To come home is a comfort that has always been deemed a fungible sensation yet, you’ll always know what home is once you’re there. It was fitting that this year’s Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute theme was Home considering the obvious countless hours and loving dedication the host Jennifer Nash, the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and the presenting faculty, Adrienne Brown, Rebecca Carter, Naomi Extra, Crystal Feimster, Jasmine Johnson, D. Soyini Madison, Rececca Wanzo and Terrion Williamson, put into facilitating a homecoming for all the present graduate students. Even from its first day, this Institute felt like a return home, whether that be intellectually, spiritually, embodied or metaphysically—this space even facilitated a literal return for a former professor, Dr. Madison, and her previous students, Michelle Lainer, Omisade Burney-Scott, and Renee Alexander Craft. Like any home, this institute created spaces of care, vulnerability, sisterhood, mentorship and a beautiful moment in which the torch of feminist knowledge passed between one generation of scholars to another. The Home created here was so real it also included a customary begrudging group photo—rearranged several times for optimal lighting. The sharing of knowledge given to me and several other graduate students included a beautiful discussion on the abstraction of black existence, historical tales of black female rebellion, new forms of feminist writing, conversations surrounding the complications of black housing, and the usurped embodiment of African Dance. This summer, out of the gloom of isolated dissertation writing, I came Home and regained an appreciation for black feminist writings and a willingness to be experimental alongside a beautiful family of feminist scholars. I will forever be thankful to the institute and all those who participated.
Gender, Sexuality Feminist Studies