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Abstract

This study examines the transformative power of literacy as a tool for healing, resistance, and revolutionary love in the lives of BLACK girls navigating predominantly white elementary school spaces. Revolutionary love is conceptualized as practices of care, affirmation, and joy that challenge systemic oppression while fostering belonging and possibility. Conducted in an elementary school in upstate New York, this research follows eleven participants from kindergarten through fourth grade, exploring their lived experiences and literacy practices during English Language Arts (ELA) instruction.

Drawing on Brian Street’s (1984) assertion that literacy is a social practice shaped by cultural and power dynamics, this study interrogates the power of BLACK girl literacy practices. Anchored in the frameworks of Cultural Intuition (Delgado Bernal, 1998), Critical Race Theory (Bell, 1992), and Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989), literacy is framed as an emancipatory practice—a sanctuary, a site of resistance, and a generator of BLACK girl love. Through storytelling, play, and multimodal literacies, participants reimagined themselves, critiqued oppressive systems, and envisioned pathways toward healing and justice within a school they described as “loveless”—a space that failed to affirm their identities and brilliance.

The findings illuminate the intricate relationship between the structural violence these girls endured and their literacy-based meaning-making. Literacy emerged as a tool of emotional and political liberation, empowering participants to critique anti-Blackness and to imagine justice-centered futures. This research underscores the urgent need for transformative educational practices that honor Black girlhood, positioning literacy as a means to cultivate spaces where the petals of their identities and genius can bloom freely, unthreatened by the cutting hands of systemic oppression.

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