#herstunreads

[whitnei-writes]

ATL’s brand of funk intentionally teetered on the line between the sacred & secular, un-afraid to blend the aesthetics of faith, trauma, and perseverance in vocal and instrumental performances. Therefore, ATL hip-hop artists had a multilayered challenge… the validation of what Imani Perry argues is a contemporary urban South, the creation of a ‘unique meeting ground of the traditional, the old and new, plus the ‘same old, same old.’ OutKast’s intentional disjuncture of their southerness from the space and time vacuums that often dictate how the South is understood shifts paradigms of modernity and urbanity to reflect the on-the-fringe narratives of southern blacks. OutKast pivots on the use of the South as a renewable source of cultural currency and agency for blacks. Still, it was not lost on them or their ATL-reared and -based producers Organized Noize, consisting of Rico Wade, Sleepy Brown, & Ray Murray, that they needed to demonstrate their awareness of hip-hop’s identity as an urban cultural expression that could be used to reflect their experiences in ATL. @redclayscholar Again, Dr. Gina Mae is telling it the best. OutKast brought a unique blend of the gospel to the funk to the verse and we were left with something uniquely southern. Something you can climb into your headphones and lay down with, all while feeling at home. If my series of posts on #ChroniclingStankonia has influenced you to do nothing else… Git up, git out, and #ReadReginaBradley. In due time there will be a full book review over on @dablackpositive, and I will share it here too. Also, I am looking forward to Dr. Bradley’s newest project, and I am sure I will feel just as seen as I did in the covers of Chronicling Stank. #LetsGrow #PositivelyBlackBooks #BlackAndSouthern #BlackBibliophile #ReadersAreLeaders #ReadMoreEveryday #Bookstagram #BlackBookstagrammer #AmReading #BlackLivesMatter #SupportBlackArt #HerstunReads #SouthernLiving #HipHop #RespectRap #OutKast #iRead #KaroSyrup #Karo #RedClayScholar #AlbanyStateUniversity Image description & credits in comments. (at Cairo, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPJuRKrrT_Z/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

“OutKast’s moniker embraces their (initial) displacement in hip-hop & is an acronym for Operating Under The Krooked American System Too Long Their embodiment as outcasts can be read on multiple levels, including outcasts of hip-hop’s dominant northeastern aesthetics & outcasts as less-than-respectable young black men in the post-civil rights South. Although southern hip-hop existed before OutKast, they are the founding theoreticians of the hip-hop South. Their lyrical whimsicality & sonic & cultural experimentation with their southerness situaties them as the epicenter of recognizing a collective - tho not monolithic - contemporary southern black cultural landscape. OutKast’s recognition of not only their marginalization but also their refusal to acknowledge that the South does move on after 1968 is significant in using their musical catalog as a blueprint for updating y the hip-hop South is introspective & reflective of how young blacks exist at the sharp intersections of expected performance, idealistic longing, & jarring realities of the contemporary American South.” 🖊️@redclayscholar 🧠 Aware. OutKast brought an awareness to southern hip-hop that previous acts did not have. And that awareness reached a lot of southerners on a personal level, particularly before they became mainstream-famous. Me and my friends still hang out and kick it to tracks like “Myintrotoletuknow” and “Git Up, Git Out”. This book is so good that I am still quoting the introduction. Hope you grab a copy & check out the author interview at the #LinkInBio. Word on twitter is she bringing Zora to the hip-hop conversation. And, that is exciting. It feels juuust right. #ChroniclingStankonia #OutKast #HerstunReads #LetsGrow #BlackAndSouthern Images courtesy of @outkast IG page which is 🔥. (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPGIQW4ryFi/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

“Living with Father was something like living with a king. A very peculiar, changeable, cruel, and all-powerful king. You were supposed to tip-trope around his moods. You were supposed to do anything to win his favor. I never did. Even though winning his love was the ultimate goal of my childhood, I defied him. I hated his attitude. I thought I could win his love through singing, so I sang my heart out... My Father likes to wear women’s clothing. As you well know, that doesn’t mean he’s homosexual. In fact, my father was always known as a ladies’ man. He simply likes to dress up... There have been periods where his hair was very long and curled under, and when he seemed adamant in showing the world the girlish side of himself. That may have been to further embarrass me. I find the situation all the more difficult because, to tell you the truth, I have the same fascination with women’s clothes. In my case, that has nothing to do with any attraction to men. Sexually, men don’t interest me. But seeing myself as a woman, is something that intrigues me. It’s also something I fear. I indulge myself only at the most discrete and intimate moments. Afterward, I must bear the guilt and shame for weeks. After all, indulgence of the flesh is wicked, no matter what your kick. The hot stuff is lethal. I’ve never been able to stay away from the hot stuff.” ✒️: Marvin Gaye to David Ritz 📷: Marvin Jr in between his father and mother on Marvin Gaye Day in D.C. Image Courtesy of Getty. . . . #marvingaye #dividedsoul #quarantinereads #herstunreads #amreadingnonfiction (at Washington D.C.) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-3ZO5bAC8q/?igshid=1eogvym47508r

[whitnei-writes]

“Father’s church was extremely hard on young people, especially women. We couldn’t wear sleeveless dresses, nylons, lipstick, or nail polish. We couldn’t show our hair or even wear open-toe shoes. No dancing was allowed, and for a long time, no movies or television. The Sabbath was strange. We were forced to cut off the outside world. Come Friday night at sundown, everything stopped for us. We weren’t allowed to play. We couldn’t even ride the bus. All we could do was pray and praise God. Father instructed us on the exact interpretation of the Bible. He was a theologian of great integrity. Even though he taught that Christ was the answer, he believed that Jews were blessed. We were drilled and tested on the Old and New Testaments. We kept the Sabbath in the purest sense. Father anointed converts with olive oil and baptized them in the river. The Sabbath was his day, it was God’s day, and it was also a day for singing. Every member of our family was blessed with a good voice. The joy of music was the joy of God.” . ✒️: Marvin Gaye to David Ritz 📷: The Gay Family #marvingaye #motown #herstunreads #davidritz (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-3V9lmgc6I/?igshid=rgfvh4bzouyq

[whitnei-writes]

”Everything must be scrutinized, everything must be considered. Even the translation of the Bible is a powerful controversy. The King gave the Bible in English to his people, putting a translated Bible in every parish church in the country. But- as the traditionalists [Catholics still loyal to Rome in some cases] point out- people did not read it reverently, they started to discuss passages and dispute meanings. What should have been a gift from the king to his grateful people became the center of argument and so the king took the Bibles away, and now only noblema can read them. I cannot help but think this is wrong. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God- surely it is the work of the church not to bring pictures and stand glass and candles and robes to the people but first, before everything to ing the word?” . . . ✒️ Philippa Gregory 📷: Quanratine Me + Taming the Queen 🧠: These words and thoughts would be blasphemous in Rome, Italy for Catholics in the same time period. Most of Western Christendom to this point believed that only the Pope and his trained clergy were capable of understanding the Word of God. But the more brutal, and gang like the Italian provinces became, the closer the Papal Court came to rely on violence, theft, blasphemy, and grandeur to keep the Catholic faith alive. (See the Borgias Pope.) And then here come the arrogant English, believing that they could individually read, comprehend, and commune with the Lord. Not only that Englishmen could do so without the Pope, Rome, and Itlay, but that they could do it BETTER. Less the vanity, and frills, anymore focused on ”the true Word of God”. And so began the Protestantism, root word, Protest. #philippagregory #historicalfiction #tamingofthequeen #herstunreads (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-VdGEWgCNc/?igshid=1i8dz65ngy2ny

[whitnei-writes]

”Every afternoon, as we sew, one of the priests attached to the King’s chapel, or a preacher from London, comes to my rooms and reads the Bible to us in English, and delivers a sermon explaining the passage. To my surprise, the task that I have undertaken as a duty becomes my favorite part of the day. I realize that I am a natural scholar. I have always loved to read, and do the first time in my life I have time to do so and I am able to study with the greatest thinkers in the kingdom. I have an almost sensual delight in their work. They take a text from the Bible -the Great Bible that the king commanded should be translated into English so that everyone can study it- and hey examine it word by word. It is like reading poetry, like studying the philosophers. The shades of meaning that arise and dissolve with translation, with the juxtaposition of one word against another, fascinate me, and then the way that the truth of God shines through, layer after layer like a sun through strips of cloud, as one wrestles with the words.” ✒️: Philippa Gregory 📷: The Taming of the Queen 🧠: Historical Fiction will always have a sweet spot with me. And reading about royalty is always interesting, particularly this time period in Christianity because the translation of the Bible from Latin is a very big deal. It's a fascinating story historically. And these conversations were happening in the English Court, the countryside, parlors, everywhere across King Henry’s domain, since he had chosen to split the Church of England from the Catholic Church and the Roman Pope... These conversations bring the Bible one step closer to landing in the hands of revolutionary freedom fighters from Harriett Tubman, to Fredrick Duglass, and Denmark Vessey. It was these conversations that began to make English the international language that it is today. And it is these conversations that motivated countless rural and peasant families in Europe and North America to teach their children to read English. Its a big deal. Lol. This book is a fictionalized account of King Henry’s fourth wife, Kateryn Parr. And she is witnessing the birth of Protestantism. #phillipagregory #herstunreads (at England) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-VZCFKgZNr/?igshid=1s9uml1hnko3s

[whitnei-writes]

Since we are sequestered I figured I would do something different. Where would you rather be with your book right now??? A. Cabin on a beautiful mountain vista with a roaring fire and big warm blanket. B. Coffeehouse full of the aroma of beautiful Colombian coffee with a cute barista and yummy baked snacks. C. Bookstore or Library surrounded by the smell of old and fresh pages with comfy reading chairs and friendly help for finding new reads. D. Beach with the small of salt an the soft breeze on your skin. Stretched out in the sun or laid up in the shade, pages turning to the rhythm of the waves. E. Home office or reading nook. Secure and tucked into your favorite holey pajamas with your pup or kitty curled up near your toes. Ok. That's about as descriptive as I dare to be, so where would you rather read? 🤨🧐🤔 #HerstunReads #readersofinstagram #bookstagram (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-NI8lSAjTz/?igshid=ixvjjvdob6ky

[whitnei-writes]

”Somehow in the night he always calls me in whispers... He says, ’Mommy.’ I say, ’Darling.’ [Then] I whisper my mountain stories in his ear, stories of the ghost women and the stars in their hair. I tell him of the deadly snakes lying at one end of a rainbow and the hat full of gold lying at the other end. I tell him that if I cross a stream of glass-clear hibiscus, I can make myself a goddess. I blow on his long eyelashes to see if he's truly asleep. My fingers coil themselves into visions of birds on his nose. I want him to forget that we live in a place where nothing lasts.” . . ✒️ Edwidge Danticat @edwidgedanticat 📷 ’Night Women’ in #krikkrak + 2020 Reading Journal 🧠: It's a paragraph in a short story. True. It's poetry. Also true. And I love poetry. Danticat can write, no doubting that. She makes it look easy, effortless. Can a paragraph be perfect? Artistically-speaking? #poetry #herstunreads #edwidgedanticat #instapoetry (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-JACnTAHos/?igshid=ff7xgg1uwtd3