Facilitating Space for Creative Resistance through Literacy and Arts-Based Methods

• In Event: Revolutionizing Education, Revitalized: The Rise of Creative Resistance in Youth Participatory Action Research

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of community-based literacy spaces in supporting Black girls' identity development, healing, and expressive agency. Grounded in the author’s lived experience and long-standing commitment to Black girl literacy, it reflects on the formation and facilitation of The Breedlove Readers, a teen book club based in Central New York. The chapter situates literacy not simply as a school-based skill, but as a multimodal, liberatory practice that nurtures critical consciousness and belonging. Drawing from a 2023 cohort of eight Black girls (ages 13–17), it explores how literacy spaces outside of school offer Black girls the opportunity to engage in self-definition, shared reflection, and arts-based inquiry.
The primary objectives of this work are threefold: (1) to explore how community-centered literacy practices shape Black girl identity formation; (2) to examine the co-construction of intergenerational learning environments rooted in love, creativity, and care; and (3) to document the potential of arts-based participatory research to promote healing justice and counter institutional erasure. At its core, the chapter argues that Black girls’ literacy experiences in community contexts enable forms of self-articulation and liberation often foreclosed within traditional school settings.
The chapter is informed by Black feminist thought, womanist theory, and Black girl literacies (Evans-Winters & Esposito, 2010; Womack, 2021). The author engages Womack’s (2021) notion of “out of bound spaces” to conceptualize the book club as a site where Black girls can name themselves and be in relationship on their own terms. This theoretical framing centers the emotional, intellectual, and cultural labor of Black girls as legitimate forms of knowledge production.
Methodologically, the project draws on arts-based participatory research and narrative inquiry. The study includes monthly two-hour book club sessions held during Fall and Spring 2023, where eight participants engaged in reading, discussion, journaling, and collaborative art-making. The author, who also served as a co-facilitator, documented the sessions through fieldnotes, reflective memos, and participant artifacts. The sessions emphasized dialogic interaction, emotional check-ins, and critical engagement with young adult literature relevant to participants’ lived realities.
Data sources include observational fieldnotes, participant journals, oral narratives, and artwork created in-session. The author also draws upon their own reflective praxis as both researcher and co-learner in the space, embodying an ethic of care and relational accountability.
Findings suggest that Black girls use literacy spaces like The Breedlove Readers to process their experiences in predominantly white school environments, navigate evolving peer relationships, and articulate complex understandings of racialized and gendered identity. Participants expressed a desire not just for intellectual stimulation, but for a sanctuary—a space to “just be.” These spaces functioned as incubators for leadership, self-expression, and cultural affirmation.
The scholarly significance of this work lies in its challenge to normative definitions of literacy, and its affirmation of Black girlhood as a critical site of study and social transformation. By documenting the nuanced ways Black girls engage with literature and one another, this chapter contributes to Black girl literacies, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and critical youth studies. It underscores the urgent need for community-rooted educational spaces where joy, healing, and critical inquiry coalesce.

Author

• Courtney Mauldin-Jones, Syracuse University