For all my NYC fans, make sure you check out Door Comic Con!! WinC International and The Door NYC are collaborating with each other for this amazing outdoor mini-con! This outdoor festival will be a part of their annual block party and will help to kick off their 50th anniversary!!
This is an event you do not want to miss!!
The Door555 Broome St, New York, NY 10013, USA
The event will take place from 12pm-5pm with an After-Con Kiki Cosplay Ball at 5:30pm-9:00pm.
For more information and to RSVP, click here!! This event is Free.99, but donations are always welcomed!!
Black Women are Supreme…As in today June 30, 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn in as our first Black woman on the Supreme Court!!
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., administers the Constitutional Oath to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in the West Conference Room, Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., on June 30, 2022. Dr. Patrick Jackson holds the Bible. Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
Cheers to Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson!! Now that has a nice sound to it!!
Official photograph of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson taken by Supreme Court Photographer Fred Schilling, 2022.
As noted in her own words, “I have dedicated my career to public service because I love this country and our Constitution and the rights that make us free!”
A few months back I got a chance to meet this amazing Black feminist scholar Dr. Jaimee Swift and her research, personality, and grind truly impressed me. During this encounter, she shared an upcoming event that I had to make sure to share with you!! I’m all about sharing the wealth with the masses. Check out the event below:
2nd Defend Black Women March
Honoring Marielle Franco: Celebrating the Power of Black Feminisms in Latin America & The Caribbean
July 29-31, 2022–Malcolm X Park (Meridian Hill Park)
HEADSHOTS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: SARA GÓMEZ, MARIELLE FRANCO, NANNY OF THE MAROONS, ANDAYE, OLUWATOYIN SALAU, MAMA TINGO, MARY JONES, bell hooks, and NEHANDA ABIODUN. THEIR HEADSHOTS ARE IN BLACK AND WHITE AND THEY ARE CONNECTED BY A COLORFUL MURAL BACKGROUND. Photo Credit: Black Women Radicals/Defend Black Women March
Calling all my youth gamers and esports fans in the ATL!! Check out this awesome 2-day FREE conference!! Free.99… you cannot beat that!! I am always about supporting friends and family and the good folks over at Pharoah’s Conclave definitely fall into that category!!
Youth Esports League National Championship & Conference is a FREE 2-day eSports conference for K-12 students.
JUNE 24TH & 25TH 10AM- 4PM
Atlanta Metropolitan State College’s Pavilion-1630 Metropolitan Pkwy SW, Atlanta, GA 30310
Overview: YEL National Championship & Conference
Youth eSports League National Championships & Conference is a free 2-day eSports conference that exposes the entry points to eSports careers. It features team and individual tournament play, hands-on workshops and panels with eSports and video gaming professionals, an expo the DoorDash Game Design Challenge, and so much more! Check out a recap of last year’s event below.
About PCX Go!
PCX GO! builds on PCX’s mission of preparing youth for eSports careers through capacity building around eSports career pathways, providing the ecosystem with the infrastructure needed to support all key stakeholders in building skills and capabilities that apply to the eSports industry to:
Inform – Identifying entry points into the industry
Instruct – Explaining the necessary steps it takes to navigate career pathways within the eSports industry through skill and capability development
Educate – Providing opportunities to apply instruction in real-world contexts to promote learning and develop eSports professionals
Friends and Family!! Today is the first official day of summer!! The heat is on in more ways than one!! While this season may come with blazing hot temperatures it is still one of my favorite times of the year. Partly cause I’m a summer baby (August 16th), also this is a time to get a little bit of consistent R&R, there are tons of festivals, and I get some extra leisure reading time! Ahh it’s nothing like the summer!!
Happy Summer!! As we prepare to enter into sweltering heats, take vacations on the beach, spend time with loved ones and friends, let me make sure I get you ready for some summer reading! Summer is always an exciting time for me, and a time to take advantage of some leisure reading!
On this past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to be a featured contributor for a Juneteenth Reading List on VCU News!! I am always excited when I get to share a some resources and good reads/finds!!
The recommended reading list consists of various faculty on the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) campus. The list is meant to inform and celebrate the Juneteenth holiday. As noted by Elinor Frisa,
VCU News asked faculty, as well as staff from VCU Libraries, to suggest books that help readers understand and celebrate Juneteenth and all that it represents.
For my featured selection, I chose ‘We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy’ by Natalie Baszile.
Readers also get the opportunity to see the ways in which Black farmers use the land to discuss race relations, create identities, showcase the harvest as a healing tool and explain how it passed down through generations. I recommend this book as it is filled with rich history (past and present), it speaks to the importance of land ownership for Black Americans and it does not rely on one type of farming story. “We Are Each Other’s Harvest”is an inspiring book that informs, encourages and serves as a guide to the future legacy of Black American farmers.
As we prepare to celebrate the now federal holiday, Juneteenth, it is important that is not simply a day-off but a day of remembrance and liberation. And to get you in the spirit, I have compiled a few things to get you started!
Check it out below:
Film & Television/Podcasts
A Dream Delivered: The Lost Letters of Hawkins Wilson (Streaming on Paramount+ and PlutoTV)
‘Sound of Freedom: A Juneteenth Celebration’ (ABC/Hulu) Friday-June 17th at 8 pm/ET
‘Something in the Water Festival’ (Amazon Prime Video and Twitch) Friday-Sunday 3 pm/ET
‘After Jackie’ (History Channel) Saturday-June 18 at 8 pm/ET
‘Juneteenth: A Global Celebration’ (CNN) Sunday-June 19th at 8 pm/ET
‘Omitted : The Black Cowboy’ (ESPN 2) Sunday-June 19th at 2 pm/ET
Emergency (2022) [Amazon Prime Video]
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America- Episode #4-“Freedom” (2021) [Netflix]
Miss Juneteenth (2020)
Juneteenth Jamboree: A Place For Families (2016) [PBS]
President Joe Biden talks with Opal Lee after signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Bill, Thursday, June 17, 2021, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Chandler West)
So we are almost half way through 2022, but the reading doesn’t stop. Before I get you ready for your summer reading, just want to finish out the spring with some breezy balcony and patio reading. This month’s list is all over the globe…literally, I figured I would share a few treats by giving you some historical references, a little bit of self-preservation and cultural identity, mixed with a dash of U.S. midwest and Caribbean roots, and topping you off with some sassy satire.
Jameela Green Ruins Everything ~Zarqa Nawaz
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations ~Mira Jacob
Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel ~Xochitl Gonzalez
The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family ~Bettye Kearse
American Street ~Ibi Zoboi
And remember you can always go back and check out the previous month’s list and past recommendations in the “Resource” section of the website!!
We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained. ~Nikki Giovanni
It’s that time of year where I always like to reflect on another academic year in the books! This time around I wanted to share my gratitude and appreciation in the form of a letter to my students.
Dear Scholars,
You have done it again. You have figured out a way to pull at my heartstrings and fill me with emotion. Let me first start out by saying I am so proud of the work that you have done and will continue to do. Many of you started out with me when I arrived to VCU in the Summer of 2020, several of you became repeat student in my classes, and to see you walk across the stage with the biggest smiles is truly a proud moment.
Spring 2022 VCU AFAM Graduates (Pictured with Top l-r Kristina Barnes and Akira Goden; Bottom l-r Safia Abdulahi and Sergine Mombrun)
This semester much like the previous ones was definitely a roller coaster ride, it just has a new name! I enjoyed coming to both classes with a new mindset and leaving with new energy. For Spring 2022, I got the opportunity to teach a special topics course, AFAM 491: Say Her Name-Humanizing the Black Female Voice in Television. From the onset, I was excited about teaching this course because we would be discussing three televisions shows that were changing the game (HBO Max’sA Black Lady Sketch Show, I May Destroy You, and STARZ’sP-Valley). The format of the course would be different and outside of my normal lecture-discussion style. For this class we would be doing regular deep dives (almost each class period). The excitement that each of you brought was mind-blowing, considering many had never watched the shows or even heard of them. And like most new classes you are never sure how it will play out, but this was definitely a win. The diverse perspectives that each of you brought to the discussions, along with implementing your critical thinking skills really made me wish we could add more time to each class. There was never a day when we did not run over, and in this case that was not a bad thing. Who knew that critical television analysis could be so fun and engaging?!! And then when we had the surprise guest (Cherokee Hall-‘Extra Extra’) from P-Valley come and talk with us you all really lit up! Thank you for doing the work and making it easy for me to come to campus and show-up 110%!!
I also got to teach one of my tried and true favorite courses, AFAM 111: Introduction to Africana Studies. Now this class had a different format as well, it was a one-day a week meeting for 2 hours and 40 mins. And let me tell you, I had no idea where I would even begin with this teaching in this format, but we made it work. Lecture for the first part and a film screening in the latter half. While this posed a challenge, your feedback about the class set-up was much appreciated and well received. Change can be difficult, with solid teamwork the possibilities were endless. With many of the students in this class were freshman and sophomores, my hope is that you got at least a little something that might add, change, reframe, and/or expand your thinking and engagement with the world going forward. Thank you for helping me to be more inclusive, push my creative lens, and nurture my heart, mind and soul.
Now for some of you the next step is graduate school in either a new city or even state. Take all the skills you have gained and build from them, create new memories, show the world whose next up! And others are going straight into the job market, putting that talent into action immediately. As the historian Keisha Blain said, in reference to the Black Nationalist Women fighting for global freedom, “set the world on fire.” “Set the world on fire” with innovative methods of change, “Set the world on fire” with your leadership, “Set the world on fire” with your unapologetic attitude, and “Set the world on fire” with your joy and determination. You got this!!
When people tell me, “I can see the passion that you have and the deep care for your students,” I get all emotional again because that statement is soooo true! I love what I do and would not change it for the world!
While I may not be your professor anymore, just know that I am always here to support in any way that I can. I’m just an email or call away!
Another semester in the books…Another set of grades submitted…Let the summer begin!!
Black Future Feminist 