SIG members, don't forget that our event with @alfredmartin.bsky.social is a week from today. Al will be talking about his new book, FANDOM FOR US, BY US. Please register here to get the Zoom link: tinyurl.com/fandomforus

Lukewarm take: My least favorite academic writing tic is, without question, “the ways in which.”

Everyone’s always like “Uncle Phil this, Danny Tanner that," meanwhile Carl Winslow was out here holding Chicago together while a teenage inventor literally destroyed his house every week. Give that man his flowers.

This a deeply disappointing “take” and headline from NPR…

Hot take: the opposition to drag has nothing to do w/drag. It has EVERYTHING to do w/the queers having seized the means of drag production. So, rather than heterosexual men getting rich playing dress up, (mostly) gay men and trans folks are getting rich doing it. THAT is why they’re mad.

People don’t know what the federal government is doing in Chicago. Share this article far and wide. Not just here but to your friends and family elsewhere

In Portland, Oregon, masked ICE GOONS abducted and vanished US citizen Gonzalo Catalan last week. Tragically, his family remains unaware of his whereabouts and has not received any communication from him as of today.

Explain to me, like I’m a 5-year-old how the USDA can tell stores under capitalism how to price their products. Am I missing something (other than the innate cruelty)?

ICE shot an American citizen and food bank worker who tried to block them arresting an immigrant by pulling his car in front of them. After being released from hospital: "He is now facing charges for assault on a federal officer." www.calonews.com/featured-top...

Things I miss: Black celebrities (like Ali, Baldwin, Angelou, Morrison, Kitt, etc.) used their enormous platforms to really demonstrate that they were both not necessarily “the people” because they were celebrities in some way, but also with “the people.”

arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review. This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month. Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.

But what about ACTUAL health? We get so obsessed with the “visual” (also see: representation matters) that we don’t check under the hood. I had a friend who was just over 50, went to the gym daily, and died of a sudden heart attack. The visual is not always an indicator of being “good” health wise.

Things I “love” about the western world: The inability to understand that class warfare and hostility to those not born privileged results in folks not wanting to have kids.

I’m watching @abbottelementary.bsky.social and when someone (Janine?) said, “I’m April tired and it’s October” that shit hit. HARD!

102nd: @alfredmartin.bsky.social outstanding book Fandom for Us By Us a must read for media scholars and those in fan studies. Lively, informative and grounded in interviews and personal experiences the book will reshape the fields and how we think of black audiences. #booksky

Now available: @alfredmartin.bsky.social and Taylor Cole Miller discussing The Golden Girls: Tales from the Lanai on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast. newbooksnetwork.com/the-golden-g...

I’m in a book!! Head on over to my #GoldenGirls blog to read all about The Golden Girls: Tales from the Lanai plus behind the scenes interviews with editors @tvdoc.bsky.social and @alfredmartin.bsky.social!! goldengirlsfashion.com/2025/08/25/t...

There is nothing more American than poisoning a low income, community of color on behalf of a major business corporation.

"I want this book to be understood as a joyous love letter to Blackness and Black reception practices." -Alfred L. Martin Jr, author of Fandom for Us By Us: The Pleasures and Practices of Black Audiences

Nothing quite as anti-Black as a Met Gala theme focused on Blackness where rich Black people show up in clothes not designed by Black designers.

Words cannot describe celebrating the release of my @nyupress.bsky.social book FANDOM FOR US, BY US in my hometown. Looking out on a room full of people that included people I’ve know for most of my life was a particular kind of treat. Two days later, I’m still high from all the love & energy!

Last night, I celebrated my new @nyupress.bsky.social book @ Books & Books. Thanks to Craig Seymour for being my conversation partner & all the folks who came out, but especially my Renaissance High homies Rita & Julian. I’m really grateful to have colleagues who show up to support my work.

Today is the not only the day that the Lord hath made. It is also the birth date of my newest book FANDOM FOR US, BY US. www.tiktok.com/t/ZTjjqKsju/

Happy birthday to my new @nyupress.bsky.social book FANDOM FOR US, BY US: THE PLEASURES AND PRACTICES OF BLACK AUDIENCES (out officially today). The book details Black fan practices around the ballerina #MistyCopeland, the films BLACK PANTHER & THE WIZ, and THE GOLDEN GIRLS.

Thanks to my friend @petecant.bsky.social for interviewing me about my new book. One of the things I discovered while writing this book is that I was free from the “constraints” of the blinding whiteness of academia broadly & fan studies in particular. I could freely let the personal be political.

🔗 Websites vanish. Links break. But knowledge can live on with your help. Use the Wayback Machine’s Save Page Now tool to archive webpages that are important to you. 🕰️ 💾 📌 Try it now: web.archive.org/save

Miami folks! I'll be at Books & Books on Monday, April 28 at 6 p.m. celebrating the launch of my new book Fandom for Us, by Us; The Pleasures and Practices of Black Audiences. I'll be in conversation with music journalist Craig Seymour. RSVP at the link below. www.booksandbooks.com/event/an-eve...

Detroit Peeps! I'll be in Detroit on April 30 for a book event at Source Booksellers. Click the link to reserve a (free) ticket, or purchase a book ticket to ensure you have one. Hope to see you there! www.eventbrite.com/e/fandom-for...

Probably the most fun I had recording a podcast! Thanks to @giagia.co.uk and Tim Vermeulen for inviting me to come on and ramble about #fandoms and #fancultures! 40. Fandom - Bertha Chin open.substack.com/pub/theclust...

In March 2010, I met Taylor Cole Miller & we bonded over our love for @thegoldengirls.bsky.social. We flippantly said we should write a book about it. Now, as the show nears its 40th anniversary, the book is coming from @rutgersupress.bsky.social! www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-golden-g...

We are watching THE FLOOR and a lady described her career as “stay-at-home fiancée” and I’m not mad. I just want to know where I can find that job.

This was the second best thing to come home and find after a work/research trip! My @nyupress.bsky.social book FANDOM FOR US, BY US: THE PLEASURES AND PRACTICES OF BLACK AUDIENCES is here! Thanks to @rawreader.bsky.social and @kristenwarner.bsky.social for the endorsements.

Tales of a troll… this is why I ALWAYS come at folks 1st as if they’re engaging in good faith bc trolls ALWAYS want anger. I have almost no emotional attachment to my scholarship so I’m always happy to be criticized AND invite folks to fight with me because to do so, they have to cite me.

Today, is a dream come true day! I was asked to provide audio commentary for Criterion Collection's June DVD release of THE WIZ. It was a lot of fun watching and discussing a film that remains so important as both a lover of the film and scholar of it. The Rob Cohen restoration is gorgeous!

I’m happy to share that my most recent essay, “Toward a Theory of Surplus Blackness” is out now in International Journal of Communication. This essay is an attempt to think through the relationship between Black audiences and media industries. ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

Just finished editing the last proof of this baby. This is an idea that has been cooking for several years (since my Fandom While Black essay?) & is informed by my interest in the relationship between media industries & audience reception. (Coming soon in International Journal of Communication).

I just finished reading the final accepted draft of an article that will hopefully be out soon. The "tone" of my writing has really shifted since I was a baby scholar. I be saying shit with my whole chest. And I'm not mad about it.

part of the reason I'm so hard on y'all(TM) is because we have been shaped into consumer citizens since at least the Black civil rights movement (it's been a long road, and I'd have to do deep research to place it definitively). But let's assume it has its origin in the 1950s. 1/15

If you're so inclined, you can pre-order FANDOM FOR US, BY US from NYU Press for 30% off. Of course, you can also purchase it wherever you buy books. nyupress.org/978147982492...

I spent roughly 20 years in PR and marketing before becoming an academic. It’s interesting that no one wanted to hear me out when I said DEI was a brand strategy to hail Black/queer/female/liberal consumers. But… here was are…

Whiteness is such a trap. For many white women, for many white queers, for many white-passing/socialized Latinos, for so many working class white people, and for some Black folks, whiteness trapped y'all.

I’m endlessly fascinated by the symbiotic commodification of representation: that media industries tell y’all it’s important & y’all, in turn, believe it’s important & y’all pay for the feeling of “being seen.”

I just looked at the TOC and index for an edited collection published within the last 5 years and not a single entry engaged race (all the essays are about whiteness which is raced, but white people generally don't concede that & certainly don't make that explicit in their work).

Course evaluations are so odd. The first thing is that anyone who knows me knows I hate all politicians and knows that I have a particular amount of ire for Clinton (although I guess we could call him a republican so.. point taken?).

Y’all… we on our own. Many of the folks who don’t look like us (and some who do) but have been pretending to be with us have been waiting for this moment. Instead of being allies, they are going to turn into the protective safety of their whiteness.

Jesus y’all. We are on our own. These “blue” elected officials ain’t on our team.

Great review of @petecant.bsky.social’s book STAGING A COMEBACK. Buy it, read it, cite it (and request that your university/local library buy it).

Just another day in America where not even children being murdered will stop capitalism…

A friend asked me if I was using Oxempic (I am not) and I was both offended and flattered.