Exploring #BlackLivesMatter and sociopolitical relationships through kinship writing

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to explore the textual and sociopolitical relationships of kinship writing as 15 youth wrote politically charged poetry while participating in a four-week summer writing program grounded in a Black studies curriculum. Design/methodology/approach The authors explore the following research questions: How do youth writers draw upon each other’s writing to compose sociopolitical kinship poems when writing about critical issues affecting Black lives? What topics and oppressions do youth choose to write about and how do they write about these topics? Findings The authors found that the youth wrote across multiple topics affecting Black lives in their kinship poems. These include the appropriation of black beauty, gun violence and police brutality, love and Black lives, the need for equality, negative depictions and misrepresentations of Black people, the neglect and omission of Black lives and suppression of freedom. The youth took up various critical issues in their poems, which addressed what they deemed as most urgent in the lives of Black people, and these selected topics were highly historicized. We also found that the youth used the content, styles and audience of the original poems to pen their own pieces. Research limitations/implications Writing with another peer afforded collaborative writing and spaces for youth to read and interrogate the world while building criticality through their writing. Originality/value Kinship writing is a genre in which one piece of writing has a relationship with another piece of writing. Kinship writing carries significance in the Black literary community as the history of Black education has been interlaced with ideals of social learning, community, family and kinship. This literary approach contributes to ways Black people used each other’s writings to offer healing, comfort and care in a turmoil filled world.

Pens Down, Don’t Shoot: An Analysis of How Black Young Women Use Language to Fight Back

“…Black girls especially need to write back against the multiple intersecting oppressions such as sexism, racism, and classism that they face on a daily basis. In Black Girls WRITE, for example, girls were asked to write kinship pieces to the authors read in class, which meant writing a companion piece (Muhammad, Chisholm & Starks, 2017). They were also asked to write reflective pieces that mirrored the intellectual thought of the writers.…”

If “Black Lives Matter in Literacy Research,” Then Take This Racial Turn: Developing Racial Literacies

“…For example, how could our field ever have hoped to understand and advance the languages (Alim et al, 2016; Baker-Bell, 2020; Green, 2011; Power-Carter, 2020), cultures (Boateng, 1990; Gadsden, 1992; Ogbu, 1990; Paris & Alim, 2017), text interests (G. Muhammad, 2020; Parker, 2020; Tatum, 2009), literary and literacies traditions (Belt-Beyan, 2004; Fisher, 2009; Harris, 1992; McHenry, 2002; Ntiri, 2014; Power-Carter et al, 2019; Richardson, 2003; Willis, 2002), digital tool uses (Lewis Ellison, 2017; Lewis Ellison & Solomon, 2019; Tichavakunda & Tierney, 2018), reading and writing practices (Asher, 1978; Austin, 1972; Guillory & Gifford, 1980; Guthrie et al, 2009; McHenry & Heath, 1994; G. E. Muhammad et al, 2017; Tatum, 2009), gifts, talents and high-achievement (Ford, 1995; Ford et al, 2018; Grantham et al, 2011), assessment data indicators (Anderson, 2007; Cohen et al, 2012; Ferguson, 2003; Flowers, 2016; Irvine, 1990; Smith et al, 2019; Thompson & Shamberger, 2015; Willis, 2019), family and community literacies (Edwards, 1993; Gadsden, 1992; Heath, 1983/2008, especially the often overlooked “Black townspeople”; Johnson, 2010; Lewis, 2013), youth literacies (Carter, 2007; Kinloch et al, 2017; Kirkland & Jackson, 2009; Morrell, 2008), or racial literacies (Croom, in press) of Black children and adults...…”

Navigating Black Racial Identities: Literacy Insights from an Immigrant Family

“…There are multiple tenets associated with CRT; however, this study primarily examines findings in light of the tenet that embraces storytelling and counterstorytelling as a path to insight about particular phenomena. Thus, in order to understand the experiences of youth in the 21 st century, several scholars have committed to CRP/CSP and CRT (Johnson, 2016;Muhammad et al, 2017). These frames have also been useful in understanding Black immigrant populations (Ghong et al, 2007;McLoyd, 2014;Ndemanu & Jordan, 2017).…”

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“…Understanding that literacy has been embodied by Black individuals in various ways in their homes, communities, places of worship, and communal spaces, that are often absent from classrooms, several scholars have examined how Black textual expressions (Lyiscott, 2017) serve as assets to supporting Black youth (Lyiscott, 2017;Muhammad & Haddix, 2016, Young et al, 2018. Muhammad et al (2017), for example, explored how 15 adolescent youth wrote about #BlackLivesMatter and sociopolitical topics through kinship writing after reading the works of Black authors. As the authors noted in their study, "Kinship writing carries significance in the Black literary community as the history of Black education has been interlaced with ideals of social learning, community, family and kinship.…”