Ruth Nicole Brown
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037979
- eISBN:
- 9780252095245
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037979.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This book examines how Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths, or SOLHOT, a radical youth intervention, provides a space for the creative performance and expression of Black girlhood and how this ...
More
This book examines how Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths, or SOLHOT, a radical youth intervention, provides a space for the creative performance and expression of Black girlhood and how this creativity informs other realizations about Black girlhood and womanhood. Founded in 2006 and co-organized by the author, SOLHOT is an intergenerational collective organizing effort that celebrates and recognizes Black girls as producers of culture and knowledge. Girls discuss diverse expressions of Black girlhood, critique the issues that are important to them, and create art that keeps their lived experiences at its center. Drawing from experiences in SOLHOT, the book argues that when Black girls reflect on their own lives, they articulate radically unique ideas about their lived experiences. The book documents the creative potential of Black girls and women who are working together to advance original theories, practices, and performances that affirm complexity, interrogate power, and produce humanizing representation of Black girls' lives. In doing so, this book expands on the work of Black feminists and feminists of color and breaks intriguing new ground in Black feminist thought and methodology. Emotionally and intellectually powerful, the book combines theory with creativity to show how the creative helps to theorize, and how theory can be enacted through creativity.Less
This book examines how Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths, or SOLHOT, a radical youth intervention, provides a space for the creative performance and expression of Black girlhood and how this creativity informs other realizations about Black girlhood and womanhood. Founded in 2006 and co-organized by the author, SOLHOT is an intergenerational collective organizing effort that celebrates and recognizes Black girls as producers of culture and knowledge. Girls discuss diverse expressions of Black girlhood, critique the issues that are important to them, and create art that keeps their lived experiences at its center. Drawing from experiences in SOLHOT, the book argues that when Black girls reflect on their own lives, they articulate radically unique ideas about their lived experiences. The book documents the creative potential of Black girls and women who are working together to advance original theories, practices, and performances that affirm complexity, interrogate power, and produce humanizing representation of Black girls' lives. In doing so, this book expands on the work of Black feminists and feminists of color and breaks intriguing new ground in Black feminist thought and methodology. Emotionally and intellectually powerful, the book combines theory with creativity to show how the creative helps to theorize, and how theory can be enacted through creativity.
Ruth Nicole Brown
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037979
- eISBN:
- 9780252095245
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037979.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This introductory chapter presents an overview of what Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT) is and is not about, its major themes, and the contributions it makes to envisioning Black girlhood ...
More
This introductory chapter presents an overview of what Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT) is and is not about, its major themes, and the contributions it makes to envisioning Black girlhood critically among and with Black girls. SOLHOT is a particular methodology of creating spaces to practice and enact a visionary Black girlhood. Whether the vision is simply stated as the celebration of Black girlhood in all of its complexity, or even revised and elongated, SOLHOT as utopia, SOLHOT as dismal failure, and SOLHOT as mostly everything in between is about foregrounding complexity in collective and creative work with Black girls and women.Less
This introductory chapter presents an overview of what Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT) is and is not about, its major themes, and the contributions it makes to envisioning Black girlhood critically among and with Black girls. SOLHOT is a particular methodology of creating spaces to practice and enact a visionary Black girlhood. Whether the vision is simply stated as the celebration of Black girlhood in all of its complexity, or even revised and elongated, SOLHOT as utopia, SOLHOT as dismal failure, and SOLHOT as mostly everything in between is about foregrounding complexity in collective and creative work with Black girls and women.
Ruth Nicole Brown
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037979
- eISBN:
- 9780252095245
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037979.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This concluding chapter features a series of personal letters that underscore the necessity of envisioning Black girlhood differently than it is described on mainstream television; popular magazines; ...
More
This concluding chapter features a series of personal letters that underscore the necessity of envisioning Black girlhood differently than it is described on mainstream television; popular magazines; through statistics; and in policies that punish, segregate, and silence. The letters are addressed to people whose love and compassion is a testament to continue this work and who intimately know the necessity of maintaining personal healing while also advocating for the abolition of all forms of Black girl servitude. Moreover, it emphasizes that SOLHOT is not meant to be prescriptive and does not offer itself as a successful model of girl programming. The letters represent a kind of personal meditation that on the sly challenges systemic inequalities, appealing to those who inspire and motivate Black girlhood renewal as a space of freedom.Less
This concluding chapter features a series of personal letters that underscore the necessity of envisioning Black girlhood differently than it is described on mainstream television; popular magazines; through statistics; and in policies that punish, segregate, and silence. The letters are addressed to people whose love and compassion is a testament to continue this work and who intimately know the necessity of maintaining personal healing while also advocating for the abolition of all forms of Black girl servitude. Moreover, it emphasizes that SOLHOT is not meant to be prescriptive and does not offer itself as a successful model of girl programming. The letters represent a kind of personal meditation that on the sly challenges systemic inequalities, appealing to those who inspire and motivate Black girlhood renewal as a space of freedom.
