As a Black woman with curves – and proud of it, I might add – the world of high fashion invited me to marvel at its fabulous revelry from afar, but I was not invited to the party…until now. As of Friday, March 13th, the record-breaking pop star and longtime fashion icon Rihanna has been…
Beyond Diversity: Valerie Smith and the Importance of Intersectional Leadership in Predominantly White Institutions
July 1st, 2015 marks an event that many students of color at predominantly white institutions could imagine only in their wildest dreams: a black feminist scholar will become the president of Swarthmore College. Valerie Smith, who has served as Princeton University’s Dean of College for the past three years, was announced president-elect of the private…
Beyond Recognition: A Case for Asian American Studies
“The impossible is the least that one can demand.” – James Baldwin I have never felt more intellectually and spiritually affirmed than I have at the Asian American Studies Conference last month – an unprecedented event in Yale history. Over the course of the conference, I had the pleasure of listening to academics and graduate…
Claudia Rankine’s Yale Visit
Claudia Rankine did not win the National Book Award. She told us so at her talk on Wednesday, March 4th, when someone asked her if she thought black artists were sufficiently recognized by elite literary circles. She laughed and raised her eyebrows, and mentioned that she had, however, won something at the NAACP Recognition Awards:…
BSAY’s Conversation with Professors Elizabeth Alexander and Erica James
On Friday, February 27th, the Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY) hosted a conversation with the esteemed professors Elizabeth Alexander and Erica James. This was the first in what BSAY is calling “the Black Professor Series,” a collections of conversations designed “to bring Black students and professors together in a personal environment.” A small group…