“Getting lost in stars and glitter”: black girls’ multimodal literacies as portals to new suns

ABSRACT

Using Octavia Butler’s prophetic writing, specifically, passages from her Parable series, as a conceptual lens, this article will explore the ways one Black girl uses multimodal literacies to imagine new worlds that center and celebrate her Black girlhood. An exploration of her multimodal literacies shows how she simultaneously confronts reality, what exists under this earthly sun, and, in turn, also imagines and shares a new world, under a new sun, built for and by Black girls. This article builds on data collected from a practitioner research study of writing collaborative for girls of Color and applies feminist of Color analyses to create a narrative portrait that explores Black girl literacies as portals to new suns.

Keywords:

• Black girlhood
• multimodal literacies
• feminist of color methodologies

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Mónica González Ybarra and Dr. Gabriel Rodriguez for their input on our analysis. Thank you to Dr. Emily R. Schwab who co-taught with Grace when Tionne drew her utopia and dystopia illustrations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Grace D. Player

Grace D. Player is an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education. Her work centers the ways girls and women of Color explore identity and create coalitional pathways towards freedom by utilizing their raced-gendered literacies.

Oluwaseun Animashaun

Oluwaseun Animashaun is a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University and a middle grades teacher. Her current research interests center on popular culture, play, and Black speculative futures.

Tionne Thornton

Tionne Thornton is a photographer born in Philadelphia and a current psychology major and photography minor at Howard University. Her photography is inspired by the African American history and culture and often captures the stories of queer and disabled African American youth.