The Cypher

The Weekly Roundup + Allow Us to Re-Introduce Ourselves + A Playlist

Hey Y’all!

What a week! Thanks for getting on board this ride again! Below, we’re sharing what we’re watching, listening to and reading! Every week for the next 6 weeks, one of the CFs will be re-introducing herself. In addition to the list of reads, and viewing recommendations, this week we have a dope playlist of our fave remixes that we’ve curated just for you. 

P.S. Congrats to CF Robin, who was promoted to full professor at the University of Alabama yesterday! You’re such a badass, Sis! We salute you!

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Watch:

Our IG Live Talking about the launch of The Remix

Moxie on Netflix (the Queer Afro-Latinx character Lucy is our fave!)

Tina on HBO Max

The Equalizer on CBS: We stan a kickass Queen (Latifah)!

Queen Sugar on OWN

Robin did this dope panel on Southern Black Artists!

The Chauvin Trial (actually we’re not watching it closely because well, our nerves are bad, but we send love to Darnella Frazier, her 9 year old cousin, and George Floyd’s family and loved ones.) 

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Listen: In celebration of the launch of The Remix, we curated a dope playlist of some of our fave remixes past and present, just for you!

Remix Playlist 

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Read:

This very thought-provoking series of three essays on community policing, its challenges, and promises, over at In These Times.

• Community Control Won’t Fix What’s Wrong with Cops

• To Transform Policing, We Need Community Control

• Want to Abolish the Police? The First Step Is Putting Them Under Democratic Control.

Black Women’s Role in The Amazon Union Drive in Alabama

• Southern Black Women Are Key to Alabama Amazon Union Drive

• There is a Legacy of Southern Black Women Organizing Workers Before the Amazon Campaign.

Feminist Miscellany

• The Importance of Mentorship (a CF Hollywood success story) -

• Historic Sex Abuse Settlement from USC -

• A Lovely Write Up of Octavia E. Butler in Celebration of the Library of America Releasing the First Volume of Her Collected Works

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Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

How It Started...

How it’s going…

I’m Brittney. When we started 11 years ago, I was an untenured prof at a public university in the Deep South. But now, I’m a tenured prof at Rutgers University, where I teach in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Africana Studies. I teach the big kids, and cheer for the grad students who are soon to be my future colleagues. 

 I’m a writer, thanks in no small part to how the Crunk Feminist reader community supported me when I was just getting started. And I’m an all around maker of good trouble, feminist shit-talker, and advocate and activist for Black women and Black people. 

My soundtrack was Crunk then. It’s still Crunk now. So is my disposition. I am so glad to see young sisters taking over Hip Hop again. (My 90s teen self sees it and salutes it.) So Meg, Cardi, Doja Cat, Saweetie, Noname, Chika, and more are in regular rotation over her. (Saweetie, we love you, Lil Sis. Fuck Quavo.)

My hope for The Remix is simply to be in community with my girls and with all of you. We need each other as much now as we ever have, and the one thing we do well in this Collective is community.

I’m working on multiple books: a new book of essays called How To Love A Feminist. A storybook for the littles called Stand Up: 10 Mighty Black Women Who Made A Change. A middle grade series called The Bees, about three wonderful tween friends. And Susana, Chanel, and I have a book called Feminist AF coming this fall for the YA readers in your life.  Stay tuned for exclusive news and updates about that. 

All this to say, I’m out here. Spinning ideas and tall tales for the revolution. Surviving a pandemic. Figuring out how to be 40 and fab.  And I’m so glad to participate in bringing you this newsletter. 

Keep it righteous,

B.

Follow me on IG @Professor_Crunk and us @crunkfeminists.