The SPB Q (Grad Chapter): Frank Leon Roberts

{I discovered the scholarly work of Frank Leon Roberts in a most unusual way. I was surfing the Internet, looking for info about ball culture when I came across his blog, which was chock-full of pictures from balls, edgy music videos, essays on race and justice, and a lot of stuff about something called “performance studies.” It was Frank who basically taught me, via his online scholarship, that the things I’d been thinking about and the work I’d been doing as a journalist, investigating the way black men used the contours of urban space as a place and space to present their critiques of masculinity and American culture, was, in many ways, performance studies. We became Facebook friends and email buds, and his advice about graduate school has never been anything short of generous and encouraging. I’ve begun to seriously appreciate Frank’s commitment to alternative publishing sources like blogs, newspapers, and what he calls “other ‘subaltern’ spaces” as places where he can “push the boundaries of scholarly knowledge production beyond the realm of traditional academic sources.” His writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, The Village Voice, The Daily Voice and The San Francisco Chronicle, and his work as the first writer to break the story on Morehouse’s notoriously homophobic “dress-code” is a perfect example of his ability to match his gift for intelligent and theoretical cultural analysis to the material realities of everyday life—and remain “on the ground,” so to speak. Last fall Frank was a plenary speaker at the NAACP’s annual Legal Defense Conference where his talk “Advocating for Racial Justice in a Post-Racial World” was moderated by Harvard’s Charles Ogletree, and his academic honors have included the Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, the CLAGS Fellowship of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, and the MARBL Fellowship at Emory University. Over the course of the last coupla years, he’s become a friend and a witty and frank (no pun intended; well, maybe a little) sounding board. I’m so glad he had that blog. Hope you enjoy his SPB Q!}

Name: Frank Roberts

Hometown: Born and raised next door to Run-D.M.C. in Hollis, Queens (which is, in my estimate, the true “birthplace” of Hip Hop). Brief detours in Moreno Valley, CA and Bayonne, New Jersey.

School/Year: NYU/The Wonderyears (Post-5th Year)

Dissertation Title: In-The-Making (Check back in 11 months, after the defense). Until then, my lips are sealed.

Favorite book: Like nearly all graduate students, naming just one “favorite” is simply impossible. Nowadays my shelves are full of obscure art criticism and theory, but having originally been trained in literature, I still have a special affection for the novels I fell in love with as an undergraduate. Beloved (Morrison), Corregidora (Jones) and Kindred (Butler) rank high up on my list.

Favorite author: Michel Foucault (particularly his later writings) and, of course, our literary Dean, Ms. Toni Morrison.

Favorite movie: Downtown 81 (starring Jean Michel Basquiat)

Favorite song: “Salut a la France!” as performed by Kathleen Battle (the high E flat at the end of the aria is worth my student loan debt).

Academic text that most influences your work: Disidentifications (Jose Munoz) and Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (Michel Foucault, published posthumously)

Academic who most influences your work: Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Academic High: Completing my dissertation before I’m 29 (without a therapist) will surely be my “academic high.” But the jury is still out on this one.

Life High: In retrospect, high school was my life high. I was sort of a cross between Steve Urkel from “Family Matters” and Leroy from Fame.  Luckily for me, things have changed (or have they?)

You’re on a desert island and can only have 5 CDs/books/ or DVDs shipped in to you. What are they?

• The Best of Stevie Wonder (CD)
• “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Mugrabi Collection” (Exhibit Monograph)
• Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 1)
• The New Testament (particularly the books of Matthew and Revelations)
• “Kara Walker: Pictures From Another Time” (Exhibit Monograph)

Your favorite quote: “Dont confuse success with greatness. Remember: he or she that is greatest among you shall be your servant. What is the quality of your service to others? What is the depth of your love to others? What kind of price are you willing to pay for a love—for a deep, deep commitment to Justice?” ~ Cornel West, Spelman College Commencement Address

Guilty pleasure: I actually take great pleasure in theorizing “guilt” and its naughty affective associates (namely shame, disgust, melancholia, and lousiness).