Name It!: Recent Episodes
Iman AbdoulKarim and Kohar Avakian
Our story begins in the woods of New Hampshire...no, but really... We're two best friends who met at Dartmouth College and have been bonding over our nerdom since. We started Name It! to share the ideas we've picked up from books, classrooms, sister-friends, and ancestors. Ideas that have helped us name what it means to live at the intersections. Each episode we do the reading and research on one of those ideas so you don't have to. Whether it's Audre Lorde's notion of "the erotic" or Toni Morrison's "safe harbors," consider Name It! your encyclopodia of big ideas that are gonna change how you talk about the world... and you can go ahead and consider us your newest internet besties!
Hey y’all! Name It! your encyclopodia of big ideas is back for season 2 on September 9. We can’t wait to bring you more big ideas and be sure to follow us @nameitpod and check out nameitpod.com for all updates!
Hey, friends! In this episode we're talking about Sara Ahmed's term: complaint! An idea that names how we learn about power from those who dare to complain about it.
Before we give you the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) of Ahmed's Complaint,Iman shares her own experience of becoming the problem when she complained about a problem. We discuss the inevitably of encountering weirdos when you're a part of capitalist institutions, the vulnerability it takes to speak up, the importance of whisper networks, and our love for the people who create safe harbors for us in stormy weather.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts. The segment where we share ideas we haven't fleshed out, but stand fully behind. You'll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.
Where we Know From:Sara Ahmed, Complaint,Duke University Press, 2021.
Hey, friends! In this episode we're talking about hair. We draw on Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharp's Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America and an interview with Dr. Tanya Mears.
Before we give you the tl;dr (too long; didn't read),we phone -a-friend as our case study! We invited our friend Asha to discuss her "hair release ceremony," and Kohar and Iman reflect on being a part of such a special moment.
We discuss how much we love Byrd and Tharp's description of black hair as a subculture, complete with its own rituals and language. Kohar describes herself as coming from a long line of hairy people and has some choice words for her middle school bullies. Iman shares that doing friends' hair is how she shows them love and care.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts. The segment where we share ideas we haven't fleshed out, but stand fully behind. You'll just have to listen to the episode to hear those. Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharp, Hair Story: Unlocking the Roots of Black Hair in America, St. Martin's Press, 2001.
Where We Know From:
Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharp, Hair Story: Unlocking the Roots of Black Hair in America, St. Martin's Press, 2001.
Veer Mudambi, "Untangling the politics of hair: WSU professor to give presentation for Historical Museum, Worcester Magazine, March 14, 2022.
Hey, friends! In this episode we're talking about Patricia Hill Collin's definition of Black Feminist Thought.
Before we give you the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) of Collin's Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, we discuss the Combahee River Collective's landmark statement published in 1977. The statement coined the terms interlocking oppression, identity politics, the notion that when black women get free, we all get free.
We discuss the statement's radicalism, the misconception that black feminism is about representation, Collins and the CRC's distinction between separatism and autonomy, and the evolving nature of black feminist thought over the decades.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts. The segment where we share ideas we haven't fleshed out, but stand fully behind. You'll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.
Where we Know From:
Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, Routledge, 2002.
The Combahee River Collective Statement, 1977.
Marian Jones, “If Black Women Were Free”: An Oral History of the Combahee River Collective, The Nation, October 29, 2021.
Hey, friends! In this episode we're talking about Christina Sharpe's term: the wake. A multi-meaning metaphor that names how the slave ship structures contemporary society, despite the formal "end" of slavery.
Before we give you the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) of Sharpe's The Wake: On Blackness and Being, we discuss the "discovery" of the Clotilda in 2019 as our case study. The Clotilda was the last known slave ship to bring enslaved peoples from West Africa to Mobile, Alabama in 1869, despite the passing of the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves in1807. Slavers sunk the ship in the Mobile River to cover up their crime. After Emancipation Proclamation, those brought over on the Clotilda established Africatown, a settlement with its own chief, schools, and legal system. Africatown still stands today. Despite formal discovery of the Clotilda in the 2019, the ship's location at the bottom of the Mobile River was well known amongst Africatown residents through their own family histories and archival work.
We discuss Africatown residents efforts to preserve the legacy of their ancestors as exemplifying "wake work." Kohar and Iman discuss their own family histories in the South, and Kohar shares the work she's been doing with her tribe to honor sunken mishoons (canoes) in Worcester, MA.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts. The segment where we share ideas we haven't fleshed out, but stand fully behind. You'll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.
Where we Know From:Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, Duke University Press, 2016.
The Clotilda Descendants Association (Donate to support their work!)
Joel K. Bourne, Jr., "Their ancestors survived slavery. Can their descendants save the town they built?," National Geographic, 2019.
Alison Keyes, "The ‘Clotilda,’ the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found," Smithsonian Magazine, May 22, 2019.
Descendant (Documentary on the Clotilda and Africatown streaming on Netflix).
Hey, friends! In this episode we're talking about Toni Morrison's term, safe harbors.An idea that names the sense of safety fostered through intimate relationships. Who feels like a safe harbor for you?
Before we give you the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) of Morrison's Sula, we invited our million siblings to share what sisterhood means to them. Just kidding, we don't have a million siblings... just a thousand. Iman and Kohar talk about how being a sister has taught them to lead with love in all their relationships. And we're joined in the studio by Amara, Iman's youngest sister, who gives us a Gen Z take on being a ship in search of safe harbors.
We discuss that families aren't guaranteed safe harbors, needing more than one, and moments when your dock is full.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts. The segment where we share ideas we haven't fleshed out, but stand fully behind. You'll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.
Where we Know From:Toni Morrison, Sula,Knopf, 1973.
Constance Rae Custer Schomburg, " Safe harbor and Ship": The Evolution of Self in the Novels of Toni Morrison,Dissertation, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1990.
Chan-Malik, Sylvia. Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color in American Islam. NYU Press, 2018.
Hey, friends! In this episode we're talking about Simone Browne's term: Dark Matters. An idea that names blackness as a "key site through which surveillance is practiced, narrated, and enacted," (9).
Before we give you the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness, we discuss the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program, known as COINTELPRO. A program designed to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of the Black nationalists" and other organizations they deemed a threat to U.S. interests, including the Social Workers Party and the American Indian Movement.
Iman is hyped because this is one of her favorite topics as a Muzlim, and Kohar shares stories of her own surveillance experiences at airports, on road trips, and on Twitter.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts. The segment where we share ideas we haven't fleshed out, but stand fully behind. You'll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.
Where We Know From:Simone Browne, Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Duke University Press, 2015.
US Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities ("Church Committee"), Final Report - Book III: Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, April 23, 1976.
Ula Yvette Taylor, The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam. UNC Press Books, 2017.
Paul Gilroy, "Driving while black." In Car Cultures, Routledge Press, 2020.
Barbara Fields and Karen E. Fields, Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life, Verso Books, 2022.
Bukhari, Safiya. The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison & fFghting for those Left Behind. The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2010.
Hey, friends! In this episode we're talking about Audre Lorde's term: the erotic.An idea that names the knowledge, power, and sense of satisfaction encapsulated by the phrase, "this feels right to me." Lorde coins the term to speak back to the European-American male tradition that teaches one to “separate the erotic demand from the most vital areas of our lives other than sex.” What is a life lived erotically?
Before we give you the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) of Lorde's "The Erotic as Power," we discuss how hard it is to actually hear and listen to yourself. As our case study, we get v vulnerable by answering a recent self-connection survey created by psychologists. We discuss gaps in the study and how hard it is to know and accept yourself when inhabiting spaces founded on the exclusion of you and yours.
Iman and Kohar share the moments and spaces that make them feel the most aligned with Lorde's sense of the erotic.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts. The segment where we share ideas we haven't fleshed out, but stand fully behind. You'll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.
Hey, friends! In this episode we're talking about Josh Kun's term: audiotopia. An idea that names popular music's ability to create utopias for listeners, speak back to American racial hierarchies, and challenge nationalist narratives.
Before we give you the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) of Kun's Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, we explore the boundary-pushing ability of music in our case study: the public censoring of the Shirelles' 1960 classic, “Will You Still Love me Tomorrow.” How dare a group of black women speak aloud their anxieties about sex and intimacy- blasphemy!
We talk about the audiotopias we create for ourselves. Kohar admits to making 700+ song playlists. Like, who does that?! And Iman flames Kohar for having boomer-adjacent music taste, while she describes herself as moving between the genres of house and hoe.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts. The segment where we share ideas we haven't fleshed out, but stand fully behind. You'll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.
As a special treat (you're welcome), we created our own Audiotopic playlists. You can listen to Iman’s on Spotify and Kohar’s (much longer playlist) on Apple Music.
Where we Know From:Josh Kun, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America by University of California Press, 2005.
'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow' Turns 50: An Interview with Beverly Lee," The Takeaway, 2011.
Ellon Green, "A Magical Ten Seconds of the Shirelles," The New Yorker, November 18, 2018.
Hey, friends! In our first episode we're talking about Name It! That's right, this is our self-titled episode insert Bey meme.
As our case study we reflect on how Name It! came to be and the political function of naming. We're breaking the fourth-wall and talking about the process of bringing the show into reality (and let us just say it was a process), naming as a survival tool, and all the spaces, places, and people who've passed their survival tools onto us.
As our case study, we answer the question: where do you know from? Iman talks about what her name means in Arabic, growing up Black and Muslim in Northeast Ohio, and shares a story about her name change at nine years old. Kohar discusses the genealogy of her family name, what it means in Armenian, and how she discovered art was her intellectual medium.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts. The segment where we share ideas we haven't fleshed out, but stand fully behind. You'll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.
Where we Know From:Our families, loved ones, friends, and mentors.
Karim, Jamillah. American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class, and Gender within the Ummah. NYU Press, 2008.
Zuroski, Eugenia. "Where Do You Know From?: An Exercise in Placing Ourselves Together in the Classroom." MAI: Feminism (2020).
Avakian, Kohar. "Inheritance." Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 29, no. 1 (2022): 128-128.
AbdoulKarim, Iman. "Islam is Black Lives Matter: The Role of Gender and Religion in Muslim Women's Activism," In Race, Religion, and Black Lives Matter, Vanderbilt University Press, 2021.
Iman and Kohar, friends-turned-PhD-students, break down a big idea, changing how they think about the world and talk to each other!
We're two best friends who met at Dartmouth College and have been bonding over our nerdom since. We started Name It! to share the ideas we've picked up from books, classrooms, sister-friends, and ancestors. Ideas that have helped us name what it means to live at the intersections. Each episode we do the reading and research on one of those ideas so you don't have to. Whether it's Audre Lorde's notion of "the erotic" or Toni Morrison's "safe harbors," consider Name It! your encyclopodia of big ideas that are gonna change how you talk about the world... and you can go ahead and consider us your newest internet besties!