i am a second generation Black chicagoan and phd student in african american studies at uc berkeley. my research explores the nexus of race, class, and gender through an interrogation of the value of Black, male labor within a post-industrial context in peri-urban cities. focusing on gary, indiana—the former steel capital of the united states in the wake of the great recession of 2008—my work investigates how Black working-class men thrive and build community within hyper-masculine spaces of socioeconomic marginalization. i also examine visual ethnographic practices challenging the narrow representations of Blackness in the calumet region within contemporary media discourse. before berkeley, i graduated cum laude from the university of massachusetts, amherst with a bachelor's degree in anthropology.
i am the principal photographer for Black chicagoland is... utilizing visual ethnography through a multi-modal approach to thicken the narrow media representations of Black life across the chicago metropolitan area. i have worked as an event photographer for sfmoma, mount holyoke college, and uc berkeley. i am also a musician, producer, and composer who is part of the eclectic grammy certified production duo tensei with chris kramer. tensei's music influences, include: hip hop, house, soul, jazz, "library music," and electronic music resulting in the genre bending compositions that fuse our many disparate styles. while steeped in the tradition of classic sample based hip-hop production, we do not rely on records for samples. we play and compose most musical parts with real and digital instruments and are entirely self-taught. we have worked with j ivy, bilal, georgia anne muldrow, brandee younger, and makaya mccraven. our music has also been featured on the tv show south side on hbo max and the blacklist on nbc. to check out our music on spotify, click here. i also produced the chicago hip hop classic, "dennehy" by serengeti and work as a solo producer, writer, and composer with sony | kpm.
i am mansueto institute fellow, department of sociology postdoctoral scholar, and postdoctoral research affiliate with the committee on environment, geography, and urbanization, the urban theory lab, and chicago studies under the mentorship of dr. neil brenner, christopher skrable, and dr. christopher berry at the university of chicago. i received my phd in geography from the university of california, berkeley.
as a proud third generation Black chicagoan and Black southlander, my research and creative work are shaped by the role geography plays in Black identity formation and the everyday rhythms of Black urban, sub\urban, and regional life (geographic scales) across the chicago metropolitan area. i draw from racialized forms of auditory place making and the ways Black people produce space | place through music and sound. i am the the author of the Black geographies library guide, founder of the Black geographies graduate student conference, founder of the Black geosonicologies research group, and i published "Black scale: constructing "haunted" overpasses as relational methodologies" with dr. robert moeller in the professional geographer.
before matriculating to uc berkeley, i graduated summa cum laude and phi beta kappa from mount holyoke college with a bachelor's degree in Black geographies. i am the first person to graduate with this degree. i also wrote an award winning honors thesis entitled: still sweatin'...mapping house and Black bodies: place-making in the Black house music and cultural community of chicago. my thesis explored the placemaking practices of the Black house community in chicago and the ways they exerted their sociogeographic power and (re)claimed space | place through the formation of house music, house culture, and what i termed, "house geographies."
i also worked as a music journalist and as the executive editor of the popular hip hop blog kevingnottingham.com and as a freelance writer for hip hop dx, potholes in my blog, the chicago defender, soul train, and other websites. i have interviewed aretha franklin, common, outkast, chaka khan, bob james, and many other artists.
i am rooting for everybody Black, especially Black women, Black lgbtqia+ folks, the Black house kids, and Black chicagoans.
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