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As ambassadors of aloha, Hawaiian women have been susceptible to the eroticization of their bodies and the insistent commodification of their aloha.

Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire

From a young age, these boys speculated on their own legacy and critics eagerly bought their stock before they matured. But the importance of women is recognized belatedly.

Cathy Park Hong • Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

Commodified Hawaiian culture—the “luau,” the “hula girl,” and “aloha”—became part of the American vernacular and everyday life.

Adria L. Imada • Aloha America: Hula Circuits through the U.S. Empire

The death of the public intellectual

substack.com

Adrienne Rich wrote, “I do know that art means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage.”

Cole Haddon • Charlie Kaufman Reminds Screenwriters Who They Really Work For

“June Jordan was an architect,” or so declares the black feminist writer and blogger Alexis Pauline Gumbs.[1] This declaration involves some political risk on Gumbs’ part, as Jordan is more popularly known as a writer, playwright, and poet. Several rhetorical questions immediately come to mind when one considers the veracity of her claim. Questions... See more

cldavisii • Representing the “Architextural” Musings of June Jordan

Aren’t we all still quivering

like tuning forks

with the shock of being,

the shock of being seen?

Hannah Fries • Let the Last Thing Be Song

The fact is, “exceptional Negroes” have always been a staple of an apartheid-like educational system that separates the “gifted” from the “normal,” and both from the “naughty” or “underachieving.” Sticks and stones will only break my bones, but words can lift or crush me.

Ruha Benjamin • Imagination: A Manifesto (A Norton Short)

The bodies of hula performers present a curious problem: they are hypervisible in popular culture while leaving only the faintest traces in archives.