Aesthetics for Birds

Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art for Everyone

Tag Archives: black aesthetics

A black man with a crown of thorns and the handle of a gun in his waistband holds a complacent child in his arms while a woman breastfeeds on a bed.

September 22, 2022
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Five Scholars Discuss ‘Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers’

Kendrick Lamar’s 2022 album has been met with controversy, even among general praise. Here, scholars across different disciplines examine and discuss it. Continue reading →

July 26, 2018
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Philosophy and Politics in “Sorry to Bother You”

The following post appears as part of a partnership with the APA Blog. The original appears here. Steven Manicastri is a political theorist and labor organizer.  Having recently viewed Sorry to Bother You and seeing its clear relevance to his own research he posed the following questions to Lewis Gordon because of his theoretical work on race, class, and politics in film.

April 24, 2018
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Beauty in Strange Places: Art First

I met a critic, I made her shit her drawers She said she thought hip-hop was only guns and alcohol I said “Oh hell naw!” But yet it’s that too You can’t discrimi-hate cause you done read a book or two What if I looked at you in a microscope, saw all the dirty organisms Living in your closet would I stop and would I pause it? …Speeches only reaches those who already know about it This is how we go about it – André 3000, “Humble Mumble” What follows is a guest post by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (Georgetown University). This blog recently hosted a post on country music which defended country music partly because of its interaction with the class dynamics between the working class people who listen to the style and the broader culture in which they do so. The author of this piece comes close to a … Continue reading →

April 5, 2018
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Freedom, Oppression, and Black Consciousness in “get Out”

The following post appears as part of a partnership with the APA Blog. The original appears here. Having recently viewed Jordan Peele’s award-winning Get Out (2017), political theorist Derefe Kimarley Chevannes was prompted to discuss the film with philosopher Lewis Gordon, whose writings include discussions of race in horror films and literature.

February 20, 2018
by Aesthetics for Birds
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Bottom Rail on Top This Time: Politics, Myth, Culture and Afro-fantacism in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panter

What follows is a guest post by Charles Peterson (Oberlin College) I. As Walter Mosley observes in his essay “Black to the Future,” the genre(s) of science fiction/fantasy neé Afro-futurism speak clearly to the dissatisfied through their power to imagine the first step in changing the world: Black people have been cut off from their African ancestry by the scythe of slavery and from an American heritage by being excluded from history. For us, science fiction offers an alternative where that which deviates from the norm is the norm. As such, African-descended people have long understood and utilized the power of narrative to generate the images and ideas that will spark the liberatory imaginings of the sufferers. Particularly in the realms of the fantastic have characters, scenarios, and worlds been constructed to expose the truths of the world as it is and reveal the possibilities of worlds that could be. … Continue reading →

March 22, 2017
by Rebecca Millsop
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Questioning Aesthetics Symposium: Black Aesthetics

The American Society for Aesthetics is pleased to provide $7500 in partial support of the Questioning Aesthetics Symposium: Black Aesthetics, to be held at Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, March 31-April 1, 2017. Funding is also being provided by Hampshire College, the Transdisciplinary Aesthetics Foundation, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the Five-College Lecture Fund. The conference is co-organized by Monique Roelofs, Professor of Philosophy at Hampshire College, and Michael Kelly, Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and the Founder and President of the Transdisciplinary Aesthetics Foundation. The symposium will be free and open to the public. NEW (2/27/2017): Symposium Program Web sites for the Symposium: http://blackaesthetics.hampshire.edu https://transaestheticsfoundation.org/ Poster: http://aesthetics-online.org/resource/resmgr/conferences/QAS-BlackAesthetics-Poster.pdf Four grants of $500 each, made possible by an ASA Major Projects Initiative Grant, have been awarded to ASA student  members to attend the Symposium: James Cobb, English and … Continue reading →

October 26, 2016
by Rebecca Millsop
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ASA Funds Symposium on Black Aesthetics

The American Society for Aesthetics is pleased to provide $7500 in partial support of the Questioning Aesthetics Symposium: Black Aesthetics, to be held at Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, March 31-April 1, 2017. Funding is also being provided by Hampshire College, the Five Colleges, and the Transdisciplinary Aesthetics Foundation. The conference is co-organized by Monique Roelofs, Professor of Philosophy at Hampshire College, and Michael Kelly, Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and the Founder and President of the Transdisciplinary Aesthetics Foundation. The symposium will be free and open to the public. As more information becomes available, including the schedule of events, it will be posted on ASA’s website: http://aesthetics-online.org/news/314368/ASA-Funds-Symposium-on-Black-Aesthetics.htm.