I Go to Prepare a Place for You: Waymaking Literacies and Black Feminist Futures in the Academy

• In Event: Wayward Fabulation and Black Feminist Imaginaries

Abstract

This arts-based, qualitative study uplifts how Black Women Literacy Scholars create communal spaces for theorizing and manifesting “waymaking literacies” that support their thriving in the academy. Grounded in Black Feminist Futurity, we conceptualize “waymaking literacies” as liberatory (re)imagining(s) of what Black women have always done: making a way out of no way and preparing a place for those yet to come. Guided by Harriet Tubman’s words “I Go to Prepare a Place for You,” and Bisa Butler’s (2021) art, we utilize our own Kitchen Table Talks (KTTs) and visual collages as data. Our analysis highlights how Black Women scholars engage in multiple waymaking literacies (e.g., collective storytelling, liberatory dreaming) to thrive within and beyond the academy.

Authors

• Theda Gibbs Grey

• Alexis Morgan Young, Michigan State University

• Jennifer Danridge Turner, University of Maryland