AFRO3745: Black Cultural Studies

What is black life? And what does it mean to talk about black life in the context of the push toward the liberation of black lives? In recent years we have become accustomed to hearing about and debating the efficacy of the term and movement "Black Lives Matter," but what, other than precarity, constitutes these lives that matter? How have black people collectively thrived even under conditions that would assume otherwise? In this course we will consider the myriad ways black people have gone about creating, dreaming, struggling, building, educating, loving, and living, even in the midst of all that works to bring death near. We will explore a range of cultural forms, including stand-up comedy, hip hop and R&B music, reality television, social media, and film, in order to contemplate the urgency and necessity of black social life, or, what it means to be with and for black people.

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