"There was a time when Elaine Richardson was one of 'the Negroes everybody pointed to as the Negroes you didn't want to become.' The title of this book is no metaphor or allusion, but a literal shorthand for a remarkable, unpredictable journey. She inherits a plain way of talking about horrific pain from a mother who seemed impossible to shock. The way too fast way she grew up was and is too common, but her will to remap her destiny is uncommon indeed. To call her story inspiring would be itself too plain a thing, hers is a heroic life." -dream Hampton, writer and filmmaker

Offers a set of diverse analyses of traditional and contemporary work on language structure and use in African American communities.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Hip Hop Pedagogy is the first reference work to cover the theory, history, research methodologies, and practice of Hip Hop pedagogy. Including 20 chapters from activist-oriented and community engaged scholars, the handbook provides perspectives and studies from across the world, including Brazil, the Caribbean, Scandinavia, and the USA. Organized into four topical sections focusing on the history and cultural roots of Hip Hop; theories and research methods in Hip Hop pedagogy; and Hip Hop pedagogy in practice, the handbook offers theoretical, analytical, and pedagogical insights emerging across sociology, literacy, school counselling and youth organizing. The chapters reflect the impact of critical Hip Hop pedagogies and Hip Hop-based research for educators and scholars interested in radical, transformative approaches to education. Ultimately, the many voices included in the handbook show that Hip Hop pedagogy is a humanizing and emancipatory approach which is redefining the purposes and practices of education.

One of the first volumes dedicated to exploring and developing theories of Black girls and girlhoods, The Black Girlhood Studies Collection foregrounds the experiences of Black girls in Canada, the US, the Caribbean, and the African continent. This timely contributed volume brings together emerging and established scholars to discuss what Black girlhood means historically and in the 21st century, and how concepts of race, gender, sexuality, class, and nationality inform or affect identities of Black girls. From self-care and fan activism to political role models and new media, this interdisciplinary collection engages with Black feminist and womanist theory, hip-hop pedagogy, resistance theory, and ethnography. Featuring chapter overviews, glossaries, and discussion questions, this vital resource will evoke meaningful conversation and provide the theoretical, practical, and pedagogical tools necessary for the advancement of the field and the imagining of new worlds for Black girls.

In music, crossover means that a song has moved beyond its original genre and audience into the general social consciousness. Rhetorical Crossover uses the same concept to theorize how the black rhetorical presence has moved in mainstream spaces in an era where African Americans were becoming more visible in white culture. Cedric Burrows argues that when black rhetoric moves into the dominant culture, white audiences appear welcoming to African Americans as long as they present an acceptable form of blackness for white tastes. The predominant culture has always constructed coded narratives on how the black rhetorical presence should appear and behave when in majority spaces. In response, African Americans developed their own narratives that revise and reinvent mainstream narratives while also reaffirming their humanity. Using an interdisciplinary model built from music, education, film, and social movement studies, Rhetorical Crossover details the dueling narratives about African Americans that percolate throughout the United States.

We Do Language builds on the authors' highly acclaimed first collaboration, Understanding English Language Variation in U.S. Schools, and examines the need to integrate linguistically informed teaching into the secondary English classroom. The book includes specific information about the language varieties students bring with them to school so that educators can better assist students in developing the literacy skills necessry for the Common Core State Standards. This resource features concrete strategies, models, and vignettes, as well as classroom materials developed by English educators for English educators.