For the members of the Crunk Feminist Collective, their academic day jobs were lacking in conversations they actually wanted to have: relevant, real conversations about how race and gender politics intersect with pop culture and current events. To address this void, they started a blog. Now with an annual readership of nearly one million, their posts foster dialogue about activist methods, intersectionality, and sisterhood. With the publication of their new essay collection, the Crunk Feminist Collective tackles life stuck between loving hip hop and ratchet culture while hating patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism. The book’s distinguished editors take the stage at Greenlight for a discussion moderated by Jamila Lemieux about the book, the project, and the increasing relevance and necessity of their work.
Susana M. Morris is associate professor of English at Auburn University, where she teaches African American literature. She is the author of Close Kin and Distant Relatives: The Paradox of Respectability in Black Women’s Literature. She currently serves as cochair of the board of directors of Charis Circle, the nonprofit programming arm of one of the nation’s oldest feminist bookstores. She has written for Gawker, Cosmopolitan, and Ebony, and featured on NPR, Colorlines, and Essence
Robin M. Boylorn is associate professor of interpersonal and intercultural communication at the University of Alabama, where she teaches and writes about issues of social identity and diversity. She is the author of the award-winning monograph Sweetwater: Black Women and Narratives of Resilience and coeditor of Critical Autoethnography: Intersecting Cultural Identities in Everyday Life. Her next book, Blackgirl Blue(s), is forthcoming from Routledge.
Brittney C. Cooper is assistant professor of women’s and gender studies and Africana studies at Rutgers University, where she specializes in Black feminist thought, Black women’s intellectual history, hip hop studies, and digital feminisms. Her first book, Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women, is forthcoming from University of Illinois Press. Her work and words have appeared at the New York Times, the Washington Post, Essence, Ebony, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Show, All In with Chris Hayes, and more.
Jamilah Lemieux is an award-winning writer, editor, and speaker. She is Vice President of News and Men’s Programming for Interactive One, and prior to her current position, served as Senior Editor at Ebony. Her work and words have been featured in a variety of media, including The Nation, The New York Times, MSNBC, Al Jazeera America, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and others. In 2014, she was named to The Root 100 list of the nation's most influential African Americans, as well as Fortune's list of the most influential women on Twitter.
Edited by Brittney C. Cooper, Susana M. Morris, and Robin M. Boylorn
Essays on hip-hop feminism.