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We’ve Been Here Before
There is shit among us we need to sift through. Who knows, there may be some fertilizer in it. ~Gloria Anzaldúa, Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color, 1990 Shortly after I woke up this morning, reflecting on the social media back and forths I engaged in/witnessed/tried to moderate, I thought to myself: damn. →
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What Does Your Feminism Do?
Every morning I wake up, tap the Facebook icon, and brace myself for local, national, and international headlines. I’m sure you do too. With each executive order, legislation reversal, and GOP sponsored bill I read, my body goes limp with sorrow, tense with fear, then stiff with rage. These are the physical and psychological effects →
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An Open Letter to Women Who Voted for Trump
Dear women who voted for Trump and have nothing good to say about the Women’s Marches across the world, I hope you take the time to read this because just days ago I didn’t have the energy to write it. I was completely spent from years of educating others as a queer Latina feminist scholar and →
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Academic Minute Love
My Academic Minute segment was selected to run onThe Best of Our Knowledge! Transcript: Unlike other kinds of street art, Hip Hop graffiti writers use AfroCaribbean aesthetics (like call and response and self-naming) to assert their voices and claim belonging to a place by writing their name on a public surface. Because writing graffiti is →
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An Interview with the Authors of “Women Street Artists of Latin America: Arte Sin Miedo”
At the end of 2015, I was happy to respond affirmatively to a request from co-authors Lauren Gucik & Rachel Cassandra to endorse their recently published book: Women Street Artists of Latin America: Art Without Fear/ Grafiteras y Muralistas en América Latina: Arte Sin Miedo. In Arte Sin Miedo, Cassandra and Gucik take readers to the streets →
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Hanging out in a dirty tunnel…getting in touch with the “Erotic” (a la Lorde)
Some people go to the gym, some people do needlepoint, this is what I do…I hang out in dirty tunnels and I like it. ~Itsa, 2015 When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the life force of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of →
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The Real Revolutionary Potential Of Banksy Identifying As A Woman…Is Not That They’d “Be” A Woman.
On October 31st, HBO premiered the documentary Banksy Does New York. Similar to the kerfuffle over Banksy’s identity after the premiere of Exit Through the Gift Shop, this past week has seen “a revived interest” in knowing—once and for all?—just who they* really are (because “obviously” the identity of a public figure should be knowable, →
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Notes on 5Pointz: Feelings, Responses, and the Desire to “Save”
Just before 7PM on Tuesday November 19th (Abu Dhabi time), I glanced down at my phone to get my social networking “fix” before class. I scanned the latest tweets and status updates. And there it was: Rage. Disbelief. Shock. Sadness. I went through each “stage of mourning” in about 60 seconds. Trying to explain to →
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What’s in a blog name?
You’re maybe wondering what happened to “artofgettingovaries.wordpress.com”…or why the URL is one thing and the blog title is another. Allow me to explain: As my dissertation started shifting into a book (no pressure!)—tentatively titled Graffiti Grrlz: Performing Transnational Feminist Aesthetics in Hip Hop Culture—I decided I needed a new blog title too. Titles are my →
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Following Carmen Sandiego..er Miss17 Around Athens
There really is nothing better than traveling and finding that Miss17 has been there and there and there and there and well, everywhere! My trip to Athens was extra special because she left me a present. So, we went on an adventure and followed her around the city. I made a cheesy video from photos cause →
Jessica N. Pabón, PhD 