About Notes: a blog featuring writing about everyday politics

Notes Mission

The core mission of this blog is to highlight the intersections between our everyday lives and politics. It is easy to see the political as some far off (corrupt, bureaucratic, administrative) thing that has nothing to do with us, but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. In this community we believe that:

Our everyday life is politically meaningful. Our socio-political lives and stories not only transform the world, but are a source of joy, meaning and community power.

In addition to my more explicit conversations about everyday politics, I choose to share my personal experiences with chronic illness in order to open up the conversation about how the body is political. When I teach, my research agenda is closely tied to my work in the classroom. I am committed to helping students understand how their neighborhoods, the high schools they attended, the buildings they lived in, and the parks they played in growing up, are all the result of legal, political, and policy, choices made on a daily basis.

In Black Feminist Thought Patricia Hill Collins outlines the way in which our personal stories not only have academic value, bu they are inherently political valuable as well. By telling the stories of our lives, we are able to bring attention to the issues in our communities that would otherwise be rendered invisible.

As a community we reject assumptions that people of color are politically dis-connected, careless and lacking empathy. Instead, we believe firmly in our ability to create a unique politics that is both accountable to our communities, as well as to ourselves.

Sojourner Truth “spoke truth to power” and “spoke truth to the people” (Collins, 2013) by demanding that the public see her, her body and her experience clearly and without confusion. She demanded that folks see her as Black, disabled, a woman and a formerly enslaved person. She refused to let anyone slice up her identity into anything less than her whole. As a result, in this community, as we tell our everyday stories, and connect them to the political, we are connected to learning, talkmg and walking in our everyday politics.

Scholar. Writer. Teacher. Storyteller.