Erica Richardson

Assistant Professor, CUNY, African American Lit, gender, sexuality, black feminist intellectual history, book-in-progress How Black Women Count

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

The thing about writing about absence is that there’s always a trace. And that trace can sometimes give you hope which seems to undermine the intent of your intervention. But someone was always there—trace—that’s the joy and pain found lingering in the archive. #howblkwomencount

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

My mom and I made a return to the land story and life of fugitive slave narrative author Harriet Jacobs by exploring “Memorable Proof” an installation a part of the Harriet Jacobs #howblkwomencount

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

To create and have a record of life as a Black slave woman—for herself and others—is powerful. Before exploring to learn about Harriet Jacobs, our server, a longtime Black resident, reminded us: ‘There are many others like her. She’s just the one with a record.’ #howblkwomencount

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

There’s beauty in the care of an older sister, a firm hand smoothing down royal crown for clean tight braids to last, a leg wrapped over to keep you still and hold you tight. Life was hard for Winnie. But Aunt Gloria saw it right. #blkfamily #blackoralhistory #howblkwomencount

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

How do you account for the fullness or beauty of a Black woman’s life?

Yesterday, I spoke with my great Aunt Gloria about her sister, my grandmother Winnie.

Grandma loved her little sister, sitting her between her legs and braiding her hair to perfection…

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

I never knew the girl or woman Aunt Gloria did. I always thought Winnie’s story was tragic. But Aunt Gloria said, “She had a beautiful life.”

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

How can one be sorry for their own murder? She kept looking at him, trying to reassure herself and him that neither one of them was dangerous. She tried to smile. When she made the smallest joke “I rebuke thee”—he shot her. And she said, “I’m sorry.”#SayHerNameSonyaMassey

[philip lewis @Phil_Lewis_]

Sonya Massey’s family says she is a descendant of William Donnegan, who was lynched by a white mob during violent racist attacks that led to the creation of the NAACP.

Massey was taken to the same hospital as her ancestor Donnegan, the family said

https://t.co/ckbtFCgUPw

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

Sonya Massey needed help, but the officer saw only a problem. He shot her without hesitation, ignoring her humanity. This is more than violence; it’s state dysfunction. She didn’t count to him. So he resolved the "problem" by taking her life. #sayhername #howblkwomencount

[Derenic Byrd @DerenicByrd]

Sonya Massey should be alive today.

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

“…To be touched by the sum of another.”No one wants another statistic, but letting the numbers reach us offers a different kind of record—a composition of remembrance and continued resistance. So glad I got to experience this incredible outdoor opera at Lincoln Center

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

I deserve a million gold stars and a medal for defeating Google maps under estimation of my ability to catch a transfer train in Time square in the summer. I am magic and these doors won’t stop me.

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

Today is Ida B. Wells’s birthday. Working on her archive reminds me of her profound understanding of accounting for Black death and violence while envisioning a fuller life for Black Americans. Redressing loss is always incomplete, but it insists upon the value of life.

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

https://t.co/ctRvKBdRRt

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

By sharing Black family and community stories through cultural heritage projects, we rediscover kinship and innovation. Given racism’s impact on intergenerational wealth, perhaps Black cultural heritage help us also value something like Black intergenerational worth?

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

The footnotes are the receipts y’all.

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

After fun mildly stressful conversation with a colleague about manuscript revisions before sending out book proposals, I have decided before retiring the critically petty book I need to write is “Lovers, Friends, and Mortal Enemies in the Footnotes: the Open Secrets of Academia”

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

Aesthetics can tell us more about the numbers than data alone. Thinking about “the vitality of black life” dispossession and how black mothers count this morning with The Matter of Black Living by A. Womack an “Warning shots not required” from the recent Henry Taylor exhibition

[Erica Richardson @howblkwmncount]

@JTRoane It was a brilliant beautiful gathering and I was so glad to be a part of it. We were speaking our lives into our thought and art and our art and thought to a community. Thank you so much Teona Williams and J.T. Roane for bringing us together.