Critiques and Controversies of Street Literature: A Formidable Literary Genre

Abstract

Wanda Brooks and Lorraine Savage W ho is Wahida Clark? According to Wendy, the writer whose criticism appeared on Amazon.com, Clark is an exceptional a friend of mine gave me the book to read and it took me a day and a half to finish. i could not put it down. i love the characters and the storylines. i got so caught up in them it felt like a movie happening in my head. i could not believe 3 educated strong women would fall for men with those types of jobs and all of them had a happily everafter ending, it goes to show you that love is a mystery. i cannot wait to read more of wahida clark's novels, keep them comin lady. (Amazon, "PP Thugs") author who crafts entertaining, thoughtful and engaging stories. In fact, writers such as Wahida Clark, Nikki Turner and Teri Woods represent only a few authors of "Street Literature" (street lit/fiction), a genre permeating the African American literary tradition in surprising ways. Chain bookstores such as Borders and Barnes and Noble now incorporate street fiction within literary sections designated for "African American Interests." Some public libraries as well as Black-owned bookstores have increased the number of books they own to include writers like Clark, Turner, and Woods (Morris, Hughes, Hassell-Agosto, and Cottman 20; Young 22). Street lit readership appears to be on the rise, and this growth brings into question some disturbing research findings. Results of a National Endowment of Arts' study (Bradshaw and Nichols 26) indicated a sharp decline in the number of young adults who engage in literary reading, yet, a proliferating and possibly unprecedented increase in African American

A Platform for Voice and Identity: School Library Standards in Support of YA Urban Literature's Transformative Impacts on Youth

“…Research exists on urban youth and young adult literature in metropolitan settings (Brooks & Savage, 2009;Hughes-Hassell & Agosto, 2010;Morris, Hughes-Hassell, & Cottman, 2006). Studies have been conducted on books that urban youth and young adults read with provided lists by age (Morris, 2012), and subject (Guerra, 2012).…”

The Relationship of Culturally Responsive Instruction and the Reading Comprehension and Attitude of Struggling Urban Adolescent Readers

“…Though research has alluded to the potential benefits of this genre to increase literacy acquisition, many are based on anecdotal representations as opposed to statistically representations (Brooks & Savage, 2009). Herein, illustrates the need for more research on the methodology, utility and implementation of this genre as a means of improving reading comprehension and reading attitude of struggling urban adolescent readers.…”

“…The terminology then was relegated to perspectives of hip-hop literature, black pulp fiction, ghetto lit, gansta lit, rap, and street literature. The urban fiction genre of literature experienced a renaissance in the year, 1999 with the novel, Souljah's, The Coldest Winter Ever and has continued to increase in popularity over the past decade (Brooks & Savage, 2009). …”