Month: November 2013

Home Is Where You’re Fighting To Get At It: An Essay on Music and Memory in Times of Transition

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My first published article! I’d like to say Thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog over the past few months. I’m am really proud of this article and I hope you enjoy reading it. This Is Rhymes and Reasons is a phenomenal website and you should look around at their other post. Their interviews are amazing and really do a great job of the dealing Hip Hop Stories. Please comment, like and reblog like crazy!

Rhymes & Reasons

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by: Aaron Goggans

For years Chicago was my city, my center and my muse. Chicago was my on again, off again college sweetheart. Sure, we may have taken breaks over Christmas and Thanksgiving and I might have flirted with New York and Denver but I always knew I’d come home to her. We had gone through too many fights, birthdays, finals, and first dates for me to ever stay anywhere else too long. When I was away, she would send me mix tapes infused with that instantly recognizable Chicago sound. Sometimes, when I was lonely in my childhood home in Colorado I’d play Common or Kanye just so I could hear her voice; that wholesome, familiar sound that always reminded me of going to church.

To me, Chicago Hip Hop takes you to Cottage Grove on a Sunday morning. You can see Black people, from Englewood poverty to Beverly wealth…

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Rich Is The New White: Reflections on Capitalist Class Culture and D.C Housing

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So, a lot of things have been going on in the past few weeks. I've sort of jumped straight into housing advocacy here in D.C.  It all started when my sister introduced me to the Housing For All Campaign here in D.C. I joined a Learning Circle on gentrification that they ran and meet some … Continue reading Rich Is The New White: Reflections on Capitalist Class Culture and D.C Housing

On Positive Male Role Models and International Men’s Day

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This is a thought provoking post from the Feminist Skeptic at thefeministskeptic.wordpress.com. It seems pointless to have an international Mensday but if you are going to have one, the press release should read like that. While it is parody, it brings up a good point. How do expect to raise anything other than generation after generation of violent, emotionally stunted men if that’s all we show boys to look up to? Thoughts?

The Feminist Skeptic

Because apparently not every single day is already a Men’s Day, tomorrow is International Men’s Day, which is all about celebrating MANHOOD™ of the gender essentialist variety.

Now, they haven’t actually released a press release for this year’s theme (“Keeping Men and Boys Safe”), but they do have one from around this time last year, complete with essentialist goodies such as “[n]o matter how great a mother is, she cannot replace what a father provides to a child” and “[i]rrefutable research shows that mothers typically are nurturing, soft, gentle, comforting, protective and emotional. Fathers tend to be challenging, prodding, loud, playful and encourage risk taking”. Of course, they do not link to any of this research; we’re supposed to take it at face value, without questioning their authority.

Now, I’m not happy with the gender essentialism. And because tomorrow is the proclaimed International Men’s Day, I’m going to…

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