I bit off way too much reading and now I have a lot to say :(

I am a weenie. Here is an updated syllabus.

Black Radical Bookclub: September Updates

Hello!!

I would like to propose a collaborative syllabus.

I am still finishing my first essay on one of Tressie McMillan Cottom’s essays and realizing I am cramming for nothing. This is not school. There is no quarter system midterm to happily toddling across time to punish me. We can take as long as we want with this material.

With that freedom, I want to read as much as I think is necessary. I want to give the folks that want to read the time to focus, no shame or judgment. I need time to get books donated to books requested— which !!

Thank you for donating! Thank you for asking for help!! We even have some library help!!! Positive reinforcement all around <3 :) No reader left behind.

What should I be reading on Beauty? What twitter threads, what articles, what books, what art? What do you think I (and the rest of the Black Radical Bookclubbers) would love! Respond to this email!!

If we have been emailing, you know that I am in the process of moving across the country. I’m taking a giant roadtrip! I’m moving back near my mother, if only for the time being. If you are nosy there are more details about that in the bottom of this email. You can always reply to these! Responding has been so lovely.

ZOOM MEETING:

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH 2022

at 2PM CST

Discussing: “In the Name of Beauty” by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Link to the event:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/92099154721?pwd=anBMY2NKeEdudVI3UjFPTnYwNWxUQT09

In a shocking turn of events, I cannot shut up and will simply never be doing so again. I am back to bits of my first love (reading under trees). Here’s our updated schedule for September 2022.

Session One: Studies on Beauty

Question: what is Beauty, where does it come from, and who does it serve?

Readings:

“In The Name of Beauty” by Tressie McMillan Cottom (essay from her book Thick: And Other Essays)

Session Two: The Body and the Politic

Question: what is the political landscape pressing on the way I see the body?

Readings:

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

Ar’n’t I A Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South by Deborah Gray White | Chapter One: Jezebel and Mammy: The Mythology of Female Slaves

Session Three: Self-Love and Desirability

Questions: What are the political forces influencing how I love my own body? How does fat phobia and the politics of desirability fracture our relationship with ourselves and others?

Readings: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison, pages 1-32

Session Four: Anti-Fat Propaganda

Question: How has the state weaponized the idea of health and personal responsibility against its populace, especially fat folks?

Readings: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison, pages 33-84

Session Five: The Case for Gender Abolition

Question: In what was are gender performance and Beauty the same? Can we be critical of Beauty without questioning the gender binary as well?

Readings: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison, pages 85-105

You see that? Nice and bare bones. Open to change. What should we add?

Road trip!!! ft. Kansas City, MI

having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card!!

I am driving across the country to return home for a while and I am grateful. It’s going to be such a journey. I’m beginning the trip in and leaving Chicago. I know this is very short notice for basically everyone involved, but!!

If you’re in or near these cities and you might be down to have an in-person book club session at a public library or a coffee shop… reply to this email. We can read a fun little short story or something. Or just chill and eat snacks!! I’m game. Respond to this email and bring a friend. I’ll send you the when2meet. Let’s be friends do not make this weird!!

Chicago, IL

Nashville, TN

New Orleans, LA

Dallas, TX

Albuequerque, NM

And if you’re that psyched to have in person coffee chats… you should subscribe to the paid tier. I so rarely ask that but like… if you made it this far, you want to be in my business. You are nosy and I respect that, just stand ten does down on it!! My first episode is about how learning about the politics of desirability made me want to quit stripping hahaha shh hahahah sign up!