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“Tip Drill”/Take Back the Music Protests

This movement was started by Asha Jennings and Moya Bailey to confront how the hip-hop music industry perpetuates misogynoir and the hypersexualization of Black women’s bodies. In April 2004, Jennings and Bailey led protests at Spelman College in response to the misogynistic lyrics in Nelly’s song “Tip Drill.” These protests evolved into Take Back the Music, a national campaign sponsored by Essence magazine, to address the degrading portrayals of Black women in hip hop.

Crunk Feminist Collective

The Crunk Feminist Collective (CFC) provides a space of support and camaraderie for hip-hop generation feminists of color, queer and straight, in the academy and without, by building a rhetorical community in which we can discuss our ideas, express our crunk feminist selves, fellowship with one another, debate and challenge one another, and support each other, as we struggle together to articulate our feminist goals, ideas, visions, and dreams in ways that are both personally and professionally beneficial.

Brittney Cooper

Brittney Cooper is an author, feminist, teacher, activist, and cultural critic. Her areas of research and work include Black women organizations, Black women intellectuals, and hip-hop feminism. She is a co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective (CFC). The Crunk Feminist Collective blog was named a top feminist blog by New York magazine in 2011 and a top race blog by TheRoot.com in 2012. Cooper writes for the CFC as “crunktastic.”

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis

Angela Davis’ book Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) has become a cornerstone text in the modern-day abolition movement. In the text, she argues for decarceration and a world that is centered on healing.

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence

INCITE! is a network of radical feminists of color organizing to end state violence and violence in our homes and communities. Formed in 2000 at The Color of Violence: Violence Against Women of Color conference, INCITE! has created grassroots chapters across the country, launched political projects mobilizing women of color against violence, and hosted numerous conferences that have attracted and inspired thousands of people.

When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost, by Joan Morgan

Joan Morgan’s 1999 book When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down “offers a provocative and powerful look into the life of the modern Black woman: a complex world in which feminists often have not-so-clandestine affairs with the most sexist of men, where women who treasure their independence frequently prefer men who pick up the tab, where the deluge of babymothers and babyfathers reminds Black women who long for marriage that traditional nuclear families are a reality for less than 40 percent of the population, and where Black women are forced to make sense of a world where truth is no longer black and white but subtle, intriguing shades of gray.”

Black Feminist Caucus of the Black Radical Congress 1998

In 1998, the Black Radical Congress (BRC) took place in Chicago with the intent to promote dialogue between Black activists and scholars. Within the BRC, the Black Feminist Caucus formed as a space to strategize on how to connect Black feminist theories to the struggles of “working-class and poor Black women.” They organized to ensure that Black women’s concerns were centered as the BRC developed its Black Freedom Agenda for the 21st century.

The Million Women March

On October 25, 1997, approximately 750,000 Black women gathered to march in Philadelphia as part of the Million Woman March, an event centered on unifying Black women and giving them space to voice their concerns. The march was organized by two grassroots activists in Philadelphia: Phile Chionesu and Asia Coney. The Million Woman March, which did not rely on promotion from the leading icons of the civil-rights movement, became one of the largest gatherings of women across the globe.