Worthy by Design: Black Girls Cultivating Love and Civic Memory through Literacy

• In Event: Reimagining Community-Based Education Spaces: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Black Youth and Youth Workers Disrupting the Youthwork Paradox

Abstract

Amid rising censorship and the erasure of Black histories, this study affirms the intellectual and creative lives of Black girls in Philadelphia through a community-based education space grounded in Black feminist traditions. Conducted through the Black Girls’ Literacies Project (BGLP), a two-week summer institute, the study engaged 16 participants (ages 14–18) in journaling, historical inquiry, and multimodal expression. Findings suggest that participants used literacy to affirm self-worth, build intergenerational connections, and reframe love as a liberatory, activist ethic. Guided by Black feminist epistemologies and the youthwork paradox, this project positions Black girls as theorists and knowledge producers. It offers lineage, literacy, and love as frameworks for justice, healing, and educational transformation.

Author

• Barrett Rosser, Morgan State University