Can't We Just Have Hulu and Conversation? Black Girl Writers Use Poetry as Social Critique

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Youth Writers: Composing Counternarratives, Taking Action

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which two Black high school girls used poetry as a method for social critique. Using both New Literacy Studies and the Black Girl Literacies framework, this paper analyzes both the process that the writers used to compose their poem including their use of participatory technologies and the evolution of their writerly relationship. The girls’ poetry addressed issues that concerned other youth like themselves. Therefore, by positioning the two girls as writers within their school, their experiences were also implicitly valued as well. Given the number of ways youth of color, are limited in self-expression, this paper seeks to contribute to the important literature on valuing Black girls’ literacies.

Author

• Veena Vasudevan, American Museum of Natural History