How do creatives find joy in artistic performance as a form of black feminist autoethnography? Podcast & video.
"For me, being a feminist simply means I am a strong, independent woman who has ideas and thoughts of her own; but it also means something else, which is an idea that confuses even me. I mean, how could I be a feminist when I am also a conservative woman?"
J.E. Sumerau·
All ContentAutoethnographic EssaysCelebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy's Social Fiction 2024Special Issues
··16 min readGratitude is a recurring theme I hear from readers of Patricia Leavy’s social fiction. This is an essay about Patricia Leavy novels.
My essay tells my life story in relation to a specific moment in the history of American women’s access to abortion and reproductive justice.
"Ami Tau Ami (I Am Who I Am), is a story about a mother letting go of her own dreams but passing it to her daughter, as my mother did for me."
I pay homage to Nina Simone’s already iconic and thorough exploration of stereotypes by setting the project to the song “Four Women.”
"I wrote Asha’s story to give voice to all the women in rural Bangladesh who cannot speak out against their abusers or society."
"My oil on canvas series, "Journey of Self Love," depicts a variation of obstacles I've personally had to endure throughout my life as a woman."
"My stories are meant to give women from Bangladesh a chance to show their strength and resilience. It is a way for me to try to connect with the rest of the world despite the differences in language and culture."
"In the newest video from The Twerking Academic, I explore how the summer of 2020 slammed me back into an awareness of my own double consciousness as a Black American."
"This autoethnographic poetry is born of my personal experience, witness, as well as currently chronicled and ancestral lore."
What is my responsibility as a trans feminine person when the human-induced strain on the planet is the driver of the climate crisis?
