On this episode of Efemeral, we discuss themes in Black literature with Dr. Felice Blake, Black studies and gender & sexuality professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Blake discusses the tropes of Black intimacy, incarceration, and intra-racial degradation as explored in her published novels, Black Love, Black Hate: Intimate Antagonisms in African American Literature and Antiracism Inc.: Why the Way We Talk about Racial Justice Matters. Blake details her own experience as a scholar during the L.A. Riots and unravels the institutional systems from which Black Lives Matter came about, connecting abolitionist movements to themes of segregation amplified by the prison industrial system.

Show Notes:

All music in this episode written by Molly McAnany.

Special thanks to the English & Black Studies Departments at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Sources Referenced:

Black Love Black Hate:Intimate Antagonisms in African American Literature

Antiracism Inc.: Why the Way We Talk about Racial Justice Matters

Separate but Equal Doctrine

Intersectionality Theory