Where are you going? Where have you been?

Sorry (not sorry) to all you students looking for homework help, but this post is not about the Joyce Carol Oates story. (P.S. Stop Googling and do your own homework. I promise your instructor doesn’t care what the internet thinks but wants to know what you think instead.)

Where have you been?

So yes. I took a brief (three weeks??? it felt longer) internet hiatus, mostly because I was moving but also because the internet is my fun/escape place, and it definitely has NOT been that for a while. Not only has the news been bad, but a friend of mine was going through a personal crisis that really made me examine who I allow into my safe spaces on the internet. So everything just felt like a lot of noise, and it was stressing me out. Therefore, a break was needed.

A while ago, I changed the tagline on my site from “how to read like an English professor” to “from the mind of an English professor.” I am big into announcing your purpose and audience (see also: English professor), so changing the tagline will open up some space in the blog for me to talk about whatever I want…without feeling like I’m off task.

I tend to not talk about things because I don’t feel like engaging nonsense or getting upset or…I don’t know, a bunch of stuff. However, a few things happened that made me reconsider this:

• a conversation with a friend who reminded me that awful people will come for us if we don’t show we won’t tolerate their nonsense
• a conversation with another friend who said she was not necessarily engaging with hot nonsense but that she would consider to do what she always does by spreading joy and positivity on her chosen platform
• my friend’s personal crisis reminded me that awful people just go around being emotional terrorists and keep it moving while the rest of us are (often silently) picking up the pieces
• listening to the Margaret Cho interview on Another Round
• watching (some of) the PBS biography of Muhammad Ali
• reading Grifbeck’s post about Prince
• reading (and in some cases re-reading) some of the articles listed here
• reading Jenny’s review which featured an Angry Feminist Minute

Here’s the thing. I am angry a lot. Like, pretty much all the time. I often say that, for me, living as a black woman in America is being Bruce Banner.

All of that stuff reminded me that my anger is good and healthy and also that, as someone with a platform and a voice, I have a responsibility to use both.

So what does that mean for the blog?

1. I will be blogging more frequently and not just by participating in memes (IMWAYR and TTT).
2. I will be blogging about stuff besides books.
3. I will not necessarily be blogging about the things that make me angry. (I know, I know. After all of that build up? Some people.) I mean, I am sure you can guess what pisses me off in general. (You may or may not be surprised to know I almost had a rage blackout after Melania Trump plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech.) But I am really super into going beyond talking about black trauma to remind the world that we are and can be carefree/have other interests that go beyond the scope of race.
4. But, you know, sometimes I may talk about things that make me angry, too.

Basically, I plan to use my little corner of the internet to engage my anger in a healthy way but also to spread joy and love and light. And stop worrying so much about what other people think.