Exploring the Vastness of Ourselves: Using Endarkened Poetic Inquiry to Witness Black Women Educators’ Radical Healing

• In Event: Codifying Systemic Repair: Policy Possibilities Toward Black Educator Healing

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this endarkened poetic inquiry is to examine how three Black women early childhood educators have navigated their radical healing (Dill et al., 2018) processes through artistic expression. Cutts (2019) described ars spirituality as the embodiment of Black women’s transformational knowing and being— describing Black women’s poetry as “born of the spirit” (p. 917). This spiritual component is connected to Black women’s embodied onto-epistemological traditions and is central to the inquiry process.

Theoretical Framework: Black women have specifically used poetic inquiry to explore the intersections of our identities across space and time bridging the space between artistic expression and epistemological justice (Green, 2022). This inquiry is informed by the theoretical framings of BlackCrit and Black feminist thought. Dumas & ross (2016) conceptualized BlackCrit as a theoretical framework grounded in the premise that “understanding this distinction between a theory about racism and a theory about blackness (in an anti-Black world) is key...” (p. 416). This inquiry specifically draws on the following framing idea of BlackCrit: (a) the conceptualization of Black liberatory fantasy.
Reconceptualist early childhood Scholars of Color have grounded their inquiries in Black feminist perspectives to unsettle the discipline’s white hegemonic gaze (Nxumalo, 2020; Perez, 2017). Guided by Black feminist thought’s focus on Black women’s understanding of the connection between experience and consciousness (Collins, 2000), this inquiry sought to “imagine the futurity of Black people against the devaluation of Black life” (Dumas & ross, 2016, p. 429). Data for this inquiry was gathered from poetic workshops focused on Black women early childhood educators’ healing and well-being.

Methods and Data: Through an artful blending of endarkened feminist epistemology (Dillard, 2000) and poetic inquiry (Cutts & Waters, 2019), endarkened poetic inquiry (EPI) is a methodological framework that reflects Black women’s understanding of how the intersections of our identities impact our roles as educators. Over the course of 12 weeks, I led weekly poetry workshops with educators as part of a facilitated healing circle. Each weekly provocation prompted participants to individually and collectively dream about spaces that fed their spirits.

Findings: In Sheryl’s poem (pseudonym) below, she reflected on how swimming became an act of self-care and how it related to her connection to water and liberation as a Black woman:

“These Waters Are Made For Me”

I am a swimmer, I love to do the black stroke,
it’s more powerful than the backstroke.
The ocean is where I love to be
in waters they say were not made for me
I am swimming across the waters
that bear the souls of sons and daughters,
they jumped ship, buried at sea
while singing, "Before I be a slave, I’ll set myself free!"
Freedom in water is a part of my history
These waters were made for me...I am FREE!

Significance: This inquiry created space for exploring Black women teachers’ healing processes and offers those involved in the educational policy arena with the means of destroying the academia imposed false “dichotomy between rationality and emotionality” (Evans-Winters, 2019, p. 23) through reflective arts-based methods.

Author

• Meghan L. Green, Erikson Institute