25. April 18: From Black Hair to Wokeness

I. Announcements​​​

• Next Hype presentations on April 20 by: Ellie+Brynn+Rory; Moreau; Greg (the final presentations are next week)
• MAY 2 is the FINAL TURN-IN deadline for the semester (everything else is a soft deadline)!​​​​

click here for syllabus

Click here for HYPE guidelines

Click here for the sign-up sheet!

II. Grading Update​

• Placeholder "0" have been added to D2L to give you a better sense of what, if anything, you are missing
• Anything with a "-" means we have not done that task yet
• Any questions on this week's zine assignment?

III. Back to Black Hair: Our Investigative Chronicling

Today we are going to do some scrolling and chronicling.  Just skim the content here.  The point is to do a mini-experiment to see just how digitally/social-media-saturated this topic is.

1. Find 3-4 videos and/or websites. List the site title, influencer's name, and URL.  Here are suggestions for search terms:

• naturalista  |  most famous naturalistas  |  black hair influencer 
• natural black hair blog  | most famous natural hair bloggers
• 4C natural hair  |  moisturizing 4C natural hair  |  moisturizing natural hair (same for 3C, 4A, and 4B)
• protective styles for natural hair
• box-braids and natural hair (same for cornrows, three-strand twist)
• two-strand twists and natural hair
• wash-n-go and natural hair
• twist-out and natural hair
• TWA and natural hair
• dreadlocks and natural hair
• curl patterns and natural hair
• any others you can think of

2. What do you think: could this have been the "communicative laboratory" that made later activism possible?  If so, what is a better word than "communicative laboratory"?

3. Open Discussions

Click here for link.

Or, scan below:

IV. STAY WOKE: AN INTRODUCTION TO NEXT WEEK'S TOPIC

Start by looking up the Scottsboro Boys on your device if you don't know who they are.  Also look up the anti-woke laws and/or STOP WOKE.

famous 1938 recording

2008 album, New Amerykah

• How and why do you think the term "wokeness" has a 100 year old history in Black Language and Culture... all the way up to now in Black Digital Culture? 
• What do you think of anti-woke legislation?  What do you think about targeting Black language, Black activism, AND Black digital culture this way?