Tag: kendranicole

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. Bryant4 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. Bryant1 Comment
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. Bryant7 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
Classroom Musings: The Courage to Teach, IJS: The 5-Paragraph Rant

big CLIT energy

Last Fall semester, my writing students, all English majors, & I were discussing Barbara Jordan’s 1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address. In classical rhetorical fashion, Jordan begins her speech w/an ethical appeal that explains to & convinces her audience that her presence as keynote speaker signals a radical shift in not only the ideals that the Democratic Party holds, but in the notion that every … Continue reading big CLIT energy

Kendra N. Bryant5 Comments
Social Commentaries

13 reasons why NOT: season 2

It’s been approximately one year & a month since I actually sat to my computer to write a blog post. & here I am, at 8:35am, Wednesday morning, writing about got damn 13 Reasons Why: Season 2. There’s so much more to which I should be lending my writing attention–like Bill Cosby, illiteracy, & Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon. However, Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why: Season 2 … Continue reading 13 reasons why NOT: season 2

Kendra N. Bryant2 Comments
#TBT, Classroom Musings: The Courage to Teach

TBT: in a daze

I wrote the following post October 12, 2010, while I was a doctoral student teaching Professional Writing at University of South Florida, Tampa. *     *     * I remember working at FAMU’S Writing Center, when one of my most stern, yet caring, English professors shared with me her frustration regarding a student’s desire to argue with her about a grade he DESERVED in her class. As … Continue reading TBT: in a daze

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Classroom Musings: The Courage to Teach

“Self Destruction”: Black Student Writers in the Social Media Age

The following paper is the first half of a conference presentation I delivered at the 2018 “Symposium on Teaching Composition and Rhetoric at HBCUs” hosted by Howard University and Bedford St/Martin’s.  *      *     * According to this year’s conference call for abstracts, “One HBCU scholar once described managing student literacies and the technological resources afforded HBCUs as ‘trying to make a dollar out … Continue reading “Self Destruction”: Black Student Writers in the Social Media Age

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Poetic Endeavors

A Sonnet for Black Mothers & Their Girls Who Understood “Is-ness” before It Was a Theory, w/Kind Regards to Thich Nhat Hanh

I remember sitting at Momma’s feet— my shoulders held captives between her knees, two pillows supporting my back & seat, while I cupped a jar of Blue Magic grease that seemed to put magic in Momma’s hands. She tackled my head like her weekend chores: scratching out dandruff like scrubbing stained pans, & greasing dry scalp like mopping stained floors, & parting my hair like … Continue reading A Sonnet for Black Mothers & Their Girls Who Understood “Is-ness” before It Was a Theory, w/Kind Regards to Thich Nhat Hanh

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