Zora's Daughters

Zora's Daughters

What is cultural appropriation? Should Black people really get 40 acres? Is abolition even possible? Learn and unlearn about these and other hot topics of interest to Black folks as Alyssa and Brendane close read pop culture through the lens of academic scholarship and colorful insight. Our hope is that you will gain new perspectives that inspire you to start conversations and make real change. read less
Society & CultureSociety & Culture

Episodes

S3, E9 You Asked, We Answered!
Jan 18 2023
S3, E9 You Asked, We Answered!
We have a major announcement up top so be sure to tune in! Today on the episode we center... YOU! We asked for your listener questions and wow, you delivered. In this episode, we answer questions about pursuing a PhD and career advance, dealing with imposter syndrome, taking unprescribed "academic performance enhancing medications," love bombing and giving cis het men the cheat codes to your heart, dating bisexual men, moving in together before marriage, getting help without involving the police, not making abolition about your feelings, learning from our elders, and making it less acceptable to record people in public. Join us on Patreon to hear answers to some of the questions we weren't able to get to! Abolitionist & Advocacy Resources Transform Harm Intimate Partner Violence and Abolitionist Safety Planning Saving Our Own Lives: A Liberatory Practice of Harm Reduction (Shira Hassan, 2022) Everyday Abolition Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice (Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2018) No More Police: A Case for Abolition (Mariame Kaba and Andrea J. Ritchie, 2022) Harm, Punishment, and Abolition with Mariame Kaba Discussed In This Episode Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space (Tracy Heather Strain, 2023) Black Women Don’t Need Protection. We Need Abolition. (Brendane Tynes, 2022) Big Brother Watch UK Coded Bias (Shalini Kantayya, 2020) Algorithmic Justice League Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (Cathy O'Neil, 2016) Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S3, E8 The Crown Chronicles
Dec 21 2022
S3, E8 The Crown Chronicles
We're doing this 'fro the culture! In our last episode of the semester Brendane and Alyssa talk featurism, texturism, the politics of Black hair, and are joined by biological anthropologist Tina Lasisi. We'll be back in 2023 with new episodes. In the meantime, don't forget to submit your listener letters and voice notes to zorasdaughterspod@gmail.com and we might read or play it and respond in our next episode. Happy Holidays! What's the Word? Featurism and Texturism. These are colorism's insidious cousins: prejudicial or preferential treatment based on the proximity of their features and hair texture to Eurocentric standards of beauty. What We're Reading. ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’: Problematizing Representations of Black Women in Canada by Shaunasea Brown. We share our hair journeys, chat about using the term dreadlocks vs locs, examine Canadian contributions to the Natural Hair Movement and infamous cases of workplace hair discrimination in Canada, and demonstrate that we use our hair—or lack thereof—to claim space and exercise our right to be. What In The World?! We chat with Dr. Tina Lasisi, a biological anthropologist who specializes in the science of hair, skin, and human biological variation. We answer your burning scalp questions in a rapid fire, discuss scientific racism, the dangers of DNA phenotyping pseudoscience, and whether we really need to buy "Black" hair products. Follow Dr. Lasisi on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, and check out her PBS series Why Am I Like this? Discussed In This Episode ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’: Problematizing Representations of Black Women in Canada (Shaunasea Brown, 2018) The constraints of racialization: How classification and valuation hinder scientific research on human variation (Tina Lasisi, 2021) Afro Images: Politics, Fashion, and Nostalgia (Angela Davis, 1994) Sister Scientist Other Episodes S1, E9: Color Struck! Syllabus for ZD 301 is available here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S3, E7 We Call Her Zora
Dec 7 2022
S3, E7 We Call Her Zora
It's all about Zora: Writer, Anthropologist, Filmmaker, Genius of the South, Capricorn Queen! What's The Word? Anthropology. Difficult to define, but we throw our ideas into the ring! We cover its history, genealogy, what we think makes something anthropological, and what Indiana Jones has to do with Alyssa's research. What We're Reading. You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston. We chose two of Hurston's essays that resonated the most with us and our scholarly pursuits: We read 'The Ten Commandments of Charm' and 'Crazy For This Democracy' to explore the politics of relationships and the hypocrisy of our "ass-and-all" democracy. What In The World?! In this segment, we discuss the timelessness of Zora's work, how we're still facing the same obstacles as she did a century ago, letting Anthropology burn, why two Black women graduate students shouldn't be the only ones motivating students to stay in anthropology, the purposeful misreading of Zora's 'conservative' opinions, and why you should talk about the race war in front of white people. We were riding the struggle bus recording and editing this episode, but thank you all for this year, we're so encouraged by your support! Discussed In This Episode You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays (Zora Neale Hurston, 2022) The Case for Letting Anthropology Burn: Sociocultural Anthropology in 2019 (Ryan Cecil Jobson, 2019) Syllabus for ZD 301 is available here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S3, E6 Diary of Mad Black Women
Nov 24 2022
S3, E6 Diary of Mad Black Women
Get in loser, we're doing neuroexpansive shit! What's the Word? Neuroexpansive. Coined by Ngozi Alston (@ngwagwa), neuroexpansive is an invitation to think about our differences and disabilities as an expansion, rather than a divergence, of human experience. What We're Reading. Black Disability Politics by Sami Schalk. Schalk contextualizes how Black people have enacted Black disability politics across time in our liberation movements and lays out the four common qualities of Black disability politics that all Black people must engage in. What In the World?! In this segment, Alyssa and Brendane talk about the liberal security theater of this "post"-pandemic AAA Annual Meeting, the not-so-casual ableism in Black families, the eugenicist and ableist conversation in Love Is Blind, neurodivergence in the trenches, and losing community and access in the downfall of Twitter. Sorry again about Alyssa's audio, she'll be back in New York for episode 8 without the cicadas in the background! Other Episodes S2, E8 40 Acres Ain't Praxis S2, E13 No Body Is Normal Discussed In This Episode Neuroexpansive* Thoughts (Ngwagwa, 2022) Black Disability Politics (Sami Schalk, 2022) Black Madness :: Mad Blackness (Therí Alyce Pickens, 2019) How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind: Madness and Black Radical Creativity (La Marr Jurelle Bruce, 2021) Syllabus for ZD 301 is available here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S3, E4 All Skinfolk Ain't Kinfolk
Oct 19 2022
S3, E4 All Skinfolk Ain't Kinfolk
"I'm not Black, I'm OJ!" Today, Brendane and Alyssa are talking kinship, belonging, diaspora wars, and what we need to do to get free. What's the Word? Kinship. Kinship studies are foundational to the discipline of anthropology, but in this section we talk about how people are taking up the concept to tell their own stories today. What We're Reading. Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Trade by Saidiya Hartman. In this segment, we read the first two chapters to trace Hartman's attention to kinship and belonging in the afterlife of slavery. What does it feel like to be a stranger everywhere? What in the World?! We talk about the "intratribal conflict" of the African diaspora wars, the choice of identity and how it's a shortcut for people to understand how to oppress you, dating tips from our moms, boycotting The Woman King, how ADOS and FBA strategies disenfranchise Black Americans and promote anti-blackness, and Brendane's personal experience visiting Ghana. By the way, we're on break! We'll be back with episode 5 on November 9th - just in time for the AAA Annual Meeting! Discussed In This Episode Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Trade (Saidiya Hartman, 2008) Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship (Kath Weston, 1991) Other Episodes S1, E7 Holy Is the Black Woman S1, E15 B**** Better Have My Money! S2, E9 Separate but Equal Month Syllabus for ZD 301 is available here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S3, E3 Looting the Womb: Black Birthing People and Reproductive Unfreedom
Oct 5 2022
S3, E3 Looting the Womb: Black Birthing People and Reproductive Unfreedom
We're getting down with Marxy Marx and the Foucky Bunch! In this episode, Alyssa and Brendane discuss reproductive justice, dispossession, and the stakes for Black birthing people in a post-Roe v. Wade world with Dr. Mali Collins (IG | Twitter). What's the Word? Dispossession. We draw a thread through Karl Marx's primitive accumulation, Rosa Luxemburg's The Accumulation of Capital, and David Harvey's accumulation by dispossession to thinking about the ways Black birthing people have been dispossessed of reproductive rights and motherhood. What We're Reading. "The Meaning of Liberty" in Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts. In this chapter Roberts argues that we must reshape (or perhaps exceed) our understanding of reproductive liberty by accounting for the experiences and needs of Black women. What in the World?! We are joined by Assistant Professor Mali Collins to discuss who expansive definition of reproductive labour, the spectacle of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the whiteness of the abortion access movement, what we can do to survive this moment in community, reconnecting with your body, and black maternal dispossession. Sister Song Reproductive Justice Collective | The People's Paper Co-op | GoFundMe for Murdered Black Mother of 6 | Help a Pregnant Black Mother Rest Other Episodes S1, E6 Deathcraft Country S1, E 14 Afropessimism: Anything But Black! Discussed In This Episode: Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (Dorothy Roberts, 1997) How Your Period-Tracking App Could End Up Tracking You (Mali Collins, 2021) Syllabus for ZD 301 is available here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S3, E2 The Death of Sovereignty
Sep 21 2022
S3, E2 The Death of Sovereignty
Ding dong! In this week's episode, Alyssa and Brendane are talking about sovereignty, non-sovereignty, and the death of the sovereign Queen Elizabeth II to ask whether it's possible (and desirable!) to leave the past behind while creating our collective future. (CW: rape, sexual assault 1:05:00- 1:16:00) What's the Word? Sovereignty. Defined as autonomy, freedom from external control, sovereignty is typically considered a positive. Brendane and Alyssa unpack the ways the concept is also rooted in power and domination. What We're Reading. Non-Sovereign Futures: French Caribbean Politics in the Wake of Disenchantment by Yarimar Bonilla. Bonilla examines how contemporary activists in Guadeloupe imagine and contest the limits of postcolonial sovereignty, challenging us rethink our received ideas about freedom, independence, nationalism, and revolution, and our commitment to sovereignty itself. What In The World?! In this segment, we discuss the death of Queen Elizabeth II and why Alyssa has complicated feelings about it; why turning to past values (that never existed) is evidence of crisis; the problem with Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play, Bridgerton, and The Courtship; and whether you can really have love under racial or patriarchal domination. Listen to the exclusive Patreon content! Check out our new merch! Discussed In This Episode Non-Sovereign Futures: French Caribbean Politics in the Wake of Disenchantment (Yarimar Bonilla, 2015) Life and Debt (Stephanie Black, 2001) "The Sovereignty of Critique" (Audra Simpson, 2020) "Unsettling Sovereignty" (Yarimar Bonilla, 2017) "The Dissolution of the Myth of Sovereignty in the Caribbean" (Linden Lewis, 2012) "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" (Adrienne Rich, 1980) Season 1, Episode 6: Deathcraft Country Season 1, Episode 2: Ain't I A Woman? (Where we discuss Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe) Syllabus for ZD 301 is available here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S3, E1 Dangerously in Love with Celebrity
Sep 7 2022
S3, E1 Dangerously in Love with Celebrity
Your favorite terrestrial commoners are back! For our first episode of the new season, we're talking about popular culture, the cult of celebrity and influence, and how they undermine radical movements for change. What's the Word? Postfeminism. Originally used to describe the backlash to the second wave feminist movement, postfeminism is an ideology that suggests we no longer need feminism because we have accomplished the goals of the women's movement. This ideology is expressed culturally in TV, film, and other forms of media.  What We're Reading. “Divas, Evil Black Bitches, and Bitter Black Women: African American Women in Postfeminist and Post-Civil-Rights Popular Culture” by Kimberly Springer in Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture. In this essay, Springer contributes a racial analysis to the critiques of postfeminist media, examining the presence and absence of Black women in television and film in order to promote the idea we're living in a postfeminist and post-Civil Rights Movement world while making us responsible for racial uplift. What in the World?! In this segment, we discuss the infamous 'submission' interview between Shan Boodram and Jasmin "WatchJazzy" Brown, why withdrawing from labor does not confer the same status as it does for white women; why Beyonce and prosperity gospel is not going to save us and actually perpetuates the oppressions that hold us down; Meghan Markle and her feminism without teeth; and the difference in the smoke the internet has for Tiffany Haddish compared to Aries Spears being a reflection of the way Black women are required to be responsible for the race. Join our Patreon community! Check out our new merch! Discussed In This Episode "Divas, Evil Black Bitches, and Bitter Black Women: African American Women in Postfeminist and Post-Civil-Rights Popular Culture" (Kimberly Springer, 2007) Villain Origin Story Syllabus for ZD 301 is available here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S2, E16 Practicing Zora
May 25 2022
S2, E16 Practicing Zora
In this final episode of the season, you will hear our incredible conversation with Professors Riché J. Daniel Barnes, Kevin Quashie, and Autumn Womack, and vocalist and composer Candice Hoyes from Wednesday, May 4th. Traditionally, Zora Neale Hurston has been more widely celebrated for her contributions to American literature than as an anthropologist and folklorist. In recent years, we have begun to see more mainstream recognition of her interventions into the discipline of anthropology. This re-membering has been accompanied by a variety of aesthetic invocations, particularly to signal disruption, authenticity, and the avant-garde. In this way, Zora is called into practice and treated as an object of use. We will invite academics and artists to discuss how Zora Neale Hurston inspires their work and the phenomenon of Black women’s use as the “sliding glass door” (James 2015) that opens up into new conditions of possibility. We will reflect upon the instrumentalization of Black women to ask: How can we tend to Black women’s memory and legacy with care? Thank you for listening to Season 2 of the podcast! We'll be back in September for Season 3. In the meantime, you can keep up with us via Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon over the summer. Love and light, y'all! ZD merch available here and the syllabus for ZD 202 is here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S2, E14 Defund the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Apr 13 2022
S2, E14 Defund the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
The industrial complex is an industrial complex! Today we’ll be talking about the spread of industrial complexes, non-profits, so-called activist influencers, the controversy around BLM Global Network spending, and the whispers around Nikole Hannah-Jones and Kimberlé Crenshaw being problématique. What's the Word? Industrial Complex. Popularized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the industrial complex refers to the profit-driven enmeshment of the state and private industry in a way that makes it more profitable to perpetuate the problem they claim to solve. What We're Reading. “In The Shadow of the Shadow State” by Ruth Wilson Gilmore in The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. In this essay, Gilmore discusses the rise of the non-profit industrial complex as an industry that takes up "kindness" work for those the state has abandoned and operates to suppress revolution. Her solution is to take the money and run, without fooling ourselves into believing the state or capitalism will give us the keys to our freedom. What in the World?! In this segment, we discuss our ongoing experience of forming a non-profit, the questionable financial decisions of Black Lives Matter, what Alyssa and Brendane would do if we came into $90 million, whether we really should be putting our faith or support in famous people or so-called "activist influencers," and why you should stay away from Teach For America. Join our Patreon community! Discussed In This Episode The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (INCITE!, 2017) Black Awakening in Capitalist America (Robert L. Allen, 1969) Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship (Aimee Meredith Cox, 2015) Re-Visions of Abolition: From Critical Resistance to A New Way of Life (Setsu Shigematsu, 2021) Black Lives Matter Secretly Bought a $6 Million House (Sean Campbell, 2022) ZD merch available here and the syllabus for ZD 202 is here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S2, E13 No Body is Normal
Mar 30 2022
S2, E13 No Body is Normal
Sometimes it's love and light, sometimes it's love and light that ass up! In this episode, we're joined by founder, inventor, and curator Adero Knott to discuss accessibility, disability, technology, and the ableist joke Chris Rock made that got him slapped at the Oscars. What's the Word? Accessibility. We define the term, explain how we prioritize accessibility, discuss its connection to disability justice, and talk about norms and how they harm all of us.  What We're Reading. "Engineered Inequity" in Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code by Ruha Benjamin. Technology is often offered as the solution for racism, ableism and all the other ills of society. But what about when robots do racism better than humans? Through Benjamin's book, we discuss the way technology can amplify the effects of historical and contemporary biases and discriminatory practices. What in the World?! In this segment, we speak with founder, inventor, and curator Adero Knott about accessibility and its affective dimensions, how ableism is built into society, toxic masculinity, erasure of our Black "heroes'" disabilities, Tyre Sampson, why disability justice must be anti-capitalist, and the all important question du jour: Would we want our baes to do the same as Will Smith?! Support Adero's work at AK Prosthetics on IG, and follow her on Instagram! Discussed this week: Project LETS Orange is the New Asylum: Incarceration of Individuals with Disabilities (Becky Crowe & Christine Drew, 2021) The Cancer Journals (Audre Lorde, 1980) ZD merch available here and the syllabus for ZD 202 is here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.
S2, E12 Villain Origin Story
Mar 16 2022
S2, E12 Villain Origin Story
Is rejection and trauma the Black Manosphere and Toxic Femininity villain origin story?! In today's episode we're joined by soon-to-be PhD Candidate Anuli Akanegbu to discuss patriarchy, the know-your-place aggression towards Black women online, and what draws people to these spaces on the internet. What's The Word? Patriarchy. This term is used to describe a society that organizes itself around the idea that cis men are superior to and should dominate over... everybody else. This structure imposes the gender binary and influences the way we're socialized. We also discuss the spiritual side of the divine feminine, which looks nothing like what we see on YouTube. What We're Reading. Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman by Michele Wallace. The chapter we discuss asserts that the men in the Black Power movements were relying on Norman Mailer's "The White Negro" and the Moynihan Report to shape what Black manhood and a revolutionary should look like. What in the World?! We speak with Anuli Akanegbu about the outgrowth of the Black Manosphere from Hotep Twitter, the "applesauce" that helps some folks swallow the red pill, Steve Harvey, capitalizing on tearing down Black women, the aesthetics of these spaces, being "high-value" as an afterlife of slavery, the way all of this is tied to capitalism, and what it means to feel welcome in your own body. Check out Anuli's podcast BLK IRL and follow her on Twitter and Instagram!  Discussed in this episode: The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love (bell hooks, 2004) Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (Michele Wallace, 1979) My Brush With The Black Manosphere (Nicole Young, 2022) ZD merch available here and the syllabus for ZD 202 is here! Let us know what you thought of the episode @zorasdaughters on Instagram and @zoras_daughters on Twitter! Transcript will be available on our website here.