Introduction to Chickenheads
As I opened Chickenheads to write up this commentary, I found an extracted quote from Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I am going to use this quote so perfectly picked by Joan Morgan to introduce her contribution to Black feminism.
Who are you?” said the Caterpillar. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I — I hardly know, Sir, …. at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.”
Lewis Caroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Black Feminism
In the version of Chickenheads that I have, Brittney Cooper has written the foreword. Brittney Cooper (depicted above) is an associate professor of Africana and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Rutgers. She is also an author, activist, cultural critic, with her areas of research being Black women’s intellectual history, Black Feminist Thought, and race and gender politics in hip hop and pop culture. Here’s the link to the blog she co-founded, which centers Black hip-hop feminism.
Now that we are introduced to the exceptionally qualified Professor Cooper (I anticipate visiting her work one day,) let’s get into the foreword. Professor Cooper speaks to Chickenheads’ vital role in defining feminism for the new generation of Black feminists. At the core of Professor Cooper’s sentiments about Chickenheads, is Joan Morgan’s insistence on marrying one’s culture, interests, and politics. “…I didn’t have to give up the things I loved to pursue my passions and politics” (Cooper, 2017). The pages of Morgan’s movement-changing book encourages young Black feminists to take up spaces as their full selves. Professor Cooper stresses how affirming the pages of Chickenheads are for embracing so many aspects of Black girlhood, womanhood, and feminism.
Personal
Chickenheads for me is so liberating and poignant because it does not cage Black women. Morgan doesn’t feed into respectability politics, she doesn’t tell you what parts of you need to die off to be the perfect feminist. Professor Cooper speaks to this, to the expansion of what Black womanhood can look like. I believe that Professor Cooper and I have similarities in many facets of life but this particular quote from her may help you understand why my life changed so much due to this book, “I have opened this book to try to understand my journey to become a writer. I have opened this book to give myself permission to be the feminist I have always been” (Cooper, 2017).
The ReSIStance Reading series would not exist without this book. It would not exist without Joan Morgan’s vulnerability, without her unrelenting truth. I have not dared to turn my back on my writing dreams ever since the words of Joan Morgan slid into the intricate folds of my brain. The confidence I have in my writing voice today was found after reading the beautiful cadence of Morgan’s.
So, when I read this work, I am reminded of the incomparable gift of being able to sit down and read a book and know that a Black girl who came before us knew what we would need, and had enough foresight and generosity to write it in these pages. And to leave it here for me, for us, and for all the fierce Black and Brown girl geniuses to come” (Cooper, 2017).
Brittney Cooper, When Chickenheads Come Home To Roost
Works Cited
Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: a Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2017.
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