Azsaneé’s 2024 in Review

 
 

Hello hello, friends and fam. I missed last year, but I’m excited to be sending out another holiday card this year (i.e., an opportunity to make people look at my art and give you some updates about my life). I’ve spent a lot of time this year reflecting on what I’m doing and why, particularly as so many atrocities happening around the world have been revealed, many (if not all) of which are in some way facilitated by the U.S. I haven’t come across many answers, but in an effort to keep dreaming of/imagining/building the world I’d like to live in, I’ve found it important to keep making things and connecting with the people I love. So, this card is an effort to continue doing both of those things.

Travel

As usual, I did a lot of traveling this year, mostly facilitated by conferences and symposiums and such. Highlights were riding a horse up a mountain to see the most incredible waterfall in Lesotho with my dear friend Katleho, turning 30 on a hammock in Puerto Rico, and wine tasting in Nice. The slideshow includes all of the places I’ve been this year if you want a more comprehensive wrap-up.

 
 

General Life Stuff

Throughout my travels, I managed to pick up a girlfriend. On my first trip of the year, I met Tif at a conference in New Orleans (I know, very messy academic of me). She’s a PhD student in the Louisiana State University Manship School of Mass Communication and a brilliant photographer. We met in February and we’ve been ✨official✨ since May. This year, we’ve been back & forth visiting each other in Philly and Baton Rouge, but we’ll both be graduating in 2025 so that should be coming to an end later next year. I also tagged along on her conference trip to Cannes/the South of France, we conferenced in Baltimore, and ended up at another conference in New Orleans in November.

We eat an absurd amount of ice cream together and usually end up in a museum in whatever city we’re in. We’ve also gotten pretty good at playing OverCooked and she always entertains the never-ending stream of TikToks I send her. I’d say more but anyone receiving this card has either met her or will be lucky enough to spend some time with her soon ☺️

Other than that, I’ve managed to read 3 leisure books this year (plus dozens for school). I listened to 36,182 minutes (25 days) of music this year. And I recently took my first heels dance class 👠

PhD/End of PhD Stuff

As you probably know, I’m in the last year of my PhD so I’m in the process of writing my dissertation. I figured I’d provide a quick summary for everyone to refer back to because I know it’s complicated 😂 Veeeeery long story short, I study conspiracy theorizing in Black American art and media. I’m arguing that conspiracy theorizing among Black Americans is actually a logical practice and very different from conspiracy theories on the far right, as Black people have a centuries-long history of real conspiracies against them. So, I’m framing conspiracy theorizing among Black Americans as an ongoing exercise in anticipating and attempting to subvert white supremacist power. I’m also interested in how form structures thought, so I’m studying these theories specifically in art and media. I have a chapter about theories about the crack conspiracy in hip-hop music, a chapter about anti-abortion conspiracy theories in Ebony and Jet magazines immediately post Roe v. Wade, and a chapter about Hurricane Katrina conspiracy theories on film. There’s a lot more to it, but I’ll stop there and spare you the gory details. Always down to chat about it.

I have 2 out of 5 of my dissertation chapters written (hopefully 2.5 - 3 by the time you read this), and I’ve applied to 6 two-year postdoctoral fellowships (postdocs) and 1 professor position so far. I’m not completely sold on academia anymore, so I’ve been prioritizing postdocs on the job hunt. They’re a good middle-ground between finishing your PhD and becoming a professor that’ll hopefully give me the space to figure out what I want to do long-term.

I’ve also been doing a bunch of guest lectures (Boston College, Swarthmore, Penn, and Teachers College), and collaging workshops with undergrads that have been really fun.

Art Stuff

Related to the previous section, I’m currently working on a film related to my dissertation. It explores the same themes, and I shot a listening party in October where a group of my folks discussed race, conspiracy, music, colonialism, and a bunch of other stuff!

I also produced a podcast series this year titled Groovin’ Griot with my friend and collaborator Ore, and taught a class titled Collage as Worldmaking at The Arts League. I made a lot of new work and am continuously trying to develop collaging as practice. And I was in 6 exhibitions this year, 5 in Philly and 1 in Los Angeles:

  • The In-Between Spaces (November 2023 - April 2024) - This exhibition was an exploration of Black archival practices through collage and a variety of other mediums, curated by Doriana Diaz. I contributed 12 pieces to the exhibition which I titled “An Afrofuturist Retrospective of Black Womanhood.”

  • Philadelphia Black History: The People’s Stories (February 2024) - This exhibition was inspired by the 5,000 forgotten Black souls buried at the rediscovered Bethel Burying Ground in the Queen Village neighborhood of Philadelphia and was up in Philadelphia City Hall through the month of February. I contributed a piece in honor of activist, artist, author, and filmmaker Toni Cade Bambara that ended up being featured.

  • Period: A Black Menstrual Exhibition (July 2024 - August 2024) - This exhibition was curated by Raina Beigler in collaboration with the Birthworkers of Color Collective. It was a collection of works focused on feelings around your period, how your body is effected and/or how you feel being a person with a menstrual cycle. I contributed a piece reflecting on what it must be like to have a period amidst genocide.

  • The Arts League Teaching Artist Showcase (September 2024) - This was a really small exhibition put on by The Arts League, featuring the work of several teaching artists who taught classes there this fall. I contributed two collages on vinyl, one of which someone (unexpectedly) bought!

  • An Otherwise Heaven (October 2024) - This exhibition asked: what can heaven be when not held hostage by the greed of the capitalist imagination? It was curated by Temi Loye, creator of the zine Glorious Blasphemy, and was up at the Da Vinci Art Alliance through October.

  • Present Futures: Experiments in Feminist Futurity (September 2024 - December 2024) - I co-curated this exhibition with 4 fellow doctoral students and contributed 2 pieces.

Lastly, I’m currently working on applying to a couple of grants to that I can curate an exhibition that will take place in tandem with my dissertation defense. The opening will ideally double as a graduation party 🤞🏾

Okay, I think that’s enough for this year. If I’ve sucked at keeping you updated about my life and this is the first you’re hearing about any of these things, just know it’s because writing my dissertation/trying to land a job is giving me the business. I semi-promise to be better after April 25, 2025 (the day I become Dr. Truss)!

Sending love,
Azs