531 Search results for "performance"

by Maximillian Matthews I wonder when my late father first observed the singularity of my gender performance. Perhaps he saw it when he took me to my first concert during Janet Jackson’s 1993 Janet tour, and noticed how I knew every word she sang on the stage. He may have seen it when he observed […]

In a world that often expects and perpetuates whiteness and hetero-normativity, Black and Brown people in LGBTQ communities have a unique need for safe spaces. Given this need, an organization called Families of Chicago (FOC) will host a holiday celebration for queer and trans people of color—especially young Black people—on Sunday, December 10, 2017 in […]

Still riding high on the breakout success of her debut album, CTRL (Control), alternative R&B artist SZA is now being recognized by the Recording Academy for her outstanding work thus far in her career. A collaborator and songwriter for megastars Rihanna and Beyonce, the 5 Grammy nominations signal that the artist who once tweeted that […]

Gwendolyn Brooks is a name synonymous with Chicago, so it is only fitting that three of the city’s brightest literary stars worked together to create a play that bottles up some of her brilliance and exposes a new generation to her timeless wonders. Eve Ewing, Nate Marshall, and Jamila Woods spearhead the production, with Ewing […]

Hip-hop star Drake recently threatened to get down in the Down Under when a male attendee apparently would not stop touching women during the rapper’s after party. Drake, who is traveling the world for his Boy Meets World Tour, set the record straight mid-performance in Sydney, Australia. The artist had the DJ stop the music […]

Director Dee Rees has long been considered an exceptional directorial talent and now it appears that she has created a film which will give her the Oscar buzz she deserves. Mudbound, which is based on Hillary Jordan’s 2008 debut novel of the same name, is a World War II era story of two Mississippi families—one […]

by Tabias Olajuawon This essay contains discussion of racialized sexual violence and anti-Black fetishism “You are not to touch other flesh without a police permit. The State wants to seize your bed And sleep with you… The message is clear: your penis.. your anus, your orgasm, these belong to the state. The erogenous zones are […]

By Ashley Nkadi Do you remember Abigail Fisher? If you are drawing a blank, allow me to refresh your memory:  Abigail Fisher is the white woman whose college rejection was heard around the world, mainly because she basically grabbed the world’s biggest megaphone and wailed into it like a toddler. When Fisher was denied entry […]

By George M Johnson Fuck the Grammys. Fuck the Oscars. Fuck the Emmys. Fuck it all. That’s all you would hear if Black folks were to say how we really feel when year after year we continue to be the best in the room only to be overshadowed by the “breakthrough performance of a lifetime” […]

Kylie Jenner allegedly unfollowed Rihanna on Instagram when Fenty Beauty dropped, and the way I cackled left me aching and in tears. This was not long after I learned Maria Sharapova released her memoir, where she casts Serena Williams in the role of a jealous and begrudging contender. This vein of fragility is the modus operandi […]

Adults should not be unsettled by self-possessed pre-teens. Adults should know that inflicting physical discipline on other people’s children is an egregious error. Adults should also know everybody does not share their worldviews or dedication to patriotic performance. One Michigan teacher can reflect on these truisms after she was placed on administrative leave and while […]

Too often, in our hasty gestures of doling out ally and wokeness credits, we fail to turn a critical lens to the ways that performative activism rarely metes out actual social change. And while Colin Kaepernick’s recent activist work seems to be more than performance, recent protests on his behalf and his continued fight to […]