“Keep Walls Down Instead of Up”: Interrogating Writing/Making as a Vehicle for Black Girls’ Literacies

Abstract

Drawing on data generated following the 2016 United States presidential election, in this article the author considers how a classroom makerspace made Black girls’ literacies visible in new ways. During a six-week integrated humanities unit in a third-grade public school classroom in the Midwestern U.S., four Black girls used making to create a space for themselves to collaboratively make sense of contemporary (im)migration issues. In the findings, the author provides two analytic snapshots to illustrate how the girls’ making exemplified the six components of the Black Girls’ Literacies Framework—an asset-oriented framing that highlights how Black girls’ literacies are (1) multiple, (2) connected to identities that are (3) historical, (4) collaborative, (5) intellectual, and (6) political/critical (Muhammad & Haddix, 2016). In closing, the author offers provocations for educational researchers and practitioners to consider, as they facilitate school-based opportunities for Black girls’ literacies to be made visible through making.

Keywords

• Black girls’ literacies
• writing
• making
• maker literacies
• early childhood education
• immigration