Introduction to Black (Fashion) Studies Syllabus

The following course seeks to investigate and analyze the language, rhetoric, history, and impact of Black culture on the fashion industry today. In doing so, we will utilize contemporary and historical conversations around race, gender, sexuality, and class in order to interrogate and analyze key concepts, moments, styles, and trends of the fashion industry. By […]

Four Notes on the Ontology of Fantasy

It is forbidden to forbid, said the graffiti tagged walls in May 1968. The paradox of Law. Law regulates without regulation. Darling, what does it mean to be free? Freedom is a dream made out of the seduction of the Law. We cannot pretend. The Law is seductive. The question seems to be whether one […]

outside of theory. pontifications.

Disco. Funk. Crunk. PUNK. What is the theory behind Lil’ Jon’s “Yea!” … Lil’ Jon’s “Okay!” … Lil’ Jon’s “What!” … The theory is as follows: no theory allowed. Lil’ Jon’s “Yea” escapes theory as an attempt to generalize the thing into a homogenous whole. Difference and repetition. Repetition that unveils difference without end. Untranslatable […]

“But Worlds End All The Time”: An Experiment-Thought on Death and Contradiction

Koleka Putuma’s Collective Amnesia enabled a philosophical meditation on Death. The following poem, “Index,” in specific is the index for this precis and “art installation” project performed in text below. A combination of performance poetry as the articulation of philosophical theory functions to immanently perform the deconstruction of the axioms of thought that ground the […]

Carcerality of the Heart

You’ve witnessed the cycles as endless returns – the never-ending request for change, the never-ending quest for improvement. You’ve come to believe you deserve it. This is revenge for a history of what they called abuse. This is revenge for a history of what they called manipulation. This is your karma – to be trapped, […]

The Cynical Slave

I am a Slave. I have no community. “Can there even be a ‘community’ of niggers, as opposed to a ‘bunch’ or a ‘collection’?”[1] I am a Slave. There are no Slaves who could grant me the senses and sensations of Life nor the perturbations of recognition nor the borrowed enhancements of institutionality and incorporation. […]

The Social Sculpting of the “Humans of Museums”

The Social Sculpting of the “Humans of Museums” (Paper and Photography Presented at Pomona College on Wednesday, November 6th 2019) The German artist, Josef Beuys, was a Fluxus performance artist in the 20th Century. Commonly regarded as one of the most prolific and influential artist of the century, when he arrived in America for the […]

CARRY YOURSELF IN

Carry yourself in. They’ll name you over and over, and make bridges from the ugliest parts of your body. Give them their content. They’ll mill over it when you die or maybe, cast it all into oblivion. Who were you born to be? A consolation for a mind. A problem. A question and a song. […]

Promoting Gro Touré

Play Gro Touré Here This narrative begins in post-post-production. After the lyrics have been written, the guitars have been laid down, the beat has been assembled, the singing, the rapping, the vibing has been completed, and the recording, mixing and mastering has finished. In the neoliberal digital economy, the labor of the independent artist doesn’t […]

Tag: Art