Meet Me in Outer Space: Fugitive Spaces of Creation and Joy With Girls of Color

• In Event: Centering Broad Voices: Equity-Oriented Multimodal Methods in Literacy Research

Abstract

Objectives: Given recent and ongoing physical, emotional, and academic violence steeped in racism and sexism directed towards girls and women of color, we believe there is no better time to build theory that centers, honors, and uplifts the ingenious critical multimodal literacies of girls of color. This paper explores girls’ of color multimodal and fugitive space-making practices within the context of two literacy collaboratives.

Perspectives: We take up the work of scholar activists who, through their work with girls of color seek to build, sustain, and protect spaces where girls of color can safely and collectively employ their multimodal literacies as they evoke joy, practice celebration, and (re)imagine possibilities for their futures (Author, in press, 2020; Toliver, 2021). Specifically, we draw upon notions of fugitivity (Author, 2020), outerspace (Coles, forthcoming) and youthtopias (Coles, 2021), geospatially (Butler, 2018), hush harbors (Kynard, 2010), and homeplace (hooks, 1990; Author, forthcoming) to theorize the space-making practices girls of color employ in order to create arts-based literate renderings.

Methods and Data: We present data from two case studies that highlight the arts-based renderings of girls of color in two literacy collaboratives. Data were collected over five months at urban schools in the North East and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. We examine the ways the creations of girls of color work to resist and disrupt violent gendered (Collins, 1991) and white supremacist (mis)represntations of their personhood to answer the following questions: How do adolescent girls of color mobilize their multiple literacies as interruptions to race-gendered violence and toward self-exporation and sistership? How do critical multimodal methods of data analysis unearth the multiplicity of knowledges and ways of knowing so often regulated out of academic discourse about girls of Color? How might critical multimodal analysis frameworks guide our understanding of the arts-based renderings and space making practices of adolescent girls of color?


Results and Significance: Drawing on extant literature and results from our own analysis, we present our results through a multimodal piece of artwork that serves as one example of the depiction of the joyful fugitive spaces created by girls of color. We highlight the symbols within the artwork and briefly discuss how it can serve as a guide for researchers interested in working with girls of color as co-conspirators in the construction of liberating and celebratory spaces of literacy learning.

Authors

• Autumn A. Griffin, University of Pennsylvania

• Grace D. Player, University of Connecticut - Storrs