Mariam I. Williams
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Dance Feminism

Dance Feminism

Best Of, Black Diaspora, Feminism, Gender, History, Pleasure, Rape culture, Research and Scholarship, Respectability, Sex, Travel, Trigger warning, Yes Means Yes

Originally published August 2, 2014 I spent a portion of my last day at 33 dancing and thinking about the messages in the dance. On July 30, our study abroad group had a wonderful lecture on traditional dances of Trinidad and Tobago. Because there are so many people...
Radical Self-Love: Writing Intimate Spaces in the Age of Tyranny

Radical Self-Love: Writing Intimate Spaces in the Age of Tyranny

Best Of, Black Love, Feminism, History, In the News, Pleasure, Race, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex, Social Justice, Tyranny, Writing Intimacy

For two weeks after the election, I wrote nothing. I was enrolled in two writing workshops for my MFA, and I wrote nothing. I submitted a poem I had written over the summer and didn’t bother to revise for my poetry workshop that week. The following week, I skipped my...
The Night My Body Said No

The Night My Body Said No

Best Of, Feminism, In the News, Pleasure, Rape culture, Trigger warning, Yes Means Yes

In a recent interview on All Things Considered, Vanessa Grigoriadis, author of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus, talked with NPR about Betsy DeVos’s recent decision to roll back the Obama Administration’s Title IX guidelines on how colleges...
Why the Time for Pleasure is Now

Why the Time for Pleasure is Now

Best Of, Black Love, In the News, Pleasure, Race, Sex, Tyranny

Like many people, I spent most of Saturday at my computer and on my phone reading and re-tweeting updates about the white supremacists who had descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia. My emotions ranged from anger to sadness to disgust. And try as I do to promote...
The Ruth-Boaz Myth and the Gospel of Sexual Freedom (#SFS17 Day 2)

The Ruth-Boaz Myth and the Gospel of Sexual Freedom (#SFS17 Day 2)

Best Of, Black Love, Feminism, Pleasure, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex

I attended a conference session called, “Defusing the Power of Toxic Religion for Sexual Advocacy,” because I’m writing a memoir about intersections of faith, family, and feminism in my life and of my experience with black female sexuality within the context of the...
The Gospel of Reproductive Justice

The Gospel of Reproductive Justice

Best Of, Feminism, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Reproductive Justice, Social Justice

  At a table on the quiet side of the room, five black women are talking. Sex. Helping a friend buy her first vibrator. Midwifery. Crunk Feminist Collective. Sexual health education. A sexual health education session in an AME church. The girls asked the sex educator...
A Letter to My Students on the Eve of their AP Exams

A Letter to My Students on the Eve of their AP Exams

Best Of, Education, Race

Originally published May 15, 2017   I sent this letter via email to senior high school students I teach in Camden, NJ, earlier this month. If it suits you, consider it Monday Motivation. What can you conquer today? Dear Students,   I took one AP exam when I was in...
The Decade Before Consent

The Decade Before Consent

Best Of, In the News, Pop Culture, Rape culture, Trigger warning

*Trigger warning* The week of August of 15, my news feed was filled with damning articles and opinions about Nate Parker and support of his acclaimed film Birth of a Nation, now that news has resurfaced of a rape he was acquitted of 15 years ago. As I interrogated my...
Why Being Single Often Feels Like Punishment for Black Church Girls

Why Being Single Often Feels Like Punishment for Black Church Girls

Best Of, Black Love, Pleasure, Religion Faith and Spirituality, Sex

How is a church like prison and being incarcerated like belonging to a church? Both have a way of asking, “How do you plan to handle potentially lifelong, involuntary celibacy?”  Read more. ← On my bicycle, at the intersection of blackness and...
On my bicycle, at the intersection of blackness and womanhood, with feminism crossing diagonally

On my bicycle, at the intersection of blackness and womanhood, with feminism crossing diagonally

Best Of, Feminism, History, Pop Culture, Race, Rape culture, Trigger warning

“If a woman says she was raped, I believe her, because for all she has to go through, why would she lie?” The words I heard my freshman year in college in a discussion group between black and Jewish women greet me as I unlock my bicycle. Riding my bike often helps me...
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Recent Posts

  • 12 (or so) Questions I have After Talking to a Black Man About #SurvivingRKelly
  • The Word for 2019
  • The Difficult Reality I’m Reckoning with and The Realest Questions I’m Asking Myself, Now That Sh!t is Really Going Down
  • Dance Feminism
  • The Role of the [Unknown] Artist

Recent Comments

  • Ms. Mariam W on Radical Self-Love: Writing Intimate Spaces in the Age of Tyranny
  • Fr. Joseph Oneal McGowan, SJ on Radical Self-Love: Writing Intimate Spaces in the Age of Tyranny
  • Ms. Mariam W on The Role of the [Unknown] Artist
  • John Randolph on The Role of the [Unknown] Artist
  • Ms. Mariam W on The Role of the [Unknown] Artist

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