I appreciate the invite and the dialogue. Thanks for chatting!
Venus Williams Flattered
ALT: Venus Williams Flattered
static.klipy.com
AERA Writing & Literacies SIG
@writinglit.bsky.social
https://www.aera.net/SIG137/Writing-and-Literacies-SIG-137
Here's some titles: Crowning Glory, Saving American Beach, Black Girl You Are Atlas with Renee Watson. Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Coretta. I read them all and then slowly realized that her art was the common denominator among these books I loved.
Oh, Chris Barton’s A Voice Like That about the Texas Senator Barbara Jordan. I heard him speak about writing that book and he’s so thoughtful about his work. He uses his success to get stories like Jordan’s published, and lift up new illustrators. #literacies
MY FAVORITE! I have a kinship with Zora. She's my cousin in my head. In real life, we're both Gullah Geechee. That text changed my ife. I cannot wait to read it with youth. #literacies
What a privilege to be old... and grow up in the sticks 😃 AND I wish I had more choice as a teacher. I've always had to be secretive about it coming up with strategies within and against the systems I worked (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009). So hard!
I hope people privilege the epistemologies of Black girls, giving them space to be, making meaning individually and collectively for humanizing pursuits.
One of the most powerful novels I ever taught, at a Catholic all girls school, was Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Black girls I had in class offered so much during discussions. And felt really, truly seen. If I taught that now, I’d pair it with excerpts from The Warmth of Other Suns. #literacies
I hope Black girls can be seen, heard, valued, and loved. I hope folks allow them to write themselves into the future, preparing, intentionally, and recognizing they deserve more rigor than they're receiving in schools right now. They deserve love through activities that are worth their time.
Q5: I'm thinking of the beautiful insights I gained from @heymrsbond.com during the collective reading of Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. But there's also many wonderful middle and YA Black women authors who have created stories for all kinds of Black girls. #literacies
Everything by Renee Watson. Nikki Giovanni’s Rosa Parks. Love Ibi Zoiboi’s Pride.
I also used "The Skin I'm In" by Sharon G. Flake with preservice teachers to help them learn more about how some Black girls use their literacies through the protagonist, Maleeka... a dark skin Black girl. sharongflake.com/book/the-ski...
The Skin I'm In - Sharon G. Flake
A coming of age story about a 13-teen-year-old girl bullied because of her looks. With the help of her teacher and her father’s poetry, Maleeka discovers that she has a talent for writing and ulti...
sharongflake.com
When I was a teen, I read street literature and urban fiction... The Coldest Winter Every, B-More Careful... any one else?
Q6: What are your hopes for how those working alongside Black girls might honor their #literacies to reimagine more just futures?
Preaching to the choir: access to an abundance of Black girls’ stories in the classroom and school. Picturebooks, novels, graphic novels, all of it. And all the time, not just February. Not only as a ‘special’ read, but for everyone because they are great stories. #literacies
to prepare and be intentional. I work to make space and time (Brown, 2016). Our spaces are scared, filled with rituals that help us know and remember who we are and our girlhoods which we've often been denied. The space is a collectively made informed by who we be.
So much of my work alongside Black girls has including my own journey of becoming reliable (Hill, 2025); becoming someone who loved themselves in their presence; becoming curious about my own biases and assumptions, listening, disrupting hierarchies of whose knowledge counts. It's always important..
I cannot forget Black feminist epistemologies and similarly situates frameworks, theories, and concepts that inform my work alongside Black girls... Black Feminist Theory (Collins, 2000) Endarkened Feminist Epistemology (Dillard, 2000) Womanism (Walker, 1984)
Ruth Nicole Brown Sheri Lewis Tamura Lomax Sesali Bowen Mikki Kendall
And, privileging this vision of literacy would be good for the whole system and all students within it. 2/2 #literacies
In so many states, policies and climate seek to silence all aspects of their literacies, even the idea that literacy is so multifaceted. Censorship is the obvious part, but even science of reading ignores identity, sociocultural contexts, histories, and the like. 1/2 #literacies
A3: In so many ways, Black girls' #literacies are powerfully restorative in the ways they counter the neoliberal, White, standardized literacies promoted and pushed in schooling. There is so much to gain when educators have opportunities to elevate these wholistic practices.
Personl fav! www.routledge.com/Black-Girls-...
Black Girls' Literacies: Transforming Lives and Literacy Practices
Bringing together the voices of leading and emerging scholars, this volume highlights the many facets of Black girls’ literacies. As a comprehensive survey of the research, theories, and practices tha...
routledge.com
Where would my work alongside Black girls be without Black Girlhood, and the brilliant scholars who help me understand Black girls' literacies more deeply! Ruth Nicole Brown - GOAT Dominque C. Hill Brittney Cooper Marline Francois Christina Tillery