You vs Me, An Intellectual: Rewriting Pop Culture in Poetry
Pop culture, like poetry, can work like excavation; it authorizes us to ask questions, to uncover, and to translate.
Beyonce
The Black Aesthetic: Sexuality in Beyoncé’s Grammy Award Winning Lemonade
When Beyoncé dropped her masterpiece Lemonade last year, the world was abuzz. In her groundbreaking visual album, images of black femaleness manifest as not only sexually pleasing to imagine, but empowering to behold.
What Does Your Liberation Look Like?: In Conversation with Liz Mputu and Justin Phillip Reed
In a blog series for Ploughshares, I interview a poet and a non-poet. This time, digital media artist Liz Mputu and poet Justin Phillip Reed. I want to talk about how to manage the expression of violence, feeling of violence, portrayal of violence and also, anger as a thing that you work with.
Round-Up: Bookslut, BTBA Winners, and the Intersection of Poetry and Music
From Bookslut’s last issue to the important role poetry and music play in each other’s lives, here’s a look at the latest literary news: In March, founder of Bookslut Jessica Crispin announced she’d be stopping publication of the website, which she’s been running since 2002. She recently sat down with Vulture and discussed how the site started,…
Looking Otherwise
We are one month post-“Formation.” In the wake of Beyoncé’s video release (/Super Bowl halftime performance/world tour announcement), a frenzy of reactions and reactions to reactions has proliferated. Only they’re not just reactions, they’re readings. On the immediate surface of the song’s lyrics, “Formation” is about being Black, and crucially also about looking Black, about…