The Activist in the Mirror: Youth Poets and Civic Identity Development

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Activism, Interrogation of Oppression Using Arts-Based Educational Research

Abstract

This paper seeks to re-characterize minoritized youth as socio-political agents actively working toward social justice through an analysis of how they construct civic identities.Drawing data from a larger poetic inquiry on teen poets civic actions and civic identity construction, this paper describes the institutions, people, and contexts that develop participants’ civic identities. This paper seeks to re-characterize minoritized youth as socio-political agents actively working toward social justice through an analysis of how they construct civic identities. Specifically, the research question that this paper addresses is “How do spoken word poets construct civic identities?” Participants were four youth poets ages 18-20.

Author

• Camea Davis, Georgia State University