Black girlhood celebration: The political courage of Black girls and women in everyday experiences

Abstract

Bridging critical pedagogy, hip-hop and education, hip-hop feminism, and literature on Black girlhood, this thesis shows how Black girls in Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT), a community of girls and women in Illinois, make sense of the images they receive through hip-hop. Specifically, I explore the ways in which the girls, who range from 11 to 42, are more than spectators of hip-hop but participants who make critical judgments beyond just good or bad critiques using the hip- hop influenced SOLHOT ritual ‘Check-In’. Based on analysis of ‘Check In,’ I developed the concept of ‘Flow-Storytelling’ to explain Black girls' usage of hip-hop to (re) create and tell their own story or narrative in any way they so choose.