Black Girlhood Celebration

This book passionately illustrates why the celebration of Black girlhood is essential. Based on the principles and practices of a Black girl-centered program, it examines how performances of everyday Black girlhood are mediated by popular culture, personal truths, and lived experiences, and how the discussion and critique of these factors can be a great asset in the celebration of Black girls. Drawing on scholarship from women's studies, African American studies, and education, the book skillfully joins poetry, autobiographical vignettes, and keen observations into a wholehearted, participatory celebration of Black girls in a context of hip-hop feminism and critical pedagogy. Through humor, honesty, and disciplined research it argues that hip-hop is not only music, but also an effective way of working with Black girls. Black Girlhood Celebration recognizes the everyday work many young women of color are doing, outside of mainstream categories, to create social change by painting an unconventional picture of how complex and necessary the goal of Black girl celebration can be.

Autorentext

The Author: Ruth Nicole Brown is Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Zusammenfassung
«Ruth Nicole Brown provides a dazzlingly insightful look into the spatial practices cultivated by black girls who speak through hip-hop. The significance of Brown's study is in its attention to Africana womanism (and the complex range of black feminist theory and third world feminisms), a 'genderationally' contingent philosophical framework that helps us to understand the political import of black girlhood practices.» (LaShonda Katrice Barnett, Sarah Lawrence College)
«Ruth Nicole Brown's writing is poetry in motion. 'Girl empowerer' and impresario of ethnographic education, she entertains readers, masterfully capturing the embodied knowledge, intellectual observations, and urban artistry of black girlhood. This work inspires, uplifts, and ultimately counters the usual mis-education of and about black girls in after-school programs and rap sessions about teenage pregnancy or sexual abuse (...). Social scientists, social workers, and cultural critics alike will love this. Brown takes the game of what's possible for academic studies to the next level.» (Kyra D. Gaunt, Ethnomusicologist and Associate Professor of Music and Anthropology, Baruch College, City University of New York)