'For Us Poetry is Not a Luxury': A Case Study of Six Black Women Artist-Educator-Activists Öffentlichkeit

Ali, Khalilah Odessa (2012)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/xs55mc33n?locale=de
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Abstract

Abstract
'For Us Poetry is Not a Luxury': A Case Study of Six Black Women Artist-Educator-Activists
Scholars have contributed to a growing body of inquiry into the use of performance,
visual art, spoken word, and hip-hop to improve student literacy and promote student activism.
Additional scholarship evaluates the effectiveness of Saturday and after-school programs that
incorporate hip-hop and spoken word into their curricula (Denzin, 2003; Dimitriadis, 2001;
Fisher, 2007; Goldfarb, 1998; Stovall, 2006). However, further attention should continue to shift
towards the educators who create and work in these programs and who teach in those non-school
spaces, what Fisher calls Participatory Literacy Communities (PLCs)--such as black bookstores,
coffee-shops and performance venues (Fisher, 2007, 2009). My work complements and extends
such scholarship by drawing attention to alternative forms of education and by highlighting the
ways in which selected African American women artist-activists' cultural performances function
as educative texts in a range of learning settings. This study explored the ways six Black women
construct artist, educator, and activist identities and how these multiple identities converge in and
through works in a range of educational spaces. Using interviews, observations, and analyses of
artifacts, I focused on the following research questions:

1.) What is the relationship between the politicized art Black women teachers produce
and their beliefs about education?
2.) How do artists/activists function as teachers in various spaces--the schoolhouse, after-
school program, art group, coffee shop, or performance venue?
3.) How do the artists' race and gender influence how they produce art, engage in activism,
and educate in these various spaces?

Findings indicate that participants believe their works behave as educative texts and are their
primary means for promoting social justice agendas. Across cases, artist-activist-educators shared
that they function as teachers in various spaces--both traditional and subaltern, yet often find
themselves 'betwixt and between' (Bhabha, 1994; Turner, 1987; Winn, 2010) these seemingly
antagonistic spaces. The study suggests that educators involved in the discourse surrounding teacher
identity development should continue to interrogate how teachers conceive of the ways in which
identity shapes their educational philosophies and teaching.

Table of Contents


Table of Contents


Chapter I. Statement of the Problem 5
Introduction 5
Purpose of the Study 7
Research Questions 7
Significance 8
Theoretical Framework:

Womanist Performance Pedagogy 10
Definition of Terms 15
Chapter II. Review of the Literature 19
Chapter III. Methodology 46
Research Design 47
Participants 48
Site Selection 50
Data Sources and Analysis 53
Data Management 55
Validity and Reliability 56
Researcher Positionality 57
Chapter IV. Findings 60
Teacher Vignettes: Artists, Educators,

and Activists 62
Cross Case Analysis 152
Chapter V. Discussion 186
References 204
Appendix A: Letter of Participation Request 215
Appendix B: Consent to be a Research

Subject 217
Appendix C: Interview Protocols 219
Appendix D: Contact Summary Form 223
Appendix E: Table 1 Summary of

Research Questions 225
Appendix F: Aesthetic Artifact Analysis Form 226
Appendix G: Aesthetic Artifact List 227
Appendix H: Code Summary 228
Appendix I: Data Sources for Case Analysis 231









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