THE SCHOOL FOR BLACK FEMINIST POLITICS:
EMpoWERING BLack FEMINISMS IN BLACK POLITICS
The School for Black Feminist Politics (SBFP) is a Black feminist political education initiative and hub powered by Black Women Radicals. Established in 2020, the mission of SBFP is to empower Black Feminisms in Black Politics by expanding the field from transnational, intersectional, and multidisciplinary perspectives. The SBFP’s goal is to illuminate what has often been obscured and neglected in regards to our Black feminist histories, political memories, and productions, so that our past, present, and future understandings of Black feminist thought and behavior can be understood more fully and completely. The SBFP focuses on the transnational, historical, and contemporary Black feminist political thought and behavior to further build a frame of reference for Black Politics–one that extends beyond academia. Moreover, the SBFP seeks to explore, amplify, and illuminate global Black feminist politics and movement building through our community-oriented events; teach-ins led by Black feminist artists, activists, creatives, and educators; and through research and scholarship on and about Black feminisms. You can follow the School for Black Feminist Politics on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Towards A Radical BlACK FEMINIST POLITICS: Expanding the Frame of Reference OF Black Politics
When we speak of Black Politics, we are speaking about a specific academic framework and formation that situates itself as a subfield in political science. Black political scientist, Mack H. Jones, (who is credited for the development of the field of Black Politics) in “A Frame of Reference for Black Politics” (1972), argues that “...Black politics should be thought of as an extension of the universal power struggle, modified only by the condition that whites occupy superordinate positions vis-à-vis Blacks, that this position is based on the institutionalized belief in the superiority of whites, and that whites act in a manner that will preserve their superordinate position. The orienting concepts, and therefore, the frame of reference for Black politics must grow out of the above propositions” (Jones, 2014, p. 5).
In another essay, “A Note from a Black Political Scientist” (1972), Jones contends that in order to overcome the whitewashing of political science, Black political scientists need to “develop and articulate a Weltanschauung (or worldview) growing out of their experiences as oppressed people that would explain the past, post, future goals, and implicitly delineate alternative strategies for liberation” (Jones, 1971, p. 24). Furthermore, he contended that a “failure to develop a Weltanschauung of our own will leave us victims of white America’s own Weltanschauung and we will continue to define progress, responsibleness, etc., in terms of white interests” (Jones 1971, p. 24). Hanes Walton, Jr., (who is considered to be the “Architect of the Black Science of Politics”) in Black Politics: A Theoretical and Structural Analysis (1972), defined Black Politics as: “In short, Black politics is a function of the particular brand of segregation found in different environments in which Black people find themselves” (Walton, 1972, p. 11-12) (Walton’s emphasis).
Collage of Jewel Limar Prestage, the “Mother of Black Political Science”, who is the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Political Science in the U.S. in 1954.
“At the SBFP, we center Black feminist politics, productions, and leadership in the universal power struggle for liberation in Black Politics and beyond.”
Pioneering Black women political scientists such as Jewel Limar Prestage (the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Political Science in the United States in 1954 and who is considered to be the “Mother of Black Political Science”); Cathy J. Cohen; Dr. Shiela Harmon-Martin; and many others have contributed significantly to expanding the frame of reference of Black Politics. In Prestage’s trailblazing work, “In Quest of African-American Political Woman” (1991), she examined the critical role of African-American women and their political participation and contributions to formal and informal movement building in the United States. Prestage’s 1994 essay, “The Case of African American Women and Politics” also interrogated political science’s lack of inclusion of race and gender and the field’s dearth of information about African-American women. Harmon-Martin’s article, “Black Women in Politics: A Research Note” (1994) also explored how racism and sexism impacted Black women elected officials and their routes to political leadership. In Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics (1999), Joy James examines Black feminisms from historical and analytical perspectives, and details the importance of moving towards radical and revolutionary Black feminisms as a behavior and practice. As Cohen argues in “Deviance as Resistance: A New Research Agenda for the Study of Black Politics” (2004), we need to center “the experiences of those who stand outside of state-sanctioned, normalized, White, middle–and–upper-class male heterosexuality” (Cohen, 2004, p. 27).
Taking after Black feminist political scientist Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd who advances in Gender, Race, and Nationalism in Contemporary Black Politics that the field of Black Politics should move “…toward a Black feminist political frame of reference” (2007, pgs. 17, 149), the SBFP focuses on transnational, historical, and contemporary Black feminist political thought and behavior to further build and expand the frame of reference for Black Politics–one that extends beyond academia. Moreover, in interrogating global Black feminist politics strategically and critically, our aim is to cultivate and use Black feminist political education to create and build “alternative strategies for liberation”. We seek to decolonize and expand the field to see not only how marginalized genders, including Black women, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people, are impacted by the particularly brand of segregation, misogynoir, ableism, queerphobia, transphobia, and more they face in the different environments in which they find themselves in but to interrogate how they organize, resist, theorize, educate, build, and lead. At the SBFP, we center Black feminist politics, productions, and leadership in the universal power struggle for liberation in Black Politics and beyond; as Black feminisms and Black feminists have taught us and continue to teach us so much.
The central elements of the SBFP
Teach-Ins: We invite and pay Black feminist artists, activists, creatives, and scholars to lead free teach-ins on and about topics, themes, and course subjects that expand the frame of reference of Black Politics. Invitees lead a 60-90 minute teach-in on a subject and/or expertise of their choice and curate reading lists to encourage further exploration of their course subject.
Community Conversations: Our Community Conversations are monthly community-engaged and informed events that concentrate on themes, politics, and more on and about Black women, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people. The purpose of our Community Conversations is to catalyze a safe, informative, and transformative space for Black women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people to freely communalize with one another and to discuss various topics as it pertains to our livelihoods, our politics, our activism, our emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being(s), our histories, our imaginations, and more. Click here for more information about our Community Conversations.
Building Solidarities: We are dedicated to building solidarities with global Black feminist political organizations, initiatives, and struggles. We are always ready and willing to learn from and listen to transnational Black feminists in order to to build our frame of reference for Black Politics, as well as theorize and organize on and about strategies for liberation. We do not believe academics are the authority on Black Politics or Black feminisms. We work and engage with organizers, activists, and educators outside and inside of academia.
UPCOMING & PAST Teach-INs
UPCOMING TEACH-IN: “It’s All in the Reveal: Valerie Maynard, Revelation, and Black (Dis) Belonging” By ALEXIS DE VEAUX
On Tuesday, November 12th at 6:30 PM EST, join us for an upcoming teach-in, “It’s All in the Reveal: Valerie Maynard, Revelation, and Black (Dis) Belonging” by Alexis De Veaux for The School for Black Feminist Politics, the political education hub of Black Women Radicals.
You can register for the teach-in here: https://bit.ly/ValerieMaynard.
ASL interpretation will be provided. The event will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube.
About the teach-in: In this teach-in, Alexis De Veaux will talk about the life and work of the late Black visual artist Valerie Mayard, as she was undersign as a cultural revolutionary; and how her identities as black and female and her "unvoiced" identity as queer shaped being "at home" in a culture within which black people are always "homeless" by virtue of being both black and not human and therefore members of a "(dis) belonged" class.
PAST TEACH-IN: The Other Side oF Terror: Black Women And the Culture of US Empire by erica R. Edwards
On Tuesday, October 22nd at 6:30 PM EST, we hosted the teach-in, “The Other Side of Terror: Black Women and the Culture of US Empire” by Dr. Erica R. Edwards for The School for Black Feminist Politics, the political education hub of Black Women Radicals.
Watch the teach-in here.
About the teach-in: This teach-in focuses on the questions Dr. Erica R. Edwards’ raises in her book, The Other Side of Terror: Black Women and the Culture of U.S. Empire (NYU Press, 2021): How have the political and popular cultures of late US empire did US imperialism, through late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, relied on the incorporation of black women as symbols of progress and triumph? What do Black feminist writers teach us about contemporary US imperialism and the role that black women play in its maintenance and in its refusal?
PAST TEACH-IN: On the politics of Black lesbian motherhood by ZoRA
On September 19th at 6:30 PM EST, we hosted the teach-in, “On the Politics of Black Lesbian Motherhood” by Zora.
Watch the teach-in here.
About the teach-in: Combining both research and personal experience, join Zora as they explore the multitudes of Black lesbian motherhood in the United States. During our time together, we will discuss household dynamics in terms of domestic and financial labor; the ways in which children of lesbians are conceived–whether that's by insemination, adoption, or prior heterosexual relationships, and the role of the “Father” or “Male figure” in the lesbian household. This teach-in is specifically about Black lesbians and how race plays an important role in how a household is run and because of this we will compare studies between White and Black lesbians in the United States.
UPCOMING TEACH-IN: Tender mercies - Exploring agency and Intimacy in the Personal archives of Black Women Writers
On Thursday, July 11th at 6:30 PM EST, we hosted the teach-in, “Tender Mercies: Exploring Agency and Intimacy in the Personal Archives of Black Women Writers” by keondra bills freemyn.
Watch the teach-in here.
About the teach-in: Exploring the archives of 20th century Black women writers, this teach-in focuses on the significance of stewardship and curation of personal archives in understanding creative process and practice. Using scrapbooks, journals, and correspondence found in the archives of Ann Petry, Ntozake Shange, and Cheryl Clarke, we will consider the archive as a site of intimacy, interiority, and intergenerational inheritance.
UPCOMING TEACH-IN: CLAPPIN' BACK: A LOOK INTO DIGITAL MISOGYNOIR AND ONLINE HARM REDUCTION PRACTICES BY KÁLYN “KAY” COGHILL
On Tuesday, December 5th at 6:30 PM EST, Digital Director of me too, International, KáLyn “Kay” Coghill led the teach-in on “Clappin' Back: A Look into Digital Misogynoir and Online Harm Reduction Practices” for The School for Black Feminist Politics.
About the teach-in: The historical legacies of violence against Black women are long, and now these violences show up in digital spaces. Moya Bailey, a Black feminist scholar, coins this form of digital embodied violence as misogynoir. In her book, Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance, misogynoir is defined as “the anti-black racist misogyny that black women experience, particularly in the US visual and digital culture.” (Jackson et al., 2020, 102) Misogynoir can be seen in the media, law, literature, and many other structures. In this teach-in, we will explore what digital misogynoir is and look deeply at the ways in which Black nonbinary, agender, and gender-variant folks clap back through means of harm reduction and digital alchemy.
Watch the teach-in here.
View the reading list here.
UPCOMING TEACH-IN: Master CollagE workshop led by Doriana Diaz
Multidisciplinary artist Doriana Diaz will lead multi-city master collage workshops for The School for Black Feminist Politics, the political education hub of Black Women Radicals.
The first collage workshop will take place on Saturday, May 27th from 12:00 - 2:30 PM EST at Ìpàdé, located at 1734 20th St NW, Washington, DC 20009.
Tickets are $7. Please note: There is a 20 Person Capacity for the Workshop.
All proceeds from the ticket sales go to the Black Women Writers Project, a project that uplifts and celebrates the contributions and legacies of Black women and gender expansive writers by improving visibility of institution-based, community, and personal archival materials.
COVID-19 Protocol: Masks are required.
Register for the workshop here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/master-class-collage-workshop-with-doriana-diaz-tickets-633664245817
PAST TEACH-IN: Activist Sisters: Black Muslim Women and Black Revolution in the United States BY DR. SU’AD ABDUL KHABEER
On Thursday, January, 12, 2023 from 6:30-8:00 PM EST, scholar-artist-activist Dr. Su’ad Abdul Khabeer will lead a teach-in on “Activist Sisters: Black Muslim Women and Black Revolution in the United States.”
You can register for the event on Zoom here: https://bit.ly/ActivistSisters
This course is an exploration of the activism and life histories of Black Muslim women in the 20th century United States. It focuses on their relationships to the Black radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The course’s discussion is animated by the following questions: What roles did Black Muslim women play in mid to late 20th century Black movements? How was movement work integrated, or not, into their religious identities and practice and vice versa? In what ways do they repeat, refine or reject normative and non-normative ideas of Black Womanhood. What do their trajectories teach or challenge in respect to contemporary definitions and debates on Black feminism and activism. What is their place in the long durée of the Black Radical Tradition?
You can watch the teach-in here.
PAST TEACH-IN: ANGER, PLEASURE & POWER - THE POETRY OF AUDRE LORDE By ChaNTEL MASSEY
Join us for a two-part online poetry workshop for the School for Black Feminist Politics! Led by storyteller and poet, Chantel Massey, the teach-in, “Anger, Power, and Pleasure: The Poetry of Audre Lorde” will be held on Zoom on the following dates and times:
Wednesday, November 9th | 6:30-8:00 PM EST
Saturday, November 12th | 1:30-3:00 PM EST
If you are interested in participating, you must fill out this Google Form and we will confirm your participation, and send you a Zoom link upon participant confirmation.
Please note: There is a 20 participant limit. Participation in the workshop is based on a first-come, first served basis and is based on your availability to participate in both workshops.
About the teach-in: A two-part online poetry workshop led by Chantel Massey, this workshop explores anger and pleasure looking at the essays and poems of Audre Lorde. We will then write, discuss, and answer the questions: What new practices do we need to have individually and as a community to make more space and use of our anger? How can we better create experiences of pleasure for ourselves?
PAST TEACH-IN: Black Ecology: Niggas Be EverywherE - Finding Our Homes - A TEACH-IN By CAM MORRIS
On Saturday, September 24th, 2022 at Nubian Hueman in Southeast, Washington, D.C., abolitionist and community organizer CAM Morris led a teach-in on “Black Ecology: Finding our Homes–Niggas be Everywhere” for the School for Black Feminist Politics.
About the teach-in: This teach-in will ask you to use historical context, Black stewardship, and nuance when engaging in conversations about land liberation and rights. We will discuss the history of Black land liberation, resistance occupations, Black nationalism, contemporary efforts toward environmental justice, and situate this fight within the context of Black people within occupied Piscataway and Anacostia land (District of Columbia). We will consider the erasure of Black experiences as a way to further investigate the spiritual and sustainable implications of land liberation. The connection between global land colonization and current fights for climate justice, repro justice, and housing justice. You can watch the teach-in here and read the reading list here.
PAST TEACH-IN: Our Legacy: Self-Determination, Bodily Autonomy, and Anti-State Practices for Black Birthing Justice - A TEACH-IN By CAM MORRIS
Community organizer CAM Morris led a teach-in for the School for Black Feminist Politics! Their teach-in, “Our Legacy: Self-Determination, Bodily Autonomy, and Anti-State Practices for Black Birthing Justice”, was held on Saturday, April 23rd, 2022 from 4:30-6:00 PM EST.
About the teach-in: This virtual teach-in will explore the depths of Black birthing justice. Addressing structures of violence like bioessentialism, colonialism, humanness, eugenics, transmisogynoir, white feminism, and anti-abortion legislation. This workshop will examine the power, autonomy, and rebellious practices of Black birthing communities, midwives, doulas, and contemporary efforts toward Black birthing and reproductive justice. You can watch the teach-in here and read the reading list here.
PAST TEACH-INS: "The Bottom Dwellers: On Spiritual, Material, and Ontological Sites of Deviant Making” - A Teach-in by Zalika U. Ibaorimi (PART ONE AND PART TWO)
Scholar Zalika U. Ibaorimi led a two-part teach-in for the School for Black Feminist Politics! Her first teach-in, "The Bottom Dwellers: On Spiritual, Material, and Ontological Sites of Deviant Making” was held on Tuesday, April 5th at 6:30 PM EST and the second teach-in was held on Thursday, April 7th at 6:30 PM EST.
About the teach-in: "The Bottom Dwellers: On Spiritual, Material, and Ontological Sites of Deviant Making” by Zalika U. Ibaorimi considers the pleasures and horrors of a place termed the “Bottom;” however, in two parts, this lecture also regards “the Bottom” as a material space and immaterial human/counter-human sexual geographic space as fleshy. Identifying the bottom as a fleshy space provides a cognizance of place within a placelessness that exists outside of the boundaries of the perceived Black deviant femme's significance.
“The Bottom Dwellers” interlocks the creative and imagined applications of Black intracommunal relations of sexual shame, desire, and pleasure. Through Toni Morrison’s Sula (1973), the life of Billie Holiday, and W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Philadelphia Negro (1899), I analyze how the materiality and ontology of those who position themselves at the precipice of “the Bottom” create the interlocking pathways between what is down below and what births the “jawn.” You can watch Part One here and Part Two here. VIew the reading list here.
PAST TEACH-IN: Black Women Care Ethics, Radical Love, and the Anti-Black World - A TEACH-IN BY BREYA JOHNSON
Writer and organizer Breya Johnson led a two-part teach-in for the School for Black Feminist Politics! Her second teach-in “Black Women Care Ethics, Radical Love, and the Anti-Black World” was held on Sunday, March 27th at 3:30 PM EST.
About the teach-in: How do we teach care and love in a anti-black world? Is love possible? Does love even matter? Together we will grapple with the politics of love with the help of Black women writers. Is it possible to untether our understandings of care, love, and more from capitalist logics? Together we will interrogate the utility of these words. You can watch the teach-in here and view her reading list here.
PAST TEACH-IN - BECOMING A MENACE TO OUR ENEMIES: The transformative teachings of June Jordan by Breya Johnson
Writer and organizer Breya Johnson led a two-part teach-in for the School for Black Feminist Politics! Her first teach-in “Becoming a Menace to our Enemies: The Transformative Teachings of June Jordan” was on Sunday, March 13th at 3:30 PM EST.
About the teach-in: June Jordan was a poet, activist, journalist, essayist and teacher. She was concerned with the conditions of survival in and beyond the United States. Her work embodied a sense of urgency and a radical refusal to accept things the way they are. She taught us constantly that there is another possibility. Together we will explore Jordan's lessons and trace a radical care ethic throughout. How does one become a menace to their enemies? You can watch the teach-in here and view Breya’s reading list here.
Past TEACH-IN: THe political-pedagogical praxis of Afro-brazilian travestis and trans women (1979-2020) - A TEACH-IN BY MARIA CLARA Araújo dos Passos
On Saturday, September 18th at 2:00 PM EST/3:00 PM Brasília Time (BRT), Afrotransfeminist scholar, activist, and organizer Maria Clara Araújo dos Passos led the teach-in “The Political-Pedagogical Praxis of Afro-Brazilian Travestis and Trans Women (1979-2020)”.
About the teach-in: Right now, Brazilian progressive activists are denouncing that under Bolsonaro’s administration, in the first six months of 2021, more than 75 travestis and trans women were murdered. About 80% of the murders against the trans community in Brazil in the past 3 years were against Afro-Brazilian travestis and trans women. So, in Brazil, racism and transphobia walk together. But we must discuss not only those horrifying numbers but also what has been done against this dynamic war that never ceases. Next year (2022), we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the social-political movement of travestis and transexual women in Brazil. In a moment in which Latin American is witnessing a neoconservative agenda that impacts our democracies, activists are presenting a political-pedagogical praxis responsible for fighting the narrative that frames them as non-citizens.
Even though the intersection of racism and transphobia tries to position them outside the abyssal lines that delimit the status of citizens, or even the ontological status of human beings, Afro-Brazilian travestis and trans women have found ways to collectively affirm a critical-reflexive citizenship able to challenge the forces of coloniality. Over the past three decades, activists have mobilized collective action, contributed to LGBTI+ affirmative policies, and created insurgent and emancipatory knowledge. This teach-in aims to reflect on how Afro-Brazilian travestis and trans women have been contributing to the broadening of social-political and pedagogical agendas in Brazil. You can watch the teach-in here and view Maria’s reading list here.
Pioneers Long Before #MoiAussi: Black Women, Rape Culture, and Digital Feminist Activism in Quebec – A Teach-in by Kharoll-Ann Souffrant
On Saturday, August 14th at 4:00 PM EST, social worker and researcher Kharoll-Ann Souffrant led the teach-in, “Pioneers Long Before #MoiAussi: Black Women, Rape Culture, and Digital Feminist Activism in Quebec".
About the teach-in: Within the province of Quebec, Canadian Black women's activism against sexual violence is erased within the mainstream feminist movement both in activist circles and academic research. This invisibilisation is due in part to Quebec's history and Francophone minority status within North America. At the moment, there are little to no studies focusing solely on violence against Canadian Black women, despite the tremendous impact of the #MeToo movement in Quebec. Ironically, most rape crisis shelters in this province fail to reach this vastly underserved population. Since early 2000, the feminist Quebec movement has gained a strong interest in intersectionality theory, as coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw. Despite its strong attraction for diversity and equity principles, challenges remain within mainstream feminism to authentically center the voices of Black women activists and survivors. This teach-in will: (1) Give a broad overview of the history of hashtag activism against rape culture in Quebec, Canada; (2) Explain some of the historical, social and political dynamics at play when it comes to Black women's invisibility, hyper-visibility and resistance within the mainstream feminist movement in Quebec both in academia and activist circles; (3) Present the work of some of the leading Black feminist activists and scholars in this province/country; and (4) Showcase the presenter's doctoral thesis project and work in this field. You can watch the teach-in here and view Kharoll-Ann’s reading list here.
“Ain’T GOnna Let nobody Turn Us ‘Round" – A Teach-in by CAM NORRIS
On Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 3:o0 PM EST, activist CAM Morris led a teach-in on “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us ‘Round: Sojourning Toward Black Liberation Through Prison Abolition”.
About the teach-in: Black folks are a self-determined and powerful people who have always been fighting against systematic structures of oppression like reproductive injustice, labor exploitation, and a predatory unjust system that continues to criminalize, abuse, terrorize and incarcerate Black people.
From fights to end the death penalty, the decriminalization of sex work, and the recent popularized calls to defund the police; community organizers have been mobilizing and politiczing communities to fight against state violence and to build communal infrastructures that make policing and prisons obsolete. We will discuss the history of abolition, why reforms dont work, investigating the inherent violence of all state funded structures (including non-profit industrial complex), and examine the contradictions of building political power in electoral work in relation to arguments like “harm reduction” and prison investments if our long term goal is African liberation.
This workshop will promote community-based practices for alternatives to calling the police, building sustainable neighborhoods through mutual aid and collective care, and creating the conditions that communities need to lead in self-determination towards Black liberation. You can watch the teach-in here and view their reading list here.
“Tectonically Speaking”: Writing A Black Geopolitics through Speculative Fiction" – A Teach-in by Nathan Alexander Moore
On Tuesday, April 6th at 5:30 PM EST, scholar Nathan Alexander Moore led a teach-in on “Tectonically Speaking: Writing A Black Geopolitics Through Speculative Fiction.”
About the teach-in: We are supposedly in the middle of a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene and its attendant discourses are deeply temporal; often speaking doubly to both a history of human-produced climate crisis on one end and bleak futurity on the other. The imaginaries of the Anthropocene are often wrought with images of catastrophe. However, the question must be asked: What does this naming of catastrophe truly mean for Black diasporic subjects who have always already been enduring social and environmental disaster? How do the way that we temporalize and name systems of human interaction with the environment take into account Black diasporic subjects? The moniker of the Anthropocene as both political rallying cry and geosocial temporal schema gives me pause. When we think of the Anthropos (Man), we must also consider who is summarily and constitutively left out of this framework.
Moreover, the totalizing narrative of the ‘human factors’ that drive climate change often do not attend to or historicize the longue durée of the effects of trans-Atlantic slavery, imperialism, and racial capitalism. As a way to get at these variously interwoven threads, I turn to the speculative work of novelist NK Jemisin to investigate how Black diasporic artist are reimagining climate crisis and the way forward through and beyond the limits of Anthropocene discourses. NK Jemisin is an award-winning African American writer, who often works through the genre of fantasy. Jemisin crafts worlds different from our own, but whose imagined realities reflect the deep sociohistorical fissures of our own. With The Broken Earth Trilogy, Jemisin maps new speculations on the human, temporality, and spatiality. You can watch the teach-in here and view their reading list here.
“Afrofeminism in France: Political Autonomy as a Compass” by Fania Noël
On Monday, February 22nd, 2021 at 1 PM EST/7 PM CET, activist and scholar Fania Noël will led a teach-in on “Afrofeminism In France: Political Autonomy as a Compass.” The Coordination of Black Women (Coordination femmes noires) held their first public meeting in Paris in October of 1977. Founded in May 1976 (two years after the formation of the Combahee River Collective in the United States), the Coordination did not escape the fate of the invisibilization of Black women and our movements in France. Afrofeminists operating largely online, sharing texts and analyses, became visible around the year 2013 by problematizing issues in the anti-slavery and anti-colonial struggles. This emergence was largely seen as a trend. A grammar of novelty was mobilized to both describe and de-legitimize these forms of activism, especially in contrast to older, more historically legitimized struggles: class, of course, but also issues around race. Afrofeminist collectives faced many accusations from different actors ( i.e. State, the right, the white left, white feminist organizations, anti-racist movement in France, and also Black organization predominantly led by men).
Amongst those different groups, many wanted to keep us around to add color to group photos of demonstrations and to diversify the movement on paper without being accountable to our political demands considered a minority. Afrofeminists face also another form of erasure from abroad where grassroots collective Afrofeminist organizing is erased in favor of Black women public figures with large audiences or scholars. This teach-in focused on how radical Afrofeminist politics and organizing evolve and thrive in France and how we became determined to neither disappear nor allow ourselves to be walked on and choose political autonomy as a compass. You can watch the teach-in here and view her reading list here.
Black Women’s Media Experiences in Britain and The rise of Brand “Woke-Washing” By Dr. Francesca Sobande
On Tuesday, January 26th at 12:30 PM EST/5:30 PM BST, Dr. Francesca Sobande led the teach-in, “Black Women's Media Experiences in Britain and the Rise of Brand "Woke-Washing". This teach-in draws on over five years of research related to the digital and media experiences of Black women in Britain. The session addresses how the lives of Black women in Britain are impacted by the specifics of this geo-cultural context, including power dynamics between Britain's constitutive nations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). Focusing on Black women's various media and marketplace encounters, this teach-in also explores the rise of British brands trying to attract Black audiences and tap into discourse on anti-Black racism in opportunistic and surface-level ways. Put briefly, this teach-in considers questions concerning Black women's production of and engagement with media in Britain, as well as issues regarding the rise of "woke-washing" which involves brands attempting to align themselves with social justice positions to pursue profit and protect their brand image. Shaped by Black feminist thought and understandings of racial capitalism, this teach-in tarries with tensions between the communal, counter-cultural, and commercial qualities of the media experiences of Black women in Britain. You can watch the teach-in here and view her reading list here.
“We Would Have to Fight the World”: The Cultural Politics of Black Feminist Critical Theory By Naomi Simmons-Thorne
On Saturday, January 16, 2021, activist, organizer, and scholar, Naomi Simmons-Thorne led a teach-in on the “We Would Have to Fight the World”: Cultural Politics of Black Feminist Critical Theory”. Black scholars have traditionally assumed race as the identity “of primary historical importance” concerning Black communities and their movements for social justice (Dawson 1994). This teach-in seeks to interrogate this assumption through a survey of critical discourses spanning abolition to Black Lives Matter. While few would argue against the historical “overdetermination” of racism, Black feminist critical theory has often sought to destabilize what scholars call the “metalanguage” of race. They argue while the force of racist brutality is often overwhelming, that Black people remain equally targeted by systemic structures unaccounted by the “single-axis” of conventional anti-racist discourse and politics. Systemic failures to address oppression on multiple axes renders particular systems and their targets analytically invisible, thus stratifying the politics of Black communities on the structural lines of visibility and re-inscribing oppressions by treating counter discourses and counter movements as ancillary projects to Black liberation.
This teach-in surveyed critical discourses concerning gender, sex, and sexuality, locating their relationships to black politics—historical and contemporary—and their ongoing relevancy to the construction of Black political discourse. You can watch the teach-in on Youtube here and view her reading list here.
(HO)LY ONTOLOGIES: Black Visual Cultural Geographies of the SexualLY Illicit: A Teach-in by Zalika U. Ibaorimi
Led by multidisciplinary artist and doctoral candidate, Zalika U. Ibaorimi, on Thursday, October 8th from 6:00-8:00 PM EST, “(HO)LY Ontologies: Black Visual Cultural Geographies of the Sexually Illicit” engaged an examination of the ontology of the Black deviant figure, the “ho.” The “ho” is often rendered excessive/hypervisible/invisible within the context of this figure’s iconography. However, we will use Black queer feminist methods of visual and sonic analysis to excavate the “ho” beyond their conceptualization, by engaging the “ho” on the basis of their being. We will tether their beingness to gestures of shame, desire, and pleasure. As a Black study, we will read materials from video vixens, Black Porn/Sex Work Studies scholars, performance theorists, sex workers, Black literary writers, art historians, sonic theorists, and Black visual culture theorists. You can watch Zalika’s teach-in here and view her reading list here.
Afro-Caribbean Women of Post-Colonialism Through the Practice of Art: A Teach-In by Zainab Floyd
A teach-in led by Zainab Floyd, founder of the Caribbean Archive, “Afro-Caribbean Women of Post-Colonialism through the Practice of Art” centers on fashion, dance, and music. The purpose of this discussion is to further highlight historical narratives of reference and to provide a visual language for the lack of representation of Black women in the Caribbean who have contributed profoundly towards defining a visual and bodily response of what resistance can look like. Watch Zainab’s teach-in here and check out her reading list for her teach-in here.
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We are currently not accepting any teach-in submissions, requests, or applications. Please check-in and revisit our site, as we will be making calls for teach-in applications and requests in the near future.