Ubuntu: Reading as a Collective Black Cultural Practice

• In Event: Across Time and Place: Black Literature for Youth and the Continued Significance of Communal Literacies

Abstract

Part of the multi-sited “Harbor Us” book club project, this ongoing qualitative study examines how 20 Black girls in middle-grades respond to Black diaspora youth literature in the “Ubuntu” after-school book club, in the US Southwest, where Black youth comprise 5.5% of public school students. Despite being perceived as culturally homogenous, the youth identify differently, including African American, African-Caribbean, and African immigrant and refugee, leading to occasional tensions (Brooks & Cueto, 2018).

Our research question is: How do Black middle-grade girls negotiate understandings of place, race, and gender through reading and responding to African diaspora youth literature, as it relates to themselves and the broader Black diaspora community? The book club provides a safe, supportive space for Black girls to discuss relevant topics and understand how various African cultures, histories, and traditions shape their experiences in the U.S. Southwest by engaging Black youth literature. Selected texts include The Rise of the Jumbies (Baptiste, 2017), Born on the Water (Hannah-Jones, et al. 2021), and The Kaya Girl (Wolo, 2022).

Our theoretical framework integrates Butler’s (2018) Black Girl Cartography (BGC) theory with Reader Response research (Rosenblatt, 1995; Brooks & Brown, 2012; Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2019) to discern how readers’ Black identities and geocultural locations shape their interpretations of books. BGC centers Black girls by mapping their unique narratives about place, race, and gender and revealing disparities and interconnected oppressions in their interactions with their environment (Annamma, 2017).

Research methods include data collected over one semester: digitally-recorded interviews, book club meetings, member dialogue, and artifacts like artwork, reflective journals, and social media posts that capture participants' viewpoints on book discussions, literary interpretations, and reading preferences. BGC serves as the methodology, employing mapping to analyze the girls' verbal, written, and artistic responses to the books, each other, and the book club space across datasets. Constant comparative analysis (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) captures broad themes across datasets and highlights possibilities for using Black diasporic youth literature to explore sociopolitical and geocultural issues.

Our results, based on a pilot study, reveal the challenges Black girls face when trying to integrate their racial and cultural experiences into classrooms. Applying BGC as a methodology that empowers Black girls (Butler, 2018), we research alongside students, not merely focusing on their struggles but also supporting them to transform challenges within their schools. By doing so, we suggest that Black girls can use the book club space to begin shaping their futures within educational systems.

Authors

• Desiree W. Cueto, University of Arizona

• Sybil Durand, University of Arizona