What is Summer School?
If you’re intellectually curious, get excited by the prospect of deep thinking, and stimulating conversation, then join Dr. Nikki Lane for a series of lectures about Black popular culture and sexual politics in America. Enjoy an evening in the company of other smart folks like yourself as you tackle discussion questions for the night. Enjoy happy hour drink specials at the H St. location of the upscale pizzeria Red Rocks. Enjoy an engaging lecture from a dynamic, funny, and gifted lecturer.
Bring friends. Bring bae(s). Bring your curiosity to Summer School.
Previous Classes
Important quotes, reading list, and discussion questions
Typically discussions around queer women’s social lives are talked about in terms of loss and Black queer folks, women especially, are characterized as “invisible” as if their social worlds were never there or are “disappearing” from the urban landscape. However, my findings, based on 3 years of ethnographic research, suggest a highly vibrant, rich and diverse “Scene” for Black queer women in and around Washington, D.C. I’ll share bits about my work, and highlight some of the ways that Black queer women have historically navigated within the context of overlapping forms of oppression in the U.S. to “make space out of no space.”
Important quotes, reading list, and discussion questions
The changing nature of class politics within the U.S., where the gap between the rich and poor is wider now than it has ever been, serves as the backdrop for this lecture about how class operates in the lives and language practices of Black people in the 21st century. Class is a topic of discussion that is increasingly being discussed in the context of Black life in the U.S. Class refers both to one’s socioeconomic status, but also their performance of status. This lecture will offer a brief survey of class politics in Black life since the early 20th century, introduce you to the concept of performativity in relationship to class, and will interrogate the distinctions and similarities in the way people deploy the terms ratchet and boojie.
Important quotes, reading list, and discussion questions
In this lecture, we will discuss the noise over which black women who rap must contend in order to make their voices heard. We will discuss the ways that black women who rap work within and outside the boundaries of what is understood to be “appropriate” for black women within and outside of hip-hop culture to do and say. We’ll discuss the work of Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, MC Lyte, and Grammy Award winning artists Missy Elliott (“Get Ur Freak On”) and Queen Latifah (“U.N.I.T.Y”) asking how they consistently disturb the boundaries around norms of racialized gender and sexuality. We’ll discuss how black women who rap have consistently managed to “queer” the language of hip-hop, which is typically a domain where men and masculinity reign supreme, by questioning hip-hop’s patriarchy and heteronormativity and exposing its fault lines. This queering, I’ll argue, allows these women to boldly place their bodies, voice, and art at the center of a more expanded vision of hip-hop where any body can grab the mic. We’ll end by thinking about how black women who rap dare us to listen to what Black women have to say about their experiences of race, gender, and sexuality.
Important quotes, reading list, and discussion questions
As an educator of college students during the “Age of 45,” I experience unique challenges and opportunities for expanding my approach to teaching, or my “pedagogy.” In particular, I have found it important to approach my teaching through a dual lens of love & justice. But what does that mean? In this lecture, I will reflect on a course I taught called “#BlackLivesMatter and Beyond” at a predominately white institution (PWI) in the spring of 2018. The course placed the #BlackLivesMatter movement within the context of broader black and African American social movements from the 19th and 20th centuries into the early 21st century. Pulling on knowledge that I gained while teaching the course, I will share what I believe are the 3 most important things you need to know in order to understand the contemporary political and cultural struggle for black life that was, in large part, inspired by a Twitter hashtag. We’ll discuss some of the nuances involved in teaching what, for some, is a fundamental and obvious truth: the black life in America is systemically undervalued. Finally, I’ll share with you tips for educating yourself and the people around you about various struggles for black life in a way that doesn’t retreat from the hard, difficult, and sometimes uncomfortable conversations that must happen if we’re to attain real justice for black folk.
Thank you to these generous sponsors for contributing to my dream of educating EVERYBODY who wants to learn contemporary critical theory, and apply it to their everyday lives. Y’all the real MVPs.
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