Black Feminist Hotline

Amanda Bennett

This is the official podcast of define&empower. d&e is a Black feminist education and consulting collective that places the varied perspectives of Black women at the center of all our work. This podcast extends the work we do at d&e by giving you access to authentic, creative, and honest conversations between Black women and other women of color. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @defineandempower.co or visit our website, defineandempower.com.

Episodes

  1. Queer Rememory: Queer Punk Never Dies

    10/14/2021

    Queer Rememory: Queer Punk Never Dies

    This episode is the first in a series of conversations that I've been recording with queer elders. In my research as a doctoral student, I work to reconstruct Black feminist landscapes between the 1970s and the 1990s. These interviews build upon my research by allowing actual queer people to narrate the story of queer life during the latter half of the twentieth century. This week, I had a conversation with two of my dear friends, Shepherd Tsosie and Libby Coyner. Libby Coyner (she/they/theme) is a queer, disabled, cancer-surviving Leo/Leo/Libra who works as an archivist in a mid-sized private university in North Carolina. She lives with her spouse Shepherd Tsosie with many cats and books, and they talk a lot about ethics of story-keeping and how we remember together. Shepherd Tsosie (Soh-see) is a fourth-gendered Diné (Di-neh) person from Arizona, they are an unaffiliated researcher and writer and they live with their wife and cats in North Carolina. Both of them have been so integral in helping me form my identity as a queer person of color, and I’m grateful we had the chance to chat. In this episode, we cover a variety of topics, including the Navajo gender system, what it means to be a queer elder, the late-90s queer punk scene, and the story of how they met and fell in love. If you are a queer elder who would like to share your story, email us at defineandempowercollective@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Instagram and TikTok at defineandempower.co. Thank you to Mia Miranda for editing the audio for this episode. If you would like me or one of our other facilitators to give a lecture or lead a workshop at your school or workplace, you can either DM us on our social media platforms or email us at defineandempowercollective@gmail.com. Resources mentioned during the interview: Making Gay History podcast by Eric Marcus People in Search of Safe and Accessible Restrooms by Simone Chess, Alison Kafer, Jessi Quizar, and Mattie Udora Richardson REFUGE Restrooms Queering the Map The Lesbian South: Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon by Jaime Harker Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://defineandempower.com/newsletter

    1 hr
  2. 08/12/2021

    Go Where You’re Loved: On Simone Biles and Black/Asian Feminist Solidarity

    This week, Amanda had the chance to sit down with two of her undergraduate mentees, Allayne Thomas and Katherine Gan. In their conversation, they talk about the controversy around Simone Biles refusing to compete in some Olympic gymnastics events, their research projects, and the possibility of solidarity and mutual understanding between Black and Asian women. Allayne is a recent graduate from Duke University where she studied International Comparative Studies, Korean, and Human rights. She is a gifted poet and avid reader. She currently works as a paralegal and is interested in attending law school. She enjoys binging Netflix, talking with friends, and obsessing over crumble cookies in her free time. Katherine Gan is a senior at Duke University, majoring in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. Her current project uses Asian/American women's poetry to excavate the afterlives of empire. She loves to read, be outside, and go biking. If you have a topic you’d like us to cover or a question you’d like us to answer, you can DM us on social media, leave us a comment, or email us at defineandempowercollective@gmail.com. You can follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @defineandempower.co. Thank you to Mia Miranda for editing the audio for this episode. Books Katherine mentioned: Ghost Of by Diana Nguyen A Cruelty Special to Our Species by Emily Jungmin Yoon If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar Poets Allayne mentioned: Pavana Reddy Nayyirah Waheed Yrsa Daley-Ward Warsan Shire

    56 min

About

This is the official podcast of define&empower. d&e is a Black feminist education and consulting collective that places the varied perspectives of Black women at the center of all our work. This podcast extends the work we do at d&e by giving you access to authentic, creative, and honest conversations between Black women and other women of color. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @defineandempower.co or visit our website, defineandempower.com.