As we enter a new month in a summer of change, Wednesday host Ali Muldrow reflects on the struggles and victories of June and looks forward to July with academic and activist Dr. Sami Schalk.
Over the course of the hour, they talk about identity and belonging, adrienne maree brown’s concept of pleasure activism, finding joy and avoiding burnout, the importance of both being in the streets and doing vital behind-the-scenes work, and what it looks like to embrace our full selves in the intertwined struggle for LGBT+ and Black justice.
“We have a right to joy and to pleasure and to rest,” says Dr. Schalk, “and if we don’t have those things, we can never continue this movement; we will burn out.”
And, as Ali says, “There’s more than one way to get involved in a joyful revolution.”
Sami Schalk is an associate professor in the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research focuses on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture, especially African American and women’s texts. She is the author of Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction (Duke University Press, 2018) and a board member of Freedom, Inc.
Cover photo of the Notting Hill Carnival by Glodi Miessi on Unsplash
