Black Girl Magic: The Magic is in Spatial Development & Being Your Full Self

• In Event: Protection After 16 Carriages: Curating Safety in and With Research for and by Black Girls

Abstract

Purpose
Black girls deserve spaces wherein their ways of knowing and being are at the forefront (Author et al., 2024 ; Brown, 2013; McArthur & Lane, 2019; Nyachae, 2016). In this project, we utilize a collaborative approach to emphasize interconnections of spatial development, Black girls' experiential knowledge, and values and beliefs, which foster opportunities for bringing and being their authentic and whole selves. Thus, we explored the following questions: 1) What is the process for developing a communal and intergenerational Black girl space? and 2) What opportunities emerge from collaborating with Black girls to curate spaces to belong, imagine, and be free?
Theoretical Frameworks & Methods
The study employs Black Girl Cartography (BGC; Butler, 2018) as a framework to examine how Black girls co-curate spaces that resist traditionally oppressive geopolitical places and systems. BGC centers Black girls’ collective imagination and visions, guiding adult supporters in implementing Black girls' intellectual creativity in these spaces. Using this framework, our intergenerational research team employed youth participatory methods, including Black girl-led community discussions and photovoice, to prioritize Black girls’ voices in creating a culturally relevant after-school community.
Over five months during Fall 2023, 22 Black girl participants and two Black women met bi-weekly to engage in communal podcasting, explore cultural resources from social media and local opportunities, and discuss experiences and navigational resistance strategies in various spaces such as school, family, cultural, peer groups, and social media. In spring 2023, the team met weekly for four months to use the insights gained from these discussions to develop various art mediums. This creative process aimed to reflect Black girls’ perspectives on building spaces where Black girls can freely and creatively express themselves when provided space to co-develop with adult supporters.

Findings & Discussion
By engaging in a collaborative process alongside Black girls, this project illuminates the radical possibility of creating spaces where Black girls’ knowledge and desires are the point of reference. Through participatory research practices, the intergenerational team learned that understanding space as malleable and ever-changing requires developing structures and practices that honor the humanity and lived experiences of Black girls as spatial data. This approach views the spatial curation process and the humanity of Black girls as both a methodological approach and valid data for researching and developing community spaces for Black girls.
Collaborating with Black girls revealed several key opportunities: the positive socio-emotional impacts of intergenerational, collaborative building; advocacy-based lessons for adult supporters; and new perspectives on researching with Black girls. Based on these multi-level opportunities, the authors will share their reflections, lessons learned, and practical tools/resources from this work. These insights will include:
• Recommended epistemological positions and values for intergenerational partnerships, spatial curations, and collaborative research.
• Resources for negotiating cultural differences and desires while making decisions within existing institutional policies and practices.
• Methods for developing informal and formal, internal, community-based feedback structures to enhance spatial development in real-time.
• Expanding the conceptualization of “methodology,” “data,” and “findings” when researching and collaborating with Black girls.

Authors

• Taqiyyah Elliott, Vanderbilt University

• Misha N. Inniss-Thompson, Cornell University

• ReAnna S. Roby, University of Minnesota