https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v Sza is a "Normal Girl", she's just Black in Amerikkka en-us 2021-04-26 05:18:16 UTC 2023-01-22 04:43:27 UTC hello@padlet.com spicynaan https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1457916421 2021-04-26 05:20:37 UTC https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1457916421 spicynaan https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1457916963 2021-04-26 05:20:52 UTC https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1457916963 spicynaan https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458110346 What deeply influenced Sza aka Solana Imani Rowe as a young child was the Hip Hop feminism of Lauryn Hill's career and activism within the Black Community. Sza states that a major part of her self-growth and learning to love herself as a black woman is attributed to Mrs. Lauryn Hill and the embracing of her natural hair rather than using relaxers as many black women in the industry would in order to appeal to eurocentric standards of beauty. Sza's natural locks and her long beautiful natural hair inspire young black women everywhere to redefine how they view themselves as beautiful. ]]> 2021-04-26 06:36:36 UTC https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458110346 spicynaan https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458123835 Sza's hit song " The Weekend" highlights her relationship in a non-monogamous relationship with her male lover and how she enjoys her space as someone he loves for just the weekend. While this song sparks controversy among many as she glorifies being the "side chick", Sza expresses her feminity as a sexually vibrant Black woman who does not commit to a monogamous relationship and shifts the narrative of a "side chick" that is often sung about in other rap and R&B music as someone who the man keeps on the side. Sza changes the narrative and owns being one of many women a man is seeing as it is on her terms. She enjoys him on the weekend, not him enjoying her for merely sex but a mutually agreed upon relationship. ]]> 2021-04-26 06:41:01 UTC https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458123835 spicynaan https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458142827 This Connections Mind Map serves to outline the relationship between R&B artist Sza and Black Feminism, especially Hip hop feminism, the relationship between Black women and love within the US, the isolation of black women as an afterlife of slavery, therapy through poetry and music as a form of coping and art, and the struggle of loving yourself as a black woman in America. As a mixed woman of color, Sza grew up in a Muslim household in Maple Wood, New Jersey, Sza owns her sexuality as a queer woman who loves herself; a weapon to hold as a modern American black woman. Sza expresses her effervescent confidence and radiance through her songs like her hit "The Weekend" (2017) and insecurity as a black woman in other songs such as "Drew Berrymore" and "Anything" (2017) ]]> 2021-04-26 06:46:38 UTC https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458142827 spicynaan https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458188269 One common theme within many of Sza's songs is the feeling of isolation and loneliness as a black woman who isn't desired. In her song "Anything", Sza repeats the phrase "do you even know I'm alive?" emphasizing her feeling of invisibility among others. In many scholarships about Anti-black genocide and the afterlife of slavery, scholars often highlight the isolation and alienation of black people within white society and how black people, especially black women, are othered in these areas of beauty and love as they are not humanized as living breathing emotional beings but rather just invisible bodies. Sza highlights this in her music by expressing her isolation and loneliness where she feels she is not pretty enough, woman enough, alive enough, warm enough o be a body, to be a person.

]]> 2021-04-26 07:02:00 UTC https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458188269 spicynaan https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458255164 2021-04-26 07:25:12 UTC https://padlet.com/spicynaan/a3kpengnavf34k0v/wish/1458255164