Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Who's Afraid of Black Women? -- Halloween Special


Not long ago, Therí A. Pickens, one of our contributing writers, was writing about anger and noted that “I consider Michelle Obama's comments about being an ‘angry black woman,’ Serena Williams’s angry outbursts, Venus Williams’s notoriously stoic interviews, and Audre Lorde’s fierce expressions of a uniquely black queer feminist anger." However, she added, "I must ask what people are so afraid of.”

In another entry, Professor Pickens began writing about the subject of monsters and observed that “Monsters are radical if only because they force us to confront our deepest fears about race, gender, and sexuality – associated as they are with excess, transgression, and violence.” Her observations served as points of departure for our Halloween special assignment. I asked a group of our contributors to explore issues pertaining to fear, scariness, and the supernatural concerning black women writers and artists.   

We wrote about poetry, short stories, Octavia Butler, Audre Lorde, and Katherine Dunham, and highlighted what might be perceived as scary features of different works. 

Poetry
Margaret Walker’s Uncanny Molly Means By Briana Whiteside
Frances E. W. Harper’s Land of the Living Dead By Elizabeth Cali
Elizabeth Alexander’s Horror at the Carnival By Emily A. Phillips
The Fear of Explaining Evie Shockley's Approaches to Design By Howard Rambsy II 
Margaret Walker and the Ballad of a Scary Black Woman By Cindy Lyles  

Nonfiction
Possessed by Katherine Dunham By Danielle Hall
Audre Lorde and the Horrors of Breast Cancer By Christina Gutierrez

Fiction
Octavia Butler’s blood-curdling short story By Erin Ranft
Octavia Butler’s Uncanny Wild Seed By Briana Whiteside
The Dawn of Octavia Butler’s Monstrosities By Emily A. Phillips
The Venom of Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” by Allegra Castro

Music
Nas and an “Illustrious Cemetery” for Hip Hop’s Dead and Invisible Female Emcees By Danielle Hall

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