Necessary Fierceness

 

 

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Necessary Fierceness

via The Crunk Feminist Collective » Necessary Fierceness by moyazb on 3/29/10

Its not my day to post but recent events caused me the catch the spirit and pick up the laptop.

If you haven't heard, Erykah Badu released the video to her second song  off her 6th studio Album (Release party @ the crib tomorrow, feel free to roll through) New Amerykah Part II: Return of the Ankh.

*spoiler alert*

In the video, she gets naked. Actually, its not that simple.

A more accurate statement would be that she gets real vulnerable.

We know this not just because of what we see on screen but because of what she has been tweeting about for most of the month. Erykah lets us in to the must private pieces of herself. We witness her thought process, her checking in with friends, family, babies, and their daddies about what she is about to do. She's not asking for permission but letting them know as people are bound to talk and not surprisingly, the web is already filled with people slinging hate her way.

Some folks say she copied Matt and Kim. She says that. She says that the video was inspired by what they did. And frankly what she did seems a lot more intentional and connected to what her relationship with the world is. Additionally, Erykah is reaching a completely different audience than Matt and Kim. One of her tweets led me to this response to the video by someone who is not a part of Matt and Kim's demographic and was able to garner her own meaning from the video. I love that about Erykah. She reaches people where they are while simultaneusly creating  a horizontal loving line that pushes them a bit from where they are.

This album and the one before are incantations. She is using her magic to save her people and get folks to wake up and shake that load off that is groupthink and others expectations. She is being brave even when she's petrified and creating the world she wants to see by daring her audience to push just as she has in her own town!

She's f*cking fierce!

Read other praise by M dot and Summer M!

 

 

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Erykah x Pedestrian White Art

 

 

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Erykah x Pedestrian White Art

via New Model Minority by admin on 3/28/10

Merriam Webster's Dictionary

Main Entry: ¹pe·des·tri·an

Pronunciation: \pə-ˈdes-trē-ən\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Latin pedestr-, pedester, literally, going on foot, from ped-, pes foot — more at foot

Date: 1716

1 : commonplace, unimaginative

Doesn't the Erykah Video render the above images pedestrian and really White?

I am saying.

This afternoon, I was looking for a link to Turn Me Away  and I was struck by how UNINTERESTING the above images are in comparison to her video.

Agreed?

No, I'm crazy? Luls.

Related posts:

1. Black Women x Art x Human
2. Erykah Badu Now
3. I Can Only Listen to the New Erykah: Part I

 

 

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Musing on The Window Seat Video

 

 

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Musing on The Window Seat Video

via New Model Minority by admin on 3/27/10

Earlier today, I was on the phone with Bacon Grits, chit chatting,planning my outfit, my day, flirting, and he asked me I had seen the Window Seat video?  I continued looking for my fuchsia leggings, turned it on, put him on speaker, and continued to chat.  I sat down in front of the computer half way watching, listening, and then I noticed, "Erykah Badu is stripping?"

Then I tell him, wait, is she going to get naked?

He says, oh you haven't seen it, wait until the end.

We both sat there quiet as I listened, and watched. Absorbed.

The Evolving tattoo? **Done.

The awesome lace undies. ***Fancy drawls #somuchwinblackgirlwin.

Keep in mind that I have been bumping Turn Me Away (Get MuNNy) for the last four days. The fact that she says "Let me be your robot girl" had me in the air, as I have been on some #blackgirlsarefromthefuture since I got reacquainted with Janie and Their Eyes Were Watching God in January.

The video struck me for a few reasons.

First, American culture in general and pop culture specifically has never been a hospitable place for nude Black women. Let alone nude Black women making high concept music and music videos.

When I saw the video, I tweeted:

"When was the last time you saw a Black womens body and sensuality centered FROM her perspective in Pop Culture? ***waits."

"Real Spit. Window Seat is THE embodiment of Vulnerable y Fearless. Given the historical treatment of Black womens bodies in pop culture. +And American history. Window Seat feels like a lightweight Corrective for "Venus Hottentott" and thousands of nameless video vixens."

The second reason that video hit me in my gut because some of my work is on Black Women's sexuality and pop culture. THIS was the first time that I saw a self possessed Black women express her sensuality, within in pop culture.

Black women's bodies are ALL through rap videos, but their voices are muted. Interchangeable, silent bodies are how American Black women are presented to the world, globally, in music videos, by and large.

Think about it like this. If you watch Beyonce's Video Phone you may feel interested in the costumes and the dance moves. However, watching Window Seat you feel propelled forward. #blackgirlsarefromthefuture. Full stop. You sit there wantig to know what happens next. The distinction is the level of both intimacy and vulnerability that one performance has that the other lacks.

As I watched Erykah Badu, I thought of all the semi-nude and might as well be nude women in rap videos whose names we will never know, and if we don't know their names, why should we care about them and who they are.

And don't give me that "no one is putting a gun up to their head" to be in a video shit. People Love saying that, but d boys that sell crack "just need to feed they daughter." Miss me with those. Our choices are limited to our options.

The third reason is that the video reminded me of Renee Cox's work, in its fierceness, boundary pushing and its centering of a Black woman.

Renee Cox Yo Mama 1993

As I wrote this piece, I remembered that Erykah Badu tweeted a week or so ago that she had done one of the most scariest things in her life. I noticed the tweet and kept it moving. I now wager that, that experience must of been this music video.

I thank her for this, because it is the ultimate in being both vulnerable y fearless, which many of you know are two principles, I try as hard as possible to live by, and that I encourage others to do as well.

Other Reading Posts on Black Women's Bodies:

I Know Why Zane Sells

Michelle Obama and the Black Female Body

Black Women Property Twice

Buffie the Body is Venus Hottentott

Why is it that we see nude and semi nude Black women so frequently yet this video hits us somewhere else?

Thoughts on Window Seat?

Related posts:

1. What Does Sex Have to Do With It? Carmen, Video Vixens and Hip Hop.
2. Musing on Precious and Shaniya Davis
3. Strippers, Video Vixens and Black Feminists

 

 

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Moya added an event

 

 

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Moya added an event

via Latest Activity on Quirky Black Girls on 3/26/10

Moya added an event

New Amerykah Part II Listening Party at Quirky Commune

March 30, 2010 from 7pm to 10pm

Join us at the QC to celebrate the legendary QBG Erykah "on and on" Badu on the day of the release of her 6th studio album New Amerykah Part II: Return of the Ankh! Bring a friend, Bring a bottle and bring some QBG love!

 

 

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love her!