Gurlesque/Blackesque?

So, this entry will be in two parts: one, my (slightly incoherent) ramblings about the Gurlesque/the question why more minorities (aside from Asians) don't appear, poetically, in it and two, my (slightly incoherent) ramblings about a possible Blackesque (which, I think, would be different from the existing concept of Negritude).

So, one (additional note--this is, pretty much, note-for-note [word for word?] from my notebook--I guess I may inject/explain with brackets or bold). Also, please excuse the broad strokes this response may take--again, this isn't too refined in it's current state:

Why aren't there more blacks (or minorities besides Asians) present in the Gurlesque? Simple. It literally comes down to the nature of language, and by extension, the polotics involved in (post)colonialism.

For a white female, it is easier (loosely) to dialogue--historical lineage is, for the most part, easily traceable, and the history has been literate for a long time, relatively speaking. Whites do not have to combat race-specific roadblocks as much--white is right, so the only true concept to negotiate are aspects inside, the self, things like the (de)construction of female roles. Add to the fact American society is largely white-based, the ideas to rebel or fashion are more easily relatable (as mentioned).

With Asians, you have a series of fetishisms occuring simultaneously, most specifically, the concept of the exotic other (ala Cho-Cho san/Gallimard in M. Butterfly). Asians, like whites, do not have to necessarily wrestle with race if they don't want to as mainstream society is already fascinated with (or accepted) them.

For blacks, with history/knowledge being more oral/performance based (spirituals/the figure of the griot), the mode in which successive waves of female will discourse will change. Black people tend to be raised in Baptist/religious-heavy ways, where the church (and by extension, the choir) becomes key to life. Black literati now tend to be performers, and more specifically, singers. So, in your search for the black in the Gurlesque, it will need to be found in song-based black disciplines--namely, rap and r&b. Black culture is a weird thing, and there is still a heavy stigma of "being white"/"being 'real'," where traditional, non-performance based/written poetry tends to be grouped as being "white" forms. So, in the black Gurlesque, you'll see reactions to people like Queen Latifah or MC Lyte, Salt N' Pepa by people like Nicki Minaj, Trina, and Lil' Kim.

</end incoherence>

So, what does the above mean? Basically, the way that black culture functions is weird--there is an emphasis (and sometimes, over-emphasis) on being authentic/real. There are still some that believe education is a white institution, and therefore, what's studied within the institutions are white and makes the participants within school, by extension, white. Some blacks feel that "we," as a race, have our own language/method of discourse, one that does not rely on the white notion of literacy--the performative--music. This is why, I feel, when black aspiring poets begin writing poetry, it usually falls into the spoken-word vein--it is what we know, how we already communicate, what we are taught at home. Part of this is, obviously, an attempt to retain some semblance of identity/history without fully assimilating into the "whiteness" of current American society, but at the same time, it truncates what can be experienced.

In terms of blacks in mainstream poetics, I see the same faces mentioned/in anthologies: Terrance Hayes, Yusef Komunyaakaa, Thomas Sayer Ellis, Kevin Young, and Patricia Smith. I know this omits people like Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni, but especially for the last two, I am more familiar with them from an oral perspective. It's weird, sometimes, as I feel like a black writer, if I'm not incorporating black language/images, I'm not being "real" (I mentioned this in an earlier post I think--I'm just weird negotiating my identity, and maybe it's silly to think of text being color blind, but I try to paint images in a way where biographical information doesn't add/subtract from the beauty already present). Anyway, this kind of leads (the mention of these authors) to possibly the concept of a Blackesque.

From the presentation of the Gurlesque, I know this wasn't a conscious creation to have a new mode of discourse--rather, like some other schools, ideas just resonate and then, eventually, a name is put to it. In this case, female poets are navigating ways to re-purpose what America sees as the white female--one of, perhaps, subjugating, limited experience, fit to be molded and shaped by a male. By shocking the audience/writing in a way that does not seem "right" for a female, the female can regain power (be it a little or a lot) out of an unbalanced relationship. Sorry if I screwed the pooch on this explanation, but it's what I got.

Anyway, in terms of the Blackesque, there are two distinct routes I can see it taken: one that rebels against the white society's perception of what it means to be black (historical racial images such as the mammy/pickininy). With this, I guess it implies gender roles, too, as some of the images not only pertain to what it means to be black in society, but a black male/female. I think there's more to "destroy" here, i.e., poems that simultaneously shatter white-defined blackness and white-defined gender ideas, but this a) may be too much work or b) not productive in terms of really addressing issues. These very much may take on the appearance of rants (nothing wrong with that), but I can see how adversely a rant may be taken versus something subtle and smoothly poetic.

The second route can be one that rebels against what our (read: black) society defines as blackness. This, I feel, is more what Gurlesque is doing--by already being white (or Asian) [And again, as stated above], there is one less layer to address--you don't have to worry about addressing race in a poem, just what is said by that race about your gender. By being a black artist, it's easier to navigate what your "own people" set up as ideals for gender. Then, again with the removal of having (possibly) to integrate race politics, you can really focus on gender. An easy pivot point would be mainstream black images, such as BET, and by extension, entertainment. Specifically for a Black Gurlesque, I can see tropes of being "light-skinned" or "dark-skinned" being played with a lot, in addition to what defines sexy, what is appropriate to know, sexually, and especially, how interracial relationships function.

NOTE: the following is kind of the template image I thought of that black artists (or, more specifically, black female poets) could react to--so extremely NSFW it's ridiculous, but it does bear out the idea that if we, as black people, are defining ourselves like this, there's no way in hell that mainstream media isn't seeing this and using it to further ingrain concepts of ourselves that are not true (which is BE option #1)--plus, there's just ton of fodder for black females to exploit for BE option #2)





Again, these are still super-de-dooper rough sketchs, and if I over-simplified/sounded like a D-Bag/sounded unintelligent, I apologize--just needed to get the ideas out.

I would really like to "talk" about this :)

-Glenn

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Nicki Minaj

I hate Nicki Minaj. Hate her delivery. Hate her flow (she's like Wayne but a female--borderline non-sequitors all over the place that are "visionary"--I could go own, but it will probably start sounding like whining or I'm a "hater"). Anyway, I feel her stuff may be possibly Gurlesque as I think it very much embodies the Carnivalesque and Burlesque--super performative (again, back to her delivery).

Some examples:

Itty Bitty Piggy



Roger That (first verse--her, Tyga, and Lil' Wayne)



Kanye West's "Monster" (her verse starts about 3:35)