Black Feminist Worldmaking Speaker Series at Fordham
The English department, as part of its Black Feminist Worldmaking Series, hosted two speakers in the Spring 2021 semester, Dr. Bettina Judd and Dr. Salamisha Tillet. The series has been spearheaded by Professor Sasha Panaram and brings scholars of Black feminist theory to Fordham. The series also brought Dr. Jennifer C. Nash to campus virtually in Fall 2020. Panaram organized the series in the hopes that it will help students draw connections between the study of Black feminism and its real-world applications.
The Power of Anger: Black Feminist Worldmaking with Bettina Judd, Ph.D.
Bettina Judd, Ph.D. of Washington University spoke via zoom on February 22nd, 2021, her talk, “Do Not Despair, Turn to Fire: Lorde and Morrison on Feeling and the Work” centered Black feminist scholarship through the lens of poetic forms. Dr. Judd touched on issues of anger, safety, and community as they appear in her own work, and that of her creative influences: Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison. She also read and discussed some of her own poetry on these themes.
Dr. Judd’s presentation began with her spoken-word poem, “On or About July 10th, 2015,” which described the events of the Sandra Bland tragedy. The poem played against the backdrop of a video of a car driving through a suburban neighborhood, evoking the danger Black women face every day at the hands of racial violence. Dr. Judd also shared her poem, “Sapphire Paradox,” a visual poem whose construction lends itself to many different readings with different meanings. The poem’s experimental form illustrated the multifaceted experience of anger.
As well as sharing her poetry, Dr. Judd discussed her creative influences, Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde. She invoked the Toni Morrison quote, “The very serious function of racism is distraction,” in order to discuss the revolutionary nature of continuing to create art despite living in a society that often pushes aside or silences Black voices. Dr. Judd also shared a visual mapping of anger published by Audre Lorde in Essence magazine, which imagines anger as a tree with root causes and branches that result. As Dr. Judd explained, throughout its history, Essence not only published articles on beauty for Black women, but also took seriously the task of providing Black women with accessible scholarship to help them understand their worlds and experiences.
The Q and A session delved deeper into questions of anger and expression. One audience member asked about the difference between anger as generative and anger as toxic, prompting a discussion of how artists may approach the question of healthy anger expression. Dr. Judd argued in favor of the cathartic power of expressing anger, and the peace that follows as a result. She also emphasized the importance of having a safe space to practice and express that anger, with a community or studio for support. Another student asked about Dr. Judd’s writings on the racism Black women have faced in the field of gynecology, referencing Patient, her collection of poems developed as a response to her own personal experiences as well as her research on Black women’s historical experiences with gynecology. Dr. Judd pointed out the need to recognize that medicine and scientific research can be influenced by cultural biases just as much as any other field of study, and that racism in the medical field can have serious consequences on patients.
Dr. Judd’s presentation emphasized the importance of centering the experiences of Black women in art, activism, and medicine. Her work’s focus on the power of anger reframes the discussion around Black women’s anger to show the generative potential of this emotion, and the ways in which valuing anger can serve as a catalyst for change. Drawing on the work of Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison, Dr. Judd showed how working in solidarity with others who experience similar forms of oppression can lead to greater transformation, both of the artistic world and society as a whole.
A Conversation with Dr. Salamisha Tillet
Professor Sasha Panaram, began the event on Monday, March 8th, by reading an email her mentor had sent her while she was completing her graduate degree. This email recommended a book by Salamishah Tillet, the presenter at the final event in the series. Dr. Tillet is the Henry Rutgers Professor of African American Studies and Creative Writing at Rutgers University as well as the founding director of the New Arts Initiative at Express Newark. She has published multiple books, including In Search of The Color Purple, which Dr. Panaram explained was very influential in her own work.
Dr. Tillet discussed the process of writing In Search of The Color Purple, a critical text examining how Alice Walker’s journey of writing The Color Purple inspired others as a model for Black women’s healing. According to Dr. Tillet’s research, a variety of people have found themselves in the novel’s protagonist, Celie, and particularly in Celie’s experiences of sexual trauma and healing. While the United States has seen a public reckoning with sexual violence in the form of the #MeToo movement, Dr. Tillet wanted to examine the more private forms of confronting and healing from trauma.
In her book, Dr. Tillet emphasized the unique point of view of Black women, and how the intersections of identity that Black women experience shape their unique way of being in the world. As she explained, The Color Purple used a first-person perspective, groundbreaking for its time period given that novels were rarely narrated from the perspectives of Black women and girls. In this way, The Color Purple centers a survivor of trauma in ways that other stories published at the time. Dr. Tillet explained how this framework inspired the nonprofit she co-founded with her sister, A Long Walk Home. This organization aims to provide young artists and activists with the resources to fight against violence directed at girls and women while giving young women of color a safe space in which to express themselves. In doing so, Dr. Tillet hopes to empower these young people to reach their full potential free from the obstacles that violence and oppression place in their lives.
During the Q and A portion of the talk, Dr. Tillet discussed her upcoming book on musician and activist Nina Simone. She addressed the sudden resurgence of interest in Simone’s work, which she attributes to the Black Lives Matter movement and the way many social justice movements have recently embraced emotions like fury and grief in their activism. Dr. Tillet also addressed a question about the expansive and often multimedia nature of Black woman creatives’ work. In response, she credited the ways in which Black women’s voices have historically been pushed to the side or disregarded, and so Black women have responded by employing a variety of tools in order to have their voices heard.
As the final installment of the Black Feminist Worldmaking Series, Dr. Salamishah Tillet’s presentation offered attendees much to ponder. By referencing such powerful and lasting creative voices as Alice Walker and Nina Simone in discussing activism, Dr. Tillet made the point that, for many Black women creators, art and activism intersect in profound ways. She also provided an example of an artistic project becoming a force for lasting change, in her nonprofit A Long Walk Home. This presentation inspired attendees to use their voices as a force for good, and to amplify the voices around them that have historically been silenced.