I started this blog for a class assignment many moons ago. It has lived several lifetimes. In its current state, www.tressiemc.com reflects my academic work but isn’t constrained by it. I need that.
That others have found anything interesting or worthwhile on this space will never cease to amaze me.
I gave up on moderating comments ages ago. It is now purely a matter of convenience. But, the emails and social media messages find me more directly. Readers share some amazing things with me. I appreciate them.
I also appreciate the many teachers and professors, from high school through graduate school, who have assigned my essays. That I know of, my essays have popped up at Princeton, the University of Kentucky, Spelman, Berkeley, CUNY, NCCU, Harvard, UW and a few others whose spelling I’d have to check before acknowledging. I have also popped up in classes on feminist theory, literary studies, musicology, English, and even a darling math class. I’m serious, the math class blows my mind. There’s a whole talk out there using one of my essays to expound on game theory. I want to hug these folks.
This isn’t humblebragging. I just don’t know how else to say thank you without pointing out how many thanks I owe.
I’ve been asked to collect some of my most read essays in one place before. I tried to do that with a page here. But, there are still requests for a more, shall we say, analog platform? So, I now have ten essays (eight chosen based on traffic; one a new meditation on an issue that sort of transformed this blog space; and a tenth one that is purely a vanity project on race and music) in one place, across three different platforms. You can download Bound: Blogging on Gender, Race, and Culture as a pdf, order it for your kindle (or kindle app for non-kindle owners), and eventually order a print copy from whichever one of these print-on-demand places annoys me the least with their set-up process. Or, just email me for a copy.
The kindle and print-on-demand versions have a nominal charge ONLY because a dear, sweet sucker volunteered to copy edit those manuscripts. Those are the easiest because, thanks to little elves, changes are automatically updated digitally for kindle owners and print-on-demand can be tracked by version numbers. You will literally (I abuse literally and you will deal) by putting money in the tip jar to pay this generous copy editing benefactor.
But, you can always get it for free. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it? I exercise a little freedom on this blog and hope to give a little of it to the folks kind enough to read and share what I write. So, the license allows remixing and sharing. Do your thang. Just don’t do a new thing and say I did that thing. And, again, you can always just reach out to me for formatted copies of what is still available here, on the blog, free of charge.
Many thanks from me (and Vivian).