I Gotta Testify: Kanye West, Hip Hop, and the Church

The goal of this project, “I Gotta Testify: Kanye West, Hip Hop, and the Church,” is to add a new perspective to the scholarly discourse on Hip Hop and Christianity within classrooms, religious institutions, and popular culture by focusing on Kanye. We chose to focus on Kanye because he has been one of Hip Hop’s most influential artists in the past decade. Furthermore, Kanye is one of the most polarizing celebrities in America and across the globe. His music, fashion, political views, and family (which includes the Kardashians) dominate discourse on social media, blogs, television, and other forms of mass media. With the exception of Julius Bailey’s 2014 edited book, The Cultural Impact of Kanye West, there has been little scholarly work published on Kanye. Bailey’s book contained just one essay, written by Monica R. Miller, dedicated to the theme of Kanye and religion. We intended to produce a nontraditional journal issue, partly because Kanye has never adhered to traditional boundaries. We also chose this method because we wanted to provide a document suitable for both academic and popular audiences. Kanye West identifies as a Christian and primarily uses Christian themes in his music, videos, concerts, and messaging. Dr. Joshua K. Wright, Dr. Adria Y. Goldman and Dr. VaNatta S. For

Fashioning My Garden of Solace: A Black Feminist Autoethnography

Through the lens of Black feminist autoethnography and (auto)biographical narrative, this article makes an impactful contribution to postcolonial feminist thought, fashion and cultural studies. I consider the significance of fashion and material culture as sociopolitical strategies of presence that offer an unparalleled understanding of my unique lived experience as a Ghanaian-Cameroonian-American Black woman. By exploring the intergenerational legacy of how my mother and I actively navigate the dichotomy of hypervisible, yet unseen, this article further considers the emancipatory potential and underacknowledged legacy of Black women’s contributions to aesthetic and visual culture through embodied activism located within the practice of horticulture and gardening, alongside self-fashioned identity