too. Diddy did a lot and deserves the consequences but I doubt he is the ultimate source of this mess, sadly.
@CydneyLuke
@AriLennox
100%. Give yourself time & grace, & distance from this
@AriLennox
. Allow yourself space to heal, however long that takes, & then speak on it—if you wish & *how* you wish. Just bc your situation became public knowledge does not make you beholden to the public re: your trauma✊🏿🖤🙏🏿
@jlsmilges
So unacceptable, all of it. I am sorry you were on a train w/other "people" & still felt l like you were alone. I hope all the physical, psychological, emotional wounds heal in due time & that you have at least 1 supportive, loving person in ur life who can be there for you now🙏🏿
✊🏿🤓🎭🙏🏿"Dreams teeter on the edge"...earning TENURE at my alma mater,
@TrinityCollege
, is nothing short of a dream come true! Thank you to my family, my mentors, my colleagues, my friends...thank you God!
🌟keep dreaming, keep believing, keep going🌟
📌🎭🫦✊🏿🤓PREORDER on Amazon, $39.99
🙏🏿My 1ST BOOK (Cambridge UP/
@CUP_LitPerform
) endorsed by Claudia RANKINE, Tukufu ZUBERI, Emma SMITH, Patricia AKHIMIE, Keith Hamilton COBB, Bernadette ANDREA, Simon GODWIN & Melissa E. SANCHEZ!
#ShaxWhiteOthers
🔗
✊🏿🎭Along w/my 🔥 co-editors
@pakhimie
& Arthur Little, I am proud to share nine new
#ShakeRace
essays from the Shakespeare Studies Forum (50th anniversary vol)! This work started in Parts 1 & 2 of my 2020 virtual
@SAAupdates
seminar "Shakespeare's 'Other Race Plays'" & evolved👇🏿
Delighted to have Imtiaz Habib’s paperback book finally—his words & billiance live on🙏🏿 Thanks
@routledgebooks
& all who did visible & invisible labor to push for this important change🖤
✊🏿Everyone interested in
#ShakeRace
should know this book.
#BlackLivesMatter
@FountainPenDiva
...& it's not about celebrating the "beating up of white people" (tweeter got the wrong angle), at the core it's the fact that this isn't another BLACK DEATH
#SayHisName
#SayHerName
video for the archive, been too many...people intervened & didn't just stand by, that matters🙏🏿✊🏿
We’re thrilled to announce that
@FolgerED
's
@reconstruct_us
course “Black Shakespeare” has been awarded the Shakespeare Association of America’s 2022 Shakespeare Publics Award!
#Shax2022
@JayREllis
Doing self-checkout like a fucking pro...I be wanting to ask people in front of me if they need help sometimes bc it really shouldn't take that long to check out 5 items🤣
🩷🥳🧡Today, my beautiful, incredibly loving grandmother turned 85! She has been telling her friends about her “grandson’s book” & if she were on Twitter she’s be telling you about it, too.
Such a blessing that she is here to receive the gifts she gave to her bloodline🩷🥳🧡
@esdsantos
Remember it’s a job, try not to lose yourself in it, maintain interests outside the profession.
Make a five-year plan & adjust it each year.
Learn from mentors/colleagues within & outside of your dept. & outside of your institution.
Take naps.
Read this book if you can👇🏿
I started swimming lessons on January 13th and today I completed my 10th lesson. I can swim now. And I’m still learning — skill by skill.
And today we refined the stroke, breathing and some other things. And my legs are sore!
It’s never too late y’all. 🏊🏿♂️
🔥 🖤 🤓COMING FALL 2021🤓 🖤 🔥
@_theBrownprint_
& Sandra Young X
@ShaxBull
✊🏿**CO-EDITED**SPECIAL**ISSUE**✊🏿
Shakespeare, Social Justice & Contemporary Performance
Just gonna sit this right here👇🏾
A CALL TO ACTION...hope everyone hears them👂🏾👂🏻👂🏼👂🏽👂🏿👂
Who’s answering the call?
🤚🏾
🙌🏾Yasssss
@kim_a_coles
,
@ProfKFH
, and Ayanna Thompson🙌🏾
👏🏿To support international students, faculty must get creative and should solidarity in this way and others👇🏿
As racism adapts and gets creative, so too must we✊🏿
If you are at University of Arizona and need an in-person class to handle this ICE rule, we can do an in-person (outside and while at least 6 feet away from each other) independent study if that helps the situation. I hope my colleagues who can do so join me in this offer.
🧵THREAD & open-access link to my new article:
“'Hood Feminism': Whiteness & Segregated (Premodern) Scholarly Discourse in the Post-Postracial Era"
In the spirit of
#BlackFeminism
& centering
#BlackWomen
, I offer thanks below (in citational order) 🙏🏿👇🏿
Yes, yes, yes👇🏿 My therapist has suggested asking the self: "What do *you* want?" all. the. time.
If you contemplate going against what you want, then ask yourself "Why?" The answer may not be in your best interest.
Ask. Listen to self. Say/do what YOU want.
Honor it.
🔥✊🏿🔥July Alert🔥✊🏿🔥Ju-Lit Alert🔥✊🏿🔥
In preparation for our 7/16
@FolgerResearch
Critical Race Convo—"The Sound of Whiteness (in
#ShaxORPs
)"—
@soundingoutblog
& I offer a list of *short* pre-readings, including Du Bois &
@ProfKFH
. Please explore👇🏿
@JoyAnnReid
@EasyE2432
@jones410
Awful indeed. Process your pain, heal, rather than steamroll over it & shake it off. It’s ok to feel what you need to feel rn—Black men feel, too.
Process & THEN move on,
@EasyE2432
Haters want you to put your head down & drop your crown👑 Do keep your head UP🙏🏿🖤✊🏿
#academictwitter
folks, esp administrators: earlier this term I read and discussed—with my dept. chair (who is a white man)—Kerry Ann Rockquemore’s The Black Academics’ Guide to Winning Tenure Without Losing Your Soul.
Power outage going into day 3...can’t be at home...slept at my parents’ in my childhood bedroom last night...dad made pancakes this morning😋
A kid for the moment...life is good, all things considered🙏🏿🖤
Oh, and I came across this old this pic of my handsome father💪🏿
@KYT_ThatsME
@DrDadabhoy
If black academics get jobs bc we are black, shouldn’t the turnover rate be exponentially high bc blackness allows the getting but not the keeping of the job?
P.S.: I would sure love to have blackness write my monograph and teach my classes🤔
#BROKENLOGIC
@POPOFFSON_
MOM: "Alicia Keys came out, she looked GOOD!"
ME (30 mins later to myself): "...but she's not a model, she was singin"🤔
...mom be so subtle with it sometimes, I'm S-L-O-W🤣
✊🏿🎭REGISTRATION OPEN🎭✊🏿
🏳️🌈“Shakespeare, Race & Queer Sexuality,” Keefe Colloquium in the Public Humanities
@LafCol
🔥Featuring: Jean E. Howard, Skyler Cooper, Simone Chess, Arthur Little & Mario DiGangi
#WokeByWill
👉🏿
cc:
@FolgerResearch
#ShakeRace
🙏🏿Grateful for the love & wisdom I received from this beautiful Black woman, my paternal grandma Christine, who passed away on Saturday
✊🏿From the Mississippi sharecropper farm to the pic below of us on the
@trinitycollege
quad (circa 2005)…
🖤Because of her, I am & I will
🧵
#InternationalWomensDay
Share about a woman who has influenced your life for good, a woman whose life and legacy you celebrate, a woman whose being has enhanced your being:
*FYI: If anyone new is looking to contact me for professional purposes, pls feel free to dm me. As a protective measure, I've had Binghamton temp remove my faculty profile & contact info. so I can publicly engage w/o inbox trolls, etc.
Can't stop, won't stop✊🏿
@KamieCrawford
@Delta
Yes, it is absolutely *racist*.
...Claudia Rankine wrote a play--called "Help"--that deals with this very phenomenon, a sad, demeaning, disrespectful, demoralizing & insulting reality that Black people, black customers, should not have to endure.
To clarify: Shakespeare’s “other race plays” (ORPs) are not opportunities to look for blackness, per se, as race is not a synonym for black. One larger objective of this new paradigm is to other whiteness. If an ORP is part of your pedagogy or research, look beyond blackness.
My last 2019 talk—11/16—final words:
“Without dismantling white supremacy, some of you are destined never to hear me—regardless of your race—because what sounds best to you, what sounds right, will always be what sounds white”
#ShakeRace
#RaceB4Race
#ShaxORP
#SonicColorLine
I just want to THANK everyone for attending the plenary! And thank you for the tweets and questions and in-person feedback🤔
I promise I will respond to tweets soon. It’s been an intense few days but I will respond and I need a short break🤓
SEE YOU AT THE HOTEL BAR!?!🥂🍻🕺🏾
@OmarJimenez
@CNNValencia
If someone
@CNN
would just say "inside the CNN center, where the *police precinct is located*," millions of people would be less confused by the protesters' actions. Make the tweets (
@OmarJimenez
)/reporting (
@ChrisCuomo
) make sense, pls; that matters more than ever right now.
One key
#FolgerCRC
takeaway of many from today's session: This work is important, it's critical, [you] have to do it, we have to do it✊🏿 --
@DrDadabhoy
&
@prof_nmehdiz
👏🏿
@eoin_price
Titus (I always start with it). It continues to be especially rich for the present moment and conversations about state violence, profiling, race/racial ideology, whiteness, blackness, racism, antiracism, interracial/intercultural dynamics, sexism, politics and more🤓
✊🏿No wrong or right way to acknowledge justice has been served, but do remember this is *one* case.
What happens to the next Black person whose death isn't recorded? What happens when their murder can't be studied in a courtroom in order for folk to ensure justice prevails?
#BLM
👇🏿✊🏿🖤One of my students just shared this poem with me.
We put poems by Amiri Baraka, June Jordan, Edith Sitwell & Philip Larkin in conversation for today’s final “Crossing the Color-Line” class & collectively those poems made her think of this one below🔥
📌✊🏿 Hey
#BlackTwitter
, I'm a Black
#Shakespeare
&
#CriticalRaceStudies
scholar whose 1st book—endorsed by Claudia RANKINE, Tukufu ZUBERI & many others—is coming soon!
🙏🏿Grateful for any & all retweets, preorders, prayers, etc.
🔗
🤓20% off code: SWO20
This gif perfectly sums up the conclusion to my
#SHAX2019
plenary talk: a charge for early modern race studies forces to multiply. More folks can, should, do this work.
We’ll show you how.
#ShakeRace
SO excited, inspired, humbled, grateful...”looking forward”🤓
4/19 @ 3:30PM
Now that my
@binghamtonu
grad course ENG 565E,
#ShakespearesOtherRacePlays
, has wrapped up, thought I'd offer a content snapshot🤓
*Titus Andronicus
*Othello
*Antony and Cleopatra
*The Tempest
*Hamlet
*Much Ado About Nothing
*Richard III
*Macbeth
*Cymbeline
*(MOV)
@SomaKazima
@BurnerMcGee69
Word.
Take the Metro-North train to/from NYC during rush hour, or head in for a pro baseball game, SantaCon, etc. & the stereotypes/myths about who is loud, louder, loudest will get dispelled quickly.
RESOURCE:
@soundingoutblog
’ “The Sonic Color Line”
Pls don’t miss the 3/19
#SHAX2019
plenary panel, 3:30PM:
“Looking Forward: New Directions in Early Modern Race Studies”🔥
Honored to present once again alongside
@ProfKFH
(pictured), and Bernadette Andrea and Ania Loomba🎤
Oh you thought🤯
#ShakeRace
#SAAllies
Incredibly EXCITED to get this online semester going tomorrow🤓 Haven't been in the classroom since May 2019 (research leave) & have missed sincerely the joys of teaching
#ShakeRace
, which continues to grow in critical & pedagogical importance...onward✊🏿
Happy
#teaching
, all🖤
✊🏿🤓🫦🎭🙏🏿IT'S OFFICIAL! My book has been printed & stock is on its way to warehouses in the UK...a dream come tru!
✨Dreams teeter on the edge. Oftentimes, it is the force of our conviction that makes those dreams real(ity).
😇God is great!
#BlessedAndGrateful
#shax2019
UPDATE: I’ve communicated with senior SAA officers, they’re on board with helping to cultivate a different conf. ethos, one with an air of collegiality and approachability, and increased congenial interaction among members. SpreadTheWord!
Thanks to Ayanna &
@DrFarahKC
!
✊🏿🎭🖤Tomorrow begins "Shakespeare's Other 'Race Plays'," which I'm running for the first time as an
@binghamtonu
undergrad course & for the second time as a grad course🤓
I learn so much from
#students
each term & am uber excited to engage this new group!
#Antiracism
#ShaxORP
🤔What does this image convey, what's it saying about Othello (the play, the man, the husband, the victim of racism)? We just talked about this image in my class. Curious to hear other thoughts...
2020 marks the 25th anniversary of Kim F. Hall's groundbreaking Things of Darkness. In this seminar, I hope participants will join me, and
@littleblackshak
, in honoring
@ProfKFH
with a "citational celebration" of her book by considering it in relation to the
#ShaxORP
framework✊🏾
@Kimfox1Fox
@Jimerald1
@onikascumragg
I imagine it must hurt to be a
@Normani
,
@Tinashe
type woman in the industry...singing, dancing, etc. & folk will still find a way to diminish/ignore & excuse racialized contradictions ("she's not consistent; "she's indie"...🙄
Tinashe..consistent talent.
Drove to Binghamton way too early this morn to rescue my suit of armor from my office bc he’s gotta be present for *online* teaching...of course
Now I keep mistaking him for a person& getting scared when I walk into the room😂🤦🏾♂️😴
november is the month of saying no. no to anything that’s not serving us, no to poor habits, no to degrading thoughts. no to everything that’s out of alignment and yes to more intention and more quality.
This morning I had the privilege of speaking w/wonderful high school teachers re:
#Shakespeare
& race via
@humanitiestexas
. I did show & tell w/an assignment of mine from 9th grade; race was on my mind but my teacher didn’t foster that conversation in 1999.
#RaceB4Race
#ShakeRace
🪰Black fly,
#racism
,
#Shakespeare
...got that covered in
@ProfFarahKC
's Titus Andronicus: The State of Play vol., where I discuss the "various ways to interpret the entomological allegory" & the easy transferability of racism in the domestic space (nation/home)
#ShakeRace
🤓✊🏿
🎭The first epigraph in *SHAKESPEARE'S WHITE OTHERS* is from Claudia Rankine's unpublished 🔥 play "HELP" (performed at
@TheShedNY
, '22)
✊🏿"This is why to stay alive, forget thriving, I need to negotiate whiteness" -C.R.
🙏🏿Claudia is one of many people who inspired my thinking
If you’re watching
#RaceB4Race
from the comfort—or safety, in some cases—of your own home, etc., enjoy hearing the scholarship and having the opportunity to witness solidarity, community and community building in action.
And remember:
#NoPoaching
🚫
Respect
#BIPOC
ideas🤓
🩷✊🏿🧣🎭🧡 Took a pic in front of the Butcher Shop sign bc
@ISASaxonists
killed it w/this 🔥
#ShaxWhiteOthers
colorway-inspired scarf by
#RepublicOfYarnia
🙌🏿
🙏🏿Someone just told me the scarf is beautiful, asked where I got it & said she will look up my book!
😉Haus of MRO!
@asdurso
@KeilandWCooper
Great point! Thankfully, the hashtag wasn't even used correctly, at least not in the apology, which goes to show how non-important this matter is to this data collector who isn't truly paying attention.
Black people are not learning opportunities, esp not for wp's mistakes.
I've had a few people skeptically ask me if my
#SAAallies
lanyard has had any value. Yes - I've reassured some people about seminar etiquette & helped people find sessions. If it's helped newbies feel easier about asking strangers for help/advice, it's been worth it
#shax2019
#SHAX2020
Peeps: In addition to Jean E. Howard as respondent, Arthur Little (UCLA) a.k.a.
@littleblackshak
will serve as what I'm calling "The Closer" in my
#ShakespearesOtherRacePlays
/
#ShaxORP
seminar, which will be deliberate with regard to activism, advocacy, and allyship: