New(ish) Essay on the Young Lords and Decoloniality

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Darrel

I’ve been slacking off on this blog for a while now, but in an effort to start posting a little more regularly, I want to announce a new(ish) essay that just came out. Called “Decolonizing Imaginaries: Rethinking ‘the People’ in the Young Lords’ Church Offensive,” this essay explores the ways in which the New York Young Lords craft a decolonial version of “the people” in their verbal, visual, and embodied discourse surrounding the Church Offensive (1969). In addition to the specific arguments about the Young Lords, this essay is the first in the journal (the Quarterly Journal of Speech) to make use of decolonial theory (a la Quijano, Mignolo, and Maldonado-Torres) and hopefully serves as a good introduction of the ideas to this new audience in rhetoric within communication studies. The title of the article (above) is a hyperlink, but if your institution doesn’t subscribe or you’re not at an institution in the first place, I’d be happy to pass on a PDF. Just shoot me an email.

Now let’s see if I can’t start using this and Twitter a little more regularly….

New Essay and an Addendum

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Darrel

My new essay on Nuyorican cultural production in East Harlem was just published in Communication Theory. Unfortunately, it looks like the production team at Wiley-Blackwell accidentally omitted a couple of key things.

1. The article is supposed to be dedicated to Nathaniel “Nacho” Córdova, may he rest in peace. Nacho was my friend and mentor — one of the few other Puerto Rican rhetorical scholars in my home discipline of communication studies. Nacho passed away this summer and this essay was to be dedicated in his honor, especially since he gave me some valuable feedback early on.

2. They also omitted the acknowledgements. Again, I don’t think this is something that was intentional and certainly wasn’t anything in the editor’s hands (Angharad Valdivia is, as anyone who knows her will tell you, awesome). Anyway, I wanted to post them here:

Acknowledgements

I want to extend special thanks to the many people who have commented on earlier versions of this essay, especially Nathaniel Córdova, Suzanne Enck-Wanzer and all of the wonderful participants from the 2010 UNT Summer Workshop on Critical Latina/o Communication Studies. I also wish to thank Angharad Valdivia and the reviewers for their guidance and suggestions.

I probably should also mention that this essay was originally presented at the 2009 American Studies Association convention. Its completion was made possible through a 2010 UNT Junior Faculty Summer Research Fellowship. The full citation, PDF, and link to the journal page are under the “Research” tab in the header of this site.

Abrazos,
~Darrel

Beginning the Semester Reminder: Backups

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Darrel

Well … I guess I took a summer hiatus. Didn’t really mean to; but everything got kind of blurry with the loss of my friend, Nacho, in July. It’s taken the semester’s start to give me a swift kick in the butt and start feeling like myself again. As such, I wanted to take advantage of the relatively calm Friday to get back into posting. This one (as the title indicates) is about backing up your stuff (which most of you do, I’m sure). More posts will be coming, however, as this is a big writing year for me as I try to finish off the book. So without further adieu, here are my thoughts on backing up your important crap. Continue reading →

Nacho Córdova Memorial Funds

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Darrel

Please consider making a contribution to one of the memorial funds mentioned on this page:

http://nacho-cordova.blogspot.com/2011/07/memorial-contributions.html

R.I.P., Nacho Córdova

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Darrel

Nacho Córdova

It is with a heavy heart that I write of the passing of my friend, colleague, and mentor, Nathaniel I. Córdova, who most of us knew as Nacho. A beloved teacher and gifted scholar, Nacho was an associate professor and chair of rhetoric and media studies at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. In addition to being an academic, Nacho was a skilled photographer (both iPhoneography and more conventional dSLR work), a devoted partner, and a loving father. I’m still pretty shocked to hear this news and remain speechless, so I’ll keep this post fairly brief…. Continue reading →

More On the New Edition of Palante

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Darrel

A couple of days ago, I posted with glee that my copy of Palante had shipped. Having just arrived home from doing some work, I was delighted to see the box containing the book sitting on my front porch. What follows are some initial thoughts on the text, which underscore my prior belief that everyone needs a copy of this historic and affordable book. Continue reading →

Announcement: #NCA11 Precon on Social Movements and Counterpublics

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Darrel

At the upcoming National Communication Association Convention in New Orleans in November, I’ll be part of a preconference on social movements and counterpublics. Called “Voicing Connections, Contradictions, and Possibilities in Social Movement and Counterpublic Theories,” the day-long precon (which take place on the Wednesday before the main convention) will engage the possibilities and potentials of social movement and counterpublics theories — pushing the boundaries of what each has to offer communication scholars interested in exploring dissenting, transgressive, and resistive public “voice.” Read on to see what all this shall entail.

Continue reading →

Slight Site Name Tweak

Aside

I just took the hyphen out of the site name … not anyone is really going to notice. Various reasons why I chose to do it, but the main one is for simplification. Cheers. ~d.

The New Palante Is Out (and Why You Should Care)

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Darrel

Perhaps I order too many books, which Is probably an occupational hazard for folks in my line of work. As such, I often don’t pay close attention to emails with the subject line “Your Amazon.com order has shipped.” Today, I’m glad that I looked because my copy of Palante: Voices and Photographs of the Young Lords, 1969-1971 is on its way. This re-release and re-naming of the 1971 Palante: Young Lords Party, which has been out of print for a long time, adds an introduction by Iris Morales, filmmaker and Young Lord, and promises to be a great addition to the resources available on the organization. So why should you care? Here are a couple of reasons. Continue reading →

Why I Don’t Mind That My Book Is On Scribd