Tag: blacklivesmatter

Social Commentaries, Uncategorized

CALL FOR PAPERS: To the Tenth Power: A Word from the LGBTQ+ Members of the Divine Nine

Proposed Anthology Title: To the Tenth Power: A Word from the LGBTQ+ Members of the Divine Nine Deadline for Abstracts: 1159p Friday, October 1, 2021 Editor: Kendra N. Bryant, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English at North Carolina A&T State University (See bio at drknbryant.com.)   Contact Email: thedivine10anthology@gmail.com In May, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated posted to Instagram a graduation picture of … Continue reading CALL FOR PAPERS: To the Tenth Power: A Word from the LGBTQ+ Members of the Divine Nine

Kendra N. Bryant1 Comment
Social Commentaries

shet the hell up!: on the media being itself

I’ve been steady pondering, damn near fuming about, media’s use of the terms “protest,” “terrorist,” “patriot,” “American,” “citizen,” & “democracy” & how carelessly mainstream reporters have exclaimed, emphatically so, their bewilderment, their upset, their absolute fear re: those white folks’—their kinfolks’—uprising, which too many of them keep calling a protest (& sloppily comparing to Black Lives Matter movements). Continue reading shet the hell up!: on the media being itself

Kendra N. Bryant2 Comments
Random Thoughts, Social Commentaries

my first response to Biden & Harris’ appointments

Note: The below work is excerpted from an epistolary essay I wrote for the Race, Equity, & Education course I am taking with Dr. Kathy Hytten of University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG). It includes references to Eddie Glaude‘s Democracy in Black and Joel Olson‘s The Abolition of White Democracy–which I suggest everyone read, especially during this tumultuous, yet promising, political time. 7 November 2020, 1230p … Continue reading my first response to Biden & Harris’ appointments

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Poetic Endeavors, Reviews, Social Commentaries

“What a friend we have in Jesus” (& Nikki): A musing response to Nikki Giovanni’s “A Good Cry”

I turned myself into myself and wasjesusmen intone my loving nameAll praises All praisesI am the one who would save —Nikki Giovanni, “Ego Tripping (There May Be a Reason Why)”  Jesus wept. (John 11:35) I find Jesus and Nikki to be quite similar, maybe even one and the same. Admittedly, however, I don’t know either that well. But I think I know enuf about them to make such … Continue reading “What a friend we have in Jesus” (& Nikki): A musing response to Nikki Giovanni’s “A Good Cry”

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Classroom Musings: The Courage to Teach

in Defense of Andrew Gillum: Come on Black People

I am 41. I am unwed, & the older I get, the more I am opposed to what appears—in its traditional sense—to be a narrowed, confining arrangement wherein too many folks are lonely, depressed, & unfulfilled; too many married people are unhappy people. Aaaaaaaand, considering America’s marriage is born from a white racist imperialist supremacist capitalist patriarchy—that just opened itself to LGBTQ+ persons—I’m str8 on … Continue reading in Defense of Andrew Gillum: Come on Black People

Kendra N. Bryant5 Comments
Classroom Musings: The Courage to Teach

We, the (Black) People: Contemplating America’s Democracy amid Two+ Pandemics

Since middle school, I was a “revolutionary with no cause,” said my daddy—who apparently was amused by (or weary of) my dashiki wearing, Black nationalist poetry writing, presiding member of the Afro-American Heritage Club and NAACP Youth Council daughter of his who participated in Black History Brain Bowls, Theodore Gibson Oratorical Contests, and high school step shows. I was a “revolutionary with no cause,” he … Continue reading We, the (Black) People: Contemplating America’s Democracy amid Two+ Pandemics

Kendra N. Bryant2 Comments
Social Commentaries

I’m sick an’ tired (of white folks)

I know I’m not the only one carrying absolute exhaustion toward all of white America for their overwhelming performance re: this year’s Black Lives Matter Movement. I’m so tired of receiving emails from corporate America’s CEOs claiming to support the Black Lives Matter Movement–to being culturally sensitive & aware & intolerant of the racism (& classism & sexism & homophobia) that have been cornerstones maintaining … Continue reading I’m sick an’ tired (of white folks)

Kendra N. Bryant29 Comments
Family Musings

“A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet”: Unearthing Grandma’s Black Feminism

I was an 18-year-old fresh(wo)man at Florida A&M University when Grandma Rose died. Cancer. I don’t remember if I had yet told my family I was lesbian—altho I had been planning my comingout story since I left my parents’ home. I planned to tell them I am “pansexual”—a term I read w/which Alice Walker identified over 20 years before Janelle Monáe popularized the word. Being … Continue reading “A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet”: Unearthing Grandma’s Black Feminism

Kendra N. Bryant3 Comments
Poetic Endeavors, Social Commentaries

Furious Flower + Nikki Giovanni: from the Black Arts Movement to Planet Mars

In the beginning was the Word. But I promise you, I have no words to express my week long adventure at Furious Flower’s The Living Truth: The Life and Work of Nikki Giovanni, a professional development seminar for college professors & high school teachers. Words just won’t do; they are inadequate. But I will try my best. For six days, I–along w/circa 50 other professors, … Continue reading Furious Flower + Nikki Giovanni: from the Black Arts Movement to Planet Mars

Kendra N. Bryant4 Comments
Intermediate Composition 2017

remembering daddy, remembering me: a 5-paragraph writing assignment for intermediate composition

Daddy told me I was a revolutionary w/no cause. I don’t know what I was doing at that very moment he made that comment. Maybe I was reciting a poem I wrote about crackers makin it on black folks’ bended backs. Or maybe I was organizing a showcase for Black History Month. I probably was just sittin at the dining room table wearing a dashiki–most likely … Continue reading remembering daddy, remembering me: a 5-paragraph writing assignment for intermediate composition

Kendra N. Bryant2 Comments