WEEK 1: DAY 1

I started my research by looking up black feminism so I could find the official meaning of it:

'A school of thought which argues that sexism, class, oppression, gender identity and racism are inextricably bound together. The way these concepts relate to each other is called intersectionality'.

Intersectionality is a word I'd never heard of before so I looked it up and found out that it is the concept that forms of oppression (homophobia, racism, sexism, ableism) interconnected and cannot be discussed individually because they are all related to one another. This theory was coined by black feminist leader Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989. She argued that the experience of being a black woman cannot be understood in terms of just being a woman or just being black because the two are interrelated.

This then led me on to find out about the Combahee River Collective, a black feminist lesbian organisation active between 1974- 1980. They highlighted that the white feminist movement did not address their needs as black women so they wrote their own statement where they outlined their political views. One part of it that stood out to me was where they wrote that "liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political and economic systems of Capitalism and Imperialism as well as Patriarchy." Miriam Schneir then interpreted this to mean "If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free, since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all systems of oppression." 

I next went on to research other leaders in Black Feminism, and black civil rights such as Angela Davis, Patricia Hill Collins and Bell Hooks. I found a quote by Bell Hooks that I thought was really thought provoking.

“Think of all the women you know who will not allow themselves to be seen without makeup. I often wonder how they feel about themselves at night when they are climbing into bed with intimate partners. Are they overwhelmed with secret shame that someone sees them as they really are? Or do they sleep with rage that who they really are can be celebrated or cared for only in secret?” 

I know a lot of girl, of all races, who would absolutely hate to be seen in public without makeup which I think is really sad because why should anyone be ashamed of the way they naturally look. 

As a final piece I would also like to make a zine, and I think this quote could be an interesting starting point for a photo shoot that could go into it. 

Next I did a mind map of some topics/themes/people that I could look at to give me inspiration for this project. This included, African music (spoken word/poetry), African textiles, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Queen Latif, the Natural Hair Movement, Nadijne Ijewere, Lorna Simpson and many more. 

I thought these mind maps were really successful because they gave me loads of starting points for my research and also gave me ideas and made me ask questions about what I want my project to be such as:-

• Talk/Interview Black girls in my class about their views and experiences
• Talk to my mums friend, Lyrical Healer, about her spoken poetry
• Should my project be angry about the lack of representation of black women?
• Or should it be a celebration of what they have created?
• Or both?

I felt this was a productive day because I was able to get my ideas out of my head and into my book which made it clearer for me the different topics I could look into for this project. Tomorrow I am going to start to research the different themes that I wrote in my mind map.