[Music]
this summer I was challenged to write
out my passions now the context is
important because I wasn’t challenged to
do this as merely an academic exercise
for credit I was challenged to do this
by one of my best friends someone more
like family during one of the hardest
seasons of my life
it wasn’t offering a chance to reclaim
my passions after feeling completely
lost a means to reclaim my humanity and
ultimately it was a gift a gift that
allowed me to name what I have to give
and to radically imagine the future that
I wanted I’m passionate about black
women because we are only assumed and
expected to feel in support of other
people’s salvation and knowledge
consumption I’m passionate about
education because of the black children
who must mourn their own possibility
because of a system not built for their
success and a society that’s not
interested in their survival I’m
passionate about the hood because some
of our greatest thinkers including those
same black women and children are on the
corners or they’re in prison for
existing on those corners see I approach
the question of what are you passionate
about as its own sort of intellectual
process by which I mapped out what is
today I narrated the results of what was
in the past and I speculated on what
might be in the future in other words by
reframing the question and naming my
passions around black women children and
the hood I was able to develop my own
sort of personal formula if you will for
reimagining the intellectual knowledge
is greater than assumption I think
that’s something we can probably all
agree on radical imagination the horizon
of socio-political possibility well
that’s greater than knowledge but
knowledge plus radical imagination that
can equal freedom but first let’s
grapple with this question
whom does society consider an
intellectual and on what grounds
see that that is our really big question
intellectuals have traditionally been
known as the people who make living off
of the production and distribution of
ideas so the academic if you will or the
ideological mouthpiece and intellectuals
have been effective in two roles in
modern society first they act a
society’s immune system by challenging
taken-for-granted notions and secondly
as sociologist D fuller names them they
act as agents of distributive justice
and that they often magnify the voices
of individuals who might not otherwise
be heard yet in both of those instances
and in countless others the privilege of
a formal education and a platform are
necessary prerequisites to be considered
an intellectual so what happens to
intellectual practice when marginalized
people themselves are not given the
space to be heard I mean does the
intellectual merit of black people
become disqualified simply because they
lack access such a premise seems
unethical to me yet this notion is the
very pulse of intellectual curiosity and
knowledge validation in this country and
so to me that calls for a challenge a
challenge to the system is that value my
knowledge over that of my siblings
because of some degrees that are
collecting dust on the wall or because
of a few letters that rest behind the
comma next to my name but today today I
want to complicate the idea of and
reimagine the intellectual with you
Patricia Hill Collins the dope-ass black
feminist theorist she is she asserts
that black people often struggle to
justify the credibility of their
knowledge because of the oppressive
processes by which we validate knowledge
in this country
she argue simply put that the knowledge
validation process works to suppress
black intellectual merit how does this
happen
well caller suggests the importance of
understanding the concept of
epistemology
the investigation of standards used to
assess knowledge or simply put why we
believe what we believe to be true and
the power relations that shape who was
believed and why because see we reflect
and analyze knowledge based on our
experiences which not only shaped how we
view reality but it also shapes who we
as individuals believe to be true and
for that reason black people face often
insurmountable barriers when it comes to
validating their own forms of knowledge
through dominant Eurocentric processes
and frankly that’s led to nothing but
outright silencing yet I’ve seen in both
traditional classrooms and on street
corners in the hood black people
interpreting and reinterpreting the
black intellectual tradition to create
their own new forms of ways to
understand analyze and transform our
society and it’s this reason that makes
me that much more grateful for the time
that I’ve spent learning from people
whose knowledge isn’t traditionally
valued take cornerman for example he
used to hang out in a lot of the corner
store about a block from my house and I
was growing up now to most people he was
loitering as you can see which was a
violation of the sign that he rested his
back against but to me to me he was a
math whiz I mean he taught me how to
calculate sales tax quickly so I can
make the most out of my money but also
so I didn’t get got by the cashier he
would teach me about coded language and
community policing though those actual
terms I wouldn’t learn until much later
in life it all connected back to him see
history shows us that critical visions
of black radical imagination are stifled
if not completely marginalized yet
through the use of radical imagination
black people are providing hope toward
reaching truth even though black
knowledge faces such culturally embedded
obstacles
I don’t think that we can begin to have
a conversation about reimagining the
intellectual without first accounting
for and always remembering to come back
to this idea of a radical imagination so
at this point you’re probably wondering
so what is it well when I think about
the word radical I think about our roots
coming at the root emerging from the
root something like our core our center
of gravity the thing that keeps us
grounded somewhere between our hips
probably the part that’s seated in the
chair right now and when I think about
imagination that’s easy it takes me to
the top of my head so when I think about
radical imagination I envision being in
both of those places at the same time
and in doing so I’m connecting
everything in between the heart the
lungs viscera curiosity adventure desire
so I know you might be wondering why is
this even important well if we continues
to stifle black radical imagination we
are at risk for ignoring intellectual
contributions that could advance our
collective societal progression we run
the risk that ignoring the fact that
almost every cultural product that black
people create is and has the potential
to become its own sort of Theory its own
creation its own genre even as evidenced
by when black folks took their stories
and put them to dope beats that gave us
hip hop as evidence in the dust video
series when the artist sunrise asserted
that perhaps outer space was better for
the safety and respite of black people
in America giving rise to the genre that
we know is afrofuturism as evidenced by
some of your favorite fashions and your
favorite stores or on the runway that
started with black women a limited
supply of cash and a beauty supply store
see the intellectuals that I want to
hear from our living know they’re
surviving below the poverty line and
their research interests know no bounds
of academic discipline they include
how to feed a family of eight on
government assistance how to survive in
a country that perpetually punishes you
and relegate cyou to an underclass how
to protect the imagination of a black
child how to survive an encounter with
the state how to find nourishment and a
food desert how to not become a
statistic how to survive in America in
his book freedom dreams the
distinguished professor Robin DG Kelley
reminds us that progressive social
movements don’t just produce statistics
or narratives of oppression but they do
what great poetry does they transport us
to another time and place they compel us
to relive Horrors but most importantly
most importantly they enable us to
black people have been the catalyst for
intellectual production for so long yet
we still live in a society that doesn’t
view those abilities as the norm I don’t
think that we can really be about this
business of creating a newer freer more
equitable society if we don’t first
consider this question what would it
look like if we accepted the organic
ways that black people move in and out
of their intellectual production I want
to leave you with this thought what
would happen if every single person in
this room thought of the hood the block
the prisons the places and spaces where
black people exist in great numbers due
to systems far greater than their
individual stories not as blight or a
social death but as epicenters of
intellectual curiosity I want you to
take a moment and think about all the
now while you grapple with that question
I want to take you back to 2015 social
media was in a shearing frenzy talking
about how the Harvard debate team lost
to a eastern New York Correctional
Facility debate team I mean it was an
awe inspiring story ready-made for your
favorite overpriced Hollywood film don’t
forget to buy popcorn but if we use our
radical imagination to envision this
facility as an epicenter of intellectual
curiosity we would challenge the notion
that underlined everyone’s assumptions
about this match I mean do we really
believe that people at Harvard are just
naturally better debaters do we truly
believe that incarcerated people are
less informed what proof do we have that
one group has more control over their
use of language or persuasion than the
other see I don’t subscribe to this idea
of an Ivy League institution versus a
public institution and I most certainly
do not subscribe to the idea of what it
means to be incarcerated but most of
society still does there is a great
importance and elevating the voices of
individuals who fundamentally understand
how race history and memory work
together to inform strategies and
struggles for resisting oppression it is
these individuals on the ground who are
the architects of a more just gentle and
humane society a total transformation of
our world it is these individuals whose
revolutionary visions span across every
aspect of social life that are using
resistance love and radical imagination
to envision a more equitable world and I
know I’m ready to hear their stories the
question remains are you thank you so
much [Applause]
this summer I was challenged to write
out my passions now the context is
important because I wasn’t challenged to
do this as merely an academic exercise
for credit I was challenged to do this
by one of my best friends someone more
like family during one of the hardest
seasons of my life
it wasn’t offering a chance to reclaim
my passions after feeling completely
lost a means to reclaim my humanity and
ultimately it was a gift a gift that
allowed me to name what I have to give
and to radically imagine the future that
I wanted I’m passionate about black
women because we are only assumed and
expected to feel in support of other
people’s salvation and knowledge
consumption I’m passionate about
education because of the black children
who must mourn their own possibility
because of a system not built for their
success and a society that’s not
interested in their survival I’m
passionate about the hood because some
of our greatest thinkers including those
same black women and children are on the
corners or they’re in prison for
existing on those corners see I approach
the question of what are you passionate
about as its own sort of intellectual
process by which I mapped out what is
today I narrated the results of what was
in the past and I speculated on what
might be in the future in other words by
reframing the question and naming my
passions around black women children and
the hood I was able to develop my own
sort of personal formula if you will for
reimagining the intellectual knowledge
is greater than assumption I think
that’s something we can probably all
agree on radical imagination the horizon
of socio-political possibility well
that’s greater than knowledge but
knowledge plus radical imagination that
can equal freedom but first let’s
grapple with this question
whom does society consider an
intellectual and on what grounds
see that that is our really big question
intellectuals have traditionally been
known as the people who make living off
of the production and distribution of
ideas so the academic if you will or the
ideological mouthpiece and intellectuals
have been effective in two roles in
modern society first they act a
society’s immune system by challenging
taken-for-granted notions and secondly
as sociologist D fuller names them they
act as agents of distributive justice
and that they often magnify the voices
of individuals who might not otherwise
be heard yet in both of those instances
and in countless others the privilege of
a formal education and a platform are
necessary prerequisites to be considered
an intellectual so what happens to
intellectual practice when marginalized
people themselves are not given the
space to be heard I mean does the
intellectual merit of black people
become disqualified simply because they
lack access such a premise seems
unethical to me yet this notion is the
very pulse of intellectual curiosity and
knowledge validation in this country and
so to me that calls for a challenge a
challenge to the system is that value my
knowledge over that of my siblings
because of some degrees that are
collecting dust on the wall or because
of a few letters that rest behind the
comma next to my name but today today I
want to complicate the idea of and
reimagine the intellectual with you
Patricia Hill Collins the dope-ass black
feminist theorist she is she asserts
that black people often struggle to
justify the credibility of their
knowledge because of the oppressive
processes by which we validate knowledge
in this country
she argue simply put that the knowledge
validation process works to suppress
black intellectual merit how does this
happen
well caller suggests the importance of
understanding the concept of
epistemology
the investigation of standards used to
assess knowledge or simply put why we
believe what we believe to be true and
the power relations that shape who was
believed and why because see we reflect
and analyze knowledge based on our
experiences which not only shaped how we
view reality but it also shapes who we
as individuals believe to be true and
for that reason black people face often
insurmountable barriers when it comes to
validating their own forms of knowledge
through dominant Eurocentric processes
and frankly that’s led to nothing but
outright silencing yet I’ve seen in both
traditional classrooms and on street
corners in the hood black people
interpreting and reinterpreting the
black intellectual tradition to create
their own new forms of ways to
understand analyze and transform our
society and it’s this reason that makes
me that much more grateful for the time
that I’ve spent learning from people
whose knowledge isn’t traditionally
valued take cornerman for example he
used to hang out in a lot of the corner
store about a block from my house and I
was growing up now to most people he was
loitering as you can see which was a
violation of the sign that he rested his
back against but to me to me he was a
math whiz I mean he taught me how to
calculate sales tax quickly so I can
make the most out of my money but also
so I didn’t get got by the cashier he
would teach me about coded language and
community policing though those actual
terms I wouldn’t learn until much later
in life it all connected back to him see
history shows us that critical visions
of black radical imagination are stifled
if not completely marginalized yet
through the use of radical imagination
black people are providing hope toward
reaching truth even though black
knowledge faces such culturally embedded
obstacles
I don’t think that we can begin to have
a conversation about reimagining the
intellectual without first accounting
for and always remembering to come back
to this idea of a radical imagination so
at this point you’re probably wondering
so what is it well when I think about
the word radical I think about our roots
coming at the root emerging from the
root something like our core our center
of gravity the thing that keeps us
grounded somewhere between our hips
probably the part that’s seated in the
chair right now and when I think about
imagination that’s easy it takes me to
the top of my head so when I think about
radical imagination I envision being in
both of those places at the same time
and in doing so I’m connecting
everything in between the heart the
lungs viscera curiosity adventure desire
so I know you might be wondering why is
this even important well if we continues
to stifle black radical imagination we
are at risk for ignoring intellectual
contributions that could advance our
collective societal progression we run
the risk that ignoring the fact that
almost every cultural product that black
people create is and has the potential
to become its own sort of Theory its own
creation its own genre even as evidenced
by when black folks took their stories
and put them to dope beats that gave us
hip hop as evidence in the dust video
series when the artist sunrise asserted
that perhaps outer space was better for
the safety and respite of black people
in America giving rise to the genre that
we know is afrofuturism as evidenced by
some of your favorite fashions and your
favorite stores or on the runway that
started with black women a limited
supply of cash and a beauty supply store
see the intellectuals that I want to
hear from our living know they’re
surviving below the poverty line and
their research interests know no bounds
of academic discipline they include
how to feed a family of eight on
government assistance how to survive in
a country that perpetually punishes you
and relegate cyou to an underclass how
to protect the imagination of a black
child how to survive an encounter with
the state how to find nourishment and a
food desert how to not become a
statistic how to survive in America in
his book freedom dreams the
distinguished professor Robin DG Kelley
reminds us that progressive social
movements don’t just produce statistics
or narratives of oppression but they do
what great poetry does they transport us
to another time and place they compel us
to relive Horrors but most importantly
most importantly they enable us to
black people have been the catalyst for
intellectual production for so long yet
we still live in a society that doesn’t
view those abilities as the norm I don’t
think that we can really be about this
business of creating a newer freer more
equitable society if we don’t first
consider this question what would it
look like if we accepted the organic
ways that black people move in and out
of their intellectual production I want
to leave you with this thought what
would happen if every single person in
this room thought of the hood the block
the prisons the places and spaces where
black people exist in great numbers due
to systems far greater than their
individual stories not as blight or a
social death but as epicenters of
intellectual curiosity I want you to
take a moment and think about all the
now while you grapple with that question
I want to take you back to 2015 social
media was in a shearing frenzy talking
about how the Harvard debate team lost
to a eastern New York Correctional
Facility debate team I mean it was an
awe inspiring story ready-made for your
favorite overpriced Hollywood film don’t
forget to buy popcorn but if we use our
radical imagination to envision this
facility as an epicenter of intellectual
curiosity we would challenge the notion
that underlined everyone’s assumptions
about this match I mean do we really
believe that people at Harvard are just
naturally better debaters do we truly
believe that incarcerated people are
less informed what proof do we have that
one group has more control over their
use of language or persuasion than the
other see I don’t subscribe to this idea
of an Ivy League institution versus a
public institution and I most certainly
do not subscribe to the idea of what it
means to be incarcerated but most of
society still does there is a great
importance and elevating the voices of
individuals who fundamentally understand
how race history and memory work
together to inform strategies and
struggles for resisting oppression it is
these individuals on the ground who are
the architects of a more just gentle and
humane society a total transformation of
our world it is these individuals whose
revolutionary visions span across every
aspect of social life that are using
resistance love and radical imagination
to envision a more equitable world and I
know I’m ready to hear their stories the
question remains are you thank you so
much [Applause]
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