#SippingTea: Black Female Literacy Scholars Telling Stories to Redefine Our Roles in the Academy

• In Event: 43.018 - Changing the Dominant Narrative: A Call for Using Storytelling as Language and Literacy Theory, Research Methodology, and Practice

Abstract

This presentation is a re-creation of a dialogic performance of two Black female language and literacy scholars in a coffee house “sipping tea,” or sharing stories about their joint triumphs and challenges with teaching through equity-based pedagogies. The term “sipping tea” is described in popular contexts, such as social media, as the act of listening to or participating in the verbal disclosure of gossip or rumors, specifically the sharing of celebrity gossip. Arguably, African American women in the media have made this term popular on several TV shows (i.e. Wendy Williams, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Love & Hip Hop, etc.). On these programs the act of sharing information or “sipping tea,” is often exploited and misrepresented by the media as an act of violence against another individual rather than an opportunity to engage in a social dialogue using call and response. In African American verbal tradition, call and response seeks to synthesize speakers and listeners in a unified movement (Smitherman, 1999). In this form of communication emphasis is on group cohesiveness, cooperation, and the collective common good (Smitherman, 1999). In this presentation, we argue that there is a direct connection between the significance of sharing valuable information or “sipping tea” and communality in Black culture. Further, our presentation is titled, “#SippingTea” because we assert that storytelling among Black women in the media is devalued or reduced to merely “gossip,” which is similar to how the Black oral tradition of storytelling or “narrativizing” is also marginalized in the academy.
As two Black female literacy scholars, we embody the act of “sipping tea” as a means to validate our individual experiences as Black female professors. The act of “sipping tea” is a representation of a communal and safe space that we formed together across several phone conversations. This space for us symbolizes an act of figuratively sipping tea, while through our storytelling, we listen, affirm and share our personal experiences. Our brief conversation takes place in a coffee shop where we discuss the affective and intellectual aspects of our teaching. We utilize Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology and Critical Race Theory as storytelling methodologies that provide the space to acknowledge the significance and intersections of race and gender. Additionally, in this demonstration, we offer discussions of literacy research and theory, personal experience/ethos, linguistic knowledge, and critique of racism. The conversation is framed by the overarching question: What are the experiences of Black female literacy scholars whose teaching centers on anti-racist equity-based pedagogies? One of the goals of our conversation is to share our counter-narrative, which sheds light on some of the challenges we face, as Black women, using these teaching methods to explore literacy in our classrooms. A second goal of our conversation is to share some of the useful teaching strategies and resources we have drawn upon that support our work, which allow us to maintain our integrity and passion in the academic classroom.

Authors

• Theda Gibbs-Grey, Ohio University

• Bonnie WIlliams-Farrier, California State University - Fullerton