The sounded-word aesthetics: Black girl covenant and the fire commandments

Abstract

My article ‘The Sounded-Word Aesthetics’ explores the ways that Black girls make spirit felt as found in the music created in Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT). SOLHOT is a collective space of organizing with Black girls to celebrate Black girlhood. Using personal narrative alongside black feminist, womanist, and black girlhood scholarship, I argue that spirit is made felt through the aesthetics of Black girl covenant and the fire commandments. I conclude that sounded-word aesthetics allows Black girls to be heard differently while resisting dominant narratives of black girls and pushes us into a desirable future.

Keywords:

• Black girlhood
• spirituality
• SOLHOT
• womanism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Rituals that we practice in SOLHOT include and are not limited to: “Check-in,” a way that we introduce ourselves and let the group know how we are feeling, “Just Because,” a statement of affirmation to (re)name and (re) claim ourselves, “Batty Dance,” a dance cipher used to encourage the movement of the body in ways that do not hide who we are or what we have, and “Know and Remember”, a closing used to remember those who have transitioned to ancestry or to hold ideas that are important to our being together as Black girls and women.

2 The sounds and music of SOLHOT can be found at https://soundcloud.com/solhot-next-level

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Porshé R. Garner

Porshé R. Garner is an artist and scholar of Black girlhood spirituality. Her practice of being with Black girls is nurtured by her time in the collective Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT). Trained in Educational Policy Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, currently, she is working a Black girlhood devotional that explores Black girls’ other world making for freedom. She may be contacted at [email protected].