Kendra Brea Cooper

HuffPost • 15th August 2016

What Does The Future Look Like For Non-Binary Olympians?

Bruce Jenner wowed the world in the 1976 Olympics, bringing home the gold while setting a new world record in the men’s decathlon. Forty years later, that same athlete no longer identifies as Bruce nor a man. This begs the question: what would happen if Caitlyn were to compete in the Olympics?

Obviously, the Olympics comes with a lot more than just friendly competition. There are many layers to the games that have an effect on society. Because different countries are competing, they are often m

Medium • 21st April 2020

Looking at Garbage.

In the documentary, Examined Life, philosopher, Slavoj Zizek, argues that we need to get “comfortable” in the trash, and “after reading (about ecological problems), I (royal) step out and see nice trees and birds singing and even if I know rationally all is in danger, I simply do not believe that this all can be destroyed”. He continues to argue, in front of a large trash heap at a landfill, that because we are not seeing the mess in its entirety, destruction is unimaginable. Photographer, Gregg

Medium • 29th April 2018

The Visual Culture of Album Covers and Boy Bands: An Analysis of One Direction’s “Four”.

The Visual Culture of Album Covers and Boy Bands: An Analysis of One Direction’s “Four”.

I realize that this article is a bit out of date, but Four is the only album I can remember being promoted all over HMV before the mega chain record store closed down in my town. So I see this album cover as HMV’s swan song as it slammed its doors to a world of digital downloads. One Direction are no longer together, but this album represents a crucial time in the record industry and its relationship to dig

Medium • 26th February 2020

TikTok X Sustainable Fashion

If you want to know what is next in sustainable fashion, look no further than the thirty-second videos on TikTok.

For those who don’t know, TikTok is a short video-sharing social media platform. One of the many things people are doing on the app is painting their jeans and their shoes. On the surface, it is a cute little art project. But there’s something else going on here. There’s potential for revolution, industry reinvention, and a hands-on rejection of the norm.

As I scroll through TikTok

Medium • 14th July 2019

The Voice Inside my Head: What We Can Take from Blink 182’s Self-Titled Album 15 Years Later.

The Voice Inside My Head: What We Can Take from Blink 182’s Self-Titled Album 15 Years Later.

The early millennium saw a change in America, the world, and Blink 182. If you were coming of age in the turmoil that was post 9/11, growing up in uncertain times, when your regular narratives disintegrated into dust, Blink grew right beside you. They released their self-titled album, usually meant for a debut, but one could easily call this a re-birth. The early part of the decade forced us to move, t

Medium • 14th July 2019

A Tribe Called Red-We are the Halluci Nation

A Tribe Called Red has made an album fit for the times. It inserts itself politically and sits perfectly at this moment in history. As soon as the album opens, you know you’re in for a story, and a statement. Native voices follow indigenous activist and poet John Trudell’s words, introducing the listener to their third album HalluciNation.

This isn’t some vague protest music calling out to a hard-to-grasp cause. It is relevant, and part of our cultural landscape. Colonialism, missing indigenous

Medium • 14th July 2019

Be a Body: Exploring Post-Humanism Through the Music of Grimes.

Be a Body: Exploring Post-Humanism Through the Music of Grimes.

Post-humanism is hard to define in a single paragraph. To put it simply, that is if I can, post-humanism is the philosophy that challenges what it means to be human. It crosses the boundaries of the meanings we’ve created about the human condition, it shuts down the view that humans are more important than other species, and it chips away at the grand narratives that support humanist philosophies.

Grimes is a musician and visual a

Medium • 1st June 2018

The Thimble Theory: The Politics of Making Your Own Clothing

The Thimble Theory: The Politics of Making Your Own Clothing

We live with fashion like we live with the things we say, the art we create, the books we read, and the places we visit. It is part of our story. Even though it’s part of the web of things that make us who we are, it’s often cast aside as trivial. Fashion is considered unimportant on the list of things we’re told we should care about. Is it really as shallow as we’re told? Why is it considered unimportant when there are countless maga

Medium • 15th April 2018

Answers in Happy Accidents: How Bob Ross can Help Save the Planet.

Answers in Happy Accidents: How Bob Ross can Help Save the Planet.

Is there any real and final definition for nature? I think we struggle with the term on many different levels. We have trouble defining it in language and picturing it in our minds. Even when one digs up the dictionary definition of nature, it seems to bring up more questions than offer a definitive answer. It is within this difficulty to pinpoint nature that we tend to find ourselves at odds with it, confused by it, abusing it,

Medium • 15th April 2018

Courtship and Camera Angles: Decoding Tinder Profile Pictures

Tinder is now a huge part of our romantic imagination. “Swiping right” is a sign of approval and sex appeal, while our pictures stand in for the ever-so-important first impression. We’ve eliminated that chance meeting, the sign of fate, the story of how we met. Looking for a date now is no longer about approaching someone, reading body-language, and judging chemistry through conversation. It is about decoding pictures.

Philosophers Alain Badiou and Richard Kearny have discussed the changing lan