Racialicious Crush Of The Week: Heidi Renée Lewis
By Andrea Plaid
Heidi Renée Lewis. Courtesy of the interviewee.
Once again, Mark Anthony Neal–aided and abetted by one David J. Leonard–committed the kindness of introducing me to another cool-ass groove in African American-ness, this time on his Facebook page in the form of Heidi Renée Lewis and her post on Li’l Wayne and his politics of cunnilingus.
After reading her smart essay–and seeing how she dealt with some fooligan respectability-politics criticism in the thread about her post being fluff under the guise of an academic-sounding title–I had to be friends with her. We friended, and I’ve been deep into her brilliantly funny loving-The-Community commentary on vids about gospelizing over chicken, praise leaders losing their shoe trying to be cute and jumping on cheaply made tables, and people doing the Robot at church services (among other ones) ever since. Hanging with Heidi is like hanging with that one wild-ass play cousin whose pithy ongoing social commentary has you holler-laughing for days.
In other words, totally Crush-worthy.
Of course, I talked to Dr. Heidi…but I had to talk about her lively ass, too! Check out what I said to Crush alum Tamura Lomax about our latest one…
Hey there, Professor Heidi! I’m going to start our convo—and new year–with an unpublished excerpt of a Q&A I did with Dr. Tamura Lomax in which we talked about you, sis! Here’s what we said…
AP: Tamura, I’m gonna be honest: there may be some Dr. Heidi Renée Lewis-inspired silliness permeating my questions because she inspires such mischief and fun. But I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. So, I have to ask: how did you and Dr. Baddypants–errrm, Dr. Lewis meet? And, if you two have met in person, is she as mischievous in real life as she is on Facebook? (P.S. Watch Tressie [McMillan Cottom], too. I’ve met her, and she’s definitely one of those undercover mischievous types!)
TL: Heidi is a kindred spirit. We met via social media sometime ago, due to mutual friends and, perhaps most importantly, mutual interests in raising hell while simultaneously having fun. Heidi makes me LOL at all the right times, so I was easily drawn to her. I know that I can always count on her for some sort of late night (and sometimes early morning!) clownery. We all need that in our lives.
Yet, she’s in no way some simplistic funny girl. There’s a brilliance about her. I think it’s the “everydayness” of her cultural critiques. She’s always on point—always making the mundane ever present and making “normal” completely absurd (and vice versa). That takes skill. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to meet in person. I think 2013 will change that. There’s a lot on the horizon for badass black feminists. I’m looking forward to meeting up with you, Heidi, and Tressie sometime soon. I imagine all kinds of badassery and fabulousness unfolding.
So now…Dr. Lewis, how do you feel about being the unofficial ringleader of Black feminist academic mischief on Facebook?
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