Florida Black female scholars protest the intersectional invisibility of Black girls in urban schools through hip hop pedagogy 

• In Event: Black and Latina South Floridian special education scholars resist against the dying of the light

Proposal

When considering the historical, socio-political, and cultural contexts that have shaped perceptions of Black womanhood/girlhood, the misrepresentation and marginalization related to race, gender, sexuality, and dis/ability continue to abound. Black girls/women must navigate their identities amidst being adultified, oversexualized, portrayed as aggressive, or altogether ignored in mainstream media. Through a Black feminist lens (Collins, 1986) we place specific focus upon the educational experiences of black girls.
In a post-civil rights era, a more contemporary version of Black feminism emerged through Hip Hop feminism to highlight the contribution of female creative work in the Hip Hop generation. Black, female artists in Hip Hop culture express their stories of relationships, oppression, caretaking, and sexuality through their lyrics (Durham et al., 2013). Strengthened by seminal works by and about Black women, this paper explores Hip-Hop Pedagogy (HHP) as it intersects with identity markers of Black girls with the purpose of establishing agency and visibility in urban schools. We also use Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit; Dumas & Ross, 2016) to challenge and disrupt perceptions of Western, hegemonic systems that serve to marginalize Black people. 
HHP is defined by Adjapong and Emdin (2015) as “a way of authentically and practically incorporating the creative elements of Hip-Hop into teaching, and inviting students to have a connection with the content while meeting them on their cultural turf by teaching to, and through their realities and experiences,” (p. 67). Hip Hop culture has had a major impact globally, particularly on young people. Extant research supports the use of Hip Hop in education as a way for teachers to create nurturing spaces for youth to connect with the content in a meaningful way (Adjapong,2021; Adjapong & Emdin, 2015;Petchauer, 2009). 
We are Black women with expertise in the field of school psychology, in pursuit of doctoral degrees in special education. Additionally, both presenters have lived experiences of being minimized due to aspects of race and gender. We prioritize shared narratives, creative expression, and reflective and introspective practices that are supportive of education professionals exploring their own identities and interactions with minoritized students. We also encourage researchers to reflect on the voices they center in their work and examine curricula, revealing the absence of Black girls’ stories in societal narratives. 
We will present the creative elements of hip-hop as a backdrop to the exploration of Black girlhood. More specifically, we will: (1) establish the need for increased attention to Black girls in both education research and practice that promotes visibility and value in this population, (2) explore social themes drawn from lyrical text to develop an understanding of the intersection of race, gender, dis/ability inBlack girls, (3) Critique oppressive conditions that have contributed to the self-defeating narratives of Black girls, (4) share evidence-based strategies to create safe learning spaces where students can participate in literary interpretation and criticism through the lens of Hip-Hop culture, and (5) encourage critical conversations and knowledge-building that will better equip professionals to empower Black girls throughout their journeys as they become Black women.

Authors

• Aniva Lumpkins, Florida International University

• Chauntea Cummings