Yo' Shortie, you East Indian?

It's hilarious the things that (straight) men say to women in hopes of getting some...lovin'. So I'm walking the Brindles in lovely Prospect Park, when an older South Asian (at this point, I don't know his nationality/ethnicity) waves me over to ask some questions about my dogs (mm, hmm. yeah, right).

After the scintillating inquiries about Tilo's age and Drala's size, he looks at me and straight-up says, "You Indian?" BITCH PLEASE! I was silent for 5 seconds, whilst staring him in the eye, and then simply said, "No." I know, I know, I could have gone on and on about being AMERICAN Indian, not East Indian, but I just wanted to get away from Creepy Shala Creepy. The elderly gentleman, fo' real, put his arm next to mine and said, "we the same color." Now, I know this is some complicated post-colonial, color dialogue going on, but I am/was literally 47 shades darker than he is/was. DUDE!!!! I felt good about the fact that the years of colonial, white supremacy made him WANT to i.d. with blackness, but i knew there was a heterosexist agenda at work, so i had ta keep it movin'.

I did mumble an insincere, "well, all us brownies are related," before saying my goodbyes.

Sigh. If only he was 25 years younger and a woman...alas.

Yoga in the 'Hood

I've been a consistent yoga practitioner since 2004, when I started taking advantage of the cheap yoga classes offered to NYU students through their recreation program. It was affordable, convenient, and helped me re-build and re-shape my body after going through a number of surgeries. As time went on, I began to develop, what I like to call "yoga hunger,": wanting to go to class all the time, searching for the"best" teachers and studios, constantly wanting to do more challenging poses, basically pumping up my ego. After a few years of that, and a number of serious injuries, I made my way to the Integral Yoga Institute, where I learned to slow down and let go of some of that ego-enthusiasm.

At some point, I was introduced to Ellen Saltonstall, a certified Anusara teacher, by my bodyworker. Ellen has been my primary teacher for the last two years, and I've done Anusara and a bit of Iyengar, exclusively since 2007. Because they are both alignment-based, I've been able to sharpen my practice and also relax into it and not worry so much about looking "gorgeous," but really learn whatever it is I'm supposed to learn in that practice session.I've also been able to develop a strong home practice, however, in the last moth, I've really struggled with practicing at home. More often than not, I've done a truncated practice, or not practiced at all. And especially since my teacher is traveling to teach a lot this summer, I thought I'd better look around for some classes.

I really didn't want to go to the City. I've been becoming more and more interested in finding as many of the services I need right in my 'hood of Fort Greene (or nearby 'hoods: Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, Prospect Heights, Park Slope, or Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens/Brooklyn Heights). Farmer's Market on Saturdays, dog park every morning, my CSA is in the City, :(, local shops and restaurants, but what about a yoga studio? My main focus has been on finding Anusara studios, but there are none in my area and sometimes I don't want to get on a bus, train or walk to another part of Brooklyn. I recently had a conversation with a dog-park friend who alerted me to the incredible sale Move with Grace was having.

When I went in to sign up, Owner Grace Tappin, was friendly, warm, helpful and absolutely welcoming. I gave her my $30 for 30 days unlimited classes(!!!) and returned that night for an Open Vinyasa class. Let me preface by saying, I am not a fan of Vinyasa classes, nor am I a fan of using music in a yoga class. However, the small studio itself was clean, beautiful and very relaxed and relaxing. It was an incredible experience to take a yoga class of all black women (save the teacher, who was white), when usually I am the only one in the class. Moreover, I am supporting the local economy, reducing my carbon footprint, actually doing yoga, and supporting a young, black, female entrepreneur. Wins all around!

I'm looking forward to taking the Iyengar class on Sundays and the new Iyengar classes Grace let me know they will be adding. For me, since I have some injuries, alignment-based yoga is the best, and it fits my style, but it was nice to feel invigorated by last night's class, even if that will not be my regular practice. Move with Grace has a wide variety of classes (if not yoga styles) and other types of movement classes, such as Ballet for Adults and Belly dancing! Fun!

I also think I've been infected by the fallacy that only the City has good studios. This is particularly false when many of the great and good teachers training or being trained live in Brooklyn. As my schedule changes significantly in the fall, it will be good to be able to pop down the street, pay $10 for a class, and walk home and cook dinner. So, if you live in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, or Bed-Stuy, you should check out Move with Grace. They also give discounts to college and university students and money off class packages if you sign up online.

If anyone knows any studios that offer Anusara or Iyengar classes in the FG/CH/BS area, let me know.

Holla! and Namaste.

Beyond Race Magazine Call Submissions

Beyond Race Magazine, a national arts and culture publication, is expanding and we are looking for a few great people to grow with us.
Please view the details below.

Jobs, Internships, Freelance:

Account Executive: We are looking for an experienced account executive for online advertising and/or creative print and online packaging. pd. position.

Editorial Interns: We are looking for JOURNALISM STUDENTS in their senior year or GRADUATE STUDENTS to intern for mid-summer positions and fall. We want to facilitate the growth of people interested in senior, managerial, and content editor positions.
This posting is for seniors in undergrad and graduate students only.
College Credit.

Graphic and Digital Design Interns: mid-Summer and Fall positions. This posting is for juniors and seniors in undergraduate or graduate students only.
College Credit.

Internships are for college credit.
Internships are for mid-summer (July and Fall of 2008)

Freelance Writers and Photographers: We need experienced writers and photographers to pitch ideas and potential stories that fit the mission of the magazine. Writers and photographers will cover events, exhibitions and art openings, concerts, and other cultural events in New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, London, Paris, South Africa, Los Angeles, the Bay Area. Must be able to work to deadlines and submit stories and high resolution images.

About and Application:

ALL APPLICANTS ARE WELCOME. MEN and PEOPLE OF COLOR ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.

Beyond Race Magazine is a quarterly arts and culture publication designed to spotlight the unique and diverse community of artists in multiple genres (music, visual arts, performance, literature, etc.. We spotlight both emerging and established artists and encourage artists to build with us.

Account Executives: Submit resume + cover letter that illustrates sales experience and current contacts. Also submit your LinkedIn Profile and references.

Interns: Submit resume, links to websites, electronic portfolios, and references.

Freelance Writer & Photographers: Submit Resume + work samples, websites, and or tear sheets.
CONTACT: unakariim@beyondracemagazine.com

Two Friends, Two Art Shows, Too Fly!

I have some talented friends and want you to go see their shows:


Next week, my good friend Kesha Bruce has her show opening up, details here. She's Coming to America all the way from France. Well, we met many years ago when she was still living in BK, but one of my favorite things about her is that she is from Iowa. yes, Iowa. I didn't know they had black people there either.Super-fun time will be had by one and all.

Another friend, Sophia Wallace, had an opening Tuesday, which I had to miss, but has a great show that I will be seeing very soon. Check it out.




I'm no art buff, but I am definitely learning more about it and appreciated the visual arts in greater measure. So many of my friends make visual art, I decided it's high time I get into it.

Anyway, I really am packing up my place. Moving day looks to be manana.Fun, fun, fun!

(NYC)Theorizing Blackness Conference TOMORROW!

THEORIZING BLACKNESS



Friday, April 4th, 2008



CUNY Graduate Center

365 5th Avenue (at 34th Street)

New York, NY 10016



8:00 AM – 7:00 PM



The Africana Studies Group (ASG) of the CUNY Graduate Center invites you to join us for a day of presentations and discussion.



On April 4th, 1968 the esteemed civil rights leader and social philosopher, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee thus marking what many regard as the closing bookend of the mainstream African-American Civil Rights Movement. Since that pivotal moment in 1968 (a watershed year in numerous other respects) momentous sociopolitical, technological, and cultural changes have occurred both within the United States and around the world. In light of those substantial changes, "Theorizing Blackness" asks: What does blackness mean in the current day? How is blackness conceived, constructed, represented, and consumed. How has it changed or remained the same?



Keynote speaker:



Professor Mark Anthony Neal is Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African American Studies and the Director of the Institute for Critical U.S. Studies (ICUSS) at Duke University.



Professor Neal is the author of four books: What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture (1998), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002), Songs in the Keys of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation (2003), and New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity (2005), and co-editor of That's the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (2004).



Plenary participants:



Dr. William E. Cross Jr. is the Director of the Social-Personality Psychology Ph.D. program at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is author of Shades of Black: Diversity in African American Identity.



Mahen Bonetti is the founder and Executive Director of African Film Festival Inc. (AFF), a non-profit art organization founded in 1990.



Jacqueline Nassy Brown is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College (CUNY). Dr. Brown is the author of Dropping Anchor, Setting Sail: Geographies of Race in Black Liverpool.



Donette Francis is an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Binghamton. She is currently writing a book defining the "third wave" of Caribbean women writers, Fictions of Citizenship: Rewriting Sexual Histories in Third Wave Caribbean Women's Literature, forthcoming in 2009.



Throughout the day, panels will be moderated by doctoral students and faculty members such as Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Leith Mullings and, Jerry G. Watts, Professor of English and Sociology and Interim Director of the Institute for Research in the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC).



Theorizing Blackness is FREE and OPEN to the public!!!













Theorizing Blackness Conference Schedule



Friday, April 4th, 2008



CUNY Graduate Center

365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)

New York, NY 10016



8:00am - 9:00am: Registration / Breakfast



Please note that all events aside from the evening reception will be held on the Concourse Level of The Graduate Center

Bluestocking Books will be selling books on the Concourse Level from 4-6:30 pm



9:00am - 10:30am: Session 1



Panel 1 - Room C-197



Moderator: Kevin McGruder (CUNY Graduate Center)



La Marr Jurelle Bruce (Yale University): "Possessing the 'Body Beautiful': Black Drag Queens, White Heteronormativity, and 'Happily Ever After' in American Cinema"



Angelique Harris (California State University, Fullerton): "Sexuality and Homosexuality in the Black Church"



Panel 2 - Room C-202



"Cope, Conform or Resist?: How Blacks "Use" their Blackness at Predominantly White University" (University of Delaware)



Moderator: Dr. Yasser Payne



Brittany Pearl Battle



Mamawa Lemon Fofana



LaMar Rashad Gibson



Thea James Ogunusi



Carl Suddler



Panel 3 - Room C-201



Moderator: Hank Williams (CUNY Graduate Center)



Donald Levit (CUNY Graduate Center): "The Spiritual Present: The Inextricable Relationship Between Jazz and the Black Arts Movement"



Algernon Austin (The Thora Institute): "Mapping the Afrocentric Era, 1988-1998"



Leah M. Wright (Princeton University): "Constructions of Conservatism: Black Republicans, 1932-1964"



Panel 4 - Room C-198



"The Politics of the Black Atlantic Body and the Body of Black Atlantic Politics: Nation, Identity, and Resistance"



Moderator: Akissi Britton (CUNY Graduate Center)



Natalie Belisle (U. Wisconsin, Madison): "In the Spirit of the Ancestors: Spiritual Discourse and the Black Revolutionary Struggle in O Ano Em Que Zumbí Tomou O Rio"



Jessica Krug (U. Wisconsin, Madison): "Social Dismemberment, Social Remembering: Contested Kromanti Identities, Nationalism, and Obeah, 1675-Present"



T.J. Desch-Obi (Baruch College, CUNY): "Embodying Honour: Liberating Enslaved Identities Through the Body"



Jarett M. Fields (U. Wisconsin, Madison): "Blackness, the Body, and the 1968 Olympics"



Panel 5 - Room C-203



Moderator: Dr. Deborah Vietze (CUNY Graduate Center)



Julian Ellison: "Melanesia: Pacific Blacks in the African American Consciousness"



Kelly Baker-Josephs (York College, CUNY): "Afrofruturism from a Caribbean Past: The Local Orientation of a Black World Vision"



10:45am - 11:45am: Keynote Lecture:



Professor Mark Anthony Neal (Duke University)
"Fragments of a Feedback Loop: Blackness in Conversation"



12:00pm - 1:15pm: Lunch



1:30pm - 3:00pm: Session 2



Panel 6 - Room C-201



Moderator: Dr. Angelique C. Harris (California State University, Fullerton)



Alan R. Takeall (CUNY Graduate Center): "Black Uplift in the New Racial Domain"



Jacqueline Jones (Francis Marion University): "Pondering the Strange Meaning of Being Black or How Black Can I Be At Work?"



Panel 7 - Room C-198



"Theorizing the African Diaspora": (U.C. Berkeley African Diaspora Studies Graduate Group)



Moderator: Anamaria Flores (CUNY Graduate Center)



Vielka Cecilia Hoy: "Race, Multiple Diasporas, and Points of Departure: Creating a Framework for Theorizing Afro-Latinos"



Petra Raquel Rivera: "'Soca, Reggae, Reggaetón, Tropical Mix': Afro-Latino Spaces and Notch's Reggaetón"



Asia Leeds: "Redeeming Black Womanhood: Newspaper Portraits and Notions of Femininity in Marcus Garvey's Negro World"



Robeson T. P. Frazier: "From Mao to Yao: Chinese–African American Exchanges in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century"



Panel 8 - Room C-197



Moderator: Rashida Bumbray (Assistant Currator, The Kitchen)



Johanna Faith Cacho Almiron (University of Hawaii, Manoa): "Still Not For Sale: Basquiat's Blackness & The Reeboppers"



Jordana Saggese (Santa Clara University): "Basquiat's Blackness: Re-defining an African-American Aesthetic"



Panel 9 - Room C-202



Moderator: Kazembe Belagun (The Brecht Forum)



Janette Yarwood (CUNY Graduate Center): "Deterritorialized Blackness: (Re)making Coloured Identity Among Youth in Post-Apartheid South Africa"



Sara Nichole Artes (American University): "We are, But We Aren't: Constructing African American Identity Through Cultural Heritage Performance on the US/Mexican Border"



Alexander Lamazares (Bronx Community College, CUNY): "Afro-Cuban Aesthetics: The Africa Decade, Secret Societies, and Racial Politics"



Panel 10 - Room C-203



Moderator: Gregory Pardlo (CUNY Graduate Center)



Marissel Hernández-Romero (CUNY Graduate Center): "Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Female Literature: A Threat to an Imagined Nation?"



Katherine Baxter (University of Hong Kong): "New Black Fiction of the Far East"



Ronald Tyson (Raritan Valley Community College): "The Changing Same": Essentialized Blackness in Contemporary African American Popular Fiction"



Panel 11 - Room C-204



"The Ontologies of James Baldwin"



Moderator: Dr. Jerry G. Watts (CUNY Graduate Center)



Sam Han (CUNY Graduate Center): "An Encounter of Mitsein: The Ontology of James Baldwin's Ethics of Victimhood"



David Stein (Yale University): "(Re)naming/Revealing: James Baldwin's Theorizations of Racialized Formations Under the Terror of State Sanctioned Violence"



3:15pm - 4:45pm: Session 3



Panel 12 - Room C-197



Moderator: Dr. Leith Mullings (CUNY Graduate Center)



Yamuna Sangarasivam (Nazareth College): "'Terrorist' as Fugitive Slave: Blackness in the Foundations of Citizenship and Democracy"



Robin Hayes (Santa Clara University): "African Liberation, Black Power and a Diasporic Underground"



Juliana Smith (University of California, San Diego): "Freedom Dreams: Political Exile, U.S. Social Movements, and Post-Revolutionary Cuba"



Panel 13 - Room C-201



Moderator: Leslie Craigo (CUNY Graduate Center)



Daren Graves (Simmons College): "Critical Racial Awareness, Racialized Aspects of School Culture, and Academic Achievement: Listening to the Voices of Black High School Students"



Jessica Ruglis (CUNY Graduate Center): "The Graduation Rate Crisis: Adverse Consequences and the Construction of Blackness in the Context of Cultural Oppression"



Gail Perry-Ryder (CUNY Graduate Center): "Making Race Real: Exploring the Intersection of Race, Academic Performance and Educational Culture in Our Public Schools and Colleges"



Brian Purnell (Fordham University): "From "Negro" to "Black": Black Power Politics in New York City's Public Schools During the Mid-1960s – The Story of Jitu Weusi (Les Campbell) and the Origins of the Afro-American Teachers' Association"



Panel 14 - Room C-198



Moderator: Lise Esdaile (CUNY Graduate Center)



La Marr Jurelle Bruce (Yale University): "Looking for Lauryn: Madness, Genius, and the Black Prophetess,"



Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Vanderbilt University): "Salvaged Tongue: Transnational Translations of English Between Black Feminists"



GerShun Avilez (University of Pennsylvania): "'Once You Go White': Inter-racial Desire and Contemporary Black Female Identity in Film"



Stacie McCormick (CUNY Graduate Center): "From Jolly Joe's Lady Minstrels to Madea Simmons: Enduring Representations of Black Womanhood through Impersonation"



Panel 15 - Room C-202



"How Much and What Kind of Blackness is Enough?": (University of Delaware Black American Studies Department)



Moderator: Dr. James M. Jones (University of Delaware)



James M. Jones and David Wilson: "Black Enough?: Dimensions of Blackness and Attitudes toward Black Leaders"



Carol Henderson: "Boxing' on Paper: Authenticity in the Preservation of a Black Self"



Antonia Randolph: "Retreating from Race: The Social Cost of Erasing Black Ethnicity"



Yasser Payne: "Street Life Black Men: A Culture of Honor, Respect and Resilience"



Maggie Ussery: "Not Just any Job: The Development of Work-related Identity in Young, Black Workers"



Panel 16 - Room C-203



Moderator: Dr. James DeJongh (The City College of New York, CUNY)



Richard Perez (CUNY Graduate Center): "Archives, Knowledges, and Detours: Rereading the Black Atlantic with and against Ian Baucom's Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery, and the Philosophy of History"



DeWitt King (University of California, Santa Barbara): "Theorizing Black Geographies"



Panel 17 - Room C-204



"Post(modern) Blackness"



Moderator: Tyler Schmidt (CUNY Graduate Center)



Alessandra Raengo (Georgia State University): "Counterfeit Currency: Race at Face Value"



Jonathan Gray (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY): "Black Cultural Artifacts and the Conditions of Democracy"



Danielle Jackson: "Beyond Race: Black People and the Multicultural Idea in Contemporary Magazine Culture"



5:00pm – 6:45pm: Evening Plenary:



Moderator: William E. Cross Jr. (CUNY Graduate Center)

Mahen Bonetti (African Film Festival, Inc.)

Jacqueline Nassy Brown (Hunter College, CUNY)

Donette Francis (Binghamton University, SUNY)



7:00pm – 9:00pm: Closing Reception/Party – Room 5414

Calling All Black Star Fans!

I remember my first Black Star show: it was the Malcolm X Grassroots Movements Black August show at the Bowery Ballroom. Those were the days. Common was still a homophobe. No one but the NYC underground kids had heard of dead prez, The Roots were blowing up,Sarah Jones was giving true hip hop feminism, and Erykah was still wearing her headwrap. Well, now you TOO can "reminisce over you my god," and submit your thoughts, theories, poetries, music, etc to Proud Flesh's call for papers honoring the 10th Anniversary of Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star. (thanks Alena for alerting me to this!)

"Brown skin lady, how you doin'? Brown skin lady, how you feeeel? I like the way you walk when you walk on by..."






Call for Papers: Black Star’s 10th Anniversary

In honor of Black Star’s ten-year anniversary, Proud Flesh is calling for
works that speak to the impact and legacy of their masterpiece album, Mos
Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, for an upcoming journal
(www.proudfleshjournal.com).

Released in the fall of 1998, Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star
re-energized the b-boy and backpacker face of Hip Hop with a heightened
analytic and deep consciousness of self and community. Taking their name
from Marcus Garvey and the UNIA’s 1920s shipping company (established to
move Black Americans to a Black state located in Liberia), Black Star,
conceptually and sonically, presented a wide and colorful depiction of
Black life and Black identity.

In contrast to much of the mainstream Hip Hop of that period, they
stressed that life should be more about “the struggle” than “the hustle,
”and critiqued viewpoints that conceived of Black culture in only singular
terms. On “Definition,” Mos Def raps: “Manhattan keep on makin it,
Brooklyn keep on takin it, so relax we're takin it back, Redhook where
we're livin at. Plenty cats be struggling not hustlin and bubblin, if it
ain't about production and -- what else we discussin?” Black Star
chronicled Black folks’ ability and tenacity to produce via work,
language, the arts, communal culture, and cultural production.

A decade has passed since the release of this monumental album. More than
a hot album, this thirteen-track masterpiece continues to offer a
theoretical and practical analysis of urban Black culture and politics,
and a grass-roots base of knowledge that is not adequately engaged. By
stating in their album’s introduction that their music was not meant to
“stand still,” the group signaled that their conception of time and space
did not adhere to the linearity of common epistemological standards.

Acknowledging their point that the music cannot and should not stand
still, Proud Flesh is calling on writers, academics, artists, community
activists/organizers, and fans to submit essays, poems, prose,
photography, graphic artwork, etc., detailing how this album has impacted
your work and your life. Included in this are critical analyses of the
album and/or individual songs, works that place the album and/or songs
within a broader context and legacy (historical, political, social,
artistic), and works that speak to the album's continued relevance.

We are asking that all works be submitted by May 1, 2008 to:

blackstarproject@gmail.com

Visit Proud Flesh at http://www.proudfleshjournal.com/ for more information.