As this blog attests, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Dirty Mind, but last weekend’s presentations gave me new ways to think about it: from Christopher A. I didn’t realize how much I missed the intellectual stimulation events like this provide. I’ve been out of the academic game for a while, and my last conference even as an independent scholar was Prince from Minneapolis back in 2018. I’d also forgotten how exciting it is to hear new research from others in a shared area of expertise.

The whole thing felt like a warm hug–something that, in these times of social distancing, is in desperately short supply. Seeing familiar “faces” in the chat ( Darling Nisi, Harold Pride, Erica Thompson, Arlene Oak, Annie Ward, Chris Aguilar-Garcia, Zack Stiegler, and Jason Breininger, to name just a few), and hearing from others who know me from my work, was a timely reminder that I’m not out here alone that there is a vibrant, welcoming community that shares my passion. It’s hard to overstate, then, how energized I felt from the first moments of the online conference last Friday. Speaking for myself, I’ve been at a low ebb in creativity and motivation for a while, even before everything went to shit. Under conditions like these, it’s hard to feel much enthusiasm about anything. Meanwhile, police brutality is running rampant across the country, with yet another man in Atlanta, Rayshard Brooks, joining the depressingly long list of recent victims of state-sanctioned murder, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and David McAtee. Those of us who listen to epidemiologists are about to enter our fourth month of staying home and staying isolated to flatten the curve of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been, I think, a rough year for everyone. But I didn’t know I needed it until I was there. I was looking forward to De Angela Duff’s virtual symposium celebrating 40 years of Dirty Mind and 30 years of Graffiti Bridge.

Lady cab driver meaning