“They Can Learn It Through Us”: Youth Seeking Racial Justice Through a Community-Based Book Club

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Transformative Literacy Practices Across Educational and Community Spaces (Table 17)

Abstract

In Summer 2020, while navigating the ongoing trauma of racial violence and the COVID-19 pandemic, youth in [Program] sought to increase awareness of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in their community by designing and facilitating a book club focused on issues of racial justice. We analyze transcripts from individual interviews with the youth to examine the research question: How and why do youth seek to increase awareness of BLM in their racially diverse subsidized housing community through the design and facilitation of a youth-led book club? Findings contribute new insights into youths’ envisionings of: 1) how a community-based youth-led book club could facilitate urgently needed social change; and 2) possibilities for engaging in book clubs in new ways.

Authors

• Joanne E. Marciano, Michigan State University

• Brittany M. Brewer, Michigan State University

• Mary McConnaha, Michigan State University

• Lauren Elizabeth Reine Johnson, University of Illinois at Chicago