Contribute Your Voice to this Project!
[Deadline: Until enough diverse perspectives are collected]
Scroll down for details
Purpose of Project
Through writing and visual art, this project will help to give voice to the Black identified females who navigate through
racism, sexism and classism in the world. Key topics addressed in this antholgoy will help to understand the politics of institutionalized
racism and the effects of the N-Word:
- How do/can we use narrative therapies and critical writing to help give voices to a demographic that has been historically
oppressed and marginalized since the era of Black slavery in USA? What about globally?
- How can these multimedia expression and writing narratives help to educate high school and college teachers about the
needs to address “oppressive ideologies” that are institutionalized everywhere- including the school systems itself.
Theoretical Framework and Influences
bell hooks'
black looks , Tim Wise's
White Like Me , Audre Lorde's
Sister Outsider , Maya Angelou's
powerful keynote speech at the Rhinebeck NY
Women and Power Conference of Sept 2005, and James Baldwin's
The Fire
Next Time have been my primary motivators for this project. I also draw from Michel Foucault's theories on power and
Paulo Freire's
Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I must thank Maya Angelou for her encouragement and inspiration. At the
September conference, with engaging passion, she recited Countee Cullen's Poem,
Nigger , and from there, the initial
concept of this project was born.
The first time I remembered being called a n*gger, I was the age of twelve. Though it took me more than a decade to fully
articulate my experience of that day, it had always astounded me how much rage and fear that word had instilled in me. It
wasn't until fifteen years later that I began to understand how profoundly emotional and often traumatic that this one word
has been to a majority of Black identified people who have been survivors of it, including myself. It was through reading
bell hooks, June Jordan, W.E.B. DuBois, Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin and other "resisters of oppression" as well the
expression of fiction book writing that I was able to explore my emotions as well as my understanding of my social status
as a Black female in a country in which institutionalized sexism, heterosexism, classism and racism is embedded in the institutions
and policies of the status quo. It was in the pages of bell hooks that I first ran across her critical consciousness paradigm.
Through this practice, I was able to understand my relationship with race, class, sexuality, and gender status within the
United States. Simultaneously, I also wanted to understand these systems of inequalities but not be solely defined or limited
by them. I stopped thinking of my position as a "victim" and realized that I am a "survivor" capable of making positive change
through the voicing of my experiences.
"I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared,
even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood." - Audre Lorde
Black identified women and girls, come forth and share your experiences, critiques and reflections on n-word. It may sound
simple, but your voice will be part of the cure in addressing taboo topics that black females of the African Diaspora experience.
"We are what we've been waiting for." - Sweet Honey in the Rock
Call for Contributions!! Submit Your Voice
This is a call for narratives, poetry, photography, other types of visual art, and critical essays for a book anthology about
Black identified females who want to :
- creatively convey their experience(s) of being called a n*gger
- Reflections on the word n*gga
- How experience with the n-word has affected your emotional and or physical health
- Share their experiences of when they had heard or seen the word even though it may not have been directed towards them.
- Explore how did being called the n-word as a child shape your consciousness as an adult?
- Reflect on how you felt when you read the n-word in required school readings such as Huckleberry Finn and Grapes of Wrath.
- Analyze David Chappelle's use of the n-word in his comedy
- Share your reactions and feelings when hearing the n-word in a public space, such as in a movie theater by a character
in the movie.
- Critique your experiences with the n-word or hearing it by a friend or family member.
- Teaching your child about the n-word.
- If you read Randall Kennedy's book Nigger or any other book with the N-word in it's title, what was it like
for you?
- These topics are just for brainstorming purposes. The sky's the limit!
Who is invited to submit their voice :
All Black identified girls and women from all sexual orientations, educational levels, nationalities, countries, ages, etc.
Please send
TWO COPIES to the
POSTAL MAIL address below. Submissions should be double spaced, 1" margins
and preferably
no longer than 15 pages. If we want to include your submitted materials in the anthology, we will email
or call you and ask that you send us a SOFT version via email. Remember to include a bio, email and phone number with your
postal mailed stuff.
I look forward to reading your contributions!
Amie Breeze Harper
122 Oxford St., apt 5
Cambridge, MA 02140
