SKYRISE: BLACK GIRLS ‘ARCHITEXTING’ YOUTHTOPIAS

Abstract

This dissertation illustrates the utility of Black girls’ imaginations in liberatory projects, particularly in the (re)imagining of education. As this biophysical world continues to reveal the insidiousness of current systems of power, now, more than ever, people are exploring the (im)possibilities of abolition. Central to the project of abolition is imagining otherwise ways of being and living; thus, those committed to actualizing liberated futures for Black girls must make sure their voices are amplified in world-making projects. This project examines a six-week extracurricular program, Astronomy Club, that serves as homeplace (hooks, 1990) for six preadolescent Black girls. During the program, Black girls engaged in architexture, the hybrid approach of melding principles of architecture and literature to document their speculations of a youthtopian future. Grounded in Black Feminist Futurity (Campt, 2017), Black Quantum Futurism (Phillips, 2015); Black Critical Theory (Dumas & ross, 2016); the overarching question of this qualitative study asks: In a literacy program designed for and with them, how do Black girls ‘architext’ their imaginations of Black girl-centered educational futures? Data sources include interviews video-recorded observations of program sessions and multimodal program artifacts, analyzed through a grammar of Black futurity as modeled in Campt’s (2017) Listening to Images.

Study findings indicate that when the Black girls in this study dream of freer educational futures, they: (1) dream in the dark, (2) dream in community, and (3) dream of a world full of justice. Furthermore, they provided directives for constructing youthtopian learning environments and described them as sites that: (1) center Black life and Black girlhood in the curriculum, (2) tend to their identities and socioemotional positions, and (3) nourish their body, mind, and soul.

This study adds to the continued project of creating a new world for and documenting the revolutionary ideologies of Black girls. This dissertation is an invitation to improve the educational conditions of Black girls through their analyses of present schools and their fantasies for schools they desire in the future.