Gay offered students advice about navigating these spaces. “I can feel really discouraged, as a woman of color, and hearing Roxane talk about navigating spaces where she didn’t feel welcome but she made a place for herself was really inspiring for me and important for me to hear.”
Maia Lee-Chen ’21 felt Gay’s presence on campus was important. How Roxane talks about pop culture encompasses everyone, and she brings a lot of justice and cultural critique and feminism and all these different themes into play.” “My goal was to bridge the gap between people on campus who are really aware and involved in these issues and people who aren’t.
It’s something that interested Tess Andrekus ’18, the officer of diversity for the Student Government Association who was in charge of finding a keynote speaker to wrap up Unity Week on campus. Gay’s ties to pop culture - being the first black woman writer for Marvel Comics, showing her intense love of Beyoncé (“Why Jay-Z?” is the first question she’d ask if given the opportunity to meet her hero), and interacting on her popular social media channels - ground deeply complex issues such as race, sexuality, and identity and make them relatable to a wide audience. Whether talking with Kenney or taking questions from students, Gay approached each answer in a style for which she is widely known - insightful, relatable, and with a biting sense of humor. So the idea that black people were just sitting around waiting for heroes is just shortsighted and absurd.” I have two parents and I’m Haitian, so I have a lot of heroes. I was born in ’74 - it wasn’t the olden days. “There’s a lot of hype around Black Panther and I got a lot of stupid interview questions where reporters would ask, ‘So, what would this have meant to you as a child growing up to finally have a black hero?’ There’s so much assumption in there. “That’s just not how it works and it shouldn’t be that way,” she said. Talking about the blockbuster film “Black Panther,” the “Bad Feminist” author discussed how black art often has the burden of also being socially responsible. “We’re not just women, we also have sexuality, gender identities, class backgrounds - and all of these things shape who we are.” “It’s important to think about intersectionality, which is an unwieldy word for a very simple concept - the idea that we are more than just any one thing,” she said. In one anecdote, the New York Times bestselling author and social commentator mentioned to students that when it comes to social justice, people often think they can only deal with one problem at a time. Through the hour-long conversation, led by Greta Kenney, associate director of diversity and inclusion, Gay touched on current social justice issues, the nuances of privilege, the importance of teaching about mental and sexual health, and the difficult process of writing her recent memoir, “Hunger.” That’s what Roxane Gay told an electric audience of 500 students, faculty, and staff on Thursday, March 22 in the Hogan Ballroom. This is a willful act, to both see somebody and pretend that they’re invisible. “Oftentimes when you’re marginalized, you’re highly visible and also highly invisible people look right through you but they also see you. Luth Athletic Complex and Recreation and Wellness Center Initiative.McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.Orientations & Information for Incoming Students.To my own detriment because if I have 'I' 'N' 'G' in my rack, it's over. I say from the second page that this is not a triumphant book so I think the reader knew not to expect that I have figured everything out. On writing a realistic ending for Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body And there are no Black people on television. And so when I'm watching or consuming pop culture, often times I'm like, 'See, this is why systemic racism is a problem.
On how pop culture can't always offer an escape On how her love of pop culture squares with her academic work Hey, that anagrams to Fittest Fun Hours Ahead! We challenged Gay to 8-Cylinder Trivia- a game that combines her love of anagramming with her love of The Fast and the Furious franchise. I mean, if we were ever in doubt about god's existence." "There are a couple perfect pieces of pop culture," Gay said. Gay embraces guilty pleasure television without any guilt whatsoever.