[This is an ePortfolio]

As the capstone project for her Notation in Cultural Rhetorics, Brittany Linus created this website to chart how her scholarship evolved throughout her undergraduate career at Stanford University. Linus is a Creative Honors student majoring in African and African American Studies and minoring in Digital Humanities, reflecting her appreciation of Black digital cultures sustaining places online where Black digital users can exercise rhetorical sovereignity over their imaginaries and realities. To chart the evolution of her scholarship, Linus designed artifacts inspired by the Black digital cultures she is a part of——from anime fandoms to modding communities. Each of these artifacts are featured on this website!

[Go on and explore!]

[name:] Brittany Linus.

[preferred name:] Ozi.

[specialties:] Storytelling, Design, Sales, Marketing.

[email address:] blinus@stanford.edu

[current mission:] Completing Creative Honors Thesis.

[primary objective:] Exploring the digital universe to constellate how Black users combat Black erasure by creating their own digital worlds.

[previous mission details:] Completed TikTok Sales Internship.

As I swing open the door to the command center, the stark expanse of space stretches out before me, silent and infinite. Through the viewport, stars blaze like distant beacons, casting their glow across the void. But amidst the quiet majesty of the cosmos, there is a dissonant note—a survival cry piercing through the stillness like a comet streaking across the night sky.

I strain to pinpoint the source of this call. It felt familiar, as if it was coming from me. The urgency of the survival cry reverberates within the confines of the command center, a stark reminder of the existential threat erasure poses to Black planets, which are worlds built by Black digital users to express and experience Blackness without being marginalized.

Yet, amidst this discordance, there is hope——a response call emerges from elsewhere in the vast expanse of digital space, a beacon of solidarity and resilience. It echoes the assurance that we can etch into existence what Black erasure attempts to wipe away. This response call is a rallying cry, a call to action that causes other Black planets to light up on the cosmic map. From Twitter Spaces to Discord Servers, Black communities come together to stand against erasure by creating ecosystems that will sustain Blackness as a lifestyle, artstyle, pedagogy, and more.

I chart this response call, building a constellation of the Black digital universe my scholarship was designed to explore. As the vessel carrying me to the stars, my scholarship was inspired by the Black faculty, courses, and programs I participated in as an undergraduate student at Stanford University back on Earth. I embark on a quest for meaning shaped by this constellation armed with Black history. Each landing, each encounter, brings me closer to understanding my place as a Black digital user in this universe, to unraveling the pleasantries of Black existence.

The history I carry with me——the tales of Black survivance, ancestories, and homing——are more than words on a webpage or website. They are planets charting where Blackness can exist freely in this digital universe. This mission tethers me to Blackness as I hurtle towards a future only found in its constellation no matter how far I travel. No matter how vast the reaches of digital space, I will always be connected to the stories that shape me, turning me from a mere storyteller to a digital griot, weaving tales of Black digitality across the stars for generations to come.