Wish to Live

Ruth Nicole Brown (PhD in political science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) is an artist-scholar and an assistant professor in the Departments of Gender and Women's Studies and Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Black Girlhood Celebration: Toward a Hip-Hop Feminist Pedagogy (Peter Lang, 2009). Chamara Jewel Kwakye (PhD in educational policy studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is a scholar, storyteller, and performer. She is currently a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Kwakye is currently writing a book that documents the life histories of Black women in the Academy.

Contents: Dominique C. Hill: An Unapologetic Lyric: A Warrior’s Battle for Space in Education – Tanya Kozlowski: Who Wants 2 b Hard? A Lesbian of Color Critiques the Phrase «No Homo» in Hip-Hop – Darlene Vinicky: (Progressive) Hip-Hop Cartography – Zenzele Isoke: Lighting the Fire: Hip-Hop Feminism in a Midwestern Classroom – Ruth Nicole Brown: For Oya: I Love Myself Dancing… and Then Again When I Am Boxed in and Overwhelmed – Adilia James: The Black Girl Body as a Site of Sexual Terrorism – Christina Carney: The Politics of Representation for Black Women and the Impossibility of Queering the New Jersey 4/7 – Sheri Davis-Faulkner: Camp Carrot Seed: Reflections on a Critical Pedagogic Project – Chamara Jewel Kwakye: Dr. Theresa Bayarea: Dancing to Make Freedom – Shaunita Levison: Freedom Schools and Ella Baker – Porsha Olayiwola: Performance: «My legacy of imagination is not lost.». The Almighty and Most Powerful – Loy A. Webb: I Am A Woman – Tanya Kozlowski/Irene Christine Zavarsky/Christina Armstrong: Body Cypher Love: A Remix: A Hip-Hop Feminist Project – Blair Ebony Smith: Black Girl Night Talk – Durell Callier: Acting Out: A Performative Exploration of Identity, Healing, and Wholeness – Grenita Hall: Get It Girl Moments: A Reflection on Dance and Research – Sesali Bowen: The Bad Bitch Society: Discovering Love through Writing and the New Hip-Hop – Precious McClendon: Show Yo’ Self – Christina Armstrong: A Conversation with Black Artemis – Lena Foote: A Mother and Daughter Talk Hip-Hop – J. Sean Callahan: Summer Vacation in B’ham, Alabama, or Southern Fried Feminism – DaYanna Crider: I Love Music! – Kristen Smith: In the Words of Others We Find Ourselves – Sheri Lewis: Youth (Young Adult) Organizing – Jessica Robinson: Can We Be for Black Girls and against Their Sexuality? – Porshe Garner: Check-In – Taylor-Imani Linear: On Being in the Service of Someone Else’s Shine – Desiree McMillion: To the Visionary – Claudine Taaffe: Portrait of a Black Girl: Seeing Is NOT Believing.