Hood-in-g the ivory tower: Centring Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous feminist solidarities

Abstract

We begin this essay by sharing a bit about our entry points into Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous feminist solidarities before entering into conversation with Mikki Kendall whose work Hood Feminisms: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot inspired the title for this essay and offers important insights for Black and Indigenous feminist solidarities. Kendall’s words, alongside those of Monture-Angus, highlight the unique experiences that inspire many Black and Indigenous women on their journeys’ to university. Our work seeks to identify the tensions of “hood-in-g the ivory tower” in several ways. First, we weave in personal narrative to offer a reflection of what it means to engage in academic spaces from the hood. In this way, we explain what it means to literally bring the hood into the ivory tower. Second, we document the genealogies of feminist writings that shape our work. Third, by drawing on the sentiments of the “Hooding Ceremony” we present lessons to assert what it means to support our Lively-Hood within academic spaces. To document our understanding of Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous feminist solidarities, we will elaborate on the concept of “hood-in-g the ivory” throughout the article by offering reflections of our individual and shared positionalities in relation to activist practices in and out of classrooms.