Mapping Queer Black Femme Futures in the Critical Feminist English Classroom and Beyond

• In Event: What Does Queer Theory Have Yet to Offer Literacy Education Research?

Abstract

Black queer youth are lighting up digital spaces with visions for Black feminist and trans futures. From blogging to Instagram stories, this paper will map the ways in which two queer femmes of color, one Afro-Latinx and trans, and another, Black and non-binary, draw from Black feminist theories in digital spaces (hooks, 1994). As they reveal their ongoing processes of self-actualization and self-love, the trajectory of their online writing and visual storytelling demonstrates both students’ engagements with Black feminist theory: first in a high school classroom committed to critical feminist pedagogies, women of color feminisms, and queer literacy frameworks (Keller, 2012, 2016; Miller, 2016); and second, in their sustained commitment to Black feminist theory in college and beyond as Black queer femme activists.

Their digital posts unapologetically draw from the Black feminist theories they learned in high school in a women of color feminisms class, which allowed them to engage in critical identity work on race, class, gender, and sexuality (Walker, 1983; Lorde, 1984; hooks, 1984; Combahee River Collective, 1986; Crenshaw, 1991). These readings also allowed them to develop strong commitments to the erotic and to healing (Lorde, 1984; Walker 1983). As they move from reading Black feminism in class to writing online, their work cites Black feminists as integral to their queer of color liberatory politics. Their calls for dismantling systems of oppression as well as for engaging in self-care and self-love fuel their digital “queer realness” (Gray, 2009) as well as their visions for Black queer femme futures. As they forge digital “intimate publics” (Berlant, 2008) with likeminded readers, they urge fellow young abolitionists to join in solidarity (Love, 2019).

Framed by Black feminist theory and a queer of color critique that forefronts the agency of queer students of color in schools (Brockenbrough, 2015), this collective digital ethnography features a spectrum of social media produced by both the author and her former high school students, ranging from blog posts to Instagram stories (Wargo, 2015). In the first section, the author will provide a pedagogical overview of the ways in which teaching women of color feminisms, in particular Black feminist theories, provide Black queer youth agentic possibilities for exploring multiple identities, developing political consciousness, and engaging in digital activism and public pedagogies. Next, key examples of the students’ Black queer femme digital activism from high school through college and beyond will demonstrate how critical feminist pedagogies travel through young queer people’s lives as part of their intellectual and political knowledge production and activist commitments. Ultimately, both students use digital activism to imagine and live out queer Black femme dreams of womanist healing alongside “transgender possibilities” (Author C, 2018; Cavalcante, 2018), re-configuring what it means for queer Black trans femmes to resist toxic and outdated norms that do not serve them. Given the life-giving sustenance that Black feminist theory provides Black queer youth, these case studies should urge critical literacy educators and researchers to explore the emancipatory affordances of engaging in Black feminist futures in schools.

Author

• Ileana Jiménez, Teachers College, Columbia University