Finding Freedom in Youth Research and Artivism: Spoken Word Poetry as a Fugitive Methodology

• In Event: Seeking Routes to Freedom: Fugitive Methodologies for Rethinking Community Research, Literacies, and Engagement

Abstract

Paris and Winn’s edited volume, Humanizing Research, invites educational scholars into the thick tension of what it means to conduct qualitative research within marginalized groups while maintaining a focus on equity and justice (Paris & Winn, 2014). Given its violent colonial history, oppressive practices inhere within the traditional research process in ways that require intentional disruption. Grounded in conceptual and methodological framings fugitive literacies and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, this study examines the spoken word poetry of youth artivists (i.e. artists-activists) within an out-of-school Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) program.

Themes suggest that bringing together YPAR and the fugitive literacy practice of spoken word poetry creates opportunities disrupting the traditional qualitative research process in the service of centering creativity, community, and critical consciousness.

Author

• Jamila Lyiscott, University of Massachusetts – Amherst