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MULTIMEDIA JOURNAL ENTRY #3

This made me cry so hard for so long today.

Instagram image from @theguerrillafeminist

FYI: Disabled people are NOT disposable!

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MULTIMEDIA JOURNAL ENTRY #3

For my third journal entry, I’ve chosen @theguerrillafeminist, who is both on facebook and instagram. I discovered her first through facebook, but she’s since then transitioned to being more active on instagram. GF has had quite a journey-- it started off as something Lachrista Greco, MA &MLIS, created on her own, in Chicago. She soon moved, and now lives in Madison, WI. It ran for a couple of years, until she added a team that eventually turned the page into a nonprofit. After another couple of years, she had it return to its original roots, to bring a page solely representing herself. She felt it was too much, being see as an ideology or an organization, with too much pressure and expectations from her followers.  Lachrista Greco is young woman in her 30s, with Italian lineage. She has alway stated up front that she has an immense amount of privilege: she is cis, white, able-bodied, and has a higher education. She is disabled, with two learning disabilities, mental illness (anxiety disorder, PTSD, PMDD, and depression) and STI+ (who has had HPV in the past, and lives with genital herpes).  She got her BA in English-Writina from Edgewood College and her first master’s in WOmen’s and Gender Studies from DePaul University.  She is currently working on a her second Master’s in Library & Information Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has written for Bitch Media, Ravishly, Scarleteen, Luna Luna, etc. and has spoken at many nonprofits, colleges, and universities around the world. Her topics include digital consulting, online abuse, feminism, disabilities, domestic and sexual violence, and Italianità. She has published two books: the first is anthology called Olive Grrrls: Italian North American Women & The Search for Identity (where she was also an editor); the second being a book of poems called Leftovers. What I love most about The Guerrilla Feminist is that way her posts make me actively think about my privilege, despite being a POC. The majority of her posts I whole-heartedly agree with, and even learn from without qualm. But it’s that other small percentage, the part that makes me uncomfortable, and makes me think. That’s what makes me stay. She was the first person/account that made me learn about the concept of privilege, but specifically white privilege and how use it, more accurately how we should use it.  I think about in the beginning of the semester when learned the meaning of white privilege and the invisible knapsack. Tems and concepts I was already familiar with because I follow pages like The Guerrilla Feminist. But the biggest similarity I see between this semester’s content and my multimedia choice is when watching The Angry Eye (2001). It’s a video that makes you reconcile with the realities of every day systemic racism and prejudice-- and how one who is Black (or even any other minority) withstands the weight of an unjust system. https://www.instagram.com/p/CH8Z1eBAUwh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link  Here is an example of content she shares-- the comparison between a young black boy whole stole a backpack and wen to Rikers for 3 years, while a young white man posts a $2 million dollar bail for killing two people during a protest not even in his own state.   https://www.instagram.com/p/CHdmvTZgTN3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Here is another example of calling out whiteness within white women-- an identity she herself is part of. I appreciate her dedication to knowledge and self-improvement and self-discovery, no matter how difficult or ugly the reality may be. It’s the sort of content that doesn’t pat someone on the back, and ignores the reality of the injustices one might face every day. Her content highlights the intersectionality of gender, race and identity-- it is a social media account that benefits from the use of multiculturalism and projecting voices and media content above our own privileged soapbox.  

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MULTIMEDIA JOURNAL ENTRY #2

(Scroll down past this post to see the media content for each journal entry. Don’t forget to click on the down facing arrow to make sure you see it all until you can’t scroll anymore.) In Marvel’s Black Panther, we find Prince T’Challa returning to his home nation of Wakanda, in the wake of his father’s death (in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War). Wakanda is a secluded African nation with unimaginable technological advancement surrounding the rarest, strongest metal in the world, vibranium. This metal, along with Wakanda’s power, culture, and riches are hidden from the rest of the world behind the mask of a “third-world country” label.  While trying to maintain his new mantle as king, and his role as the titular Black Panther, a powerful adversary appears to fight for the right to rule. KIllmonger wishes to spread the wealth and power of Wakanda to the world at large to fight back against the systemic injustices Black people face. Meanwhile, T’Challa reconciles with his late father’s choices in both family and ruling, to figure out who he wants to be, and what king Wakanda needs amidst the political upheaval and turmoil. The power in Black Panther is not only in the visionary character being presented on screen, but also what has happened behind the scenes as well. Through production, storytelling, design, and direction this movie encompasses the beauty within representation, and diversity. It celebrates what it means to tell a story that lives outside pre-conceived stereotypes and tropes within Black characters and stories. It thrives on the realties within our world and puts them amongst the spectacular world of fantasy, adventure and superheroes to bring us a story that feels real and lived-in. As stated by Glen Weldon from NPR, “Black Panther is a story about black people completely untouched by colonialism, who exist entirely outside the global systems of institutionalized racism.” There is power seeing yourself, your culture, your friends, your family etc. being seen on screen-- in a context that gives you a celebration of strength and freedom where you normally feel shackled. To see characters of color, but especially Black characters, in positions of power that are typically reserved for white (male) characters-- it changes the subliminal narrative that media has used since the days of Jim Crow caricature and slavery.   It makes these stories feel worthy of being told, and brings importance to a film that completely goes above and beyond what’s expected. We get to see Wakanda, a place of fiction, vividly realized as this “Afro-futurist utopia” (Weldon) exempt from the world’s systemic injustices. It is a place that not only feels real, but thrives in a society that typically views the whole of Africa as a third-world nation with nothing to offer.  Outside of the film, Black Panther’s successes turned the world upside down as well. Awards, accolades and record breaking numbers follow the cast and production team of Black Panther. “The movie, directed by Ryan Coogler, is also the biggest February debut of all time, the second-highest grossing Marvel movie behind The Avengers, and the highest-grossing film by a black director in history.” Not to mention Ruth Carter and Hannah Beachler won Oscars for their work in costume design and production design while the cast won “a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and a Grammy® Award for Göransson’s score. The film was also an American Film Institute (AFI) Movie of the Year and featured in the National Board of Review’s Top Films of 2018.” (Walt Disney Company). These awards not only demonstrate the recognition of the black artistry within this movie, but the beauty of African culture and representation within production ideals. It shows that there is a way to create and portray characters of color in a way that doesn’t leave them feeling side-lined or inaccurate--but vividly real and three-dimensional. This film is a leading example of what it means to create media that can be enjoyed by the masses, while celebrating a culture that typically is never presented positively on screen. It demonstrates the importance of not only the visibility of Black people on the screen, but the positions of power they hold behind the scenes as well-- leading to more honest storytelling dynamics that would otherwise be stifled. Black Panther cultivated such creativity that it lead the world to believe in this utopia--and strive to maintain its vitality in media for the years to come.  

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For Multimedia Journal Entry #2

Eternal T’Challa.

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Black Panther (2018) dir. Ryan Coogler

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THE BLACK PANTHER CAST

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Black Panther (2018), dir. Ryan Coogler

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Black Panther (2018) dir. Ryan Coogler // The Lion King (1994) dir. Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff

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Black Panther (2018) dir. Ryan Coogler

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Black Panther earned $241.96 million in North America over its four-day opening weekend, making it the second-highest grossing opening of all time.

 The Marvel tentpole defied earlier estimates and beat out Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which earned $241.6 million in its debut last year. After yesterday, the film trails only The Force Awakens’massive $288 million four-day total.

The movie, directed by Ryan Coogler, is also the biggest February debut of all time, the second-highest grossing Marvel movie behind The Avengers, and the highest-grossing film by a black director in history.

According to Variety, the studio had originally projected a $218 million opening, but bumped that to $235 million Sunday morning. The film actually ended up performing even better than that, thanks to a Monday gross of $40.2 million, earning Black Panther the record for the biggest Monday box-office gross in history. Variety reports that the film’s global gross to date is at $426.6 million.

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Black panther (2018) dir. by Ryan coogler

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Black Panther (2018), dir. Ryan Coogler.

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@daughtersofthanos: If people could only take one thing away from this movie, what would you want it to be and why?

🎥: Kenny Sule

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43/? costume design: Black Panther by Ruth E. Carter

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what she says: im fine

what she means: i can’t stop thinking about the scene in Black Panther where Erik takes the heart-shaped herb and is transported to the ancestral plane, but his father’s tortured and unresolved relationship with his homeland means he’s residing in a kind of purgatory trapped in Oakland with glimmers of the Wakandan spiritual plane seen outside the windows just beyond reach. N’Jobu sees his grown son, so scarred and angry beyond help, and wonders aloud the same doubt in the heart of every diasporic parent whether he ruined his child’s life by raising him in this foreign land, making him someone who belongs nowhere, someone who has lost his true identity and its accompanying possibility of wholeness. “maybe it’s your homeland that’s lost,” erik argues, tears filling his eyes even though not even his father’s death had made him cry. His father does not reply, and Erik wakes up screaming, still lacking the answers and connection that T’Challa was able to get from his own father.

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For Multimedia Journal Entry #2

The cast and director of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther came by Tumblr HQ this week to #bless us with a Q&A fan event.

Photos by: @marlene