Abstract

In this article, we, the authors, present our conceptualization of THOT/Thought-leading as disruptive pleasure enacted by Black women cultural producers, especially those engaged in hip-hop culture. Through our theory-cypher, we imitate the call-and-response nature of hip-hop cypher rounds through offering our hip-hop subjectivities as women of color; our historical and personal understandings of hip-hop culture; the ways we draw from various strains of thought from Black feminist discourse to articulate Black women’s hip-hop onto-epistemology; and why we desire to articulate this concept of THOT/Thought-leading for the ways that Black women embrace self-definition and reject controlling narratives and respectability politics. By engaging in this conceptualization of THOT/Thought-leading, we center the necessity of love, care, and valuation of Black women, our experience and/as knowledge, and our abilities as cultural and knowledge producers.

Keywords: Black feminism, Black studies, care, cypher, disruptive pleasure, hip hop, THOT, thought-leader

How to Cite:

Coleman, A. C. & Wilson, G. J., (2020) “THOT/Thought-Leading as Disruptive Pleasure”, Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education 37(1), 23-38. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jcrae.4749