Zine Page Submission File
Ethan Freedman
WMST 302: Topics: Angela Davis
Professor Taryn Jordan
December 15th, 2022
Angela Davis at the Center: Understanding Praxis
I am gonna be honest – I am exhausted. The past semester, I spent most of my time learning about Angela Davis. Because of a course by Prof. Taryn Jordan at Colgate University titled WMST 302: Topics: Angela Davis, I had the privilege of learning an excessive amount, but the opportunity to embrace unlearning and learning in a new way. The extent of which ranged from Angela Davis’ positionality as a black woman in the United States and how she is representative of a stand in for others whose subjectivity must be reimagined, to her love life and theory on creativity as a pivotal foundation for liberation. However, using my journal as a method of centering myself outside and during harkness as well as the premises designed for the class, I was able to grasp praxis - or the intersection between theory and practice - as it pertains to my life.
Beginning with producing discourse on activism from different Davis sources and expanding into Marxism and Communism as a central piece of freeing political prisoners, Prof. Jordan led their class with viscerality (Davis, 1989). The effects of black nationalism on the bodies and minds of black women were elaborated on all before reaching a pivotal theme in the course: Angela Davis. Using the Angela Davis Papers at Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, we were encouraged to delve into Davis’ life in conjunction with their autobiography. As a result, the role that Davis played in this world is clear: Davis was a political prisoner capable of enabling others to reimagine their subjectivity by centering herself and helping others with the tools, discourse, and terms to relate (Davis, 1974).
In attempting to understand one of the many concepts touched on, political prisoners as individuals and groups of people whose government is not aligned with the politics they know to be most libratory for themselves, I used the class journal assigned. I was eager to go above and beyond with it as I wanted to embrace learning in a different way. Knowing that I like to talk a lot, the Journal allowed me to get even more creative with my ideas because they could only make sense to me if I chose. While every single reading note and class note was written down in the journal, Jordan’s task of encouraging us to write journal entries was something with which students had to get creative.
While at first I chose to get creative by indulging in interesting ways of applying the course concepts outside of the classroom into creative prose, exaggerated creativity came the second half of the semester. The journal was initially a place for me to practice being creative – to get comfortable with embracing knowledge, acquiring and consolidating it in a different way. This was because the final project of the course was to create a zine page and in order to do this – one must be willing to embrace “creativity with restrictions” (Jordan, November 29, 2022).
With the methodology behind the course as well as the course content in tandem with one another, I got creative using a quote from Angela Davis: An Autobiography. The chapter “Waters” posits Davis away from her home of Burmingham and experiencing the world – while simultaneously experiencing what it is like to not be able to fight for and with your people back home. Davis talks about witnessing a performance that “after all had been much more than a mere show, it had been life and reality, had they drawn the curtain and bowed to applause, it would have been as if their commitment were simply art” (Davis, Waters). The quote reminds me of the dance I do while I surf, what it is like in the waves, and with the people. It also reminds me of a method how Davis often only had ripple to ride while abroad and experiencing the oppression of her country. To me, Davis is saying that what might seem like performance to so many is rooted in visceral, emotion, and historical aspects of life. Her work titled “I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama” goes to show how creativity can often be a real reflection of time by centering blues as a core piece in the legacy of black feminism and black liberation. (Davis, 1999)
While the zine was a place for me to attempt to relate to Davis as well as expand on what I learned about her and the theory she helped to produce, the real result is my understanding of praxis. As it pertains to learning and activism – paying attention is often the bare minimum of a course like Jordan’s. Prof. Jordan’s class, through alternative methods, helped me to understand how one can turn theory into practice by centering Angela Davis’ work. With exploration of archives, history, theory, and discourse, I am able to walk away with a real tangible understanding of praxis and the change it can facilitate – as well as the effort it takes.
Word count: 828
Citations:
Davis, Angela. “I used to Be Your Sweet Mama”. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. New York:
Random House, 1999
Davis, Angela. Angela Davis: An Autobiography. 1974
Jordan, Taryn. November 29, 2022
Bhavnani, Kum-Kum; Davis, Angela. “Complexity, Activism, Optimism: An Interview with Angela Y. Davis. Sage Publications, Ltd. 1989.
Acknowledgements: I would like to acknowledge, first off, that much of the resources I have been using as well as the facilities that I have benefited from are located at Colgate University. Colgate University is situated on the Oneida Nation’s land, one of the nations of the Haudenosaunee people.
Moreover, this essay was in many ways a truth, I am exhausted – but proud. Thanks to my peers for generating discourse as well as Prof. Taryn Jordan for their time and effort. This piece and the knowledge generated could not have been acquired without them.