Grieving Out Loud: An Interdisciplinary Understanding of Black Girlhood and Culturally Reflective Trauma-Informed Care

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Twelve
  In Roundtable Session: The Kids Ain't Alright, but Gonna Be Alright: K–12 Students of Color Facing Psychological Trauma (Table 20)

Abstract

Black girlhood creates space for the affirmation of Black girls' lives, voices, and genius (Brown, 2013; Owens, et al., 2017). Stemming from Black feminist epistemologies, Black girlhood is a collective work that centers progressive actions of understanding, support, and motivation for the wellness and future of Black girls. Through the navigation of traumatic experiences, Black girls experience an upheaval of safety across dimensions (Wheeler et al., 2002; Bloom, 2013), and are often denied spaces to recover (Collins, 2000; Crenshaw, 1995). In this paper, we center geographies of grieving Black girlhoods (Author, 2021) in moving toward an interdisciplinary framework of culturally reflective trauma informed care that allows the space and time necessary to navigate the grief journey.

Authors

• Taryrn T.C. Brown, University of Florida
  Presenting Author

• Latoya Haynes-Thoby, University of Connecticut
  Presenting Author