Written in the Waves: Black Mermaids as Love, Memory, and Writing Muses

• In Event: Divine Love in Me: Black Girl Love as Resistance Against Oppressive Schooling

Abstract

Disney’s 2023 release of The Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey has created a global
conversation about representations of Black Girlhood (Thomas, 2019). The numerous and ongoing attacks on Halle’s portrayal as a Black Mermaid is grounded in anti-Blackness and dehumanizing rhetoric. Yet, Black Mermaids have always been a symbol of divine love and have long fortified Black girls and women’s minds, bodies, and souls. Throughout the African Diaspora orishas Yemaya, Mami Wata, La Sirene, and Oshun have nurtured resilience and provided a road map for survival (Drewal et al., 2008). This paper will celebrate children’s and young adult literature featuring Black Mermaids such as A Song Below Water (2020), Sukey and the Mermaid (1992), Skin of the Sea (2021) by exploring how Black Mermaids can serve as writing muses to invite students to write critically, spiritually, and creatively, while experiencing a reciprocal and divine love. For Black girls, the water has always served as a place of connection, regeneration, memory, and love (Griffin, 2021). This healing space must be explored as a counternarrative to the stereotypical and limiting depictions and experiences of Black girlhood in educational spaces.

Author

• Dywanna Smith, Claflin University